Raster Noton

So...

Pretty much every new release from this label is billed as "essential" by Boomkat / Bleep / etc...

And they do have a pretty prolific release schedule (seems to be 2-3 albums a month).

The only albums I have are Kangding Ray's "OR" and Mark Fell's "Multistability", both of which I enjoy.

A lot of the labels output seems to be the glitchy/minimal/experimental stuff which I want to know more about - any thoughts?

The Kangding Ray album was advertised as their most accessible release, and to be fair it is very much a straight up club minimal tech release (but it is very good). Have they released anything else similar to this vein?

I trust you WATMM.

Try the latest by Alva Noto, "univrs". It's fucking brilliant. Same applies to "id" by Cyclo which is a collab between Noto and Ryoji Ikeda :)

If you like Kangding Ray then you should also like Senking - Pong, it's like its minimal downbeat cousin and is bloody brills - http://boomkat.com/c...84-senking-pong

Also see/hear Byetone - Death of a Typographer which again is similar - http://boomkat.com/c...f-a-typographer

CoH is very fucking good. He tends to be really quite abstract, and it's music you need to listen to with a large degree of concentration but I find it quite enjoyable. Even a little silly at times.

Mika Vainio is excellent as well, and Mark Fell of course

If you like less clubby/minimal/glitch, i'd suggest Alva Noto collabs (5 records) with Ryuchi Sakamoto (mix of romantic/minimal piano with ambients drones or beats), aslo the drone records by Alva Noto (Xerrox 2). Regarding glitchy/minimal i'd say Datamaplex by Ryoji Ikeda, a really strong album.

oh yes and they put out that 20 minute Coil / ELpH thing too, that was nice, I always forget about that one.. So many releases!

I do really appreciate that Raster Norton are issuing stuff in higher fidelity. It was lovely of them to issue SND's Atavism in 24/96 I really wish more labels would get into this, and I'm sure it will happen increasingly often as labels realize that a decent percentage of the people who actually buy music will be happy to pay a bit extra for higher quality. And Atavism proved, the physical carrier need not be large at all (if a physical item is even involved; people like Paul McCartney have started issuing high fidelity versions of their releases as downloads with no packaging whatsoever) so storage is not an issue.

try Frank Bretschniders Rhythm and Pixel's album if you like it more upbeat

  On 11/8/2011 at 2:10 PM, feltcher said:

Pretty much every new release is billed as "essential" by Boomkat

fixd!

As mentioned: The other Kangding Ray releases. Alva Noto (Xerrox 1&2 and Noto+Sakamoto is his best AND most accessible releases methink), Byetone and Frank Bretschneider.

  On 11/8/2011 at 3:38 PM, MortstoX said:

  On 11/8/2011 at 2:10 PM, feltcher said:

Pretty much every new release is billed as "essential" by Boomkat

fixd!

The thing is that Boomkat is a shop first and foremost and not a place for reviews. They're gonna want to sell stuff so big up almost everything (you know that there's a big big problem when there's an average write-up or even the slightest hint of criticism)

Atavism is absolutely essential

I've never been able to get into any Mark Fell / SND stuff - it's a bit too clonky.

  On 11/8/2011 at 4:24 PM, mcbpete said:

I've never been able to get into any Mark Fell / SND stuff - it's a bit too clonky.

It took me a minute myself.

Ryoji Ikeda

check these

Pixel - The Drive

Alva Noto – Xerrox Vol.1 & 2, For, For 2, Transform (and his collaborations with Sakamoto)

Byetone - Death Of A Typographer

Atom™ – Liedgut

Aleph-1 – Aleph-1

Signal – Robotron

is it weird that i find atavism to be a pretty emotional album?

they always seem to have absolutely gorgeous covers for their releases, just look at this

Thanks for the recommendations so far, will be sure to check them out.

Ive never really got into Alva Noto so I think i need to revisit his works by all accounts.

I was hoping to wait for the DVD release of "Cyclo" but I dont think its surfaced yet...

I had some problems with Alva Noto to begin with. I didn't (and still don't) like his trans-series, and it wasn't until I heard the collab with Sakamoto (Vrioon and Insen) I realised his qualities. The Xerrox-albums are his best releases, imo.

Yeah definitely, try Xerrox first - absolutely lovely couple of albums ....

  On 11/9/2011 at 2:10 AM, Richy said:

Pixel - The Drive

Fucking love this album.

Seconding Byetone, anything by him (incidentally Olaf Bender does almost all of the design work for the albums. amazing stuff.)

Well now, time to say what I've been saying for the last couple years:

Ryoji Ikeda - Dataplex

Atom TM is incredible so is the rest of their catalogue

sadly the poor youtube quality does not do the track justice in any way

Vladislav Delay - Vantaa

Komet - Gold.

Fantastic release, really lovely and hypnotic.

Another vote for Xerrox vol 1 and 2. My favourite ambient albums ever.

Also check out Alva Noto - univrs, unitxt and Prototypes.

  On 4/25/2012 at 4:01 PM, Obel said:

Komet - Gold.

 

Fantastic release, really lovely and hypnotic.

 

Another vote for Xerrox vol 1 and 2. My favourite ambient albums ever.

Also check out Alva Noto - univrs, unitxt and Prototypes.

did you check Byetone - SyMeta? this stuff is intense. I missed most of this - the stuff you mention too so I feel like finding a second WARP Records currently. This is incredible

oh yes Xerrox is so good no wonder you where bored by recent Clark lol

  On 4/25/2012 at 3:53 PM, azatoth said:

Vladislav Delay - Vantaa

oh yes