Tag Archives: Erased Tapes

Switched On – Daniel Brandt – Without Us Reworks / Remixes (Erased Tapes)

Posted on by
Reply

by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Back in March, Daniel Brandt released his third solo album Without Us, described as “a multimedia project that clashes head on with the spiralling chaos of our times”. In our review earlier this year, Arcana noted its “almost irresistible urgency”. Now it returns in remixed form, with Daniel – one third of celebrated German beatmakers Brandt Brauer Frick – taking up the story:

“I invited close collaborators, friends and artists I have been a fan of for a long time to create new versions of the music, including several artists who helped shape the original record. Akusmi, who played many of the guitars and is part of the live band, and Rashad Becker, who mixed the album, both created new versions. Adam Freeland – whom I met in the desert while working on the album, and later worked in his studio in Joshua Tree—also contributed a remix. The live premiere at the Barbican ended in a rave, and some of the remixes, like the ones by Camea, Adam and Hiro reflect that energy. I’m also thrilled to have inspirations such as Tangerine Dream and C. Diab to have contributed with their versions.”

What’s the music like?

Compelling. The range of musical styles on this collection is wide, showing the versatility of Brandt’s originals, and the scope with which he works when writing an album.

C. Diab begins with a full-bodied cello statement in a rework of Persistence, which breaks out into a kind of motoric drone / krautrock interface. Perhaps not surprisingly, the space around the music is pretty vast on the Tangerine Dream rework of Nothing To Undo. PNK goes through the wringer with Akusmi’s pinpricks of minimalist melody, a thrilling and energetic approach, while Rashad Becker is more maximalist in an eventful take on Without Us. Activity is also the name of the game in Bi Disc’s excellent, up-tempo remix of Steady, and then it’s great to see the name Adam Freeland pop up again on a driven yet ethereal take on Paradise O.D. The same track gets some oblique, funky turns from Hiro Ama, after we’ve heard from Camea (a super-deep account techno account of Resistance) and Brandt himself, with the clattering beats and piercing tones of Lucid.

Does it all work?

It does. The vision of Brandt’s original is retained, but the responses here cover a wide emotional response, and a satisfying cross-section of electronically driven genres.

Is it recommended?

It is indeed. Without Us is worth listening to as a double album – Brandt’s powerful original and this set of enjoyable and boundary-pushing remixes. Excellent stuff once again.

Listen / Buy

Published post no.2,740 – Tuesday 9 December 2025

Switched On – Rival Consoles: Landscape From Memory (Erased Tapes)

Posted on by
Reply

by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

After an extended time out, Ryan Lee West – the man behind Rival Consoles – returns with his ninth album.

Having fallen out of favour with the creative process, West retreated and started composition by way of an audio scrapbook, where past clippings and musical sketches were transformed into fully fledged tracks.

What’s the music like?

There is a fresh, revitalized feel to Rival Consoles on this album. In fact West seems to be falling over an abundance of ideas, but has found the best way to get them all together and make an album that is consistently rewarding, colourful and durable.

There are many highlights, such as Coda and Drum Song, where percussive work and melodic craft work well hand in hand. Yet at times the music is at its most effective without a drum track, as on the start of Nocturne, or the reverie Tape Loop. 2 Forms brings both together intriguingly, starting in an ambient mood but with a sudden burst of acidic, quasi-industrial noise.

Gaivotas, meanwhile, is a great illustration of the colour West brings through from the studio, a rich and dazzling array of textures.

Does it all work?

It does – and the album only gets better and more rewarding with repeated listening.

Is it recommended?

Yes. If you’re a Rival Consoles fan then you will need no persuasion, but if you are new to his music then Landscape From Memory is a great place to start.

Listen / Buy

Published post no.2,599 – Thursday 18 July 2025

New music – Rival Consoles: Known Shape (Erased Tapes)

Posted on by
Reply

Rival Consoles, aka Ryan Lee West, will release his ninth studio album, Landscape from Memory on July 4 via Erased Tapes. The label have released a new single, Known Shape, ahead of a pre-album tour across Europe.

Talking about the track, West said “I’ve always been obsessed by controls on machines because they produce beautiful sounds and they have their own rhythms. The drums are made from rotating switches and the synths are set in motion by invisible mechanical rhythms. Machines have a special connection to the human spirit, which is both good and bad but above all restless. There is a constant searching in Known Shape for some kind of answer or emotion.”

Known Shape is a relatively understated piece of music, but compelling too – the beats describing the mechanical processes flit across the stereo picture, while snippets of melody drift in, as though the listener is hearing a piece of music on the other side of a door.

The piece is accompanied by a graphical score West created, shown below:

Published post no.2,514 – Thursday 14 April 2025

Switched On – Daniel Brandt: Without Us (Erased Tapes)

Posted on by
1

by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

“If we’re dancing on the brink then we might as well make sure that the music is great.”

So reads the alarming and rather compelling sentence emphasising the point of Daniel Brandt’s Without Us album. Brandt began the record as an impassioned response to what he terms “the helplessness of the individual in the climate crisis and the apparent need to take radical global action to change the trajectory of the current threat of a climate disaster.”

What’s the music like?

Given the theme, it is not a surprise to report that Daniel Brandt’s music on Without Us is far from comfortable. He often veers between extremes, looking for comfort on one side while on the other realising that there is so little time left, it needs to be filled with music of the utmost urgency.

Paradise O.D. recognises this, taking shape quickly with a primal base to its bare rhythm and stripped back texture. Resistance follows the same outline, though under an ominous, synthesized cloud. Lucid does not stay true to its name, forms twisted beyond recognition as though wilting in a hot desert of inflamed temperatures. The fact Brandt wrote a good deal of this album in the Joshua Tree in California only adds to the atmosphere. PNK is a disquieting experience, with a lot of industrial activity taking place at a quick pace but with no apparent end goal other than to make people move quickly:

Yet there are moments of pure beauty to be found, too. Steady is an airy kickback, with some lovely open air textures given a freewheeling beat for company, while Soft Rains offers a comforting heat haze.

Does it all work?

Yes – on a brave and undeniably powerful album, Daniel Brandt hits the spot far more often than not.

Is it recommended?

It is. This is recognisably the work of a player from Brandt Brauer Frick, but Daniel Brandt has turned his beat making to serious means on this powerful piece of work. The importance of the dance is still there, but with the clock ticking there is an almost irresistible urgency to this music.

For fans of… Brandt Brauer Frick, Philip Glass, The Field, Pantha du Prince

Listen / Buy

For streaming and purchase details, Erased Tapes have a set of useful links

Published post no.2,487 – Friday 28 March 2025

On Record – David Allred: The Beautiful World (Erased Tapes)

Posted on by
Reply

by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Portland composer David Allred releases a new album on Erased Tapes dedicated to ‘the expression of existential themes such as death, grief, longing and loss’.

There is a deeply personal element to this expression, for the album is dedicated to a Lauren, a young family friend lost to suicide.

The Erased Tapes press release describes how he set about composing the album. “For some musicians, a change in instrumentation, theme or learning a new artistic vocabulary helps them to move in a different direction. For Allred, a long period of introspection was more relevant to the development of his practice:

“I find beautiful irony when I consciously disconnect myself from working on music because it gives me more fuel and inspiration to engage in it more meaningfully when I resume. In the past, I used to work and create recklessly without boundaries which led to growth and success but at the cost of occasional disassociation. I would be checked out at times even while working […] but now that I make music less often, I feel like I’m growing with what I do, and truly living life more. And since I’m getting more out of life, I have more to say. These boundaries have given me greater access to the things that inspire me, along with a peace of mind and the ability to rest when I maintain this balance.”

His work on the album brought a realisation that everyone has a Lauren in their own way – making The Beautiful World a story of intense loss.

What’s the music like?

Allred immerses his listener in a lovely bath of sound from the start, Pupper creating a dense cloud of music that sets the mood for a period of intense reflection and meditation. It is however possible to sit outside the intensity as a listener, and just let the gorgeous sounds wash over you.

This applies particularly to tracks like Stray, with its soft piano prompts and rich flurries of texture that, while fast moving, act as a shimmering drone. Piano Tree brings the instrument to the fore, chiming through the instrumental haze. Meanwhile The Door has a touching fragility, starting as though replicating machines in a hospital but then with wordless voices that appear to inhabit the moment where a soul passes to the other side.

Allred’s personal tribute finds its apex in the touching Oh Lauren, telling her story in a moving commentary. Yet the closing Elevation 145 is similarly moving in spite of its lack of words. Here a surge of colour and consonant harmony, expressed as a drone, offers hope and dazzling light, in the form of a massive wall of sound.

Does it all work?

It does. Allred’s aim was to encourage listeners ‘to sit with the concept of grief…hopeful they can find comfort and learn to process it in a healing way.’ He certainly achieves that here.

Is it recommended?

Yes. The Beautiful World is a touching piece of work, striking in its simple beauty and with a reach that extends beyond grief to ultimate piece. It gives a great deal of consolation in troubled times.

For fans of… Peter Broderick, Arthur Russell, Ólafur Arnalds, Max Richter

Listen / Buy

https://davidallred.bandcamp.com/album/the-beautiful-world-1

Published post no.2,424 – Tuesday 28 January 2025