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.

BRICOLAGE : VA VOLUME 5 (bc027)

Volume 5 of our various artists compilation series is yet another assemblage of colourful and eclectic sounds from a unique array of musicians from around the world alongside a few, closer to home, names from right here in Scotland. It's a massive auricular adventure that traverses through a combination of styles and tastes.

As with all our previous VA compilations, each and every one of the producers has been cherry picked for their ability to create distinctive and appealing musical art. There's a generous assortment of engaging work throughout the compilation from start to finish, It's a particularly wide ranging selection of electronic compositions that more than deserve your full listening attention. There's a bit of everything to go round your ears. A truly broad horizon that sweeps through some finely detailed and multifaceted IDM cuts, mutated drum n bass patterns and a medley of woozy slow burning ambient infused electronica voyages to let you catch your breath. Then there's some expertly designed melodic experimental efforts to keep your brain occupied and a couple of hypnotic and gritty house/techno numbers for good measure before the conclusion of the release leads us to some more experimental productions that encompass all manner of abstract techniques and patterns from glitch, industrial, noise and breakcore.

As always you can stream and download the compilation below or at our bandcamp.



There's also a Soundcloud playlist to stream



Bricolage would like to thank all the artists involved for contributing their work and making this release possible, We couldn't have done it without you.

Introducing The Collective 64 - 68

 With Volume 5 of our new Various Artists compilation only a few days away, it's time for us to introduce you to the remaining five producers we've managed to get on board. You can find our previous artist bios for Vol 5 here and here respectively.

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64. SECT-ION


Sect-ion is, the alias of Arto Arpiainen, A Finnish producer who likes to mix both acoustic and electric sounds in his music. Arto does not disparage any genres as better or worse than each other, instead he sees them all as forms of energy, needed by different people in different situations. This beautiful viewpoint means that Arto finds it hard to decide on which kind of artist he'd like to be and therefore just produces what feels right for him at the current time and moment.

Sect-ion (Soundcloud)

Arto *Secondary Account* (Soundcloud)

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65. DEVRAS PLEXI


Devras Plexi is an electronic musician living in Austin, Texas. Creating a sound palette that embraces digital as much as analog sounds, melody as much as glitch and harmony as much as texture. With beats that are distinctly IDM but flavoured with hip-hop and dance influences. A producer that is always striving for forward thinking ideas but often with an emotional edge.

Devras Plexi (Soundcloud)

Devras Plexi *Tech* (Soundcloud)

Devras Plexi (Twitter)

Devras Plexi (Website)

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66. COLAB

Toronto-based musician Mikael Hansson has made music under the "colab" alias since 1990.

He uses a blend of traditional and electronic instruments to create melodic soundscapes that are deeply influenced by Nordic melancholy, and that try to capture the tension between the vastness of nature and fast beats of urban life. 

Mikael is a firm believer in the idea of building on musical ideas to create new works, and frequently collaborates with other musicians on both new work and remixes.

He has been working on finishing an album for the past 10 years, but the album refuses to be locked down. Mikael and his album are currently not on speaking terms.

colab (Soundcloud)

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67. PEDRAW 


Pedraw is a mysterious French producer who has declined to gave away too much info about himself. All we know is that he was eager to be a part of the compilation and has a penchant for making some seriously fuzzy and distorted sounds and pulsing techno rhythms. Lo-fi grit and an underground feel are evident throughout.

Pedraw (Soundcloud)

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68. BLACK LUPUS



Black Lupus is the pseudonym of Cologne prodcuer, Mathias Seibert. A self confessed audiophile, Black Lupus, aims for perfection in both the creative and listening process. It shows in the quality of his productions which range from drum n bass, ambient, 2-step and a variety of other concoctions. The refusal to use samples of any kind ensure that his sounds stay original and true to his values.

Black Lupus (Soundcloud)

Black Lupus (Bandcamp)

Black Lupus (Facebook)

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So that's it our 13 artists for Voume 5 fully unveiled. Stay tuned to our social media accounts over the weekend where we'll unveil the artwork for Volume 5 and, of course, keep your eyes peeled for the compilation dropping on Monday.

Summer 2017

If you keep up to date with our social media accounts then you'll know that earlier this week we said that we'd have a few announcements coming this weekend regarding many aspects of a creative summer here at Bricolage. There's new music, guest mixes, a remix competition and a very big collaborative release coming at the end of summer.



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First off, we're proud to announce that, after four successful Various Artists compilations, we're officially moving onto our fifth edition of the series with VA5 penciled in for official release on the 12th of June. Once again, we've rounded up a collection of established and creative producers from around the globe. All of them with their own unique sounds and creations to bring to the table. The latest compilation release will be featuring American electronic wizard Belial Pelegrim, Finnish downtempo specialist Sect-ion, the mysterious Suncastle, Edinburgh producer All Buttons In, Glaswegian experimental musician No Arrival and the exceptional work of Devras Plexi to name but a few. It's safe to say that we have another very eclectic Various Artists album coming your way next month. Stay tuned for the standard introduction and bio posts starting on our blog next week, as we welcome the new faces to the Bricolage family. As always, you'll get to learn a little bit more about the people behind the sounds.

To have a listen to the previous VA compilations head to our bandcamp page where you'll find the releases alongside the rest of our back catalogue.

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Ever since the inception of Bricolage in 2015 we've ran our monthly podcasts and bi-monthly Headroom mix series to great effect over on Mixcloud. Our artists have consistently provided listening experiences that span across every spectrum of the electronic genre.

For June, we've managed to pull off a coup in getting some one off mixes from some very special guests. Friend of the label, Esef, takes over our podcast for the month. His monthly residents slot, alongside Loui Cleghorn, in Glasgows Flat 0/1 venue is known for it's sweat inducing mayhem and the boundless energy provided by the precise and remarkable tune selection on show.

As someone with a broad range of influences and tastes, Friday night club sets and after party marathons are just the tip of the iceberg with Esef though. A few years back he fused together ever evolving moods of dub, ambient sounds and house music for the very first guest session for the Fragile X "Cult Zer0es" mix series. So who knows what we're in for next month. Either way it's going to be a fun ride.



Be sure to check out his Return To The Cities EP over on soundcloud.



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Our second guest mix next month sees Glasgow based powerhouse, Boom Merchant, take the wheel for the latest episode of our Headroom mix series. He's an astonishingly well established all rounder with an unwavering dedication to his craft in terms of both DJing and production. Known just as much for carving his own brand of house and techno as he is for his ability to hold club goers attention from start to finish with his cosmic sets at his very own Tribal Pulse club night. With an extensive and meticulously assembled record collection to choose from we should be in for a huge treat come June. Have a listen to a guest mix for Proton Radio below alongside the latest Boom Merchant release, "Haka".



Boom Merchant @ Facebook
Boom Merchant @ Soundcloud
Tribal Pulse @ Facebook



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Last summer we ran a remix competition for Loui Cleghorn's "Waterworks" track, where the two winning remixes got to feature on the title tracks EP.. This summer we're back again with another remix competition, this time for Oscurito. He releases his second EP, "Eastern Philosophy", on Bricolage this July and next Saturday we'll be officially launching the competition for his new track "Find Your Centre". Stay tuned for remix stems and more info coming soon.

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Last but definitely not least, to celebrate Bricolage turning two years old in August we've lined up a very special collaborative project.

All of our releases so far have been digital only but thanks to the help of Rick at Dark Fidelity Hifi we've managed to secure a physical release for what should be one of our most ambitious projects to date. A CD run of 200 copies is in the pipeline and if it proves to be a success we'll be looking at more physical releases down the road whether it's CD, vinyl or cassette.

For the August release, we've pooled together an assortment of producers from a bunch of our previous releases over the past 20 odd months and paired them together to collaborate and come up with a track between them for the album. So far we have around 14 musicians on board, with many paired off and already in the early process of production. We're currently still looking for another 6 or 8 names to round off the production team and then it's all systems go.

More details on the physical release as they arrive. When we know, you'll know.

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