Following on from 2016’s “plastic ambient” album The Month Machine, Melbourne’s microsynth virtuoso Kable54 has turned his hand to creating an album of acid-tinted krautrock jams with electric circuitry and voltage, the superb Volca Galaxies.

Volca Galaxies evolved over 12 months of live performances and improvisational jams around Melbourne using a minimal setup of small portable analogue Korg Volca synths. Kable54 took those jams, polished them up and fed them a diet of East German steroids and West German psychedelics before piecing the whole thing back together again. The record sounds like an energetic, emotional journey through the hypercolour enormity of the Milky Way galaxy. For once we elected to keep the hyperbole to a minimum and let the artist tell his only story….

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“Last year, I was sick of making music by sitting in front of the computer, alone. I wanted to play live performances to real people. I wanted to move away from the computer” said Kable54 about his initial motivation. “Then I found out about Korg’s Volca synths when I stumbled on a random youtube clip. Realising this would be a way more intuitive and performative way to make music, I worked some extra shifts to raise some cash and soon had a great little setup sitting on my kitchen table. Then it was goodbye laptop!”

“The development of the album is more like a 70’s rock album than modern EDM thing… songs were written, then tested out by performing in a bar that night. They developed and changed as I roadtested them from gig to gig. The weaker ones were kicked out of the set, new ones composed and ideas honed for maximum impact”.

“I was performing once a fortnight or so, at pubs, bars, cafes, festivals, wherever. Melbourne’s a great live electronic music scene if you know where to look. After six months or so, it really came together. Instead of individual songs, they started merging, becoming one hour-long piece”.

When Kable committed his sounds to tape he focused on capturing the live improv spirit. “Recording the album, it was really important to stay true to the live performance… the limitations that live performance has, as well as the limitations of the Volca synths. I wanted to take my live set in its entirety, disassemble all the pieces, polish them up, feed them performance-enhancing drugs, then re-assemble the whole thing”.

Volca Galaxies, the new album from Kable54, will be launched at Bar 303, 303 High St, Northcote on Saturday 16th of September at Analogue Coordinates, part of Clan Analogue’s 25 Anniversary Electronic Weekend in the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Tickets are available from www.melbournefringe.com.au

Tracklist:
1. Viper Live
2. Ballet Statique Redux
3. TR Sparks
4. Quick Jam
5. Empire Files
6. Ubermensch When I Can
7. Son of a Snakeoil Salesman

Michael Mildren launches his Process EP series with Studies In Kraft
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Melbourne-based electronic music virtuoso Michael Mildren launches his Process series, a collection of four mini-albums, each exploring a different facet of electronic music technique and artistic significance. Clan Analogue will release each installment in the Process series monthly between now and the end of 2017, beginning with Process 1: Studies In Kraft, an exploration of the seminal work of German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk.

Read more about Michael Mildren’s Journey Into Kraftwerk, including details on the equipment he used and techniques he explored.

Michael Mildren has made his mark with several acclaimed performances in the Melbourne Fringe Festival. These include his 2015 Men/Machine performance, where he reworked classic Kraftwerk tracks with vintage gear and period performance techniques, and more recently with Music Non-Stop, a stunning 12-hour improv set in 2016, where an array of guest performers augmented his layered atmospheres and propulsive rhythms throughout the sonic marathon.

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Studies in Kraft is the product of Michael’s intense study of the classic 1970s work of German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk. Given their huge influence in electronic music, Michael aimed to develop his craftsmanship by exploring in infinitesimal detail the composition and production techniques used to produce Kraftwerk’s greatest work. To this end Michael scoured eBay to source the right vintage synths, drum machines and vocoders from all over the world, from Stylophones to Texas Instruments Language Tutors to Mattel Synsonics electronic drums. He analysed every bass note, synth tone and rhythmic pattern of his selected Kraftwerk tracks, spending hundreds of hours on sonic experimentation, programming and playing, until he achieved the perfect Kraftwerk mind-meld.

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The results of Michael’s work on Process 1 are eleven tracks which trace Kraftwerk’s most influential work backwards from 1980’s Computer World album through to their 1975 breakthrough Autobahn. Although there have been many Kraftwerk covers released over the years, this is a rare occasion where their material has been explored with the level of detail and intensity applied by classical musicians to the interpretation of composers such as Mozart or Beethoven. This is not however a slavish re-enactment, but an interpretation of Kraftwerk as they themselves may have played the tracks in an alternative reality – less a re-enactment and more an inhabitation of the Kraftwerk sonic headspace. The results will be of interest to anyone interested in classic electronic music and its influence in our musical landscape today.

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Process 1: Studies In Kraft from Michael Mildren is available now from Clan Analogue. Process 2: Post-Kraft follows on from Process 1, where Michael explores the techniques of Kraftwerk in his own original music.

Tracklist:

1. Computer World
2. Pocket Calculator
3. Computer Love
4. The Robots
5. The Model
6. Neon Lights
7. The Man Machine
8. Europe Endless
9. Radioactivity
10. Antenna
11. Autobahn

Flashing lights. Racing hearts. Killer politics.

What happens when homegrown Australian terrorism meets the classic beats of early house and techno? When the unstoppable force of climate change meets the immovable object of Australian politics?

Newly released by Australia’s pre-eminent electronic music collective Clan Analogue is a unique (and bizarre) collaboration between musician/producer Reuben Ingall and playwright David Finnigan.

Kill Climate Deniers is a 35-minute barrage of dancefloor bangers in the style of classic House and Techno from 1988-92 – mixed with samples from Finnigan’s original stage-play of the same name. It tells the story of an explosive attack on Parliament House by a group of eco-terrorists (during a Fleetwood Mac concert, no less) and the Environment Minister’s one-woman war to take back her country.

The result is an anthemic club album threaded through with blistering political satire and a guns-blazing action adventure set at the heart of Australian democracy.

Kill Climate Deniers began life as a playscript, and has now expanded as a project including an album, short film and live show. You can find out more about the project, and download the Kill Climate Deniers ebook, at killclimatedeniers.com

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Tracklist:
1. Opening Credits
2. Three Rules for Surviving an Interview with a Shock Jock
3. Tumblr.com
4. Pre-Show Stretches
5. Bolted
6. W3 W3lcome the Future
7. Fuck You Science
8. Music To Shoot Climate Activists To
9. Australia 2050

Clan Analogue’s latest compilation album Intone: Voice Abstractions showcases new experimental and electronic treatments of the human voice. Intone features 21 unique manipulations of vocalisation and verbiage from Australian and international artists working in the left-field reaches of electronic sound. These interweavings of ones, zeroes and vocal chords utilise the human voice as their sonic essence, in ways that are electric, rhythmic, melodic, hypnotic, chaotic and eclectic.

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Through locales from Sydney (Disla System) to Melbourne (City Frequencies) to Russia (Baby Swindle) to Macedonia (Robert Sazdov) to Japan (Su Veneer) to outer space (Hethre Contant), Intone guides the listener on a journey in vocal abstractions across all levels, from the meditative to the earsplitting.

Tracks from Rantzen & Spinoglio, Automatic Teller Machine Machine, Doctrinaire and Alex J Wise explore club music styles using sounds entirely derived from the human voice.

Other artists take traditional source material and rework them in a multitude of ways – Robert Sazdov explores renderings of politicised people and traumatised places; Baby Swindle collages choral singing recorded in the venue made famous by Pussy Riot; and Wonderfeel reworks a spiritual using the natural reverb of an immense concrete stairwell.

KOshowKO and Thallium & Milo evoke the purity of the untrained voice, while GEORGIASWEBB and Carrier go meta, philosophically recomposing the base functions and absurdities of human vocal communication. Sound artists Contant and Pascalle Burton make mischief with the intoned authority of figures such as Philip Tagg and Walter Benjamin. The album is topped and tailed by impressive abstract solo work from Kusum Normoyle (Dark Mofo) and Gail Priest (Pretty Gritty).

Intone has been curated by Actual Russian Brides, who previously released their Wife Beats EP through Clan Analogue, with assistance from performance poet Matt Hetherington (DJ Zaziz) who developed the original concept with Melbourne experimental musician Robert ‘Bo’ Boehm (who sadly passed away before the album was released). Significantly, it contains the last track completed by Bo’s legendary duo Winduptoys.

Finalist for Award for Excellence in Experimental Music, 2016 Australian Art Music Awards

“The curatorial premise is strong, using the voice as core sonic material in 21 beautifully recorded tracks cataloguing current Australian artists.”
comments by 2016 Art Music Awards judging panel

“Veering from jarring confrontation through to more melodic and accessible territory. All up, ‘Intone’ manages to cover an extremely wide range of sonic territory within its thematic remit, with consistently interesting results.”
Cyclic Defrost

released in September 2015

Tracklist:

1. Kusum Normoyle l Octopus
2. Carrier l You Can’t Keep
3. Robert Sazdov l Bogorodica 28.08
4. KOshowKO l Now You’re Talking Baby
5. Doctrinaire l Le Petit Prince
6. Su Veneer l Ebisu
7. Pascalle Burton feat. Renee Vaughan Sutherland l As If, Philip Tagg
8. Kusum Normoyle l Body Contact #1 [bonus track on online version only]
9. City Frequencies l The Most Beautiful Walk
10. Hethre Contant l Die Eisenbahnkatastrophe Vom Firth of Tay: Heard From Outer Space
11. Thallium & Milo l God’s Rainbow [bonus track on online version only]
12. Wonderfeel with Harmony Byrne l Amazing Grace
13. Robert Sazdov l Tetovo: 2001 [bonus track on online version only]
14. Alex J Wise l Deserted Landscapes
15. Automatic Teller Machine Machine l Kronik Tonic [bonus track on online version only]
16. Dislasystem l Umbilical
17. Rantzen & Spinoglio l Sonic Manipulator
18. Baby Swindle l Actual Russian Khor
19. Winduptoys l Broken Language
20. Georgiaswebb l Paregoros
21. Gail Priest l Stranglers

Clan Analogue have released their first-ever live album – Gear Shift: The Best of Clan Analogue’s 2014 Jam Sessions, recorded at the monthly Gear Shift jam sessions held last year at Loop, Melbourne. Recordings made throughout the year have now been edited down into a selection of stellar improvisatory electronic music performances, available now from Clan Analogue’s Bandcamp page.

Download album from Bandcamp

Each month at Gear Shift a random assortment of jammers turned up, bringing classic and new hardware items such as the TB303 Devil Fish, Elektron Monomaschine, Arturia Monobrute, Roland MC505, SH101, MC202 and the stylophone. Homemade synths, theremins, Atari consoles and Mattel syntronic drums made appearances. iPhones and iPads were plugged in, running apps such as SoundPrism, Gyromin, Vogel CMI, TonePad and Samplr. Multiple laptops were synchronised in a LAN for an Ableton Live orchestra. Heard on Gear Shift: The Best of Clan Analogue’s 2014 Jam Sessions are seasoned electronica performers such as Jeremy Dower (Tetrphnm), Martin K (KOshowKO), Nick Wilson (Tiatto) and Michael Mildren (Ectoplasm) playing alongside musicians who had never taken their sounds out of the bedroom prior to venturing forth to one of the jam sessions.

Gear Shift: The Best of Clan Analogue’s 2014 Jam Sessions was compiled by Melbourne composer and producer Kim Lajoie, who went through the hours of audio recordings from the jam sessions to find the best selections for this release. Enjoy the sonic mayhem of Gear Shift, available now from https://clananalogue.bandcamp.com

Tracklist:

1. Michael Mildren and Nick Wilson l Jam 1, April 30th, 2014
2. Michael Mildren and Damian Murphy l Jam 1, part 1, August 27th, 2014
3. Michael Mildren and Grant Overend l Jam 1, October 29th, 2014
4. Baz Bardoe, Martin Koszolko and Nick Wilson l Theme From Tiatto (live dub mix)
5. Jeremy Elliott, Damian Murphy and Nick Wilson l Jam 1, September 24th, 2014
6. AC, Syx Ekoh and Chris Lynch l Jam 2, September 24th, 2014
7. Jennifer Lea, Alessio Pittau and Nick Wilson l Jam 1, October 29th, 2014
8. Jeremy Dower, Gareth Parton and Richard Pilkington l Jam 3, September 24th, 2014
9. Kim Lajoie, Chris Lynch and David Prescott-Steed l Jam 2, October 29th, 2014
10. Michael Mildren and Damian Murphy l Jam 1, part 2, August 27th, 2014
11. Tim Moore, Damian Murphy, Alessio Pittau and Andy Maggio l Jam 4, October 29th, 2014

Clan Analogue presents Victris, the majestic second album from Sydney producer Aeriae (Wade Clarke). With its expansive sound palette and baroque compositional approach, Victris encompasses precision-engineered sound design, emotional resonance and disparate genre influences filtered through classic IDM abstraction. The hypersequenced excitation of opener ‘Revered Daughter’ is a gateway to ten tracks exploring musical possibilities from dancefloor volition (Nurse 2 Alyssa Type) to sub bass scale (Sword of State), classic counterpoint (The Book of Peace) to sculpted beats (Heiress).

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Ambitious in texture, programming and melodic design, Victris explores the modern sonic parameters of electronica through the prism of deep historical insight into music, production and technology. With Bach-influenced melodic counterpoint, Spector-inspired mono mixes for discipline and impact, and the use of sonic detritus from the world of obsolete technology, colliding concepts of sound have been reconfigured for new expression in the modern digital age.

A taster from Victris was heard in 2013 with Aeriae’s Nurse 2 Alyssa Type EP. Victris expands on those possibilities with further cascading modulations of systematised intensity.

A thirteen-page booklet by Wade with notes on each of Victris’s tracks can be downloaded at aeriae.com/victris.pdf

Aeriae is Sydney-based electronic composer and producer Wade Clarke. His grandfather was an engineer and almost-concert pianist, and Wade grew up playing the piano by ear. Aeriae’s novel aesthetic is informed as much by Warp figureheads like Autechre as by classical music and 80s electronic film scores like Tron and Escape From New York. Wade’s other involvements include writing, reviewing, Interactive Fiction, illustration and the Apple II.

Victris is available on CD and in digital formats from usual sources. Witness Aeriae’s controllerism in action at the Aeriae Youtube channel.

“the predominant influences here are chiptunes and the sorts of cold electronic scores favoured by the likes of John Carpenter and Wendy Carlos, filtered through the complex time signatures and glacial melodic arrangements of post-IDM electronics” Cyclic Defrost

“Compositionally rich and complex, Aeriae has taken IDM to a new place, and maybe even another level” Chain D.L.K.

Tracklisting:

1. Revered Daughter
2. Ai No Kuni
3. Heiress
4. Sword of State
5. The Book of Peace (mono)
6. Kathle’en
7. Movement for the Brides
8. Nurse 2 Alyssa Type
9. Angel Team (mono)
10. Regina Doesn’t Have the Technical Knowledge for That