djM – Page 36 – Enfant Terrible

Everyday is Record Store Day

It might be no surprise I am against Record Store Day… this as I see it only as another exponent of the vinyl hype… and it is just another example of the (cultural and economical) decay of our world… with this I mean that everything in our world gets commercialised and this takes away meaning, value and relevance of the product or activity that gets this commercial treatment… and as I love vinyl records and specialised and independent and local record stores so much it matters a lot to me…

So do not get me wrong… I am a big supporter of records stores and of music and vinyl culture… but Record Store Day is not about that… it is about making money… selling people so called limited editions or special releases for way too much money… and in the process it harms independent music culture by claiming all man and machine power of vinyl pressing plants around the world… so this is nothing more as old industry ways or working and doing… and a globalisation format as well…

To me a special and limited edition is something really special… not something available in 1000 copies which must be sold that one specific day… so for the Neugeborene Nachtmusik LP I did this special edition of 20 copies which is not for sale, not today, never…

Tobias Bernstrup and Neugeborene Nachtmusik LP’s update

Both the Tobias Bernstrup LP “Romanticism” and the debut LP by Neugeborene Nachtmusik are ready and I will start shipping on monday the 20th of April… here are pictures of how they look…

For the local people there is an option to get these records already this sunday at Radio Resistencia… just another reason to drop by at Kapitaal in Utrecht for Diamantneer Oberhof live on stage… if you decide to join us and want a copy please drop me note so I can secure a copy for you…

Radio Resistencia with live Diamantener Oberhof

Despite the fact that Our Voice for the radio show Andy Dufter always calls our show very special I am confident to say that next time we have a truly special show…

On sunday 19th of April German avant-garde neo-folk duo Diamantener Oberhof will be performing live… for various reasons this will be a special afternoon… first of all this will be the very first live performance by this duo, secondly the artwork which comes with their debut LP (released on Vrystaete) was printed in the very same room they will perform live, and last but not least their music is quite special with it superb mix of subtle electronics and acoustic instrument touches… most prominent accordion melodies…

Here is what some reviews said about the debut LP:

“The work of German artists Brannten Schnüre and Johannes Schebler, who is behind the Baldruin project, Diamantener Oberhof is a reflective, at times introspective work that provides the soundtrack to a world of their own making. … detuned fairground carousel music, mixed with discordant Middle Eastern drones.” (Juno Plus, UK)

“… pure, organic and avant-gardistic and at times soundtrack like. Not music which displays conformity in content nor structure.” (Dark Entries, Belgium)

“Diamantener Oberhof’s self titled release is an assortment of peculiar nowadays folk tracks gathered at the boundary between analog and digital harmony. … This delicate album inclines to get close to unexplored nature through playful wizardry and innocent rituals which are to be followed fearlessly for imagination can’t do no harm.” (The Attic, Romania)

“Self-forgetfulness and sleepy, it indulges into daydreams. … <this LP is> a strictly limited number of tickets into an expressionistic, surreal world of sound, which on the one hand borrows from the Finnish freak-folk, and on the other hand it recalls the music of bands as the French Vox Populi.” (Skug, Austria)

As always Radio Resistencia is at Kapitaal in Utrecht, entrance is free and we start at 15.00 hour and finish at 18.00 hour…

And here is a piece by Diamantener Oberhof to get in the mood…

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My first little Riso project

For the upcoming Neugeborene Nachtmusik album the inserts were planned to be just printed by a copy machine… but as I am doing more and more with older printing techniques and enjoying that a lot I changed this at the last minute…

When at Kapitaal where I print a lot of the artwork pieces now the printing chief thought it would be nice to use the Riso (or Risograph) machine for these inserts…

A Riso machine is a bit like a lo-tech contemporary copy machine with a technique based on silk screen printing… so in a way it is like automated silk screen printing…

The end result thus also has a silk screen printing touch but you can see it is done in a different way… it look also a bit like what came out of a stencil machine… it looks quite raw… or like DDR propaganda prints… sort of…

This time I just did one colour but you can do several colours… in layers just like with silk screen printing… you need to change the colour cartridge in that case and feed the paper to print on again to the machine… there is a project coming up for a 7″ single where I will do a multi colour Riso print for… but it was nice to have a first go with the machine for an easy one colour project…

Lend Me Your Underbelly

Since some years a part of my focus for Enfant Terrible is on contemporary Dutch music… the true starting point of this was of course the “Kamp Holland” 2LP compilation… and ever since then I am on the look out for more interesting new stuff from my own country which also fits my musical taste and styles for ET…

Recently I came across Lend Me Your Underbelly… a project from Utrecht… the city I started Enfant Terrible and I lived for a long time… Lend Me Your Underbelly is a true DIY project… releasing his own music on his own label Epigenetic Records… a second album is on its way but for now there is a 7″ and a 2LP… both dating from 2013…

The 2LP “Giant Tadpoles Among Us” is a must have for fans of lo-fi psychedelic pop music… if you like stuff from Fonal, Morc and Vrystaete this is for you… the music is mostly based on guitar tunes added with electronics… in a way the recordings sound like rehearsal recordings… but I mean this in a positive way… the intimate sound and feeling of these recordings make up for a super nice listening experience…

And for the locals… Lend Me Your Underbelly will perform live at Radio Resistencia on the 17th of May… for now you can order the album here… and here is my absolute favourite piece form the album…

Mostly industrial

The online magazine The Attic asked me as dj M. to record a dj set for them so accepted the invitation with enthusiasm … and as I am listening to a lot of industrial sounds (again) lately this dj set is one with mostly industrial music… but covering various decades and aspects of the genre…

You can listen to the mix with the tracklisting posted here…

Or you can simply enjoy the sounds here…