P055: Cabeza de Vaca – The Mole

It wouldn’t be surprising to find the Colin de la Plante aka The Mole in Japan one day. His musical road trip has taken him steadly eastwards from Vancouver to Montreal and now to Berlin where we find him for this weeks special on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM. Te focus on the show is his new material, but we have a bit more space and time here to chart in detail is journey.

Colin de la Plante started off recording with Danuel Tate, Mathew Jonson and Tyger Dhulathe, three individuals who would go on to form Cobblestone Jazz. But as a quartet the group made a single EP called “Babyfoot” for Canadian label Wagon Repair who would later be home to some de la Plante’s solo material as The Mole.

Legend has it that all four migrated to Montreal when it was the centre of the electronic music universe, the city kicking off Mutek and also stimulating the legendary “Montreal Smoked Meat” compilation on Force Inc back in 2002.

But Cobblestone Jazz eventually returned to British Columbia and The Mole stayed put, launching his solo career with a number of 12”s on labels like Philpot, Arbutus and Kompakt Extra. His Canadian links were always strong and he not only collaborated further with Mathew Jonson

But released a lot of material on Canadian labels like New Kanada, Musique Risquée and the aforementioned Wagon Repair who would publish his seminal debut “As high a the sky”. Clearly the standout track was “Baby you’re the one" which we use this week to close the show. The album and single versions differ a little, with the former being shorter and sequenced into the albums continuous flow.

Such success that the album received made it inevitable that The Mole would eventually move to Berlin and the company of electronic music’s elite. The highlight of his post-album singles was featuring a track on the split “Panorama 04” release of exclusive tracks on Ostgut Ton.

However, much like Deadbeat who formed his own BLKRTZ label to control his own releases once in the German capital, de la Plante too started up Maybe Tomorrow with Jon Berry, the marketing manager of Kompakt. The inspiration behind the label comes from The Littlest Hobo, a Canadian TV show about a homeless dog wandering around and helping people. The theme song is called "Maybe Tomorrow".

Sadly this type of export made it as far afield as Australia as did the Degrassi High school series

As did the completely random The Beachcombers whose theme song is forever stuck in brain where it will stay forever without permission. Ohh, Canada…

Indeed, one of the criticisms of The Mole’s recent material is that maybe he stepped too far from Canada, forsaking his disco, funk and soul records and incorporating perhaps too much of Berlin’s techno soul without quite producing bangers either. However his recent album “The Caregiver” works well because of its collage feel and its indifference to the dancefloor. Here it seems more an option than an obligation; The Mole is easy going enough to let you decide.

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Fred P	Reach	A Harmless Deed	2013
2	The Mole	History of dates	Perlon	2013
3	The Mole	(When) Monkey punches Dog	Maybe Tomorrow	2013
4	The Mole	Special invitation	Maybe Tomorrow	2013
5	Gerry Read	Crave	Forth Wave	2013
6	Anthony Collins, Distant Phase	Come down	Natural History	2013
7	Marcello Giordani	Comin' down	Endless Flight	2013
8	The Mole	Baby your'e the one	Wagon Repair	2008

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P054: Cabeza de Vaca – Redshape

We continue the colour trip this week on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM. The main focus is on the new harder techno direction of Sebastian Kramer’s Redshape project, but there is also Vester Koza’s “Out of the Blue” on the EP of the same name. This is his second release and second of the year and his first also on his own Maslo imprint.

Stunning stuff on both accounts and a really hard to differentiate balance between techno and deep house. Will be looking forward to more from him for sure.

With regards to Redshape, you can track out a couple of periods to his career so far. Most obviously is the pre-Redshape period where he was simply known as Sebastian Kramer. This is from 2004 and therefore is not his last release before he changed his name and sunk temporarily into anonymity behind the red mask, but perhaps this one of all his early period tracks gives a premonition of what is to come:

Harder techno with more traditional lines and textures, it nonetheless hides one of those rollicking and motoric bass drives that forms part of Redshape’s sound. On his first release way back in 2000 on Content, you can still hear the carryover from the more clunky, almost awkward sounds of 90s techno.

Redshape effectively started in 2006 with the release of the “Playground” EP on his then new label Present which continues to this day.

The change from the former releases is impressive. You can hear directly the shift towards more naked synth sounds, the slowing of the BPM a little, the opening up of the mix to let in air. The result is clearly a unique and signature sound. While you would never call his earlier tracks bad, their aim and production kind of directs them directly towards the unbuiquitous and ever changing backdrop of electronic music: DJ tools, effective pieces, stones in the mosaic, but nothing more. Redshape was born a provocateur and innovator.

One of the things that captured me to Redshape's sound in this period was his evocation of science fiction, but the kind of psychedelic 70s kind with clumsy robots, clunky spacecraft and machiens and sparse weirded-out planets painted in primary colours. Somewhere between Barbarella and Flash Gordon.

Sci-fi now is too indebted to ridiculous quasi science and impressing with the image of and the images from computers. Everything is sterilized and straight line with no husk to grasp hold of. The earliest Redshape period worked this sound to a natural climax which was the “Dance Paradox” a proud and original debut that will certainly stand tall still in many years. The key here was also the addition of a live drummer who was also used live as well during the first tours after the album release.

The space and future themes continued after the release of the “Dance paradox”, with EPs like “Future shock” and “In trust we space”, most on Delsin or Present. But it took him nearly three years to get around to recording his second album, the more house orientated “Squares” that was released on Running Back. Something of a strange pairing that didn't quite come off perhaps, or maybe that it was just a hard act to follow? “Squares” in any case sometimes seemed to suffer as it felt less serious than its counterpart in combination with the change in style.

Curiously though, it was also divided into the four cardinal directions, with each of the vinyl sides allocated a direction. “Square” also featured a new version of the first Redshape track too as its closing piece.

Since “Square” however, Redshape has entered into a new phase, taking on board perhaps the harder sounds dominating current techno. Most of the material on the excellent new “Red Pack II” release on Delsin are sublime. To mix it up a bit I picked one of the dubbier tracks, but the rest are a return to force as much as form, with the trademark synths still an essential element. The Bleep track “Focus”, shared on an EP with Steffi is even more of a banger and heralds well for the new era.

The closing track on the show this week by SHXCXCHCXSH also has many banging qualities, but its unusual arrangement is what is the most attractive. The elements seem to work out of any structured time, but arrive when it suits themselves. The beat as well, seems to impede rather than flow at times, whereas the textures and elements of melody are defiant and introverted. The outcome is for me one of the best tracks of the year so far. It appears that others have been fascinated equally by the last track which we feature on the show and also this one which is clearly “Little wolf”.

Like Violetshaped last week, there is also some interesting mixes and sets out there for those who want to capture more of the complete picture.

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Redshape	Alone on Mars?	Present	2007
2	Vester Koza	Out of the blue	Maslo	2013
3	Ellen Allien	Need (Redshape remix)	Bpitch Control	2013
4	Redshape	Focus	Bleep	2013
5	Redshape	Path (Dub)	Delsin	2013
6	Woo York	Sawcure	Planet Rhythm Records	2013
7	SHXCXCHCXSH	LLDTMPS	Avian	2013

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P053: Cabeza de Vaca – Violetshaped

“Because we are so free, everything must be prohibited”

- Cody Wilson

A return to noisy techno this week on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM  as we turn our focus to the troika of monikers Violetshaped, Violet Poison and Shapednoise. As you might guess, the last two go together to make the first. Not many other biographical details to share as in keeping with techno tradition, everything is shrouded in mystery.

Perhaps the most educational piece you will find is an article over at Electronic Beats. Whereas there was an excellent mix over at Electronic Explorations earlier this year.

The debut album by the duo as Violetshaped has been getting consistently good reviews from the media which it thoroughly deserved. Just as intriguing though are the more recent run of remix single, none of which are on the show sadly, but which fills in the gaps between experimental electronica, purer noise and of course techno. Keith Fullerton Whitman’s remix is a great example of how at last all these genres seem to meet in some murky, clanking nexus. Their mix above also shows this important side of their influences as well.

Both artists have also had a lot of releases under their individual name this year as well.

Sometimes it pays to read the package more carefully. This week we feature a track Druss that when I first came across it I though was the group GNOD, but they are actually only “presenting” the release, whatever that means. In any case the groups crunchy kraut-techno sound fits in nicely with the industrial techno sound that has found a new home for a similar angry, feedback drenched soundscape full of rasping metal and dissatisfaction.

In preparing the show there was at one stage as many Orphx tracks as Violetshaped, but as the later where perhaps slightly more prolific at the right moment, they got the show, but I think it will be mandatory to do something on Orphx at some stage. A huge recording career and a lot of direct and convinving tracks. “Vanishing Point” which opens this weeks show couldn’t be more perfect, made for a big system and yet almost catchy enough to be a radio hit (sic). There is plenty more from them out there too. It is worth spending a bit of time with this live recording made for a Forms of Hands label special earlier this year. The sound quality is excellent, although I am sure the label can afford a tripod or a sober filmer next time.

But most startling was the inclusion of some of Orphx music in this documentary about 3D printing technology and a young American called Cody Wilson who wants to make a freely downloadable file for gun parts to overcome Obama’s recent ban on weapons after the Newport massacre. Wilson is a strikingly conflicting character, parading such a nationalism that is somehow at odds with a frighteningly sharp and critical intelligence.

“There is no evidence of a political program anymore in the world. In America there aren’t genuine politics, there’s the media telling you Barack Obama versus Mitt Romney. It’s like the epic clash of ideology, when we both know they are globalist neo-liberals. They both exist to preserve the interest of this relatively autonomous class of Goldman Sachs bankers”

- Cody Wilson

The inability to support or criticise him makes him seem like a character from a Werner Herzog film. Essential viewing.

And next week from Violetshaped to Redshape!

Number	Artist	Track	Label	Year
1	Orphx	Vanishing point	Sonic Groove	2013
2	Violetshaped	Spectral nightdrive	Violet Poison	2013
3	Shapednoise	As others see us	Hospital Productions	2013
4	Violet Poison	Babylon suicide	Bed of Nails	2013
5	Ancient Methods	Knights and Bishops	Ancient Methods	2013
6	Violetshaped	Black wisdom, white witch	Unknown Precept	2013
7	Forward strategy group	Code #3	Perc Trax	2013
8	Druss	Druss - 20 Sides A Minute	Trensmat	2013
9	Alexander Lewis	She demands attention	Blackest Ever Black	2013

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