ARTIST...: Hypnobeat
TITLE....: Prototech
YEAR.....: 2017
LABEL....: Dark Entries
CAT.NO...: DE-179
GENRE....: Electronic
TIME.....: 46:30
SIZE.....: 106,55 MB
QUALITY..: 320kbps/44,1kHz/Joint Stereo
ENCODER..: LAME
SOURCE...: WEB
RLS.DATE.: 2017/09/20
WEBSITE..: https://play.google.com
TRACKLIST
01) (07:55) The Arumbaya Fetish
02) (03:53) Moon Jump
03) (07:02) Slash! Buffalo Eats Brass
04) (04:02) Kilian
05) (05:20) Donna's Gift #2
06) (06:40) Can God Rewind
07) (11:38) Mission in Congo
Dark Entries and Serendip Lab have teamed up to release æPrototechÆ, the first vinyl
retrospective by German electronic trio Hypnobeat, recorded 1984-86. James Dean Brown
and Pietro Insipido formed Hypnobeat in 1983, but it was the addition of Victor Sol
only a few months later that found the project reaching, as Brown puts it, "the
desired level of technical sophistication." In time, Tobias Freund also lent his
talents (and equipment) to this loose-fit sonic scheme, where the protagonists sought
a new, electronic manifestation of mankindÆs tribal music roots. Two cassette
releases surfaced û 1985Æs "Huggables", and "Specials/Spatials" the following year.
By this point the Frankfurt-based group had already explored fiercely mechanical
creative expression through various configurations of hardware and personnel,
revolving around core ingredients such as the TR-808, TB-303 and MC-202. The project
lived on in spirit as Brown activated Narcotic Syntax in the 90s. While a more
modern, digital concern, rooted in the Perlon label family, NS still channeled the
Hypnobeat concept of a "new tribalism", not least on their "Provocative Percussion"
double 12" released in 2006.
For all the punky veneer, there are instances where these tracks reach staggering
levels of sophistication, not least on "Slash! Buffalo Eats Brass" with its
intricately programmed 303 lines and nimble beats that sound a far cry from most
machine music made in 1986. Prescient "Can God Rewind" is also dazzling in the
complexity of its percussion and the richness of its synth lines in C as they throb
out a bastardised version of acidic Disco straight out of the rhythm collider.
Elsewhere, some tracks are more primal in their execution. Visceral opening track
"The Arumbaya Fetish" was a cathartic venting of BrownÆs least favourite sound on the
808, the iconic cowbell, while the astounding proto-Acid miniature "Moon Jump" places
limber 303 lead lines in a hail of thunderstruck patterns. "Kilian" has a stripped
down quality that speaks more to the industrial era that Hypnobeat was conceived in,
and "Mission In Congo" is a raw, reverb-soaked drum workout that captures the
percussive-obsessive nature of Hypnobeat perfectly. Six of the seven tracks selected
on this collection were primarily powered by two 808s. "I am amazed that the release
sounds like we really had a plan back thenà" states Brown, but this accidental magic
is in fact the raison dÆetre of Hypnobeat. They werenÆt the only ones prefiguring the
next big revolutions in electronic music in the mid 80s, but there certainly werenÆt
many artists stumbling across modes of expression that sound so relevant today.
All songs are remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley.
Housed in a jacket featuring cave engravings by Pietro Insipido of an archer and
animal printed in a wallpaper pattern style designed by Eloise Leigh. Each copy
includes an transparent insert of an x-ray photograph from 1984 of Romulus C£urque
holding the circuit board of a BOSS DR-55 rhythm machine.
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