Boasting a list of associated acts that couldn’t be more essential in totting up some of the gravest and the most daring electronic musicians of recent years, Nottingham’s RAMMEL CLUB has worked with the fine likes of Aaron Dilloway, Prurient, and Kevin Drumm in making a name for itself as a proprietor of “visionary global music” across the East Midlands. In late 2012, the club became aligned with the not-so-fresh-faced micro-label Feral Tapes, which has already taken a page out of its reputable affiliate’s book and issued offerings by Ekoplekz and Roro Perrot.
Once every so often, an understated, low-key recording will make a marked and lasting impression on its audience. The latest Ekoplekz offering fast emerged as one of my favorite cassette releases of last year, despite the unmapped domain through which it has been made available, or perhaps even as a consequence of it. Described by Feral as a “diseased split,” it features five scrunched-up and contorted industrial dub tracks by Nick Edwards under his Ekoplekz moniker. It also features a congealed, 17-minute dub and noise contortion in the guise of a forbidding homage to Italian experimental pioneer Maurizio Bianchi — that track is also performed by Edwards operating under the cloak of his Ensemble Skalectrik project. It is an exceptional effort and a seeming masterstroke by the fledgling label in putting out something so exceptional as an initiatory work. Listen to “Working Man’s Dub” here:
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With releases slated as forthcoming from the likes of ambient/noise producer BBBLood and Phil Julian of Cheapmachines, Feral Tapes looks like an underground label well worth keeping close tabs on.
• Ekoplekz: http://ekoplekznews.wordpress.com
• Feral Tapes: http://feraldebris.blogspot.co.uk