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LP
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WEILO 001LP
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Absurd Matter is a labyrinthine sonic conundrum that spirals around the two poles of extreme noise and hip-hop. It's Berlin-based Italian producer Shapednoise's first album in four years and confidently advances his narrative into the next chapter, building on the groundwork of his prior abstractions to emerge with a coherent genre-warped fusion of urgent rap, crushing bass weight and idiosyncratic sound design. After spending years scrupulously deconstructing club music, Nino Pedone has rebuilt it brick by brick in his image. The album arrives after a period of severe anxiety for the producer when he unexpectedly lost his hearing. Absurd Matter tells a critical narrative that's cut with visceral pain and panic, from the unsettling intro that features David Lynch's longtime collaborator Dean Hurley, through the cautious cacophony of the unstable "Swash" all the way to the album's isolated but dizzying conclusion. The album is the first release on Pedone's brand new imprint Weight Looming, a multidisciplinary label platform that's set to explore the depths of bass music, textured noise and abrasive transcendence. It follows a slew of acclaimed releases for Numbers, Opal Tapes, Type, and his own Cosmo Rhythmatic label, and forward-thinking collaborations with Kenyan beat alchemist Slikback and Hyperdub-signed Angolan producer, Nazar. Pedone's most ambitious project to date, Absurd Matter taps into kinetic energy from a hand-picked selection of collaborators, including New York rap duo Armand Hammer, French DJ/producer Brodinski, Bruiser Brigade's ZelooperZ, and vanguard Philly poet, musician, and activist Moor Mother. On "Family", billy woods and Elucid weave a dismal, apocalyptic landscape with their razor-sharp anecdotes. The duo's macabre imagery is given artificial life by Pedone's industrial scrapes and rattles that curl around their worlds like thick smoke. It's still rap, just about, but lodges itself in the back room of a factory, machines running themselves to an early death. Pairing with techno-rap trailblazer Brodinski, Pedone edges further towards the sound system, spatializing rhythms in four dimensions around Detroit rapper ZelooperZ's playful expressions. This is the Italian producer's sci-fi tinged liquefaction of radio echoes, a way to fire familiarity into the void and sublime the human voice into weightless mist. When Moor Mother arrives shouting "me me me" on the aptly-titled "Poetry", it sounds as if all of Pedone's loose threads are being tightened into a knot. His misshapen neo-grime beats sound like a broken jet engine, but smartly cede power to Moor Mother's resonant rhymes.
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12"
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TYPE 134EP
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Nino Pedone, aka Shapednoise, provides a concept suite inspired by the "Serenity Manifesto" of Eric Burton (Rabit) and Francesco Birsa Alessandri - a sort of poetic inversion of Luigi Russolo's futurist manifesto, The Art of Noises (1913). In "Motion And Depth" or the bleached electro-acoustic structures of "Delusional Path" he dissolves the tension of Emanuele Porcinai's strings into a syntax of ecstatic physics. The subatomic diffusion of "Resistance To A Harmonious Vision" with Roly Porter speaks to an experience of luscious sensory overload. In the tumultuous "Pulling At The Seams Of Existence", he and Rabit embrace the discord of uncertainty.
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LP
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TYPE 127LP
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Shapednoise is Italian producer Nino Pedone, and since emerging in the early 2010s he's built a name for himself issuing music that bridges the gap between the basement and the club. Noise and techno are proven bedfellows at this point (for better or for worse), but Pedone pushes harder and further, and Different Selves, as the title suggests, is his most diverse and challenging work to date. Fusing the industrial grind of early Godflesh (Justin K. Broadrick even makes an appearance on opening track "Enlightenment") with the raw power of mid-'90s D&B, the visceral pleasure of early grime, and the ominous scrape of dark ambient, Shapednoise expertly navigates unfamiliar territory. Whether traversing beatless outworld landscapes with "Travels in the Universe of the Soul" or assaulting the senses with the acidic, rhythmic blast of "Heart Energy Shape," there's a sense that Shapednoise is exploring his own boundaries. Different Selves is a challenging, unruly selection of tracks; not a deconstruction of club music, but an amplification, blowing every sound out to near cacophony. The result is truly explosive. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. Edition of 500.
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LP
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OPAL 026LP
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This album by Shapednoise opens with the violent techno deconstruction of "Witness of a Heart Attack Death," an oddly syncopated gallop through hard layers of analog scree and earth-breaking kicks. A despairing atmosphere dominates the remainder of the side with less percussive yet still deeply rhythmic tracks evocative of the power electronics of Slaughter Productions yet brought to be with the sensibility of a techno producer. Everything is darkened with sonic dirt and dismal vibes but remains nuanced, layered and highly dynamic.
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