Dys Functional Electronic Music - REPITCH Recordings

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Dys Functional Electronic Music is a compilation release from Repitch Recordings, celebrating the label’s first five years.

Artwork and design by Pasquale Ascione

This Repitch compilation, including many essential artists of the genre, is an important milestone for techno music, setting the stage for future explorations.

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On Dys Functional Electronic Music Ascion, D. Carbone & Shapednoise pick over the bones of techno, grime & jungle to claw together what is sure to become one of the most crucial industrial electronics compilations in recent years.

Founded in 2011 by producers Ascion, D. Carbone and Shapednoise, Repitch first started their advance on our public consciousness with the abrasive chug of "REPITCH 000". This EP showcased their affinity with the confrontational & metallic-edged sound of artists such as Surgeon, Jeff Mills, Ed Rush, Trace & Nico. The abrasive yet experimental nature of "REPITCH 000" set out the imprint as one that carried a strong influence from Japanese noise and mid 90's jungle within its traditional techno structures.

Five years and a slew of focused plates later, Repitch resembles not just a hub of like-minded producers, but a network of artists who share the three founders’ flavour for a punishing, rhythmic sound. Those introduced into the fold are Sote, Mike Parker, AnD, Stave & Sleeparchive. The main mission is delivering razor sharp beats, but the collective has also found time to launch Cosmo Rhythmatic, a sub-imprint that focuses on the more outward-looking ends of the avant-garde spectrum, unleashing a highly impressive run of releases from Mika Vainio & Franck Vigroux, Jesse Osborne-Lanthier & Grischa Lichtenberger and Black Rain in collaboration with label head Shapednoise. It arrived at a time when the very idea of 'genres' is increasingly becoming a thing of the past. Repitch's journey to its current stance within the concrete jungle is perfectly mapped out on this traversing compilation.

Given the various shades of sound design that Ascion, D. Carbone and Shapednoise have grown to call their own, it's best perhaps to take Dys Functional Electronic Music in the headspace that it was compiled by three different artists who, while often sharing space within the confines of DJ sets & record grooves, also have very strong solo identities. With this in mind, the compilation feels like a trip down three different streets of the same inner city district.

Ascion's take focuses inwards on a more broken beat style mutation. This is perfectly represented by his precedent-setting "Getaway Highway" a track that could be a lost mid-90s Moving Shadow roller, coming directly from a pirate radio station within a high-rise JG Ballard tower block. Transmitted through the dead airspace and into the depths of the Repitch studio, this techno-yet-not-techno sound is perfectly complemented by its ghosted dub rattle made by Skudge's haunting ”Buchla.M1000”. The Zenker Brothers (fresh from finishing their own border crossing comp to mark ten years of Ilian Tape) dive headfirst into a half speed techno-noir mystery with "Perainer", the drums bleeding through with a grey psychedelic chill. This side of the sound comes to the forefront with the inclusion of Bristolian Subdub-dubstep pioneer Pinch, who brings around the follow-up to his Tectonic B-side No Justice.

Shapednoise's take on the Repitch sound propels an abrasive mixture of experimental and fully deconstructed dnb weightlessness. ”On 0.1dbhisdoi'fioa” any trace of beats is electrocuted beyond recognition and shot with devilish effect through a double barrel straight to the skull. This raw edgy side to the imprint is carried on through the hollowed out electro drive of Drvg Cvltvre's “Dead And Gone”, and the marching into madness assault of Chris Moss Acid's “Catacid”. This corner of the cave is topped off with the AFX heavy “Show Of Force” by Galaxian, the aquatic "Biopunk" by Nuel and Gaja's “Any Expectations”.

Focusing in on the more traditional 4x4 territories the label was founded within, D. Carbone's full dose acid downer “Comma Wave” and his snapped drum funk “Dritte” (produced with Ascion) nods to the almost power electronics edge that Repitch is known to dabble in. Calling on allies old and new, things are thrashed out with AnD's ball bearing gabba track, “TT2”, the hallucinatory bloodshot blurred vision electro that is The Exaltics’ “Vierundvierzig”, and the half time hardcore of Sote's tranquillizing stomper “Operor”. Bringing a familiar face to the crowd through the instantly recognisable dub techno of Mike Parker, his “Ilium Sphere” cuts out a strict eye's down, no nonsense banger, recalling his previous dark entries within the label’s confines.

Dys Functional Electronic Music captures an important moment within techno, a time when artists are reaching across the frozen borders of underground club culture to draw influence, collaboration and ideas from others who dwell in the shadows, and who might not normally cross their boundaries. This collective mentality sees Repitch chew up any notions you may have of what techno sounds like in 2017 and spits them out into newly formed deep, dark shapes, cut super loud across six sides of wax.

Dys Functional Electronic Music LP

Disc one

A1 / 1. Pinch - No Justice (Part 2)
A2 / 2. Ascion - Getaway Highway
A3 / 3. Nuel - Biopunk
B1 / 4. Galaxian - Show Of Force
B2 / 5. Drvg Cvltvre - Dead And Gone

Disc two

C1 / 6. Shapednoise - 0.1dbhisdoi'fioa
C2 / 7. Chris Moss Acid - Catacid
C3 / 8. AnD - TT2
D1 / 9. Gaja - Any Expectation
D2 / 10. The Exaltics - Vierundvierzig
D3 / 11. Sote - Operor

Disc 3

E1 / 12. Skudge - Buchla.M1000
E2 / 13. Mike Parker - Ilium Sphere
E3 / 14. Ascion & D. Carbone - Dritte
F1 / 15. Zenker Brothers - Perainer
F2 / 16. D. Carbone - Comma Wave

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