Emil Gayles
Fly Birdy

This is a piece of Estonian underground music's history. More than 20 years ago, in Estonia, Hypnosaurus were pioneers of deep house and techno, the first ones to have gone with this new strange rhythmic music into the studio and into the dark basements of Tallinn."Untitled" is two guys with trashy equipment, Soviet synthesizers, an obsession for Cabaret Voltaire and excitement for the sound they heard coming from far away American cities. This krauty jam was released on Hypnosaurus' first cassette in 1991, an edition of just 20, given out to friends and people they knew.The remix is by the strange and wonderful Chicago producer Hieroglyphic Being. This is soul music of rusty funk-robots. For this remix he is said to have tried out new methods of dealing with sounds, switching them on and off.

Following up after the mental drop by Detroit’s Master of Repetition, Population One, we have a new signing hailing from the Land of the Rising Sun, helping us to set the standards for this new imprint—uncompromised techno funk! Japanese producer Imugem Orihasam has spent the past 3 years slowly evolving. His early work on Ilian Tape and Esperanza sounds like that of an already seasoned craftsman digesting Detroit bit by bit, with a focus on lush textures and swooning eerie melodies. This past year has seen a spike in activity for Imugem, with releases on Patrice Scott’s Sistrum Recordings, Berlin’s Nsyde, and Adam Marshall’s New Kanada—all showcasing a more focused and exuberant approach that has sharpened his reflective compositions. With GEM, Imugem steps away from the supple melodies and tranquil atmospheres for a trip deep into the power plant. Working far from his comfort zone, he has fired off five tracks of puristic, hypnotic techno. We don’t mean template-driven chunky white label Discogs bait either, but something fashioned out of raw sound that places the channeling of energy above composition and cleverness.