"after a little break, -n comes back with 5 most famous heroes created by one of the most prolific figures in the netaudio community, dataman. to show our gratitude to dataman for providing us the most famous heroes, we've asked japanese flash artist, nomi to make an animation with 5 of the most famous aa (ascii art) characters loved on the most famous japanese bulletin board, '2 channel (it's read 'ni-channeru.' more details here on 2ch.).' they'll play the heroes for us.
let's see who we've got here. the first hero is 'mr. illusion.' this guy has the quality that paralyzes our sense of reality with dreamy drone that slowly and smoothly shifts and turns into convulsive pulse. by the time the guy starts to murmur, we're already in the world of his fantasia. he shows us the path to communicate with other heroes that are waiting ahead of us with his acid throwing knives. he's played by 'hageshiku-ninja' who always deludes us around on 2ch.
then we have 'mr. energy.' the name explains it all. his energetic house beat with a little twist of glitches and high-pitched sound bits keeps us going through the deep forest of quacking stabs filled with hypnotic voice samples. 'giko-neko(cat)' plays this role with lots of energy. he's one of those characters that never surrenders.
now it's the time for 'mr. pussy.' he's 'the' hero. everything, the keyboard, the synth, the acid bass is built upon dissonance, but listen to the straight forward house beat underneath the chaotic face of the main chorus. he definitely and perfectly represents those lovable losers - men. 'dokuo' (poison guy - came from the japanese word 'dokushin-dansei (unmarried man)') is perfect for this role. he doesn't even have to act, but he can just be himself and sit there. he's one of the most lovable heroes of all time.
'mr. fly' is a real entertainer. this track is acid house of the 21st century. it's got all the essence of good old acid, but besides all the novel sounds that tickle us and make us want to do funky moves while we're on the dancefloor, it's carefully constructed with off-beat hits and accents that occur without us knowing it to keep us 21st century people dancing as if acid house is the hottest thing in town today. furthermore, just the right amount of reverb successfully separates and brings up all the individual sounds up to the front, and all of those techniques make this piece sound far from nostalgic. this one's definitely for 'ppa-kun.' he always entertains us good. 'mr, fly' is fly but extremely friendly and never turns us down.
here goes the last hero. his name is 'mr. sunshine.' its experimental beat in the beginning grabs us hard, and it's just the beginning. from there, he takes us all the way up in the sky with the pad-powered pulsing synth escalator bound to what seems like heaven. up there, he welcomes and treats us gently with nostalgic melodies that almost feel like we're back in our mothers' wombs. then all the sudden, we realize that we're brought back to where we began. now we know this whole thing has been a fantastic roller coaster ride provided by 'mr. sunshine.' it just takes us all the way to the end without a single breath. for this role, we have 'monar,' one of the most beloved aa characters on 2ch. he's the sunshine. he's everywhere shining on us.
now the show's over. it's time for them to go home. let's just hope to see them again soon in the near future. - kengo miyazaki" (From the -N's release page)

"COM12 comes from Helsinki-based artist Twile. His aim is to make music which is intimate yet spacy, intensive yet hazy. It is about combining abstract and melodic elements, in attempt to create spacy, dub-orientated tracks saturated with sadness.
The title-track "Chiaroscuro" can be described as a laid-back, ambient-like piece of electronic music. With clear references to the oldschool, "True Bohemian" takes you on a melancholic journey through space and time.
This release comes with two remixes done by Dataman and Joko13. Joko13's spacy version of "Chiaroscuro" comes fully equipped with echoing chords, deep bass and intensive click-rhythms while Dataman's playful remix of "True Bohemian" with its earthy feel and heavy beats shows distinct tendencies towards being what we call a timeless headknock anthem." (From the Comatronic's release page)

"Nouvelle Cuisine
Sometimes there is not enough time to eat all the crispy brown rolls in the morning and as we don't want to waste anything, we have to consider what to do with it. It's up to the cook's imagination to find a clever use for all the rests he finds in his kitchen. Maybe he wants to make a veal cutlet, so he has to crumb the roll with a grater to make a good 'panade'. Or he decides to work up mincemeat to meatballs, so he has to soak and mix the roll afterwards. Two ways for a tasty utilisation of the remaining rolls: one to use its crispiness and the other to expand its inner softness.
Now, what's more suggesting itself is that Stadtgruen invites a couple of brilliant cooks for a remix competition of Monoide's five 'Crispy Brown Rolls'. In addition to the yet label-related artists like Marko Fuerstenberg, Yatsuo Motoki, Dataman and Gras, we proudly present Milos, Niemczyk, Aleks Svaensson, and Barbara Idijot as well as the baker himself.
They adjourned to their kitchens, took some unused and not yet expiring rolls, interspersed some other ingredients and spices, let it roast gently in hot oil and served their new dishes nicely arranged. Up to the temper of each cook this line-up of 'international cuisine' shows quite different flavours. According to the philosophy of our little restaurant, our guests may decide 'á la carte' which taste they prefer: the more urban and driven way of dining to be always on the jump - or a more calm and relaxed way to sit around the table.
Bon appetite!" (From the Stadtgruen's release page)

"Subminimal is omnipresent. Subminimal is what we feel. Subminimal is what we sophisticate. This release should help during the introspection which commence a dialog with ourself. Indeed, the question of our intrinsic self is very intractable. The philosophy discusses several topics about the sophistication of our self very disputed. Does the Human has an intrinsic self, that is independently constituted by our society or is the intrinsic self an effigy of the established society the individual is acting in. My thesis is that the human has an intrinsic self, that we can't consciously access. This self I call it the individual creative capability. The problem we have is the access of this capability, of that we can fail. This process requires to turn off the consciously cognition and needs to turn on the unconsciously cognition. If this process succeed, we are able to deflect the creativity in an emotion we can and should attend, because creativity is what we are. Andreas Seibel (Dataman)
Subminimal is dividable in two parts. "Sub" the subordinate, a meta-level or a unconsciously room. "Minimal" refers to the reduction of your consciously thoughts to its minimum, to reach the unconsciously meta-level. This makes Subminimal to a valuable treasure we need to explore." (From the Subsource's release page)

"White Plains, Comfort Rooms
When winter draws a deep cold breath over fields and forests the human adjourns to his sitting room, retiring back to warm places and looking at the world outside. The glass window is the required artificial separation that lets us survive from the mortal power of coldness. Behind the window we can build up our private little universe with plants and flowers which need southern heat normally. Within this little world everything is put in the right cultivated order, everything is all right.
Building up a secure room we can lean back and contemplate the course of the world, the well-stabilized harmony between nature and culture, which we have built up. But the precondition for this little paradise is separation. In order to conserve the state of life, securing our spirit conceives new separating techniques again and again. With glass we may construct a winter garden to conserve summer state, with photos and videos we may remember past times and with recording techniques we even may hear formerly faded sounds. The conservative attitude always looks back in order to conserve a certain state of life, to stop the course of world.
But life with its seasonal eclipse always goes ahead. Janus, the ancient deity of transition and passage dominates the brumal season. He has two faces, one looking back and one looking forward. The first has a contemplative and conservative mindset and the second a planning and visionary one. At the conservatory we may learn something about right techniques and a former way of living. But we should realise it as our everlasting challenge for our future.
Contemplation is the condition for vision. So join our musical invitation and lean back in contemplation to draw breath for an exciting new year." (From the Stadtgruen's release page)

"Appearance becomes our reality. The adaptation of the appearing features becomes part of our reality. All new rises from the individual recombination of the won impressions. We reconstruct the reality to a new feature of this reality.
Lego001 - Reconstruct A is based on the samples of the first two Legoego releases. The involved artists used parts of the first two releases with inclusion of own sounds in individual self-direction to form new unique sound features.
- Starting point of the "Reconstruct A" was the reconstruction kit. Several months it was freely accessible on our server. Many loops, cuts and passages of the first two releases should give you free inspiration fundament for creative waveforming.
Outgoing the artists create in combination with new sounds unique tracks which save their own flavor but also communicate with eachother caused of the same roots. Our selection of the received works is freely downloadable.
We hope you will enjoy it!" (From the Legoego's release page)

"We are proud to announce Part 2 of Dataman's minimal techno extravaganza 'Noetik'. This release starts off with the epic bouncer 'Nosologie' which features classic elements from dub - tech and mystic soundscapes that pave the way for the slightly darker arrangements of 'Ethos', a very atmospheric yet driving minimal track. 'Iktus' makes use of a different approach and combines interlaced beat structures with corresponding sound snippets that seem to put the relation between chaos and order in question." (From the Comatronic's release page)