Isolation Playlist #17 - Enfant Terrible / Vrystaete pres: Pop music for the elite..

Isolation Playlist #17 - Enfant Terrible / Vrystaete

Dormant for a good 3 months now, Martijn from the esteemed Dutch label Enfant Terrible / Vrystaete has kindly revived the Isolation Playlist series with this very thoughtfully put together collection of tracks and words.  Apart from being the label that no native English speaker could ever pronounce, Vrystaete has an impeccable track record of introducing some of the most exciting European DIY musics, including Brannten Schnure, Ô Paradis (+ Nový Svět), Brunnen and more, his picks here tap into the influences behind all this magic...

 

Pop music for the elite...

This selection of tracks is by musicians and labels which have inspired
me, or still inspire me, in my label work… and sometime on a personal
level… Besides this is music I always come back to and is on heavy
rotation at Enfant Terrible HQ… But it was hard to make this selection…
there is so much music I love and listen to… if you like to hear more do
check out the Elitepop shows I do for Intergalactic FM… anyway… enjoy
these sounds! M.

Hypnagoga Press – Summer House Recordings

Everything (anything?) which comes from the Hypnagoga Press label I
simply love… no matter if it is the dark and occult sounding soundscapes
of Bonini Bulga or Altarmang or the melancholy tunes of Teahouse Radio…
it is all absolute great… here is some footage of a recording session
which found its way to the Teahouse Radio album…

 

Diamantener Oberhof - Liebstockel

Released on my own Vrystaete label… this one has stayed a bit underrated
and undiscovered while Diamantener Oberhof is one half of Brannten
Schnüre… and they have become a cult name by now… the Brannten Schnüre
LP released on Vrystaete is going for collector prices on Discogs now…
while this one you can still find for not too much money… and music wise
it is for a large part the same dreamy weird folklore inspired stuff…

 

Circle Bros - Art Deco

Here is one from Circle Bros… a Dutch musician living in Belgium…
running the great Morc Records label himself… and releasing his own
music next to other gems to check out… Circle Bros is submerging you
with hypnotic lo-fi ambient and drone music with folklorish elements and
a psychedelic touch… It is hard to pick a favorite album but “Haven” and
“Rust” are both really recommended… Around summer 2021 a 10” is planned
on my Vrystaete label and I promise this one is all kinds of amazing… 

 

GOUFFRE – live

This the only recording I could find online of GOUFFRE but it is nice
anyway... this band released one LP on the amazing Synesthetic Alchemy
series which is part of the 213 Records label. One of the band members
runs this label… Maybe the scenery of this recording gives the music a
pagan folklore feeling but the LP is more like Velvet Underground
playing some sort of urban folk live at a party at The Factory… or
something like that… if you like more you can continue here with part 2
of this recording: https://youtu.be/gGP4n607E_Q 

 

France - live

France is from France centered around the Standard In-Fi label that puts
out a lot of contemporary folklore music… but France is my absolute
favorite of the bunch… the drones they create are hypnotic, energetic
and punkish… raw power! 

 

Duhkha - Mariyammal

Benjamin Bex is the musician behind this project… this record together with the album by Dromomane (another of his projects) and the “Rosegger” LP released under the BEX alias I consider as a trilogy… the evolve from quite song based (“Rosegger”) to more and more abstract soundscapes (Duhkha, Dromomane)… but they all share an otherworldly and tormenting mood… beautiful but sad stuff…

 

 Es – Aavehuminaa (Katjalle)

I had to put something in here from Fonal Records… while they put out a
lot I do not like there are some records I am listening to already for a
long time and which still amaze me when I hear them… this as it feels
like I am discovering new elements in it every time I play them… I was
in doubt about sharing something from the freaked-out
folkies/psychonauts of Kemialliset Ystävät… but I went for the wonderful
and often weird ambient by Fonal label boss Es… 

 

Europ Europ – live

These are my favorite “weirdies” Europ Europ from up north… hailing from
OIslo they have been around for ages (since 1996) in various formations…
but since some years the line-up is steady now… the one remaining
original member also runs his own label called Etch Wear on which he
releases vinyls, cd-r’s and sometimes tapes… featuring a wide range of
sounds besides the Europ Europ works… I recommend the free floating
sounds of Psykopharmaka, the abstract beats of Epilektrician and the
industrial minimal electronics of Fräulein Luftwaffe… but there is lots
more to explore… check the compilation cd-r’s… also he produces micro
editions of homemade vinyls… and yes… I work with Europ Europ on my
Enfant Terrible label as well… Here is a recording of a live stream…
like always with Europ Europ there is a lot of improvisation and it
works wonderfully hypnotic I think… 

 

Oake – Nihnin Ned Bargund

Oake is something I always come back to when I want to hear beats but
something more intelligent than most beat orientated music out there…
rooted in techno and industrial music I would definitely call this
post-techno… Their first two EP’s from 2013 on Downwards are amazing…
same goes for the only true album they have done… I lost track a bit
after that one… the project is now down to a one-man project… but the
most recent EP is quite interesting again… This track here is from one
of the two first EP’s… 

 

Futuro de Hierro – Las Fuerzas Grises

Operating from out of Barcelona comes Futuro de Hierro… the musician
behind this project is also active with his Màgia Roja label and venue…
and the last few years gained some more fame with his Dame Area project…
which is nice but Futuro de Hierro is the real deal for me… it is
industrial music avoiding the cliches… it is brutal but truly brutal…
not faked as so many groups do… like these so called industrial bands
who are active in the goth scene… Techno influences are there for sure…
but all is more broken… so it never goes for an easy floor filler… this
song here is from the EP I released on my Gooiland Elektro label and is
some sort of industrial hip hop… but hitting it way harder as Meat Beat
Manifesto ever did… 

 

Neugeborene Nachtmusik – God Is A Crocodile

Coming a long way from the Milligram Retreat project to this… but
tracing back the steps will get you into interesting music… never fixed
to one thing… flirting around with elektro, psychedelic music and
minimal electronics… moving more and more into ritual techno and cosmic
industrial with his latest album “Take Me To Your Healer” which I
released on Enfant Terrible… you can find some traces of dub in that one
too… the video is by a longtime supporter of my label from Mexico... she
also ran the now defunct Mecanica record store in Mexico City for some
years…

 

Novy Svet- Nuevo Babylon

Possibly (certainly?) the most important band and innovator of
industrial music ever… coming from the late 1990’s Viennese
(post-)industrial scene… which started earlier in the 90’s with The Moon
Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud and evolved into the scene around Der
Blutharsch… Novy Svet certainly on an artistic level surpassed all
others from that scene and era… evolving their sound with every release…
moving away from industrial music and possibly becoming the ultimate
post-industrial band out there… mashing up industrial with folklore with
psychedelic music and a free spirited mind set… to truly understand
their oeuvre you need to get into their complete works including the
collaborations with like-minded musicians as O Paradis and Mushroom
Patience… One song does not say a lot… but I had to pick one… and this
one is among my favorites but there are so many I love…

 

 

Haus Arafna – He Colored Me Blind

What is there to say about Haus Arafna? They stand alone when it comes to industrial music… easily put away as a power electronics project they have been pushing that mostly quite uninteresting style into different directions throughout the years… coming up with sublime minimal electronics anthems, truly nasty industrial and even flirting with pop (check their best known song “Für Immer”)… This one is from the first album back from 1995 and I do not think I heard something more radical ever since… also this is the stuff I like to play for and hear on the dancefloor on a good night out…

 

 

Nico – Innocent And Vain (live)

I can’t even remember since when I am listening to Nico… her music is
with me for such a long time… and this is for sure among what I want to
be played when I back to ashes... I even think it is the only musician I
have live albums of… everybody knows which studio albums you need to
have and which ones to leave aside… but there are also some live albums
out there really worthwhile to listen to if you are a true lover of
Nico… like I am… this one of from the “Heroine” album… a live recording
from 1980… Nico already in a rather run-down condition but not as bad as
later on in the 80’s… but she has lost the looks and spirit from the
period at The Factory… but this is Nico alone with her harmonium… there
is nothing else I could wish for… this one of the few things I am sorry
I missed out on as I am too young to have witnessed this… if I could
travel back in time for 1 moment possibly this would be it…