“This is $upra“ is the 10th anniversary labelcompilation by $upra Recordings featuring 18 different tunes from electronica, dubstep, downbeat and beyond by 14 different producers. Let´s hear what label boss Hell g. has to tell you about this project: “This is $upra“ has become a mindbending eclectic adventure with so many nice artists & genres you can hardly imagine. You are about to move yourself through electronic styles like dub/dubstep, house of house, indietronica and downtempo/idm from artists like Takt3, Trimonia, Matthew Adams, Dub Mars, The Hobby of Ed, Carboncell many more. A very interesting fact: there is a constant presence of the spirit of dub music in this compilation – featured in nearly each single tune. But: it’s still not a strictly dub compilation!

So here are some facts about all artists who are involved in this project:

Dub Mars: Long time friend & best buddy in making music ‘Dub Mars’ aka Mario Christofferson must be one of the most featured artists on this compilation – with nearly 3 different sideprojects and a doublefeature regarding his solo alias ‘Dub Mars’ he represents dub in it’s purest form – broadening our horizons by adding triphop & dubstep flavours to his cinematic compositions. His ‘Distorted Prelude’ is the most perfect tune to begin this compilation. Dub Mars is double featured with two tunes on this compilation, one on postition one and one on position sixteen named ‘Fuzzed’. Both tunes are from his latest longplayer ‘Dalai Dubbed’ which will hopefully be released on $upra-Rec later this year.until then lean back, relax and watch that unbelieveable clear & clean present bass-sound!

Takt3: Here we go with another doublefeature and the first sideproject of Mario Christofferson: Takt3. Takt3 consists of Cara McQueen on vocals and Dub Mars on composition & production of lush minimal and floating ambient- and dubhouse tunes. After releasing their first longplayer ‘Godmachine’ in 2008 on my label they’re now back with their second longplayer ‘So it is’ which will hopefully be released here too. Their both tracks on this compilation are from their actual album – first tune named ‘Come Down’ on position two and the second called ‘Love’ on position fiveteen. Enjoy the pulse of Takt3!

$uperchrome: Here we go with another sideproject of dub mars – this time he has me Hell g. by his side. I presented to you $uperchrome already not long ago on my blog – $uperchrome stands for easy but trippy and sometimes even futuristic jazzy lounge constructions with attitude. We had some releases on lemongrassmusic and some nice lounge- and easy listening compilations in the last couple of years. This tune called ‘The Future is Splendid’ is more settled on the darker and trippy side of loungie electronic nujazz. enjoy z trip!

The Hobby of Ed: Here we go with the last doublefeature from the compilation featuring Edgar Winterhoff, or short: Ed. Edgar is a good mate and also a very diverse musician – he played in some well known bands coming from my hometown, f.e. bass with the ‘Hip Young Things’; bass, guitar & vocals in my band ‘Poor Romantic Track Recorder’ and did the electronics in a band called ‘casino’, a band called ‘Looping’ and a band named ‘The Story of Acoustic Kitty’ some years ago. You’re now about to witness his big hobby – The Hobby of Ed. The Hobby of Ed is his nice lofi-indietronica project covered with lots of obscure electronics, sonic easy listening, lofi dub adventures and some beautiful popsongs. I’m very happy to announce that I’m going to release his longplayer later this year here on $upra-Recordings. We have two of his tunes already here on the compilation – on postition four the sametitled track ‘Hobby of Ed’, which drives us in happy elevators straight into lofi-beachhouse-allinclusive-hotelresorts, and on position thirteen the sonic dub inferno called ‘Oh Summer’. Coproduced and mixed by Michael Beckett (aka Kpt. Michigan).

Trimonia: Trimonia is the brainchild of long time friend and unbelieveable musician Trian Kayhatu – most of you might know him as Chukimai (or even ch00kii), the legendary mp3.com mysterious artist from far east with her/his mindbending soulful & jazzed compositions. His new project trimonia is another step across the border of musical geniusness and hard to describe with words – you just have to listen for yourself! Just imagine Aphex Twins making love to Flying Lotus – then you might have a small part of what Trimonia may sound like. Hopefully Trian might release a Trimonia e.p. here on $upra later this year – I would be very proud & honoured if he does. Enjoy his tune ‘Herr Herrmann’ – enjoy abstract trippy instrumental glitch hop by Trimonia!

Hell g.: I’m entering this compilation with an older tune I did in 2003. The track named ‘Fauna Flashed’ is a faster breakbeat/breakcore/drill n bass hybrid with lots of glitch and editing-action and brings you fauna in full effect. Taken from my 2004 album ‘Total Consuming Satisfaction‘ which will be rereleased later this year on $upra-Rec. stay tuned for that & enjoy!

Carboncell: Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. There are three naturally occurring isotopes, with 12C and 13C being stable, while 14C is radioactive, decaying with a half-life of about 5730 years. Carbon is one of the few elements known since antiquity. The name “carbon” comes from Latin language carbo, coal. (quote: wikipedia) Carboncell is Andreas Müller from my hometown bielefeld. He produces cutting edge dubstep with technoid sci-fi influences and atmospheres – always an eye on the minimal arrangement with maximum groove. His track on position 7 named ‘When the Chimes End’ is a deep & cinematic martial arts adventure for your personal brain-cinema – take a seat & enjoy the trip.

Valera Igla: Valera is a long time friend of mine and also the guitarman of our band ’7 Days Awake’ – and in his sparetime he doesn’t sleep at all. Deeply influenced by psychedelic music and his ethnic roots he spills out electronica with a very special personal flavour and multilayered moods. His tune ‘Kactus’ is an example for what happens when you melt dub, psychedelic, indie, electronica and some secret hidden ingredients to a trippy & spaced out groover. Bassplay by Simon Vegaz (also known as the bassman of The Apocalypse and 7 Days Awake).

Stuer an der Borche: Stefan Trockel (aka Stuer an der Borche) didn’t want to tell me what ‘Stuer an der Borche’ actually means – if I google the word ‘Stuer’ the only thing I find is a samenamed village in the southwest of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, east germany. But I also know that Stefan isn’t from east germany – he’s from Bielefeld, the guitarman of our band ‘Übergangsregierung’, formerly played in a punkband named ‘sec 100′ and deep inside he’s a true dubhead. This is what you can experience when you listen to his smashing dubstep tune ‘Gigawatt Redemption’. Dubstep with a sawtooth, swirling delays and nice breaks is what you find and what makes you want to move your ass or light up a spliff – or both.

DJ Spam: When it comes to spam anyone is annoyed fast. Overflowing mailboxes with viagra adverts or penis enlargement pills yall may know very well. When it comes to DJ Spam it could be acoustic annoying for some of you – it could..This time DJ Spam won’t torture our ears too much – his tune named ’3AM’ on position ten of the compilation is a deep & slowed down dubbed out triphop/illbient tune with lots of sizzling noises, record crackles and a cuckoo clock. when the cuckoo calls thrice it’s time to go to sleep.

Cop Porn: We take a huge step on the map to dark & cold helsinki, finland and we meet this myterious trio named ‘Cop Porn’ – no, you don’t need an adult check to listen to their energetic and driving electro dancepunk tunes and you won’t also find em on myspace. These girls & guys want to stay anonymous and hide themselves constantly from public. They sent me their tune ‘Exploited Moms’ via soundcloud and i was blasted and couldn’t believe that they still don’t have a labeldeal nor any releases so far. This all might change in the near future. ‘Exploited Moms’ is about artificial coolness, homophobia and the decay of social life in general – and a dancefloor banger to make you sweat. enjoy & dance your ass off!

Susanne Klickerklacker: Back to Bielefeld again we meet a sweet little girl named Semia Belhadj aka Susanne Klickerklacker. Semia constructs marvellous indietronica bitpop cottoncandy, always settled between heartbreaking melodies and decomposing noises – tho she would never call herself a musician. Doing everything as an autodidact, she surprises us with her great feeling for huge melodies, obscure glitchy beatconstructions, sweet synthhooklines and incredible tricky compositions and simply charms the listeners ears. Her song on position 12 named ‘Kopfjahrmarkt’ is a sweet & melancholic bitpop ballad about love, broken hearts and unfulfilled expectations. Enjoy the bittersweet ‘Kopfjahrmarkt’ of Miss Klickerklacker.

Boris Backup: This next participant names himself ‘Boris Backup’ and is a very talented, 17year old boy from a very small village called Wüsten near Bielefeld’s neighbourtown Herford. From this rural terrain he’s hailin the world with his minimalistic microtechhouse tunes which work on both places: the couch & the dancefloor. Boris is a complete autodidact, too, just like miss Belhadj above and would never call himself a musician aswell. “I’m just pushing around blocks & pieces – anybody can do that”, he said to me in a short email-conversation. he also likes to stay anonymous – as a true 21st century digital boy “I don’t like to give away my identity to everyone”. and you won’t also find him on myspace. “myspace is for spambots and losers”, he claims. Wise words from a wise youngster. His sparkling tune ‘Unknown Pleasures’ is a seductive smooth microhouse joyride, which starts up very monotone-hypnotic and then suddenly breaks down into something different, something unknown – it’s always nice to have a backup around...

Matthew Adams: Back to Bielefeld again we meet good friend, DJ mate and producer Matthias Frick aka ‘Matthew Adams’. Matti offers a broad variety of styles, sounds & grooves shifting from downtempo/ambientronic to minimalistic trancey technoid dancepearls. His gorgeous tune ‘Thru the Hill’ on position seventeen on the compilation is a pleasant and chilled journey thru the hills of euphoric emotional condition and aswell the valleys of perception and release. It’s hard to describe this tune or classify into one single genre – I would file it under downtempo / chillbientronica. Take a seat & enjoy sight seeing.

Puch: Last not least there comes a brandnew tune from Cara’s, Mario’s & my downtempo project ‘Puch’. After releasing our latest longplayer ‘Welcome to our Madhouse’ three month ago we’ve been already very busy writing new songs and have also arrived on a nu level of production-technique. Our new song ‘Elegy’ is an epic and atmospheric downtempo/triphop/ambient tune with a widescreen string ensemble and minimal glitched beats and the mystic ancient lyrics and vocals of Cara McQueen. ‘Elegy’ ends this compilation and sends you straight to heaven – enjoy!