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12"
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PHTH 056EP
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"In the spirit of exploring the influence of this material over the past decade of electronic and indie music production, Phthalo has asked several artists who've said they were inspired by Dntel's Early Works for Me... record to re-approach those songs with their own modern and varied takes on the source material. The result is Early Works, Later Versions, a limited 12" record of new, updated remixes and variations on 2009's Early Works for Me... album by several of Jimmy's current peers and modern contemporaries. Running through some of the artists on hand for this task, To Rococo Rot's Robert Lippok (Mute Records, Monika, Raster-Noton) has clearly done this sort of thing before, and starts off by updating 'Serious' into a twinkling and blippy rendering of the original, in many ways reminiscent of his 'Falling Into Komeit' remix album several years ago. A new version by Chessie (Plug Research, Drop Beat) drops in indie guitar progressions to recall a lightweight take on electro, and Somatic Responses (Leaf Label, Hymen Records) drenches 'Tybalt 60' with gritty and thunderous stabs of broken percussion. Finally, newcomer Thaddeus Valk uses an arpeggiated synth intro to rework 'Casuals' into some other kind of tune from the 1990s -- almost an IDM-meets-rave-meets-jungle hybrid. (In other words, it gets pretty Metalheadz-by-way-of-Oakenfold-y.)"
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CD
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PHTH 052CD
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"House and techno music producer John Tejada's newest album project, Recovered Data 1995, is released under the name Lucid Dream as the second in Phthalo Records' Phthalo Origins series and is, as the Origins name implies, actually Tejada's very first full length, recorded back in 1995. The aggressively melodic album was recorded as a conscious, focused effort to get Tejada's music heard by other artists and DJs. And, of course, it worked: the result was a deal with now defunct A13 Records, with whom Tejada released two Lucid Dream singles and a full length album called Pure Punk. Recovered Data 1995, however, was in many ways the original version of that album. The original title was slated to be Palette, a name which electronic music aficionados will recognize as the name Tejada later used for his own record label, which started in 1996. But by the time Tejada was ready to release this album, A13 had changed direction towards a more club type style, asking Tejada to make new tracks. As a result, all of these tracks went unused, save for the album's first track, 'Grip,' which wound up being released on the Lucid Dream single Pot Hole in 1996. None of the others have seen the light of day since. John Tejada's thoughts on Recovered Data 1995: 'While digitizing old DAT tapes recently, I rediscovered this release which still holds a special place for me. I've always regretted the fact that with so many releases since, this one had yet to see the light of day. Back then it was a special time for making music. The tools were limiting, forcing you to be creative. There were no plug in synths or DAW workstations. No one I knew had a cell phone or even an email account yet. There were no MP3s or music blogs; so we didn't download, we drove to the record store to get new music and magazines to catch up on the global scene. It was quite a different time -- a time I really miss because of the undivided attention I could give my writing process. The result was a very personal work I am still proud of fourteen years later.'"
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3CD
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PLG 053CD
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" In 1994, I compiled my first tracks as Dntel onto a cassette called Something Always Goes Wrong and sent it to some labels. It came pretty close to getting a real release but things ended up falling through with the label and I had to resort to making tape copies and giving them to friends. I kept making songs and eventually put together another cassette for friends. My friend Hoseh gave it to this guy Dean who liked it and made CD copies, one of which ended up in the hands of Dimitri Fergadis, who asked if he could officially release it on his label, Phthalo Records. I said yes and this collection of songs became the first official Dntel release, Early Works For Me If It Works For You, released in 1998. A year or so later he released Something Always Goes Wrong as well. These early tracks, inspired by Aphex Twin, μ-Ziq, Warp Records and anything else I'd been listening to, were all instrumental (save a few vocal samples) and created using one sampler/synthesizer (a Kurzweil K2000s) and some basic midi sequencing software. I was always really interested in adding vocals to weird electronic music, and by the time EWFMIIWFY and SAGW were released, I finally had a computer with the capability to record full vocal tracks more easily. This led to the next Dntel full-length, Life Is Full Of Possibilities, which was released in 2001 on Plug Research. I haven't really done much instrumental work since. A couple years ago I decided to listen to a bunch of old DATs of stuff I had worked on in the process of making LIFOP. Although a lot of it was rough or unfinished, it got me thinking of the old days and I decided to collect my favorites. That got me listening to the old Phthalo releases as well and somehow it all evolved slowly into this 3-CD set. It includes Early Works For Me If It Works For You and Something Always Goes Wrong, both re-mastered, as well as the new collection of DAT discoveries, Early Works For Me If It Works For You II." -- Jimmy Tamborello
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2LP
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PHTH 045LP
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"Daedelus aka Alfred Weisberg-Roberts has been very active in the years subsequent to his career debut release on Phthalo. He has recently issued albums on labels including Mush/Ninja Tune, Laboratory Instinct, Plug Research, and Eastern Developments. His live performances are unparalleled accomplishments -- each one an epic, singular conjuring of transformative mania. In collaboration with Los Angeles MC Busdriver, detailed cerebral Hip Hop is crafted. On this -- the first ever vinyl release on Phthalo -- Alfred hosts a gathering of friends for the purpose of remixing a yet unreleased track of his entitled 'Axe-Murderation.' The theme is a short recording of a girl rhapsodizing about her grievances and nefarious intentions with reference to dogs." The contributing artists/remixers are: Daedelus, Eight Frozen Modules, Jason Potratz, Venetian Snares, Gerald Wenzel.
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CD
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PHTH 017CD
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"Noise concrete. Loud and heavy, from live performance on KALX radio Berkeley. In Phthalo's opinion, Kit's most extreme work available. Academic feeling similar to Stockhausen's Spiral for shortwave/voice/ and flute; this is just the noise though! Filter frenzy-blast loud!!!"
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