BUREAU B - Forced Exposure

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/5/2021

LP version. A triumvirate obsessed with riddles, triplets on a cosmic expedition, Die Welttraumforscher delving into the depths of the sonic universe. Their research, so they say, knows no limits -- from the living room to the workshops of Sideria, taking in the enchanting City of Water, Leguan Rätselmann's geometric songs, seeing their friends Kip Eulenmeister and Ohm Olunde. They gather up twinkling star sounds and forgotten noises from the attic. They also say: "Our work is for the world to come". The second collection sees Bureau B zoom in on the years 1992 to 2012 in the Welttraumforscher universe. A more pensive atmosphere of melancholy pervades the tracks documented herein, as if the more spherical musical journeys and expeditions undertaken by creator and sole member Christian Pfluger lead to increasingly enchanted worlds. It may be possible to trace pop-cultural references to artists like Andreas Dorau or The Residents, and yet the Welttraumforscher's music has a life all of its own which appears increasingly sui generis with every album.

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/5/2021

LP version. Flusch. Knirk. Finom! Since July 14th 1981, Die Welttraumforscher have been researching the dream of the world, becoming cassette creators in the process. A mission which has seen them seek out the folklore of outer space, visiting the continent of Binika and marveling at the metropolis of Darktown. In transit, they find support and succor in Bretzelberg pop, toytown tempests, a starman, bricoleurs, 4-track recorders and instant architecture. How elated they are when they happen upon a successful sound piece, taking clandestine delight in the return of genuine humanity. This first Bureau B retrospective devoted to Die Welttraumforscher covers the Swiss project's early creative period from 1981 to 1990. The eccentric, heartwarming pop songs now sound like documents from a parallel world, interwoven with idiosyncratic fantasy, surreal stories and dreamlike apparitions. Considering their continuous and prolific output over the past four decades, it is quite remarkable how Die Welttraumforscher have remained under the radar for so long -- that said, their cadre of admirers includes such illustrious artists as Mouse On Mars, Barbara Morgenstern, and Felix Kubin. It thus gives Bureau B immeasurable pleasure to offer a closer insight into the work of this incomparable project. All tracks have been remastered.

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/5/2021

A triumvirate obsessed with riddles, triplets on a cosmic expedition, Die Welttraumforscher delving into the depths of the sonic universe. Their research, so they say, knows no limits -- from the living room to the workshops of Sideria, taking in the enchanting City of Water, Leguan Rätselmann's geometric songs, seeing their friends Kip Eulenmeister and Ohm Olunde. They gather up twinkling star sounds and forgotten noises from the attic. They also say: "Our work is for the world to come". The second collection sees Bureau B zoom in on the years 1992 to 2012 in the Welttraumforscher universe. A more pensive atmosphere of melancholy pervades the tracks documented herein, as if the more spherical musical journeys and expeditions undertaken by creator and sole member Christian Pfluger lead to increasingly enchanted worlds. It may be possible to trace pop-cultural references to artists like Andreas Dorau or The Residents, and yet the Welttraumforscher's music has a life all of its own which appears increasingly sui generis with every album.

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 3/5/2021

Flusch. Knirk. Finom! Since July 14th 1981, Die Welttraumforscher have been researching the dream of the world, becoming cassette creators in the process. A mission which has seen them seek out the folklore of outer space, visiting the continent of Binika and marveling at the metropolis of Darktown. In transit, they find support and succor in Bretzelberg pop, toytown tempests, a starman, bricoleurs, 4-track recorders and instant architecture. How elated they are when they happen upon a successful sound piece, taking clandestine delight in the return of genuine humanity. This first Bureau B retrospective devoted to Die Welttraumforscher covers the Swiss project's early creative period from 1981 to 1990. The eccentric, heartwarming pop songs now sound like documents from a parallel world, interwoven with idiosyncratic fantasy, surreal stories and dreamlike apparitions. Considering their continuous and prolific output over the past four decades, it is quite remarkable how Die Welttraumforscher have remained under the radar for so long -- that said, their cadre of admirers includes such illustrious artists as Mouse On Mars, Barbara Morgenstern, and Felix Kubin. It thus gives Bureau B immeasurable pleasure to offer a closer insight into the work of this incomparable project. All tracks have been remastered.

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 2/26/2021

LP version. "... My Frequencies, When We is the eighth Mapstation album Stefan Schneider has released since 2000. Hailing from Düsseldorf, the electronic music artist and producer finds inspiration in African and South American folklore, dub, and, naturally, krautrock, taking his time to process his responses in a consistently thoughtful manner, never resorting to cliché. He has also found time to pursue other projects in recent years, one with electronic music pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius for example (2011), another with visual artist Katharina Grosse (2017), whilst continuing to release interesting music from a variety of musical spheres on his own Tal label. Recorded between March and August of 2020 in Corona-induced isolation, there is a sonic homogeneity to My Frequencies, When We. For the first time in years, guest musicians are conspicuous by their absence. Schneider himself assumes vocal duties on 'The City In'. He has also pared down his equipment list: an analog tape loop device, Roland 808 drum machine, Novation Peak synthesizer, a guitar. Schneider thus sticks to the philosophy he revealed to an interviewer this summer: 'Simplification of the means is something I strive for. I have come to realize that my music loses intensity when I add in too many elements...' 'Intensity' does not necessarily translate into 'danceability'. Yes, there are hypnotic African grooves on 'Flute Channels' and the ingeniously rhythmic, imaginary world music of 'Taro Zing Ta' has much in common with Jon Hassell, Marja Ahti or DJ Residue, but these do not reflect the full spectrum. For the most part, the rhythms are as rudimentary as those found in folklore, tottering and stumbling along. There are gentle reminders of kraut-elektronik (Conrad Schnitzler, Cluster, Neu!) and discrete reconfigurations, with the aural current of the Rhineland flowing nearby. 'Outside Arendt' presents two parallel worlds in which synth melodies and crude beats are destined ne'er to meet; the same is true of the musical box frequencies and basic rhythm of 'Train Of Gerda' or the poetic juxtaposition of idyll and concrete on 'Actual Possible': each instrument goes at its own pace, MIDI connections do not lead to synthesis. This is music for the digital diaspora, mystical, sweeping frequencies, performed reductively. In its finest moments Mapstation succeeds in crafting minimal-kraut-elektronik which runs as deep as it floats on high. Electronic house music one might say, at once homely and strange." --Olaf Karnik

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 2/26/2021

"... My Frequencies, When We is the eighth Mapstation album Stefan Schneider has released since 2000. Hailing from Düsseldorf, the electronic music artist and producer finds inspiration in African and South American folklore, dub, and, naturally, krautrock, taking his time to process his responses in a consistently thoughtful manner, never resorting to cliché. He has also found time to pursue other projects in recent years, one with electronic music pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius for example (2011), another with visual artist Katharina Grosse (2017), whilst continuing to release interesting music from a variety of musical spheres on his own Tal label. Recorded between March and August of 2020 in Corona-induced isolation, there is a sonic homogeneity to My Frequencies, When We. For the first time in years, guest musicians are conspicuous by their absence. Schneider himself assumes vocal duties on 'The City In'. He has also pared down his equipment list: an analog tape loop device, Roland 808 drum machine, Novation Peak synthesizer, a guitar. Schneider thus sticks to the philosophy he revealed to an interviewer this summer: 'Simplification of the means is something I strive for. I have come to realize that my music loses intensity when I add in too many elements...' 'Intensity' does not necessarily translate into 'danceability'. Yes, there are hypnotic African grooves on 'Flute Channels' and the ingeniously rhythmic, imaginary world music of 'Taro Zing Ta' has much in common with Jon Hassell, Marja Ahti or DJ Residue, but these do not reflect the full spectrum. For the most part, the rhythms are as rudimentary as those found in folklore, tottering and stumbling along. There are gentle reminders of kraut-elektronik (Conrad Schnitzler, Cluster, Neu!) and discrete reconfigurations, with the aural current of the Rhineland flowing nearby. 'Outside Arendt' presents two parallel worlds in which synth melodies and crude beats are destined ne'er to meet; the same is true of the musical box frequencies and basic rhythm of 'Train Of Gerda' or the poetic juxtaposition of idyll and concrete on 'Actual Possible': each instrument goes at its own pace, MIDI connections do not lead to synthesis. This is music for the digital diaspora, mystical, sweeping frequencies, performed reductively. In its finest moments Mapstation succeeds in crafting minimal-kraut-elektronik which runs as deep as it floats on high. Electronic house music one might say, at once homely and strange." --Olaf Karnik

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 2/19/2021

With the band's tenth anniversary in their viewfinder, Camera are all set to push the button on Prosthuman, their fifth studio album. The Berlin band never tire of changing themselves, their music or personnel. As Karlheinz Stockhausen noted: "New methods change the experience. New experiences change man." Taking this as their lead, Michael Drummer (the drummer) and Camera surprise listeners more on Prosthuman as they reinvent and reformulate their sound without sacrificing the project's identity which has matured over the past decade. Emotional Detox (BB 312CD/LP, 2018), the predecessor to this album, was distinguished by the presence of two keyboard virtuosos (Steffen Kahles and Camera founder member, Timm Brockmann). Finding replacements for Prosthuman was difficult; the two keyboardists had -- in different creative periods --formed the backbone of a band structure. Decisive input came from an unlikely source: Tim Schroeder, who first teamed up with Camera as a performance and video artist on their 2017 USA tour. Over the course of jams and recording sessions, he was able to offer ample proof of his synthesizer skills. Alex Kozmidi, a musician and composer with a flair for experimentation, completed the triumvirate on guitar, with Michael Drummer adding his own guitar riffs. Change and friction can be useful allies in pursuit of creativity, something to which Drummer has grown accustomed as the only ever-present member of Camera. The pleasures and pain of isolation -- suddenly a mass phenomenon in pandemic times --are well known to the quasi-front man of the group. Virus-induced social distancing and quarantine measures came into effect during the recording process (June 2019 to June 2020). Finding the musical framework for Prosthuman required a great deal of commitment, enthusiasm, and plenty of time. In spite of shifts in instrumentation, the ten tracks comprising the album fall into place like a progressively unfolding narrative. There is no apparent beginning to the record, no obvious ending -- rather more a sense of being right in the middle, with no immediate reference to any of the previous albums. At the same time, traces of the paths travelled on past albums are discernible. Michael Drummer's approach to drumming is more than a constant reference point, emerging as the decisive element which pins everything together.

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 2/19/2021

LP version. With the band's tenth anniversary in their viewfinder, Camera are all set to push the button on Prosthuman, their fifth studio album. The Berlin band never tire of changing themselves, their music or personnel. As Karlheinz Stockhausen noted: "New methods change the experience. New experiences change man." Taking this as their lead, Michael Drummer (the drummer) and Camera surprise listeners more on Prosthuman as they reinvent and reformulate their sound without sacrificing the project's identity which has matured over the past decade. Emotional Detox (BB 312CD/LP, 2018), the predecessor to this album, was distinguished by the presence of two keyboard virtuosos (Steffen Kahles and Camera founder member, Timm Brockmann). Finding replacements for Prosthuman was difficult; the two keyboardists had -- in different creative periods --formed the backbone of a band structure. Decisive input came from an unlikely source: Tim Schroeder, who first teamed up with Camera as a performance and video artist on their 2017 USA tour. Over the course of jams and recording sessions, he was able to offer ample proof of his synthesizer skills. Alex Kozmidi, a musician and composer with a flair for experimentation, completed the triumvirate on guitar, with Michael Drummer adding his own guitar riffs. Change and friction can be useful allies in pursuit of creativity, something to which Drummer has grown accustomed as the only ever-present member of Camera. The pleasures and pain of isolation -- suddenly a mass phenomenon in pandemic times --are well known to the quasi-front man of the group. Virus-induced social distancing and quarantine measures came into effect during the recording process (June 2019 to June 2020). Finding the musical framework for Prosthuman required a great deal of commitment, enthusiasm, and plenty of time. In spite of shifts in instrumentation, the ten tracks comprising the album fall into place like a progressively unfolding narrative. There is no apparent beginning to the record, no obvious ending -- rather more a sense of being right in the middle, with no immediate reference to any of the previous albums. At the same time, traces of the paths travelled on past albums are discernible. Michael Drummer's approach to drumming is more than a constant reference point, emerging as the decisive element which pins everything together.

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 1/29/2021

"Revered Hamburg musician, synthesist and DJ RVDS joins the Bureau B ranks with the meditative and mellifluous sounds of Moods & Dances 2021 -- a musical present from the future past. Inspired by the otherworldly exotica and imaginative electronics of library music's golden age, Richard von der Schulenberg conjures palm trees and pyramids, promenades, and portals, all observed from the heart of a Holodeck. Seven of nine tracks are named after the equipment used to create them, offering an additional journey through the patch bay-mayhem of the RVDS home studio, and paying homage to the tonal nuance among his collection. Now, whether he's atop Mt. Acid with a molten 303, caressing tender Fender keys through an improvised jazz set or live scoring some stage-based theatrics, Richard's music always offers an immersive experience, but perhaps never more directly than this latest opus. We wash up on the digital shoreline of 'Mrs Yamaha's Summer Tune', sparkling with salt water and the shimmer of polished mallets and subtle percussion. 'Caravan of the Pentamatics' heads inland through the tree line, carving a silk road through Ethiopian jazz tones and snaking rhythms until it encounters the mystical presence of "The Farfisa Sphinx". Cryptic melodies float a top a bed of spheric bass, intangible and irresistible until they fade into the sand storm. The gentle and jazzy 'Roland's Night Walk' provides a little rest from the desert deities, though distant gunshot and the unceasing cicadas add tension to the moonlit majesty of those delicate keys. The dawn brings heartbreak via the dewy melodies and tonal malady of Richard's DX7, but somewhere someone's dancing to the propulsive bassline, eerie vocals and Arabesque sounds of 'The Space Pentas', a little cosmic boogie which just builds and builds. But dervish whirls are thirsty business, so it follows you should take a drink break at the 'Wersimatic Space Bar', a sophisticated kind of cantina awash with exotica. Then the boogie is back for the penultimate track, a deranged, demented and diabolical bit of commune chaos brought back from 'Planet Dragon', and translated into a Radiophonic workout. Parting is such sweet sorrow on any planet, and 'The End (Lala)' captures the sentiment superbly, serving space sirens, somnolent bass sounds and bursts of static at a stately tempo. Though Library inspired, and undoubtedly indebted to the hardware in action, this intriguing intergalactic trip is more passionate than a pastiche; playful, poetic and enigmatic in true RVDS fashion." --Patrick Ryder

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 1/29/2021

LP version. "Revered Hamburg musician, synthesist and DJ RVDS joins the Bureau B ranks with the meditative and mellifluous sounds of Moods & Dances 2021 -- a musical present from the future past. Inspired by the otherworldly exotica and imaginative electronics of library music's golden age, Richard von der Schulenberg conjures palm trees and pyramids, promenades, and portals, all observed from the heart of a Holodeck. Seven of nine tracks are named after the equipment used to create them, offering an additional journey through the patch bay-mayhem of the RVDS home studio, and paying homage to the tonal nuance among his collection. Now, whether he's atop Mt. Acid with a molten 303, caressing tender Fender keys through an improvised jazz set or live scoring some stage-based theatrics, Richard's music always offers an immersive experience, but perhaps never more directly than this latest opus. We wash up on the digital shoreline of 'Mrs Yamaha's Summer Tune', sparkling with salt water and the shimmer of polished mallets and subtle percussion. 'Caravan of the Pentamatics' heads inland through the tree line, carving a silk road through Ethiopian jazz tones and snaking rhythms until it encounters the mystical presence of "The Farfisa Sphinx". Cryptic melodies float a top a bed of spheric bass, intangible and irresistible until they fade into the sand storm. The gentle and jazzy 'Roland's Night Walk' provides a little rest from the desert deities, though distant gunshot and the unceasing cicadas add tension to the moonlit majesty of those delicate keys. The dawn brings heartbreak via the dewy melodies and tonal malady of Richard's DX7, but somewhere someone's dancing to the propulsive bassline, eerie vocals and Arabesque sounds of 'The Space Pentas', a little cosmic boogie which just builds and builds. But dervish whirls are thirsty business, so it follows you should take a drink break at the 'Wersimatic Space Bar', a sophisticated kind of cantina awash with exotica. Then the boogie is back for the penultimate track, a deranged, demented and diabolical bit of commune chaos brought back from 'Planet Dragon', and translated into a Radiophonic workout. Parting is such sweet sorrow on any planet, and 'The End (Lala)' captures the sentiment superbly, serving space sirens, somnolent bass sounds and bursts of static at a stately tempo. Though Library inspired, and undoubtedly indebted to the hardware in action, this intriguing intergalactic trip is more passionate than a pastiche; playful, poetic and enigmatic in true RVDS fashion." --Patrick Ryder

$17.00 IN STOCK

"Conrad Schnitzler is incredible. I would dearly have loved to meet him, to have been present when he, Seidel and Baumann were working their magic at Paragon Studio. Fortuitously, Wolfgang Seidel, co-author of these pieces, has opened up his archive of recordings to the Bureau B label. He and Conrad Schnitzler spent many years together experimenting with sound, capturing the results on the two Consequenz albums, amongst others. I had the honor of meeting Wolfgang Seidel at the Golden Pudel Club during the 2018 Eruption Festival. Ken Montgomery, who worked with Schnitzler in New York towards the end of the 1980s, was also there. The concerts and performances were hauntingly powerful, infused with the spirit of Schnitzler's music and utopian vision. These entirely instrumental recordings were created in the late 1970s at Peter Baumann's Paragon Studio. In my opinion, this stellar period gave rise to the finest works: the Con (BB 350CD/LP), Consequenz (BB 121CD/LP), and Con 3 (BB 122CD/LP) albums, featuring such wonderful pieces as "Fata Morgana", "Coca", and "Auf dem schwarzen Kanal". These recently discovered pieces take the aforementioned albums a stage further. Sounds complement each other as they are reprised, whilst continuing to exist in their own cosmos. As you listen, you feel as if you have been transported back into the studio itself while the sessions are happening. One surprise follows another -- the third track sounds like clocks ringing at a pitch which only a bat could really hear. Numbers '5' and '6' are not so far removed from abstract techno tracks by Jeff Mills, albeit with rather more swing, floating in upper tone sequences reminiscent of the American composer Conlon Nancarrow. Nr. '8' is an absolute dream/wave piece, sounding like a relation of the (then) emerging Throbbing Gristle project. The tenth piece is my personal favorite, evoking a wave-romantic atmosphere which might lead you to believe that Conrad Schnitzler had been listening to The Cure. Schnitzler is electronica in its purest sense. He succeeds in rendering the unconscious audible. This goes far beyond 'music to listen to', it is music which works on different levels, music to move you." --Richard von der Schulenburg

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 1/22/2021

LP version. "Conrad Schnitzler is incredible. I would dearly have loved to meet him, to have been present when he, Seidel and Baumann were working their magic at Paragon Studio. Fortuitously, Wolfgang Seidel, co-author of these pieces, has opened up his archive of recordings to the Bureau B label. He and Conrad Schnitzler spent many years together experimenting with sound, capturing the results on the two Consequenz albums, amongst others. I had the honor of meeting Wolfgang Seidel at the Golden Pudel Club during the 2018 Eruption Festival. Ken Montgomery, who worked with Schnitzler in New York towards the end of the 1980s, was also there. The concerts and performances were hauntingly powerful, infused with the spirit of Schnitzler's music and utopian vision. These entirely instrumental recordings were created in the late 1970s at Peter Baumann's Paragon Studio. In my opinion, this stellar period gave rise to the finest works: the Con (BB 350CD/LP), Consequenz (BB 121CD/LP), and Con 3 (BB 122CD/LP) albums, featuring such wonderful pieces as "Fata Morgana", "Coca", and "Auf dem schwarzen Kanal". These recently discovered pieces take the aforementioned albums a stage further. Sounds complement each other as they are reprised, whilst continuing to exist in their own cosmos. As you listen, you feel as if you have been transported back into the studio itself while the sessions are happening. One surprise follows another -- the third track sounds like clocks ringing at a pitch which only a bat could really hear. Numbers '5' and '6' are not so far removed from abstract techno tracks by Jeff Mills, albeit with rather more swing, floating in upper tone sequences reminiscent of the American composer Conlon Nancarrow. Nr. '8' is an absolute dream/wave piece, sounding like a relation of the (then) emerging Throbbing Gristle project. The tenth piece is my personal favorite, evoking a wave-romantic atmosphere which might lead you to believe that Conrad Schnitzler had been listening to The Cure. Schnitzler is electronica in its purest sense. He succeeds in rendering the unconscious audible. This goes far beyond 'music to listen to', it is music which works on different levels, music to move you." --Richard von der Schulenburg

$17.00 IN STOCK

Viennese artist Conny Frischauf's music is a whirl of kraut, left-field electronica, and synth pop. She playfully shines a new light on tradition to create a fresh, contemporary sound. Having released a brace of EPs -- Effekt & Emotion (International Major Label, 2018) and Affekt & Tradition (KHR 003EP, 2019) -- Frischauf now presents her debut album, Die Drift. The sheer immediacy of the album owes much to Frischauf's aptitude for integrating experimental sound structures into the microcosm of a pop song. A work of sonic depth, the record marries free music with irresistible pop appeal. Sam Irl, musician and engineer, takes on co-production, mixing, and mastering duties. "Es geht rauf, rauf, rauf" -- this single line heralds the journey which is about to begin, one on which Conny Frischauf's voice functions as a GPS: a rhythmic, chirping instrument interacting with electronic drum machine grooves, using language as sound to carry words, disorienting material which enhances the overall associative impact. Texts which go beyond narration, opening up perspectives, locations confusions. Inside is outside is in-between, right, left, front, back, until you don't know whether you're coming or going. An endless drift, as the album title announces, the constant movement of waves generating currents on the water's surface. Frischauf deploys a wide range of instruments, adding a wealth of color whilst balancing her playful approach with unfailing transparency, each element clearly arranged to create a particular sound. The complexity of simplicity. Sounds shimmer like kaleidoscopic reflections in a rush of echo loops, yet these are never used for mere effect, instead they represent careful brushstrokes on the broader fabric. All ten tracks on the album share an almost random, economically sketched intensity of effect, mirrored in Anna Weisser's cover art. Everything comes together on the closing track of the album, "Freundschaft" -- in the end, friendship. Waves ripple outwards like a mantra, still in motion as they dissolve. All you have to do is let yourself fall in.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Viennese artist Conny Frischauf's music is a whirl of kraut, left-field electronica, and synth pop. She playfully shines a new light on tradition to create a fresh, contemporary sound. Having released a brace of EPs -- Effekt & Emotion (International Major Label, 2018) and Affekt & Tradition (KHR 003EP, 2019) -- Frischauf now presents her debut album, Die Drift. The sheer immediacy of the album owes much to Frischauf's aptitude for integrating experimental sound structures into the microcosm of a pop song. A work of sonic depth, the record marries free music with irresistible pop appeal. Sam Irl, musician and engineer, takes on co-production, mixing, and mastering duties. "Es geht rauf, rauf, rauf" -- this single line heralds the journey which is about to begin, one on which Conny Frischauf's voice functions as a GPS: a rhythmic, chirping instrument interacting with electronic drum machine grooves, using language as sound to carry words, disorienting material which enhances the overall associative impact. Texts which go beyond narration, opening up perspectives, locations confusions. Inside is outside is in-between, right, left, front, back, until you don't know whether you're coming or going. An endless drift, as the album title announces, the constant movement of waves generating currents on the water's surface. Frischauf deploys a wide range of instruments, adding a wealth of color whilst balancing her playful approach with unfailing transparency, each element clearly arranged to create a particular sound. The complexity of simplicity. Sounds shimmer like kaleidoscopic reflections in a rush of echo loops, yet these are never used for mere effect, instead they represent careful brushstrokes on the broader fabric. All ten tracks on the album share an almost random, economically sketched intensity of effect, mirrored in Anna Weisser's cover art. Everything comes together on the closing track of the album, "Freundschaft" -- in the end, friendship. Waves ripple outwards like a mantra, still in motion as they dissolve. All you have to do is let yourself fall in.

$17.00 IN STOCK

The final instalment (for now) in Bureau B's little series of classic Der Plan album reissues. That's Frank, Kurt, and Moritz right there on the cover, inside Harry Rosenberg's Hamburger Hafen Basar* -- the Plan's own version of the Style Council's Favourite Shop. You may not find the cool mods attire that graced the Weller and Talbot emporium, but Harry's was a treasure trove of exotica: fetishes, amulets, masks, handicrafts from the South Seas, even shrunken heads. The kind of things seafarers brought back with them from distant voyages. It would cost you two Deutschmarks to see the miniature skulls of the unfortunates. Harry himself had a long, white bushy beard, proper sea dog material. The basis of the harbor bazar's collection can be traced back to the eccentric Cap'n Haase, self-proclaimed "professor of undiscovered science", who died in 1934. Not a bad title for the next Plan album or box: these Professors of Undiscovered Science have forever been on a musical mission to seek out and shine a light on undiscovered phenomena. It is no surprise that this perfectly chosen photograph reminiscent of a certain Dr Henry Walton Jones Jr. Moritz R, a keen collectors of artifacts from the Makonde province of Mozambique, was a frequent visitor to the bazar, whilst Pyrolator was particularly in awe of the Africa room: "Voodoo dolls hanging from the ceiling, needles sticking out of them, flecked with blood. Scary stuff. Bundles of seedy St.Pauli-Nachrichten papers and other porn magazines on the floor. When I asked Harry about this bizarre combination of wares, his answer was short and to the point: '... it banishes the spells.'" Why are there so many cigars on the table and what about the song El Cigarro? Moritz R looks back: "That's how we rolled in those days. You could put it down to juvenile obsession, smoking cigars, drinking whisky, snorting coke (not me!) --that's just how it was, partying hard." Eleven years had passed since the release of Geri Reig, their debut album. Tiki and electronica, noise and schlager, psychedelia and industrial, Kurt Martin and jerry-rigging, Cargo Cult and Ata Tak, Wuppertal and Düsseldorf, Hans-Albers-Platz and West-Berlin, Emulator I and Emulator II, old pizzas and new masks, making the most out of the least and living in the gallery, abstraction and pop, Japan and Japlan. A lot going on in those eleven years!

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Der Plan's Es Ist Eine Fremde Und Seltsame Welt, originally released in 1987. A cynic might propound the notion that to reissue an album entitled Es Ist Eine Fremde Und Seltsame Welt at this particular moment would be to hit the nail on the head with painful exactitude. No cynics here, however, only music lovers. Bureau B have already re-released four classic albums by Der Plan: Geri Reig (BB 104CD/LP), Normalette Surprise (BB 105CD/LP), Die letzte Rache (BB 129CD/LP), and Japlan (BB 130CD/LP).

Moritz R: I made the cover. My idea was for everything in the photo to be black, we even used embossed type so the entire cover was black. (editor's note: no embossed type on the reissue due to the cost, but our album price is undeniably attractive).

Pyrolator: The name of the album is simultaneously the concept. Numerous diverse pieces which illuminate the world in all its absurdity. The album title is lifted from the David Lynch movie Blue Velvet ("It's A Strange World"). The songs on the album were, for the most part, composed in a legendary session, improvisations really. We decided to play each piece in a different key and use irregular time signatures: for example, "Frisch Verliebt" is in 9/8, "Ein Moment Sind Zwei Sekunden" shifts between 6/8, 3/4 and 4/4, whilst "Ich Hab Den Jordan Gesehen" is in 6/8.

Moritz R: Der Plan was often seen as a fun, colorful, NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle) band and we wanted to counter that image by bringing our obscure roots to the fore.

What influences, musical or otherwise, shaped the production of EIEFUSW?

Moritz R: I couldn't name any influences at all. The record was very much of our own making. Obscure in the best sense of the word.

What were your expectations and how was the album ultimately received?

Moritz R: No expectations. We were still a band of obscure outsiders. But we knew full well what we were getting into with our weird music. Listening habits have come a long way since then and I hope that people will better understand or appreciate the record today.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge is the musical vehicle of Niklas Wandt and Joshua Gottmanns. They released a single -- "Ich verliebe mich nie" -- in 2018 and an EP entitled Leben in 2019 on the Düsseldorf label, Themes For Great Cities. Now the time has come for the Berlin duo's long-awaited debut album. The seven tracks comprising Der Große Preis distill the inimitable NB sound which blends velvety synth-pop and crystalline digi-dub, basslines like cubes of glass and whiplash snares. The album title certainly lives up to its name: The Grand Prize. It was early 2019 when, led by their very own energy coach Ali Europa, the band ensconced themselves in an offseason hotel on Lake Constance to record the album, the same procedure that spawned their afore-mentioned EP. Between a mothballed breakfast buffet and darkened wood furnishings, bright winter sunshine and lonely nights, Wandt and Gottmanns set about conjuring up smoke clouds. The two protagonists have always been drawn to the most contradictory scenes of local nightlife, indeed the project was born in the underground bars of Berlin. On their lakeside sojourn, they paid a quotidianal visit to the neighborhood watering hole, where a "No Problems" playlist -- parts 1 to 5 -- blared out of the jukebox and semi-anonymous players lost themselves in a blur of numbers and fruit as the slot machines whirred and flashed at one end of the room. Many a Euro coin was lost here, but a valuable concentrate seeped through the ether which would allow new tracks to grow. The magic ultimately reached completion in the converted studio suite; a pile of analog synthesizers and rhythm machines, a Studer desk, computer, a vocal booth in the shower. Irregular working hours, and paradoxical daily routines caused considerable friction and, at times, the two musicians worked separately from each other. One eventful year later, the finishing touches were applied in Vienna 1070, or to be more accurate, in Sam Irl's home studio and the International Major Label Studio just around the corner: "Gelb's Groove" emerged from smoke-laden nothingness in February 2020. The end product was honed with overdubs, refinements and vocals. Finally, the title track, "Der Große Preis", based on supercharged lyrics that had been floating around for some time, was completed with Daniel Meuzard piloting his spaceship-like EMS synthesizer. A month later, cultural activities came to an end and Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge had their debut album in the bag, like one big promise.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. The final instalment (for now) in Bureau B's little series of classic Der Plan album reissues. That's Frank, Kurt, and Moritz right there on the cover, inside Harry Rosenberg's Hamburger Hafen Basar* -- the Plan's own version of the Style Council's Favourite Shop. You may not find the cool mods attire that graced the Weller and Talbot emporium, but Harry's was a treasure trove of exotica: fetishes, amulets, masks, handicrafts from the South Seas, even shrunken heads. The kind of things seafarers brought back with them from distant voyages. It would cost you two Deutschmarks to see the miniature skulls of the unfortunates. Harry himself had a long, white bushy beard, proper sea dog material. The basis of the harbor bazar's collection can be traced back to the eccentric Cap'n Haase, self-proclaimed "professor of undiscovered science", who died in 1934. Not a bad title for the next Plan album or box: these Professors of Undiscovered Science have forever been on a musical mission to seek out and shine a light on undiscovered phenomena. It is no surprise that this perfectly chosen photograph reminiscent of a certain Dr Henry Walton Jones Jr. Moritz R, a keen collectors of artifacts from the Makonde province of Mozambique, was a frequent visitor to the bazar, whilst Pyrolator was particularly in awe of the Africa room: "Voodoo dolls hanging from the ceiling, needles sticking out of them, flecked with blood. Scary stuff. Bundles of seedy St.Pauli-Nachrichten papers and other porn magazines on the floor. When I asked Harry about this bizarre combination of wares, his answer was short and to the point: '... it banishes the spells.'" Why are there so many cigars on the table and what about the song El Cigarro? Moritz R looks back: "That's how we rolled in those days. You could put it down to juvenile obsession, smoking cigars, drinking whisky, snorting coke (not me!) --that's just how it was, partying hard." Eleven years had passed since the release of Geri Reig, their debut album. Tiki and electronica, noise and schlager, psychedelia and industrial, Kurt Martin and jerry-rigging, Cargo Cult and Ata Tak, Wuppertal and Düsseldorf, Hans-Albers-Platz and West-Berlin, Emulator I and Emulator II, old pizzas and new masks, making the most out of the least and living in the gallery, abstraction and pop, Japan and Japlan. A lot going on in those eleven years!

$17.00 IN STOCK

Bureau B present a reissue of Der Plan's Es Ist Eine Fremde Und Seltsame Welt, originally released in 1987. A cynic might propound the notion that to reissue an album entitled Es Ist Eine Fremde Und Seltsame Welt at this particular moment would be to hit the nail on the head with painful exactitude. No cynics here, however, only music lovers. Bureau B have already re-released four classic albums by Der Plan: Geri Reig (BB 104CD/LP), Normalette Surprise (BB 105CD/LP), Die letzte Rache (BB 129CD/LP), and Japlan (BB 130CD/LP).

Moritz R: I made the cover. My idea was for everything in the photo to be black, we even used embossed type so the entire cover was black. (editor's note: no embossed type on the reissue due to the cost, but our album price is undeniably attractive).

Pyrolator: The name of the album is simultaneously the concept. Numerous diverse pieces which illuminate the world in all its absurdity. The album title is lifted from the David Lynch movie Blue Velvet ("It's A Strange World"). The songs on the album were, for the most part, composed in a legendary session, improvisations really. We decided to play each piece in a different key and use irregular time signatures: for example, "Frisch Verliebt" is in 9/8, "Ein Moment Sind Zwei Sekunden" shifts between 6/8, 3/4 and 4/4, whilst "Ich Hab Den Jordan Gesehen" is in 6/8.

Moritz R: Der Plan was often seen as a fun, colorful, NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle) band and we wanted to counter that image by bringing our obscure roots to the fore.

What influences, musical or otherwise, shaped the production of EIEFUSW?

Moritz R: I couldn't name any influences at all. The record was very much of our own making. Obscure in the best sense of the word.

What were your expectations and how was the album ultimately received?

Moritz R: No expectations. We were still a band of obscure outsiders. But we knew full well what we were getting into with our weird music. Listening habits have come a long way since then and I hope that people will better understand or appreciate the record today.

$22.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

LP version. Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge is the musical vehicle of Niklas Wandt and Joshua Gottmanns. They released a single -- "Ich verliebe mich nie" -- in 2018 and an EP entitled Leben in 2019 on the Düsseldorf label, Themes For Great Cities. Now the time has come for the Berlin duo's long-awaited debut album. The seven tracks comprising Der Große Preis distill the inimitable NB sound which blends velvety synth-pop and crystalline digi-dub, basslines like cubes of glass and whiplash snares. The album title certainly lives up to its name: The Grand Prize. It was early 2019 when, led by their very own energy coach Ali Europa, the band ensconced themselves in an offseason hotel on Lake Constance to record the album, the same procedure that spawned their afore-mentioned EP. Between a mothballed breakfast buffet and darkened wood furnishings, bright winter sunshine and lonely nights, Wandt and Gottmanns set about conjuring up smoke clouds. The two protagonists have always been drawn to the most contradictory scenes of local nightlife, indeed the project was born in the underground bars of Berlin. On their lakeside sojourn, they paid a quotidianal visit to the neighborhood watering hole, where a "No Problems" playlist -- parts 1 to 5 -- blared out of the jukebox and semi-anonymous players lost themselves in a blur of numbers and fruit as the slot machines whirred and flashed at one end of the room. Many a Euro coin was lost here, but a valuable concentrate seeped through the ether which would allow new tracks to grow. The magic ultimately reached completion in the converted studio suite; a pile of analog synthesizers and rhythm machines, a Studer desk, computer, a vocal booth in the shower. Irregular working hours, and paradoxical daily routines caused considerable friction and, at times, the two musicians worked separately from each other. One eventful year later, the finishing touches were applied in Vienna 1070, or to be more accurate, in Sam Irl's home studio and the International Major Label Studio just around the corner: "Gelb's Groove" emerged from smoke-laden nothingness in February 2020. The end product was honed with overdubs, refinements and vocals. Finally, the title track, "Der Große Preis", based on supercharged lyrics that had been floating around for some time, was completed with Daniel Meuzard piloting his spaceship-like EMS synthesizer. A month later, cultural activities came to an end and Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge had their debut album in the bag, like one big promise.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. "Martin Rev's fourth solo album See Me Ridin' was released on the New York label Reachout International Records (ROIR) in 1996. Received by the critics with amazement, it proved to be a watershed moment in his career. Journalist Neil Cooper wrote at the time: 'When I first heard Rev's new record, I was taken aback. Was he serious? Was this some inside joke? He had to be kidding -- or was he mentally over the top!' Its reception echoed that of the 1992 Suicide album Why Be Blue, which sprung such a surprise on fans of the duo comprising Martin Rev and Alan Vegas. On this particular solo album, Rev repeated the trick of dispensing with rough, brittle sounds. This was not Rev seeking to distance himself from his musical origins, he was actually getting back closer to his roots. Signs of Martin Rev's formative influence as an electronic music pioneer can be seen in many places. Virtually no one would have expected him to deliver a doo-wop album, but in the light of Rev's socialization and artistic tradition, it reflects a logical process of absolute reduction. Martin Rev crafted See Me Ridin' as a kind of power pop hybrid, an album which owed much to the R&B and doowop of the 1950s and 1960s; the music which a youthful Martin Rev heard on the streets of New York, the soundtrack to his teenage years which had such an intense effect on him and would resurface in his own works. Nowhere more so than here. The instrumental foundations of these 16 tracks are built on rudimentarily sketched melodic arches, outlines rather than fully defined structures, yet all the more forceful for that. As if the full potency of an R&B band has been distilled into minimalist keyboard compositions. Martin Rev's vocals are as minimal as they are sentimental, wonderfully poetic like a latter-day Chet Baker perhaps, or Jonathan Richman. This solo album not only blindsided Rev's critics and fans alike, but also painted a personal, nostalgic portrait of his home, New York; fading out the noise and contradictions of the city to channel the romantic energy of the metropolis." --Daniel Jahn, May 2020

$17.00 IN STOCK

Front View is the album debut of film-maker and musician Helena Ratka, alias Pose Dia. A soundtrack and theater composer, as well as resident DJ at Hamburg's Golden Pudel Club, Ratka emerged onto the scene as one half of Shari Vari (together with Sophia Kennedy). Now all these pathways or winding roads have converged to create Pose Dia and an impressive album of many facets -- a self-assured debut. Born in Hamburg, where she continues to live and work, Helena Ratka played the saxophone in her school's big band. She then set the sax aside and began experimenting with electronic sounds, initially with film soundtracks in mind for her studies. It was around this time that she picked up a regular DJ gig at the Golden Pudel Club as Ratkat, which led to her meeting Sophia Kennedy. The pair formed a duo, Shari Vari, recorded an album and played numerous concerts. This collaboration galvanized Ratka into focusing her efforts more intensely on making music, a welcome counterweight to the somewhat drawn-out process of filmmaking. Early demo sessions laid the groundwork for Front View. "The album was produced in different places between 2018 and 2020, mostly in my studio at home. Some tracks or ideas came to me in Heidelberg and Lübeck, where I was working on music for theatres." The resulting album takes you on a mysterious journey through a darkish landscape. Pose Dia's tracks assume the most diverse forms -- from supercooled synth-wave sounds or the weightless effortlessness of pop on the one hand, to the dystopian urgency of contemporary club music or flashes of hip-hop on the other. In spite of this panoply of influences and blackwall hitches, the music is never drowned out in a sea of influences, instead the songs radiate a magnetism all of their own. Within the first few sequencer-driven bars of the opening track "At The Beach", the listener is well and truly hooked. The unique quality of Pose Dia's music may owe something to Ratka's pictorial way of working. Enigmatic stories, sounds, words, and voices in the role of instruments help to make Front View into such a kaleidoscopic album, serene and yet tumultuous, minimalist and tender yet capable of exploding in raw anger.

$14.50 IN STOCK

2020 repress. Auf Dem Schwarzen Kanal is one of the most outstanding, most sought-after releases in Conrad Schnitzler's extensive catalog. It was the only Schnitzler record to appear on a major label and saw him flirting with the experimental new wave sound that was emerging in 1980, particularly on the title track. Nevertheless, it still managed to sound idiosyncratically unlike any other music around at the time. Recorded with Wolfgang Seidel at Peter Baumann's Paragon Studio in Berlin, the four tracks take us on a caustic, dissonant mutant disco trip which has lost none of its fascination in the years since. It gives us at Bureau B great pleasure to reissue this long lost work.

$11.00 IN STOCK

12" version. Sorbet is a new project from producer, drummer, and vocalist Chris W Ryan (Robocobra Quartet). The first release via Bureau B, Life Variations EP is a suite of three tracks borne from the same musical seed. A presumptuous thing to tackle across 20 minutes, Life Variations EP negotiates birth, death, and that part in between. "Not just human life, but the life of planets or our environment -- and the death and birth of personal identity; of sexuality or gender." Lead single "Birth (My First Day)" is a celebration of beginnings. Explosions of reverb and breakbeat drum kits are all borne out of manipulations in ProTools, an audio software traditionally for recording and mixing studio performances. Working predominantly as a producer in recording studios and concert halls across the country, Ryan opts to use a tool he knows and re-imagine its usage. Pushing a software like ProTools to its limits and making it a creative tool instead of a utilitarian one is at the core of the palate-cleansing sound of Sorbet -- a place where electronic and acoustic sounds have equal weight. "Death (This Year I Died)" is the shapeshifting centerpiece of Life Variations EP. Recorded in São Paulo when Ryan was there as the PRS Foundation Musician in Residence last year, it distills the cyclical essence of the EP to twelve beatific minutes. Melding scorched synth arps with hypnotic patterns that traverse the flux and form of noise, post-classical, and contemporary electronica, it's a triumph of heady, Technicolor experimentalism from a kind of musical auteur. While artists such as Laurie Anderson, Dan Deacon, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Björk make their imprint both musically and conceptually, Ryan fares a singularly self-referential sound-world in his savvy for magpie-ing: borrowing musical ideas from the likes of classical music and making field recordings of street preachers in São Paulo. Ryan even goes so far as to steal a stray snare drum or cymbal hit from his own vault of the hundreds of recordings he has done as a recording engineer and producer for the likes of Just Mustard, ex-magician and the Ulster Orchestra. Life Variations ends with a type of coda in the form of "Living / Dying". One last presentation of that same chord progression, this time paired with a kind of voice-of-god in the form of Mark McCambridge of Arborist.

$17.00 IN STOCK

"A strange world Martin Rev's fifth solo album -- Strangeworld -- was released on the cusp of the new millennium. The label responsible was Puu, a Finnish imprint belonging to Tommi Grönlund and Mika Vainio's Sähkö Recordings which came to fame in the 1990s on the strength of its uncompromising minimalist sound. Four years earlier, in 1996, Rev had unleashed See Me Ridin', an album which surprised its listeners with keyboard melody sketches and distilled doo-wop compositions. It was also the first solo album to feature Martin Rev on vocals. Strangeworld started where its predecessor left off. Melodic passages dissolved into a thicket of fragments and set pieces, coalescing in a celestial shimmer between rhythm loops and Rev's voice, which assumed the role of an additional instrument rather than a standard singing part. Martin Rev's familiar murmurs and hums are there, but the music on Strangeworld no longer feeds on the furious rumbling of the electrified city. Instead we hear wonderfully naive singing, lost in reverie, Martin Rev's condensed teenage memories of days when young hearts were breaking to the sound of doo-wop melodies on the transistor radio. There are still flashes of contemporary music and traces of dance elements, but Rev maintains these entered his musical spectrum subconsciously: 'Techno wasn't specifically on my mind while recording but for sure it was already part of the musical environment at that time so easily may have become added to some of the nuances that were revealing themselves in the album's process.' Rev took charge of the album production himself in his home city of New York: 'Strangeworld was mostly produced at a private studio that I booked as much as couple of days a week. It was the beginning of engineers setting up rental studios even in their homes since digital, then in the form of ADAT, and early computerization had suddenly made it possible.' If Säkhö seems an unlikely partner to release the record, there is, on closer examination, a certain congruity between Rev's work and the radical minimalism of the Finnish label's sound . . . Twenty years have passed since Strangeworld was first released, but the world it revealed remains as strange and enigmatic as ever." --Daniel Jahn, May 2020