BUREAU B - Forced Exposure

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/16/2018

"Started as the so-called 'Krautrock Guerrilla' in 2012, six years later the Berlin combo Camera are releasing their fourth full-length album, Emotional Detox. Customarily associated with the likes of NEU! and La Düsseldorf it is time to allow Camera to break free of the krautrock tradition. For fans of nominative determinism, there can be few more apposite appelations than Michael Drummer. He is the catalyst, linking everything together as he crosses the soundscape of everything captured on Camera. The band's moniker Camera, meanwhile, is an altogether more capricious calling card. Emotional Detox is the fourth full-length album by Camera, now a quintet, following two albums as a trio and one as a duo. The line-up here comprises Steffen Kahles, Drummer, Michel Collet, Andreas Miranda and Timm Brockmann, all based in Berlin. Drummer is the only constant through all four phases. Brockmann, who left the group in 2014, returns to the fold. He and Franz Bargmann, who left Camera the year before him, released the duo album Licht (BB 269 CD/LP), a celebration of keys, guitars and effects which, at times, emulated the ferocious potential of Camera. By the time Kahles joined the band, Brockmann had already departed, so the new ensemble adds another twist in bringing together two keyboard players from different Camera phases for the first time. The Brockmann-Drummer reunion, meanwhile, completes a circle tracing back to early Camera experiences shared in 2010/11, playing on the streets of Berlin. Paradoxically, the new Camera line-up sharpens the group's focus. With Drummer not so much joining the dots as hammering them home with a nail gun, the stronger framework allows even greater freedom for the musicians to express and align their disparate creative interests. The soundscape here assumes the quality of a cinematic loop, like watching the same film over and over, yet discovering new things each time it plays. The motorik origins of the band on their debut Radiate! (BB 116 CD/LP, 2012) eventually gave way to the playfulness on Phantom of Liberty (BB 235CD/LP, 2016). A spirit of experimentation still abounds on the new LP, but there's also evidence that the group have taken a step towards something more pop. The reference points are still there, but Emotional Detox is not dependent on them, encouraging us to disregard these multiple distractions." --Harry Calvino

$23.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/16/2018

LP version. Includes CD. "Started as the so-called 'Krautrock Guerrilla' in 2012, six years later the Berlin combo Camera are releasing their fourth full-length album, Emotional Detox. Customarily associated with the likes of NEU! and La Düsseldorf it is time to allow Camera to break free of the krautrock tradition. For fans of nominative determinism, there can be few more apposite appelations than Michael Drummer. He is the catalyst, linking everything together as he crosses the soundscape of everything captured on Camera. The band's moniker Camera, meanwhile, is an altogether more capricious calling card. Emotional Detox is the fourth full-length album by Camera, now a quintet, following two albums as a trio and one as a duo. The line-up here comprises Steffen Kahles, Drummer, Michel Collet, Andreas Miranda and Timm Brockmann, all based in Berlin. Drummer is the only constant through all four phases. Brockmann, who left the group in 2014, returns to the fold. He and Franz Bargmann, who left Camera the year before him, released the duo album Licht (BB 269 CD/LP), a celebration of keys, guitars and effects which, at times, emulated the ferocious potential of Camera. By the time Kahles joined the band, Brockmann had already departed, so the new ensemble adds another twist in bringing together two keyboard players from different Camera phases for the first time. The Brockmann-Drummer reunion, meanwhile, completes a circle tracing back to early Camera experiences shared in 2010/11, playing on the streets of Berlin. Paradoxically, the new Camera line-up sharpens the group's focus. With Drummer not so much joining the dots as hammering them home with a nail gun, the stronger framework allows even greater freedom for the musicians to express and align their disparate creative interests. The soundscape here assumes the quality of a cinematic loop, like watching the same film over and over, yet discovering new things each time it plays. The motorik origins of the band on their debut Radiate! (BB 116 CD/LP, 2012) eventually gave way to the playfulness on Phantom of Liberty (BB 235CD/LP, 2016). A spirit of experimentation still abounds on the new LP, but there's also evidence that the group have taken a step towards something more pop. The reference points are still there, but Emotional Detox is not dependent on them, encouraging us to disregard these multiple distractions." --Harry Calvino

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/2/2018

ALU's inception as descendants of the psychedelic group Sand, founded by Ludwig Papenberg and Johannes Vester, comes in 1980. Their first single "Bitte Warten Sie!" appears on their own label Der Letzte Schrei! in 1981. Even on these early recordings, the project's sonic orientation is discernible: sequencer-driven, simplistic rhythmic structures layered over fragments of free text, a common thread tracing ALU's musical contours through various successive metamorphoses. Although the band emerged from Berlin's cassette underground, their brittle sound is closer to the likes of Nocturnal Emissions or Cabaret Voltaire in England than to their German counterparts. The first realignment came in 1981 when vocalist Nadja Molt joined the group. Her voice cuts deep furrows into the tracks, at times lurking ominously in the background, elsewhere virtually exploding out of certain tracks. Logged by the band as ALU II, this phase fails to produce any studio recordings, but two live LPs Störfaktor I - Alus Riskantes Experiment 31.7.81 im Risiko (1981) and Licht (1982) survive as audible witnesses. Ludwig Papenberg left before 1982 reached its conclusion; Vester and Molt continued as a duo, now called ALU III, resolutely pursuing the principles of concentrated improvisation and maximum creative autonomy. On the live cassette, Geistige Erneuerung (1983), the band outlined their philosophy, "We aim to store as many sounds, noise and rhythmic frameworks as possible in our synthesizers and drum machines as we allow them to unfold naturally when we play live. Words and vocals are snapshots, spontaneous phenomena." Two other cassettes were released the same year, Ungesunde Traumbilder and Attrition/Alu. These proved to be the final studio recordings before ALU exited the scene with a concert at Fabrik in Hamburg, entitled Performance und kein Ende in 1986. The ALU oeuvre thus covers seven years of divergent creativity, yet the group's inner compass never wavers. ALU represent understated understatement, their music touching on genres such as electro, techno or IDM which would only materialize years later. Repetitive sequences sound like taut loops, their frequencies tuned to allow the original sample to shine through in skeletal fashion. Die Vertreibung der Zeit is more than a mere historical document; in order to understand the bigger picture of contemporary club culture, this collection is an essential piece of the puzzle.

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/2/2018

Elemente -- album number seven from the third incarnation of the legendary krautronic project Kluster/Cluster springs a surprise with a minor sensation: sequencer lines. Using an array of exclusively analogue instruments, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Onnen Bock, and Armin Metz have recorded eight tracks which, at one and the same time, are intrinsically hypnotic and sublimely beautiful. In principle, Elemente was created in much the same fashion as earlier Qluster albums: the three musicians met up in Schönberg, a remote hamlet in northern Mecklenburg. The eight pieces were distilled from the original recordings of their lengthy improvised sessions, with additional elements added to only three of the tracks in the production process: a synthesizer melody for "Zeno", a prepared piano for "Xymelan" and a computer beat for "Tatum". First special feature on the new album: the "tools of the trade". In their choice of equipment, Qluster reach back to their own history as Cluster, more than forty years ago, when legendary albums like 1974's Zuckerzeit (LR 333LP), 1976's Sowiesoso (BB 039CD/LP), and 1981's Curiosum (BB 038CD/LP) were made. Elemente has been crafted exclusively with analog instruments: a range of analog synthesizers, rhythm machines, a Farfisa organ, a Fender Rhodes piano, and various effects devices plus -- second special feature and making its debut in the band's narrative -- a 1970s sequencer playing an endless loop of manually recorded melodies, fed through effects and equalizers to achieve that typically hypnotic sequencer character. Listen out for them on "Perpetuum", "Xymelan", "Tatum" and "Lindow". By way of contrast, "Weite" and "Infinitum" unfold in vast echo chambers, free of metrics. Between these two very different musical forms lie "Zeno" and "Symbia". The former pulsates with long deep breaths beneath delicate sequences of notes emanating from the ARP 2600, the latter, "Symbia", layers a songlike Rhodes piano melody over an echoing, rhythmic Farfisa organ chord. After four electronic productions and two piano albums, Qluster now invite you to visit eight new and beguilingly beautiful worlds of sound on Elemente.

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/2/2018

"Sowas Von Egal, is the result of a collaboration between Bureau B and the Hamburg party series Damaged Goods. Record companies and DJs are aligned through a love and passion for seeking out rare music which simply needs to be heard. For the three of us as DJs, we created Damaged Goods as a party where we could play music beyond the electro clichés. Our focus would be seldom-heard post-punk and synth-wave from, or in the style of, the 1980s. We'd slip in these unknown or long-forgotten treasures between more familiar hits from the genre to inspire and excite our guests. Eighties culture is very much a reference point today in music, art and fashion, so why not play the originals, especially as there is still so much to be discovered from that period? Many of the old records we'd play in the club had only been pressed in small quantities, often sold exclusively at the respective bands' gigs. More than 30 years later, it is almost impossible to get hold of these tracks, unless you pay over the odds on certain websites or track them down as inferior MP3s on this or that blog. This is why it was so important to us that our collaboration with Bureau B would be dedicated to selecting tracks for Sowas Von Egalwhich are not readily available on vinyl and have not been rereleased (or the reissues themselves are genuine rarities). The groundwork for this project was interesting in itself: sorting through and listening to songs, making lists, setting priorities, then getting in touch with labels and trying to find the musicians of yesteryear. This wasn't always so easy: some had disappeared from view, others had died. When we did find who we were looking for, the reaction was generally positive, although some were surprised that anybody was interested in their music today. We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to Tom Morgenstern, who worked wonders with a jumble of disparate source material to achieve sonic consistency. Fans of our parties will recognize more than a few of the tracks on Sowas von egal; we are proud to have put together this collection." --Volker Kindt and Marco Flöß, June 2018. Features: Träneninvasion, Der Moderne Man, Silberstreif, El Deux, Nullzeit, Hoffnung and Psyche, Schwellköper, New Dimension, Berlin Express, Pension Stammheim, Alu, Matthias Schuster, Gorilla Aktiv, 08/15.

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/2/2018

LP version. "Sowas Von Egal, is the result of a collaboration between Bureau B and the Hamburg party series Damaged Goods. Record companies and DJs are aligned through a love and passion for seeking out rare music which simply needs to be heard. For the three of us as DJs, we created Damaged Goods as a party where we could play music beyond the electro clichés. Our focus would be seldom-heard post-punk and synth-wave from, or in the style of, the 1980s. We'd slip in these unknown or long-forgotten treasures between more familiar hits from the genre to inspire and excite our guests. Eighties culture is very much a reference point today in music, art and fashion, so why not play the originals, especially as there is still so much to be discovered from that period? Many of the old records we'd play in the club had only been pressed in small quantities, often sold exclusively at the respective bands' gigs. More than 30 years later, it is almost impossible to get hold of these tracks, unless you pay over the odds on certain websites or track them down as inferior MP3s on this or that blog. This is why it was so important to us that our collaboration with Bureau B would be dedicated to selecting tracks for Sowas Von Egalwhich are not readily available on vinyl and have not been rereleased (or the reissues themselves are genuine rarities). The groundwork for this project was interesting in itself: sorting through and listening to songs, making lists, setting priorities, then getting in touch with labels and trying to find the musicians of yesteryear. This wasn't always so easy: some had disappeared from view, others had died. When we did find who we were looking for, the reaction was generally positive, although some were surprised that anybody was interested in their music today. We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to Tom Morgenstern, who worked wonders with a jumble of disparate source material to achieve sonic consistency. Fans of our parties will recognize more than a few of the tracks on Sowas von egal; we are proud to have put together this collection." --Volker Kindt and Marco Flöß, June 2018. Features: Träneninvasion, Der Moderne Man, Silberstreif, El Deux, Nullzeit, Hoffnung and Psyche, Schwellköper, New Dimension, Berlin Express, Pension Stammheim, Alu, Matthias Schuster, Gorilla Aktiv, 08/15.

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/2/2018

LP version. ALU's inception as descendants of the psychedelic group Sand, founded by Ludwig Papenberg and Johannes Vester, comes in 1980. Their first single "Bitte Warten Sie!" appears on their own label Der Letzte Schrei! in 1981. Even on these early recordings, the project's sonic orientation is discernible: sequencer-driven, simplistic rhythmic structures layered over fragments of free text, a common thread tracing ALU's musical contours through various successive metamorphoses. Although the band emerged from Berlin's cassette underground, their brittle sound is closer to the likes of Nocturnal Emissions or Cabaret Voltaire in England than to their German counterparts. The first realignment came in 1981 when vocalist Nadja Molt joined the group. Her voice cuts deep furrows into the tracks, at times lurking ominously in the background, elsewhere virtually exploding out of certain tracks. Logged by the band as ALU II, this phase fails to produce any studio recordings, but two live LPs Störfaktor I - Alus Riskantes Experiment 31.7.81 im Risiko (1981) and Licht (1982) survive as audible witnesses. Ludwig Papenberg left before 1982 reached its conclusion; Vester and Molt continued as a duo, now called ALU III, resolutely pursuing the principles of concentrated improvisation and maximum creative autonomy. On the live cassette, Geistige Erneuerung (1983), the band outlined their philosophy, "We aim to store as many sounds, noise and rhythmic frameworks as possible in our synthesizers and drum machines as we allow them to unfold naturally when we play live. Words and vocals are snapshots, spontaneous phenomena." Two other cassettes were released the same year, Ungesunde Traumbilder and Attrition/Alu. These proved to be the final studio recordings before ALU exited the scene with a concert at Fabrik in Hamburg, entitled Performance und kein Ende in 1986. The ALU oeuvre thus covers seven years of divergent creativity, yet the group's inner compass never wavers. ALU represent understated understatement, their music touching on genres such as electro, techno or IDM which would only materialize years later. Repetitive sequences sound like taut loops, their frequencies tuned to allow the original sample to shine through in skeletal fashion. Die Vertreibung der Zeit is more than a mere historical document; in order to understand the bigger picture of contemporary club culture, this collection is an essential piece of the puzzle.

$23.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/2/2018

LP version. Includes CD. Elemente -- album number seven from the third incarnation of the legendary krautronic project Kluster/Cluster springs a surprise with a minor sensation: sequencer lines. Using an array of exclusively analogue instruments, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Onnen Bock, and Armin Metz have recorded eight tracks which, at one and the same time, are intrinsically hypnotic and sublimely beautiful. In principle, Elemente was created in much the same fashion as earlier Qluster albums: the three musicians met up in Schönberg, a remote hamlet in northern Mecklenburg. The eight pieces were distilled from the original recordings of their lengthy improvised sessions, with additional elements added to only three of the tracks in the production process: a synthesizer melody for "Zeno", a prepared piano for "Xymelan" and a computer beat for "Tatum". First special feature on the new album: the "tools of the trade". In their choice of equipment, Qluster reach back to their own history as Cluster, more than forty years ago, when legendary albums like 1974's Zuckerzeit (LR 333LP), 1976's Sowiesoso (BB 039CD/LP), and 1981's Curiosum (BB 038CD/LP) were made. Elemente has been crafted exclusively with analog instruments: a range of analog synthesizers, rhythm machines, a Farfisa organ, a Fender Rhodes piano, and various effects devices plus -- second special feature and making its debut in the band's narrative -- a 1970s sequencer playing an endless loop of manually recorded melodies, fed through effects and equalizers to achieve that typically hypnotic sequencer character. Listen out for them on "Perpetuum", "Xymelan", "Tatum" and "Lindow". By way of contrast, "Weite" and "Infinitum" unfold in vast echo chambers, free of metrics. Between these two very different musical forms lie "Zeno" and "Symbia". The former pulsates with long deep breaths beneath delicate sequences of notes emanating from the ARP 2600, the latter, "Symbia", layers a songlike Rhodes piano melody over an echoing, rhythmic Farfisa organ chord. After four electronic productions and two piano albums, Qluster now invite you to visit eight new and beguilingly beautiful worlds of sound on Elemente.

$25.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 10/19/2018

Bureau B present a 30th anniversary reissue of Camouflage's Voices & Images, originally released in 1988. Founded in Bietigheim-Bissingen by Heiko Maile, Oliver Kreyssig, and Marcus Meyn in 1984, Camouflage recorded their first demos in a home-made studio which they set up in the cellar of one of their parents' houses. These early recordings found their way onto a local radio station via a competition which caught the attention of a small publishing company. Ultimately, this led to the band signing a deal with Metronome, a major record label. They scored a hit with their debut single "The Great Commandment", released in the autumn of 1987. Even more astonishing than the #14 spot they reached in the German singles charts was their success across the Atlantic, where a remix version peaked at #1 on the Billboard Dance Club chart. The single topped the charts in countries like Taiwan and Singapore, rightfully claiming its status as a worldwide hit, enhanced by heavy rotation for the song's video on MTV. The debut album Voices & Images followed in March, selling well over half-a-million copies worldwide and becoming a classic in the genre of synth pop. Who would have believed that this trio of school pals could create such an international sound? Moreover, the boost they gave to the genre is nothing short of remarkable. To mark the 30th anniversary of Voices & Images, the album now earns a repackaged, limited edition reissue featuring deleted remixes, rare versions, and B-sides.

$23.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes CD. After twenty years of Kammerflimmer Kollektief, with ten albums thus far, the Karlsruhe combo here guide their listeners through seven pieces in which a listening space emerges at the intersection of improvisation and composition, a space where certitude slips out of reach, oscillating furiously between cut-up and palimpsest before it disappears altogether. There Are Actions Which We Have Neglected And Which Never Cease To Call Us is one for the fearless, wordlessly conjuring up enchanted places in the richest of tones, simultaneously confronting its listeners with magic which captivates, and the realization that they may never be released from its spell. Mirror images come into view, images of ourselves driven away, tormented by feelings of guilt, frozen in powerlessness, even when you believe you are still moving. The wetlands of the Upper Rhine plain, Cuernavaca in the Mexican highlands, a southern California stretch of Pacific coast, the Baltic Coast in Mecklenburg; haunted places, scenes of melancholy, repeatedly searching for acts of liberation. This may not be the record to set you free, but it offers a soundtrack for a melancholic state. One thing is clear when it comes to the Kammerflimmer Kollektief: regardless of any interpretive traps snapping shut, here is something which cannot be voiced; whichever labels are stuck on the Karlsruhe collective, they all feel patently unsatisfactory. Like all music, their music can neither be narrowed down to concepts nor fixed semantically. It cannot be organized as language, yet it is no more pre-conceptual in its existence. These carefully unconsidered atheist jam supplications lead you into the darkest corners of your souls, out of the night and into the night. The bass of Johannes Frisch creaks and hums, evolving into barely discernible undergrowth with a life of its own, yet becoming the foundation of everything, a basso continuo, constantly leading into nothingness. Heike Aumüller's harmonium is elementally a wind which has much to tell us about life, but even more about what tortures us, leaves you restless, while Thomas Weber's whirring guitars and gadgets drag us into a wondrously reverberating space of special effects. Amidst all the excitement which awaits you on this short journey, it is worth remembering that as the shaman hangs out his magic roots to dry in the morning as preparation for the ritual ecstasy of the evening, so the Kollektief follow an everyday principle in their own ritual.

$17.00 IN STOCK

After twenty years of Kammerflimmer Kollektief, with ten albums thus far, the Karlsruhe combo here guide their listeners through seven pieces in which a listening space emerges at the intersection of improvisation and composition, a space where certitude slips out of reach, oscillating furiously between cut-up and palimpsest before it disappears altogether. There Are Actions Which We Have Neglected And Which Never Cease To Call Us is one for the fearless, wordlessly conjuring up enchanted places in the richest of tones, simultaneously confronting its listeners with magic which captivates, and the realization that they may never be released from its spell. Mirror images come into view, images of ourselves driven away, tormented by feelings of guilt, frozen in powerlessness, even when you believe you are still moving. The wetlands of the Upper Rhine plain, Cuernavaca in the Mexican highlands, a southern California stretch of Pacific coast, the Baltic Coast in Mecklenburg; haunted places, scenes of melancholy, repeatedly searching for acts of liberation. This may not be the record to set you free, but it offers a soundtrack for a melancholic state. One thing is clear when it comes to the Kammerflimmer Kollektief: regardless of any interpretive traps snapping shut, here is something which cannot be voiced; whichever labels are stuck on the Karlsruhe collective, they all feel patently unsatisfactory. Like all music, their music can neither be narrowed down to concepts nor fixed semantically. It cannot be organized as language, yet it is no more pre-conceptual in its existence. These carefully unconsidered atheist jam supplications lead you into the darkest corners of your souls, out of the night and into the night. The bass of Johannes Frisch creaks and hums, evolving into barely discernible undergrowth with a life of its own, yet becoming the foundation of everything, a basso continuo, constantly leading into nothingness. Heike Aumüller's harmonium is elementally a wind which has much to tell us about life, but even more about what tortures us, leaves you restless, while Thomas Weber's whirring guitars and gadgets drag us into a wondrously reverberating space of special effects. Amidst all the excitement which awaits you on this short journey, it is worth remembering that as the shaman hangs out his magic roots to dry in the morning as preparation for the ritual ecstasy of the evening, so the Kollektief follow an everyday principle in their own ritual.

$23.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes CD. Long before Elon Musk reached for the stars with his SpaceX project, a Swabian engineer by the name of Lutz Kayser harbored his own childhood dream of a voyage into space. Fly Rocket Fly - Mit Macheten Zu Den Sternen ("To The Stars With Machetes") tells the remarkable story of how he and a dedicated band of Stuttgart engineers founded the world's first private space exploration enterprise: Orbital Transport-und Raketen Aktiengesellschaft, or OTRAG (Orbital Transport and Rockets Inc.). Having enlisted Wernher von Braun as scientific adviser, this early start-up developed a rocket in the late 1960s on the principle of low cost rather than high tech. Windscreen wiper motors were deployed in valve control systems, for example. Kayser's search for a suitable development site led him to African dictator Mobutu Sese Seko who signed off on a deal to allow OTRAG to establish a launch facility in the Congolese jungle. OTRAG built their very own German Cape Canaveral in an area the size of the former GDR, complete with its own butcher's shop and marijuana plantation. They successfully launched several rockets to suborbital altitude before the global political crisis of the mid-1970s put an end to OTRAG's activities. Nobody wanted to see German rockets in the skies over the African jungle (or anywhere else) 30 years after the war -- Fly Rocket Fly is a madcap mix of adventure, political thriller, farce and economic drama -- somewhere between Fitzcarraldo (1982), The Wages of Fear (1953) and Tintin: Explorers On The Moon. The documentary's soundtrack, to be released on Hamburg-based label Bureau B, features songs by the likes of ESB, Camera, Conrad Schnitzler, Günter Schickert, Die Wilde Jagd, as well as new productions from film composer Heiko Maile. Also features Solyst, Dennis Young, Rolf Trostel, and Moebius Neumeier Engler. CD includes three bonus tracks.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Long before Elon Musk reached for the stars with his SpaceX project, a Swabian engineer by the name of Lutz Kayser harbored his own childhood dream of a voyage into space. Fly Rocket Fly - Mit Macheten Zu Den Sternen ("To The Stars With Machetes") tells the remarkable story of how he and a dedicated band of Stuttgart engineers founded the world's first private space exploration enterprise: Orbital Transport-und Raketen Aktiengesellschaft, or OTRAG (Orbital Transport and Rockets Inc.). Having enlisted Wernher von Braun as scientific adviser, this early start-up developed a rocket in the late 1960s on the principle of low cost rather than high tech. Windscreen wiper motors were deployed in valve control systems, for example. Kayser's search for a suitable development site led him to African dictator Mobutu Sese Seko who signed off on a deal to allow OTRAG to establish a launch facility in the Congolese jungle. OTRAG built their very own German Cape Canaveral in an area the size of the former GDR, complete with its own butcher's shop and marijuana plantation. They successfully launched several rockets to suborbital altitude before the global political crisis of the mid-1970s put an end to OTRAG's activities. Nobody wanted to see German rockets in the skies over the African jungle (or anywhere else) 30 years after the war -- Fly Rocket Fly is a madcap mix of adventure, political thriller, farce and economic drama -- somewhere between Fitzcarraldo (1982), The Wages of Fear (1953) and Tintin: Explorers On The Moon. The documentary's soundtrack, to be released on Hamburg-based label Bureau B, features songs by the likes of ESB, Camera, Conrad Schnitzler, Günter Schickert, Die Wilde Jagd, as well as new productions from film composer Heiko Maile. Also features Solyst, Dennis Young, Rolf Trostel, and Moebius Neumeier Engler. CD version includes three bonus tracks.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. In 1983, electronic musician Rudolf Langer (Tyndall) and guitarist Peter Preuß teamed up to form a duo by the name of LAPRE (LAnger + PREuß). Aligned with the second generation of the Berlin School, their output is incredibly varied: from repetitive sequencer patterns via playfully cheerful synth pop all the way to atmospheric, hypnotic minor key expanses. It's all there. By 1984, LAPRE had released two tapes and a 12" vinyl. Bureau B's compilation presents the most compelling tracks from these releases. Rudolf Langer began his musical career as one half of Tyndall. The duo released four albums on Sky Records between 1979 and 1983. By the time the two musicians reached the fourth album (BB 289CD/LP), they were barely on speaking terms, so each recorded one side of the LP on his own. The split from his former partner turned out to be a liberating experience for Rudolf Langer, both in a personal and artistic sense. As luck would have it, Langer was riding home one night with a colleague from work, Peter Preuß, and a tape machine was lying on the back seat of the car. It turned out that Preuß was also a musician, a guitarist in fact, and they decided to hook up for a jam session. The results were hugely promising and a plan was made to record together. What should they call the project? The answer was simple -- take the first letters of their names. LAnger + PREuß = LAPRE. They worked on track after track after track and produced two tapes over the next two years ("Tedan" in 1983 and "Flokati" in 1984), each numbering 30?50 copies, intended for sale at concerts. A 12" single on their own label (Oeso) followed later in 1984. Although guitar features on every track, LAPRE's early recordings relate to the Berlin School, with their music, specifically their use of synthesizers, echoing the tradition of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, et al. LAPRE's mix of analog synthesizers, acoustic guitars and drum computers saw the duo occupy a previously uncharted niche in electronic music. How wonderful to see these recordings being made available to a wider audience over thirty years later. First time CD release for all tracks.

$17.00 IN STOCK

In 1983, electronic musician Rudolf Langer (Tyndall) and guitarist Peter Preuß teamed up to form a duo by the name of LAPRE (LAnger + PREuß). Aligned with the second generation of the Berlin School, their output is incredibly varied: from repetitive sequencer patterns via playfully cheerful synth pop all the way to atmospheric, hypnotic minor key expanses. It's all there. By 1984, LAPRE had released two tapes and a 12" vinyl. Bureau B's compilation presents the most compelling tracks from these releases. Rudolf Langer began his musical career as one half of Tyndall. The duo released four albums on Sky Records between 1979 and 1983. By the time the two musicians reached the fourth album (BB 289CD/LP), they were barely on speaking terms, so each recorded one side of the LP on his own. The split from his former partner turned out to be a liberating experience for Rudolf Langer, both in a personal and artistic sense. As luck would have it, Langer was riding home one night with a colleague from work, Peter Preuß, and a tape machine was lying on the back seat of the car. It turned out that Preuß was also a musician, a guitarist in fact, and they decided to hook up for a jam session. The results were hugely promising and a plan was made to record together. What should they call the project? The answer was simple -- take the first letters of their names. LAnger + PREuß = LAPRE. They worked on track after track after track and produced two tapes over the next two years ("Tedan" in 1983 and "Flokati" in 1984), each numbering 30?50 copies, intended for sale at concerts. A 12" single on their own label (Oeso) followed later in 1984. Although guitar features on every track, LAPRE's early recordings relate to the Berlin School, with their music, specifically their use of synthesizers, echoing the tradition of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, et al. LAPRE's mix of analog synthesizers, acoustic guitars and drum computers saw the duo occupy a previously uncharted niche in electronic music. How wonderful to see these recordings being made available to a wider audience over thirty years later. First time CD release for all tracks.

$30.50 IN STOCK

Double LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's third album Third (It's Always Rock 'N' Roll), originally released on Disjuncta in 1975. Third album from the French space-rock electro combo masterminded by Richard Pinhas. Heldon's darkest work lays another stone in their sonic mosaic: synths, drones, fuzz, and trippy improvisations. There's something wicked happening on Heldon's third album It's Always Rock And Roll. Richard Pinhas's essential attack of searing guitar and space-bound synthesizer didn't change radically after the first two Heldon albums, 1974's Electronique Guerilla (BB 280CD/LP) and 1975's Allez-Teia (BB 281CD/LP). But there's dark energy coursing through this double album, a chilly aura that makes even the quietest pieces shiver with tension. "At this time, I tried to turn Heldon into a darker band," Pinhas admits. "But dark is not negative to me." The darkness of It's Always Rock And Roll is more about exploring what's hidden and overturning convention -- about diving beneath bright surfaces to find something more mysterious. If It's Always Rock And Roll stands up in Heldon's catalog, perhaps it's due to expansion -- both in the sense of big ideas and lengthy durations. Most tracks last over seven minutes, and two are side-covering epics. "I think the length of a track is part of the creation of the track," says Pinhas. "There are imperatives. You can do something very complex with a lot of events in four minutes, and then some other things need to be done very slowly. You have to do the length that it demands." "We recorded this after having met with Philip K. Dick in California for two days," recalls Pinhas. "It was such an event for a 23-year old; he was to me one of the last real prophets. We talked about Jung, we talked about a lot of things. Maybe this encounter gave birth to all of Heldon Third." So the sci-fi master spawned a dark audio creation to rival his own work. Like the Heldon albums that precede it, It's Always Rock And Roll is undoubtedly Pinhas' baby. But its depth-probing sounds earned it a godfather, too. 2018 remaster by Willem Makkee.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's fourth album Agneta Nilsson, originally released on Urus Records in 1976. Agneta Nilsson opens with a mind-paralyzing track that proves stillness can have a pulse. "Perspective I" spends ten minutes poring through tectonic layers of heavy sound, piling everything so thick that the song becomes like quicksand for your brain. It's one of the most daunting works in the Heldon catalog, made all the more impressive by how simple it is. It's just sounds put together and turned up. It's the vital alchemy of Richard Pinhas's wizardry, deployed with maximum force. As on other early Heldon albums, the rest of Agneta Nilsson is diverse in a nearly contrarian way. Each track refuses to mimic its predecessor in a way that feels rebellious, like a child running away from home. This is true despite the fact that three of the four pieces are actually chapters of "Perspective", partners in a thematic whole. "Each one is a different point of view on the same field," explains Pinhas. "Different parts, different arrangements, but with a full concept in place." It's not easy to divine that concept in these pieces, but their sibling nature has a subconscious effect. The album-closing "Perspective IV" is one of Pinhas's most unabashedly proto-prog guitar-hero epics, boosted by a technical upgrade. "This was the first album where I had enough money to rent one or two days in a real studio to do the drumming," says Pinhas. "After that we had real budgets for studio time. That all changed with and after Agneta Nilsson -- that was a good turn." Pinhas parlayed Heldon's change of direction into three more adventurous albums in the '70s, and simultaneously spurred himself toward a solo career that continues to prod and probe the sonic universe today, over 40 years since he began. It would be wrong to say this album was the big bang of this singular career; the seeds of were planted years before, and every work Pinhas has been involved with sprouts more sounds and ideas that can grow into their own branches. But Agneta Nilsson is one of the most convincing pieces of evidence that Pinhas is incapable of sitting still. 2018 remaster by Willem Makkee.

$21.00 IN STOCK

Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's third album Third (It's Always Rock 'N' Roll), originally released on Disjuncta in 1975. Third album from the French space-rock electro combo masterminded by Richard Pinhas. Heldon's darkest work lays another stone in their sonic mosaic: synths, drones, fuzz, and trippy improvisations. There's something wicked happening on Heldon's third album It's Always Rock And Roll. Richard Pinhas's essential attack of searing guitar and space-bound synthesizer didn't change radically after the first two Heldon albums, 1974's Electronique Guerilla (BB 280CD/LP) and 1975's Allez-Teia (BB 281CD/LP). But there's dark energy coursing through this double album, a chilly aura that makes even the quietest pieces shiver with tension. "At this time, I tried to turn Heldon into a darker band," Pinhas admits. "But dark is not negative to me." The darkness of It's Always Rock And Roll is more about exploring what's hidden and overturning convention -- about diving beneath bright surfaces to find something more mysterious. If It's Always Rock And Roll stands up in Heldon's catalog, perhaps it's due to expansion -- both in the sense of big ideas and lengthy durations. Most tracks last over seven minutes, and two are side-covering epics. "I think the length of a track is part of the creation of the track," says Pinhas. "There are imperatives. You can do something very complex with a lot of events in four minutes, and then some other things need to be done very slowly. You have to do the length that it demands." "We recorded this after having met with Philip K. Dick in California for two days," recalls Pinhas. "It was such an event for a 23-year old; he was to me one of the last real prophets. We talked about Jung, we talked about a lot of things. Maybe this encounter gave birth to all of Heldon Third." So the sci-fi master spawned a dark audio creation to rival his own work. Like the Heldon albums that precede it, It's Always Rock And Roll is undoubtedly Pinhas' baby. But its depth-probing sounds earned it a godfather, too. 2018 remaster by Willem Makkee.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's fourth album Agneta Nilsson, originally released on Urus Records in 1976. Agneta Nilsson opens with a mind-paralyzing track that proves stillness can have a pulse. "Perspective I" spends ten minutes poring through tectonic layers of heavy sound, piling everything so thick that the song becomes like quicksand for your brain. It's one of the most daunting works in the Heldon catalog, made all the more impressive by how simple it is. It's just sounds put together and turned up. It's the vital alchemy of Richard Pinhas's wizardry, deployed with maximum force. As on other early Heldon albums, the rest of Agneta Nilsson is diverse in a nearly contrarian way. Each track refuses to mimic its predecessor in a way that feels rebellious, like a child running away from home. This is true despite the fact that three of the four pieces are actually chapters of "Perspective", partners in a thematic whole. "Each one is a different point of view on the same field," explains Pinhas. "Different parts, different arrangements, but with a full concept in place." It's not easy to divine that concept in these pieces, but their sibling nature has a subconscious effect. The album-closing "Perspective IV" is one of Pinhas's most unabashedly proto-prog guitar-hero epics, boosted by a technical upgrade. "This was the first album where I had enough money to rent one or two days in a real studio to do the drumming," says Pinhas. "After that we had real budgets for studio time. That all changed with and after Agneta Nilsson -- that was a good turn." Pinhas parlayed Heldon's change of direction into three more adventurous albums in the '70s, and simultaneously spurred himself toward a solo career that continues to prod and probe the sonic universe today, over 40 years since he began. It would be wrong to say this album was the big bang of this singular career; the seeds of were planted years before, and every work Pinhas has been involved with sprouts more sounds and ideas that can grow into their own branches. But Agneta Nilsson is one of the most convincing pieces of evidence that Pinhas is incapable of sitting still. 2018 remaster by Willem Makkee.

$17.00 IN STOCK

"... Datashock 2018: Eighty fingers playing, but what are they all up to? Are Datashock in command of their instruments or is it the other way around? What we do know -- this is freely improvised music, complete with rattles, rumbles and whistles. Music as a social happening, both in terms of process and outcome, where individual and collective development can thrive -- an ecstatic experience! . . . Imagine gathering eight people under one roof and ushering them into a recording studio -- everybody's busy nowadays (sometimes in precarious situations, but always doing one thing or another, incessantly), this being the age of late capitalism and all that. Anyway, diaries checked and off we go. Next stop: Oetinger Villa, Darmstadt. Kolter has already swept the place clean, DJ Ulf Eyes has brought beer from the waterfront, MC Cobra is dressed in the latest threads from Berlin, McWerner and Cha Cha have everything they didn't forget to bring from Cologne and up the Rhine and -- natch -- El Haze and Biber Bergi line up alongside LL Cool P from Saarbrücken. Pizza delivery number dialed, bottles opened, lights, camera, action. Machines bleep, a violin cries out, a clarinet howls, guitar and bass weave their way around the drums. The spell lasts for several days, then the magic goes back in the box, the recording is done. Everyone heads back to where capitalist realism awaits in fifty shades of gloom. Alas, it was over so quickly! . . . Groups like Datashock are few and far between, more's the pity -- raise your glasses to friendship! -- groups who, in spite of everything, meet up regularly to record free improvisations and then hit the road to share their experiences with an audience. It's a trust thing. So: bring on the herbs! Not provincial in the slightest -- but they get everywhere, into every last nook and cranny. They may not have any songs to speak of, but they do have their instruments." --Salvador am Ei

Datashock is an artist collective with changing personnel that create psychedelic (krautrock) improvisations. They were founded in Saarlouis in 2003.

"Like a free-folk-informed update on Amon Düül" --The Wire.

"A splendidly righteous motherfucker" --Julian Cope on Pyramiden in Gießen (2011).

"Neo-Hippie-Spook-Folk" --Datashock.

$33.00 IN STOCK

Double LP version. Includes two vinyl-only bonus tracks; Includes CD. "... Datashock 2018: Eighty fingers playing, but what are they all up to? Are Datashock in command of their instruments or is it the other way around? What we do know -- this is freely improvised music, complete with rattles, rumbles and whistles. Music as a social happening, both in terms of process and outcome, where individual and collective development can thrive -- an ecstatic experience! . . . Imagine gathering eight people under one roof and ushering them into a recording studio -- everybody's busy nowadays (sometimes in precarious situations, but always doing one thing or another, incessantly), this being the age of late capitalism and all that. Anyway, diaries checked and off we go. Next stop: Oetinger Villa, Darmstadt. Kolter has already swept the place clean, DJ Ulf Eyes has brought beer from the waterfront, MC Cobra is dressed in the latest threads from Berlin, McWerner and Cha Cha have everything they didn't forget to bring from Cologne and up the Rhine and -- natch -- El Haze and Biber Bergi line up alongside LL Cool P from Saarbrücken. Pizza delivery number dialed, bottles opened, lights, camera, action. Machines bleep, a violin cries out, a clarinet howls, guitar and bass weave their way around the drums. The spell lasts for several days, then the magic goes back in the box, the recording is done. Everyone heads back to where capitalist realism awaits in fifty shades of gloom. Alas, it was over so quickly! . . . Groups like Datashock are few and far between, more's the pity -- raise your glasses to friendship! -- groups who, in spite of everything, meet up regularly to record free improvisations and then hit the road to share their experiences with an audience. It's a trust thing. So: bring on the herbs! Not provincial in the slightest -- but they get everywhere, into every last nook and cranny. They may not have any songs to speak of, but they do have their instruments." --Salvador am Ei

Datashock is an artist collective with changing personnel that create psychedelic (krautrock) improvisations. They were founded in Saarlouis in 2003.

"Like a free-folk-informed update on Amon Düül" --The Wire.

"A splendidly righteous motherfucker" --Julian Cope on Pyramiden in Gießen (2011).

"Neo-Hippie-Spook-Folk" --Datashock.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Dennis Young is best known as the percussionist of the New York band Liquid Liquid, which is known for their piece "Cavern" from 1983, which in turn became very well-known because Grandmaster Flash sampled it and used it as the basis for their hit "White Lines". But Young was more than just a member of the band, he produced plenty of his own music, much of it reflecting his passion for analog electronics. He was fascinated by the pioneers of the genre. In 2016 Bureau B released Wave (BB 219CD/LP), a collection of pieces Young had issued on cassettes between 1985-1988. Synthesis, by contrast, features tracks from 1984-1988 which have never been previously released. But let's allow Dennis Young to tell his story himself: "My love for electronic music goes back to the late '70s when I decided to buy my first synthesizer, a rare used vintage Davolisint made in Italy, after seeing Keith Emerson perform live with Emerson Lake Palmer. This led to my discovery of more electronic music artists using synthesizers such as Klaus Schulze, Tim Blake, Larry Fast, Edgar Froese, Brian Eno, and Cluster just to name a few. My musical challenge was then to create my own electronic music using this instrument. After experimenting in the early '80s with live recordings using a reel-to-reel tape machine I purchased my first multi-track recording system in 1984. When Liquid Liquid was on hiatus I was able to devote full time to this music and do professional recordings at my home studio in Edison, New Jersey. I added more synthesizers to include a Korg Mono/Poly, a Korg Poly Six, a Moog Rogue, and later the Korg M1. Every track was put through various delay and reverb units and I added vocal parts and along with guitar where I felt it was needed. Synthesis is the follow up to Wave released on Bureau B in 2016. At the time I used the above mentioned assortment of analog synthesizers to create the music you will hear on this recording. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together."

$17.00 IN STOCK

Bureau B present a reissue of Tyndall's Durch Die Zeiten, originally released in 1983. Having successfully released three albums, the Berlin-based electronic duo Tyndall fell out so badly with one another in 1983 that they ended up splitting the fourth album in two, taking a side each. Jürgen Krehan's half showcases his customarily nimble synth-pop, as well as several pieces influenced by classical music. Rudi Langer launches into celestial revelry on the other side, underpinned here and there by a driving beat. Nevertheless: both sides sound unmistakably like Tyndall. On Durch Die Zeiten Jürgen Krehan used a music computer for the first time, aided by a mysterious musician by the name of Yin Yang from Tokyo, according to the original credits, who apparently contributed computer programs and two tracks entitled "Barock" and "Klassik". Yin Yang may well be a pseudonym Krehan used, also surfacing on the rare and highly-prized cassette Flusswelt released on David Elliott's YHR Tapes label in 1983. As anticipated by the last tracks of the previous album, 1982's Reflexionen (BB 288CD/LP), the pieces here are structurally clearer, more developed, moving in a more classical direction, away from synth-pop. Rudolf Langer opens the B side with a track called "Kambrium". This geological era was ushered in by the "Cambrian explosion". He paints this "big bang" of animal life in almost religious, idyllic, fanciful tones, with roaring sounds and futuristic pitch sweeps. The next track, "Silur", references the Silurian period, characterized by massive tectonic activity which precipitated biological crises. Next up, the jovially marching "Karbon" may be Langer's vision of the indefatigable cycle of luxuriant vegetation as it sought to survive in the carbon deposits of this age. The LP finishes with a track dedicated to the Permian period. In retrospect, a certain conceptual rigor can be attributed to Tyndall's releases. A common thread runs through each album, allowing the tracks to unfold in sequence. On the one hand, the album borrows from classical notions, on the other, Langer's playfully impressionistic works. Durch Die Zeiten was the last record released by the Tyndall duo. Both musicians continued to make music, just not with each other. Rudolf Langer teamed up with Peter Preuß to found LAPRE. Jürgen Krehan released a number of new age albums as Nik Tyndall. This reissue marks the first CD issue of Durch Die Zeiten.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Dennis Young is best known as the percussionist of the New York band Liquid Liquid, which is known for their piece "Cavern" from 1983, which in turn became very well-known because Grandmaster Flash sampled it and used it as the basis for their hit "White Lines". But Young was more than just a member of the band, he produced plenty of his own music, much of it reflecting his passion for analog electronics. He was fascinated by the pioneers of the genre. In 2016 Bureau B released Wave (BB 219CD/LP), a collection of pieces Young had issued on cassettes between 1985-1988. Synthesis, by contrast, features tracks from 1984-1988 which have never been previously released. But let's allow Dennis Young to tell his story himself: "My love for electronic music goes back to the late '70s when I decided to buy my first synthesizer, a rare used vintage Davolisint made in Italy, after seeing Keith Emerson perform live with Emerson Lake Palmer. This led to my discovery of more electronic music artists using synthesizers such as Klaus Schulze, Tim Blake, Larry Fast, Edgar Froese, Brian Eno, and Cluster just to name a few. My musical challenge was then to create my own electronic music using this instrument. After experimenting in the early '80s with live recordings using a reel-to-reel tape machine I purchased my first multi-track recording system in 1984. When Liquid Liquid was on hiatus I was able to devote full time to this music and do professional recordings at my home studio in Edison, New Jersey. I added more synthesizers to include a Korg Mono/Poly, a Korg Poly Six, a Moog Rogue, and later the Korg M1. Every track was put through various delay and reverb units and I added vocal parts and along with guitar where I felt it was needed. Synthesis is the follow up to Wave released on Bureau B in 2016. At the time I used the above mentioned assortment of analog synthesizers to create the music you will hear on this recording. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together."

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Tyndall's third album, Reflexionen, originally released in 1982. The third Tyndall album is less experimental than the electronic duo's previous work from 1981 Traumland (BB 287CD/LP). The songs, featuring vocoder vocals, are more clearly structured into verses and choruses, the arrangements more considered. Stylistically, Reflexionen is a mix of synth-pop and electronic krautrock, at times not a million miles away from the early works of Andreas Dorau. More so than on their preceding instrumental albums, Tyndall's Reflexionen held a mirror to the band members' personal situation and the prevalent mood of the period during which they made the record. First of all, the two musicians (Rudolf Langer, Jürgen Krehan) had relocated to West Berlin, an exclave in the GDR. Due to the fact that German military was forbidden by the Allied Powers in West Berlin, neither Krehan nor Langer had to do national service or its alternative, community service. Meanwhile, 1982 was the year when German-speaking pop and rock found its way into the charts alongside old-fashioned Schlager songs. Punk and new wave had done the groundwork a few years earlier, but the music of bands like Fehlfarben, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, or the Doraus Und Die Marinas were now ready to enter the mainstream under the banner of Neue Deutsche Welle. Music with German lyrics was flavor of the season. On a lot of tracks Jürgen Krehan sings in German on Reflexionen as well (using a vocoder). Reflexionen is a less experimental album than its predecessor Traumland. Due in no small measure to the vocoder vocals with verses and choruses, the tracks feel more clearly structured, the arrangements more considered. Bass octave, simple, breezy, dreamy harpsichord melody sprinkles, cheerful, carefree, sometimes enigmatic lyrics. The album closes with a series of eminently listenable instrumentals, which hint at the next stage of musical evolution which would ultimately reach its conclusion on the fourth and final Tyndall album.