Annie Hall – Random Paraphilia EP PROMO from annie hall on Vimeo.
Spanish-born, Windsor-based producer/DJ Annie Hall is always something special, a gift to techno and experimental music.
Pushing her digital sound to the edge, she can sharpen her sound to glitch, fuzz, but always with a sense of warmth and intimacy. It’s cut tightly, but manages to tread techno-electro paths in its asymmetrical grooves. There’s never an absence of forward motion: like one of those crazy new robotic insects, all the complex kinetic action somehow makes it sprint.
And then, as she does this summer, she can head straight into the best possible, dubby, dark techno, spinning, swinging basslines grinding hypnotically in the shadows.
She’s on … too many labels to remember. She’s working with Kero on Riverside Manufacturing (RVSD), making limited vinyl. And she’s all over the planet, one of those rare relentlessly evergreen artists.
Somehow today I found myself revisiting the promo for the 2013 EP at top, Random Paraphilia, which reveals some of her IDM-ish side. It’s just splendid, with remixes by Richard Devine, Gerard Hanson aka E.R.P, and Valance Drakes. See the video at top, with perfect hyper-future-broken-glitch motion graphics by dmas3.
And then there’s what she’s cooking up this summer, the “Overlook” EP on Torque, with remixes by Truncate (U.S.A.) and Aiken (Spain):
Find them on Facebook – www.facebook.com/torquemusic – and grab the record on Beatport.
So, let’s just get through the middle of the week by queuing up more, shall we?
Think Stormtroopers more than Diane Keaton when you hear her name. And don’t expect her to give up any rebel secrets, really. Photo of the artist, courtesy the artist.
From 2012 – though to me, her sound holds up any old time – she coupled a gorgeous remix of Scan7’s “Mental Reaction” with an eerie, hyperreal iPhone film of the Detroit People Mover.
Scan7 – Mental Reaction – Annie Hall remix from annie hall on Vimeo.
That impromptu film became the basis of another motion graphics masterpiece by Dmas3, for the remix Valance Drakes “DSM-5” on the same Random Paraphilia EP.
Annie Hall / DSM-5 Valance Drakes rmx. DU™ from dmas3 on Vimeo.
All of this tends to glitch, hard-edged intersections of digital surfaces colliding, images deteriorating into flurries of pixels, rhythms fashioned from hyperactive electronic transformations. If it seems to lend itself to real-time exploration, that’s just what Johannes Poell of Austria did, working in the gaming environment Unity 3D.
IGNITE from Johannes Poell on Vimeo.
IGNITE is an audio-reactive realtime environment built in unity3D.
it was realized in a cooperative effort with the almighty orihaus! noctuelles.net
It utilizes Richard Devine’s remix of Annie Hall’s track Bandit 28930 to drive animations, camera movement, …
(for this particular incarnation shown here).
oh and… this is a 25fps capture of a 60 frames per second realtime demo.
(hardware would actually allow more, graphic card caps at 60.)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
soundcloud.com/richarddevine/richard-devine-remix-annie
CPU’s video for “Symphora” takes these sots of geometries and makes them more fluid, with equally pleasing effect:
Annie Hall – Symphora from CPU on Vimeo.
But we can do techno, here, too.
In a podcast this month for Japan’s Seven Lounge, she does techno properly – dark, odd, minimal (in a good way), heavy, and with an unmistakable echo of the Detroit sound.
Or there’s the podcast for Reclaim Your City, which might transport you to one of her sets in Berlin’s Tresor or Berghain.
Or go still darker yet with a Dystopian Rhythm podcast from earlier this year:
Or hear her podcasting for aforementioned label Torque:
Tracklisting:
01.Tunnel_the ritual(corbin davis remix)
02.Ryogo Yamamori – closing
03.Aiken – Eternal Dreamer
04.The Plant Worker – Gamma 04
05. Exium – Fenomen
06. Rene Walther temple of mind (virulent remix)
07. Bodies_in_Pawn – Null (Project 313 Version)
08. Jose Pouj – Occipital (Reeko remix)
09. Garret Dillon Knock original
10. Spherical Coordinates – scjkn-09(Original_Mix)
11. Adam Jay & DJ Shiva – Impossibilities (Ground Loop Probably Remix) [Bonus Track]
12. Mark Broom & James Ruskin – No time soon
13. Christian Wunch Mutation
14. Logotech – Verschrauben
15. Drumcell – Rooted Resentment
In quieter, more candid moments, here’s Annie Hall on her way this summer in a Tokyo tour, in another mobile-documented video made collage. Gentle glitch ambience “Remind” by Direkt Jive, also on Detroit Underground, is a perfect soundtrack to Japan, somehow.
Tokyo with Oto, Lena and Hisashi 2014 from annie hall on Vimeo.
Bringing us full circle, you can grab the Random Paraphilia on Bandcamp:
IDM never died. It just glitched, then evolved, got still more beautifully corrupted – and we got sick of the acronym.
I’ll finish with this, because the track describes the ideal studio setup:
“i made this track last night using MaxMSP, Monome 64, Reaktor5 and beer. Enjoy”
Word.
Hope to see her back here in Berlin – or get to Detroit/Windsor one of these days.
Follow her on SoundCloud for the latest – https://soundcloud.com/annie-hall-dj