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Monday 24 July 2017

Oscurito "Eastern Philosophy" (bc028)



Eighteen months on from the release of his "Octopus" EP at the start of 2016, Oscurito, returns to Bricolage with fresh ideas, new philosophies and a whole new production skill set. The "Eastern Philosophy" EP sees the Glaswegian indulge his ambient side that bit more. 'Kunoichi' opens things up with a buzzing, calming drone, sparse keys, sumptuous synth work and some stunning string sections that slowly engulf your headspace before 'The Nihon Shoki' slowly flutters into view with yet more string arrangements and synths. This time they come backed up with carefully selected and perfectly placed percussive elements and a humming bassline. Then the deep vocals of "Find Your Centre" introduce us to the most danceable track on the EP. Out goes the overall ambient side of things and back in come those trademark bulky basslines, sliding perc work and psychedelic melodies to form a big, truly Eastern flavoured tech house special. It's been a pleasure to watch the evolution of Oscurito over the past year and a half and there's way more to come from a producer who's just starting to find his own sound.

The EP comes backed up with two remixes of "Find Your Centre". the first is an electro flavoured take on things from Dreamland Fantasy. Keeping all the main ingredients of the original at the fore and adding his own elements to create a fresh and engaging remix.

Minerva chooses to go down a more progressive route by manipulating the original percussion into her own bustling style and letting things slowly evolve in a repetitive and hypnotic fashion that harks back to the early days of that old school prog house feel of 2000's. Big kicks at the forefront to really drum things home.

As always you can stream and download the release below or from our bandcamp.



Thursday 20 July 2017

Headroom 10 : Boom Merchant presents "Cosmic Voyager"



Our final guest mix of the summer sees Glasgow powerhouse, Boom Merchant, take the wheel for a mammoth 2 hour Headroom mix session. A revered DJ and extremely well rounded producer known for his impeccable taste and his ability to effortlessly carve out powerful and cosmic listening journeys for both the club goers and the bedroom listeners. Having already built up a stellar reputation for his sounds and sets in and around his home city of Glasgow, recent years have seen the esteemed selector spread his wings and take his DJ sets around the world to the Netherlands, Malta, Switerland and more. With Italy and Japan up next, the Boom Merchant freight train shows no sign of slowing down.

His Headroom session is exactly what you'd expect from a man with a meticulously assembled and enviable music collection. No stone is left unturned as the mix flows perfectly between a collection of deep electronics, splashes of colour and tough beats that seamlessly merge as one. It's a slowly evolving trip through some of his current favourites alongside some of his own unique creations.

As always you can listen to the mix at our mixcloud account or below.



TRACKLISTING

Tadir - Sailing Rocks
Ricardo Tobar - Eleven
Alex Session - Angels
Fritz Kalkbrenner - Changing Face (Maya Jane Coles remix)
Sosandlow - Fantasma
Ray Okpara - Satin Curtain
Simos Tagias - Airlock (Arthur Minnahmetov remix)
Boom Merchant - Dramatic
Leftwing - Inception
Boom Merchant - Smooth Drive
Harry Romero - Retroversy
Mr Bizz - Big Clean (Spektre remix)
Boom Merchant - Sub Nine Point Nine
Dave Angel - Inside Out
Mauro Picotto - Unthinkable (Full Vox mix)
Boom Merchant - Haka
Crazy Sonic - Broken Heart (Drunken Kong remix)
Oliver Koletzki - Iyewave (Hatzler remix)
Jamie Bissmire and Ben Long - The Key (Tool)
Boom Merchant - Release
Mazepa - Moja

Follow @ Boom Merchant (Facebook)
Follow @ Boom Merchant (Soundcloud)
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If you're in Glasgow at the weekend you can catch Boom Merchant live in Stereo as his renowned label Tribal Pulse swings back into club night action with Italian techno kingpin, Johnny Kaos, headlining a 4 hour extravagana of sound and colour. You can RSVP to the event @ Tribal Pulse : Johnny Kaos and Boom Merchant.




Follow @ Tribal Pulse

Wednesday 19 July 2017

In The Loop : Episode 22



Episode 22 of In The Loop takes a look at what the 13 artists from our most recent compilation (VOL 5) have been upto recently. We'll work our through the tracklist in order so without further ado....

colab

Mikael Hansson aka colab has managed to create his own distinctive style over the years and continually sculpts small ambient/glitch universes at every turn. His latest offering "kids" is no different. There's an air of nostalgia that flows through the dream like nature of the track.



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Devras Plexi

A producer that refuses to be tied down to any specific genre. The sounds of Devras Plexi map themselves out over landscapes of beats, alien sounds and a whole body of textured melodies. There's always LOTS going on but never too much that it becomes a jumble. Having that skill in terms of production can be all to rare these days. His latest SC upload "greenYellowGlow" shows off that technique perfectly.



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Black Lupus

There's been nothing new from the German producer since our compilation release date but we can still take a look back at a track from the start of 2017. "Illumic Curves" is a track that we were potentially looking to release before settling on his more DnB themed "Fractal Particles" for Volume 5. This track has a unique feel and time signature to it then draws you into an almost psychedelic realm.



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Arran Trax

The Hamburg based Scottish producer has released a fair amount of danceable tracks over the past month or so. "Journey To A Better Future" is something a little bit different. It's still danceable, it's still got the trademark AT spacey synths and pingy drums but the message behind it is a little different. The track was made with a certain mindset....... "I had in mind the dangerous journeys so many people have made to Europe fleeing war, persecution & poverty. Maybe someday the whole of mankind will have to leave this planet in search of a new home too."



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Sect-ion

"Angel of Life" sees the Finnish producer let his guitar skills come to the fore as he mesmerises with some beautiful tones before letting the sounds drift off into a melancholic wonderland full of  The Cure-esque basslines and catchy lead lines.



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/cave

The French sound designer has brewed up a slow burning fusion of electro, house and techno for his newest creation. A perfectly executed, reverb soaked, sound collage of micro beats and ping pong basslines that dance in and around each other.



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Blue Notes

The track "Shadowlands", from Blue Notes, has an eerie and spooky vibe floating throughout. Church like synth notes stab through the piece and build up tension before dashes of acid slide their way into the equation and add to the atmosphere. Dark electronica at it's purest.



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Belial Pelegrim

It's sometimes hard to keep on top of the phenomenal output of this supremely talented producer and given the quality and quantity of his releases it's even harder to pick a track to share in here. We've gone for "Tetrahedral Kites" due to it's insane sound detail and remarkably fresh big beat feel. A true hybrid of electronic music. Think of a tone, it's probably in there. Think of an instrument, it's probably in there. The term "braindance" was coined for these kinda tracks.



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Moscow Machina

Every few weeks a new production falls of the Moscow Machina production line and onto Soundcloud. The latest noise coming from the studio is "Taboo". It's a hypnotic, warm, acid based number with effective percussion leading the way for an overlay of trippy sounds.



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Pedraw

Clearly an advocate of the raw, lo-fi sound, Pedraw's latest track sees him stick to his guns. Gravelly , understated perc work acts as the backbone for a solid groove that worms its way into your ears.



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No Arrival

"Solution" from No Arrival starts off as a wonky ambient soundscape before traversing into a rapid fire barrage of drums complimented and acid tinged bass. Throw in the fascinating amient noises that linger over the top of the track and you've got anther unique electronic track from a very unique producer. Personally, we think this guy is really one to watch for.



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All Button In

"Room 13" sounds a tad unsettling. It is. But in the best possible way. There's a wave of paranoia gnawing away through this industrial synth effort from All Buttons In. A tense atmosphere born through beats that whip at you through the headphones and a deep, deep bass that constantly buzzes and intertwines itself with the bleepy leads. A complex but worthwhile listen.



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Suncastle

"Monster With 21 Faces" really has to be heard to be believed. A true journey in sound. Classical elements clash with modern electronics to create, pardon the pun, a monster. Suncastle seems like a producer who values his experimental side and this track takes things to the perfect level of the experimental genre. It glides along with ease, never once feeling disjointed. The further you listen the deeper you fall into it's charm. You can grab it as part of the most recent Mangled Music compilation release.



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Volume 5 of our various artists compilation, featuring music from all of the artists featured here, is available on our bandcamp or below.





Monday 10 July 2017

Collaboration Opportunities (Nocturnal and UMFC001)

It looks like summer 2017 is all set to be the summer of collaborations. Here, at Bricolage, we currently have a batch of artists working together for our first physical release set for a September release date. "Dyadic" will be a compilation album that consists of the work of several unique duos from the depth of the Bricolage roster. Among the artists currently working away together on music for the release are Minerva, Devras Plexi, Lo-Jacker, The Oscilloscope, Fragile X, Loui Cleghorn, Dreamland Fantasy and many more.

But that's not the only project on the go, there's many more opportunities to get involved in musical teamwork through our new alliance with the multitude of creative artists at United Music Front.


Firstly, there's the "Nocturnal" project that's been set up by the UMF founder Soundshift. It's a longform collaboration project where anybody involved in the various collectives can get involved. There's some quick entry details below about the new project but for more information about how to get involved head to the Soundshift soundcloud page and message the man himself.

Nocturnal Project:

A minimum 60 seconds of beats/melodies
Cmaj pentatonic
108 bpm

Soundshift (Soundcloud)

Below you can also check out the resulting sounds of the previous Nocturnal project from earlier this year, where 65 artists participated in the project.





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Secondly, fellow UMF member, Supply Fi, has set the very first 'challenge' to the United Music Front members on the Slack website.

"Create a piece of music using all drums with a melody line made using toms of different tunings. No mallet percussion, only drums (cymbals are acceptable too)
No due date, no obligation. If you choose to participate, please use the tag "UMFC001" when you upload. Please post a link to your finished track in the comments section of this post.
Downloadable WAV files please. If we get enough participants, we can throw together a little compilation for free. That is all. Happy drumming."

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Monday 3 July 2017

Bricolage Podcast #23 : United Music Front



This months podcast is an extra special showcase featuring a diverse pool of talent from the United Music Front. To cut a long story short, the UMF is a new online hub where various collectives and labels have came together in musical solidarity of sorts. The aim is to bring the sounds of a huge body of artists together in one place through weekly online playlists featuring members of all the contributing factions. The UMF also aims to encourage collaborations, remixes and more between all the intertwined artists.

So with all that in mind, this months podcast is a strange and heady brew of ambient, abstract dub, IDM patterns, electronic stories, glitch designs, waves of melodics and a huge labyrinth of all kinds of different beats. Take a plunge into the deep waters of the United Music Front and you're bound to find something you'll enjoy.

Get involved at United Music Front (Soundcloud)

As always you can stream the mix below or over on our Mixcloud.

You can find links to all the groups involved in the United Music Front at the bottom of the post. I'd recommend exploring them more.




Tracklisting

Time Rival - Muir
Roots Dubman - Close Your Eyes
*Rob Gordon/High Fidelity sample*
Nocturnal Status and Dillard - Death Stroke
Devras Plexi - Libre
Evolv - YANWYTYA
*Robert Spano sample*
Black Lupus - Fractal Particles
Mood Exhibit - Return To Nexus
All Buttons In - Broken Circuit Complex
Ix Prospectum - Telescope
Grids/Units/Planes - Ocean Depth
Fragile X - Amygdala (Lo-Jacker remix)
Suncastle - Death Of A Theme Park
Soundshift and Supply Fi - Corporate Anxiety
Pi Wrecks - Something Wrong With Me


UMF LINKS

Bricolage Collective

Sleepless Collective

WUMP Collective

Mangled Music Collective

Rumourtone Music

Climatronica Collective

Pink Dolphin Music Ltd