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12"
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ZEHNIN 005EP
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The Zehnin label looks to Paleman for four more fierce tracks. Opener "2068" is a dark and foreboding bit of economical techno. Monolithic kicks set a forceful groove below as they rock back and forth. "Searching" is five minutes of tight drum programming overlaid with twisted fx, edgy alarms, and menacing spirits. The flip brings with it another all-consuming bit of warehouse techno in "The Peg Loosens". Last of all, the industrial tinged "Slurp" hurries along with bristling percussion and warped synth stabs doing a manic dance in the distance.
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12"
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ZEHNIN 004EP
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Berlin based Zehnin ask Blawan to remix its inaugural EP from Lucy. First up is Blawan's version of "The Hermit" which is seven spacious and mysterious minutes of creeping pads and implicit rhythms. Dark but inviting, it's stripped-back, hollowed-out techno that manages to be hugely absorbing and menacing without any clearly defined drums. On the flip is the equally beguiling "The High Priestess". Deep, subliminal kicks set the tone as groaning riffs, train-track percussion and distant, tortured pads all slowly hypnotize. This is evocative dead-of-night music that says a lot in impressively economical ways.
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LP
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ZEHNIN 003LP
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LP version. Roots In Heaven is a Berlin-based act that could very easily capitalize on his past accomplishments within the world of intrepid electronic music. As a label owner, resident DJ at cutting-edge clubs, and accomplished solo artist behind a number of conceptually unique full-length albums, the conceiver of this project won't likely need any introduction. As an extension of this artist's already solid commitment to deep sound, Roots In Heaven represents a new voyage without the help of biographical cues to his listeners: hidden behind an evocative mesh mask lined with obsidian feathers, Roots In Heaven ignores the need to provide "social proof" or self-justification. He communicates purely through the language of concentrated sensory impression, for which reason he has titled his debut, Petites Madeleines, after one of the most memorable descriptive sequences in literary history, the famous meditation on the madeleine from Proust's À La Recherche Du Temps Perdu (1913). Built on a chassis of pure analog electronics, unaided by computers, Petites Madeleines presents a single sprawling track whose immersive, meditative quality initiates participants into a realm of reversed energy currents. Using a sonic technique which, for example, drapes the listener in darkness until it becomes light (and vice versa), this piece provides a pervasive feeling of other realities opening up that complement the already familiar. The looped pulses and frequency sweeps hover and expand with all the assuredness of early-'70s Cluster, but without anything consciously "retro" or overt references in their presentation. Though the project is as opposed to the current trend of distortion overload as it is opposed to cults of personality, Petites Madeleines occasionally bristles with an abrasiveness that separates it from more patronizing experiments in raising/altering consciousness. As feedback drones and anxious percolations snake their way around the base structure of pulses and subterranean thumps, there is a feeling of challenge or self-confrontation that should be a component of any truly serious spiritual quest. As listeners successfully confront and assimilate these somewhat harsher moments, the cosmic tapestry being woven by Roots In Heaven becomes all the more vibrant and charged with deeply personalized meaning. By the time this hour-long excursion ends, all the constituent sound elements seem to hum and vibrate in unison, allowing listeners to find a whole world within this recording just as Proust found a world within his tea and madeleines.
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12"
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ZEHNIN 002EP
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Roots In Heaven is a Berlin-based act that could very easily capitalize on his past accomplishments within the world of intrepid electronic music. As a prelude to the first full-length (ZEHNIN 003CD/LP, 2017), Roots In Heaven present an untitled EP. "Sang Des Betes" accomplishes total immanence with cascading, viscous layers of electronic tones that narrow and widen, rise and fall. "Affaire Des Rats" is underpinned by a cardiac rhythm and overlaid with a tranquil layer of white noise. It's is another fascinating survey of a world where the artificial and organic can no longer be easily distinguished from one another.
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12"
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ZEHNIN 001EP
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The essential and ever-evolving !K7 collective is adding a new label to its family in the form of Zehnin. Taking charge of the first release is Lucy. "The Hermit" is eight minutes of spacious and cerebral techno. Rolling drums are buried deep as little flecks of sound design peel off the groove. Occasional bell hits bring a somber and languid feel despite the drive of the drums. "The High Priestess" is empty and eerie, with distant drones and yawning pads outlining a vast underground space. The drums here are again rubbery and rolling, but a little more prominent.
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