"Gary Spence aka T-Polar offers an extra-ordinary richness of sound within his universe of Microfunk that is difficult to comprehend immediately. Music that is difficult to describe even after listening to it multiple times. Somebody who tries to stick to a review of T-Polar's music will not get the idea of the reviewers description because T-Polar is just something else than the usual groovy minimalism one might or might not be familar too. Therefore we won't try to describe what's waiting for you inside this release - just listen to it and figure out by yourself if this one grows upon futher listening it or if it's not your cup of tea. Us at Thinner can tell that we don't like this album - we just adore it.
Red Machine is the result of introducing a more organic urban inspired sound to the minimal music T-Polar has made in the past to give more options, more emotion and reflecting his ideas in a slightly more "human" way. "Red Machine" itself is the turning point of years of production and the attempt to access a more rounded style and incorporate the slightly more eclectic tastes which T-Polar has accumulated over the years which will be shown in later work as it grows on from this - a soundtrack to a lamp light centre of population
T: "If T-Polar's 2004 releases were a bit more obvious 80's House the new album has kind of an Arcade funk trademark incorporated with the House reminiscences put a bit in the background although they are present within the whole album for sure. What are the ingredients of the T-Polar universe and what do you think are the differences between the 2004 releases compared to "Red Machine"?"
G: "I think its just a progression of interests, the previous releases I had been very influenced by the Minimal Techno and House side of things and decided to make my own twist on that - a lot of the elements are still there with Red Machine but felt a much wider range of music influencing me and a need to make things slightly more human in a way. I would call it a mild direction change towards a fuller sound and more interest in vocals and how they can affect the feel and arrangement of the tracks. Also a desire to keep things original by trying to steer clear of a set genre and offer a bit more of what I'm really thinking. Melody suddenly got more important."
T: "Once again this is extra-ordinary music that feels somehow mystic with it's many layers but also close, groovy and easy to access. In other words, they combine distance and proximity. Some tracks offer many different perspectives, especially "Summer Daize" and "Travellers" sound like colourful futuristic downbeat house (or something!) - how would you categorize your music and are those pieces more experiments through jamming than sequeneced & pre-mapped songs?"
G: "I always have problems categorizing the stuff I make not to mention trying to figure out who might be into it and it's semi-intentional. Like most people I wouldn't want to be pigeon holed and I probably make an effort not to purposely pigeon hole myself. As I said, steering clear of obvious genres is a must as I don't think it would be the natural results of sitting down to make a track unless you were only interested in a certain genre or if you decided to make music for DJs. I would like people to stop for a second and wonder about the music, what makes the producer think this way, where you would begin to make it etc as opposed to thinking certain tracks would work well in a set or in a club. It's not really intended for NightClubs although I hope some of it might work well in that setting but I would prefer different associations - odder settings - maybe more personal to the individual than just something to dance to then dispose of. The slight extra human touch maybe comes from the jamming as you mention - not sequencing everything to perfect mathematics or being over technical in certain departments - improvising to a certain extent and almost programming some elements to improvise by themselves."
T: "I guess the track "Red Machine" is the main track of the album - this one once again combines alien funk with this unreal soft pads with this particular ethereal melody and groovy slow motion house rhythms. What is your association with this track, can you describe what makes the Red Machine here?"
G: "This is probably the most important piece of the album to me and the real cornerstone in interests. It was originally intended to have full vocals over it and be a bit more of an electronic funk track but I wasn't able to do that at the time - but it definately is a vision of the future for me and a strong sign of where I've been since and am looking to go back to. It's more about the melodies than most previous music I've made and I'm pretty pleased with it - it's got a slight element of joy to it but an underlying sadness. I would also hope my sense of humour comes through in some of the music but it may be too deeply buried. It's there somewhere I promise."
By donating $10 or more to info@t-polar you will not only have a good feeling for supporting the artist directly, moreover you will automatically receive a copy of the 100 copies ltd. cdr edition in lossless audio quality that features 2 bonus tracks ("Reasons" + "Reflect on the Day")." (From the Thinner's release page)

"Thinner number seventy-six brings you the ever diligent Pheek from Montréal with a collection of tracks that have been produced over the past 2.5 years. Two of those tracks have been produced with Benfay according to JPs stay at his place back in 2002, during his first european tour. The original track "Dub Trail" sees a remix by T-Polar, with whom Pheek played in Belfast early April. Other cooperational tracks with Jason Corder are on their way to end up with a CD release under the project belt "Social System", so Pheek's many project involvements reveal that a major part of his musical life is all about consortium! Speaking about, the latter project with Jason Corder recently saw their live debut on the Mutek Festival.
However, the tracks included on this EP are a bit older of date and gently reflect the time for when Pheek predominantely worked with pads in his minimal environments. Due to his involvement with hardware labels he lately produced more functional, more reduced stuff. But releasing these tracks that have been produced 2002-2004 reflect a time where Pheek has successfully started to get himself establish in the guild of the prolific cutting edge minimal producers, introducing a very own style, constructing variable minimal tracks with punching hi-pass bassdrums and mostly eerie effects. So, Consortium somehow closes the circle.
In March 2005 after finding his own outlet Archipel and numerous releases both on netlabels and hardware labels in the meantime, Pheek returned to play a healthy amount of gigs in the U.K. and Germany but also to find out about how recognition over here is going: "There's two things that were getting very important to me as I was travelling: I wanted to see what was the importance of Netlabels in the club scene and also, I wanted to see what is status of the minimal scene as well. I was pretty happy to realize that both are very well established and very healthy, but still small. I was very impressed how much people came to me because I was on various netlabels. Even though I was released on Minus or Contexterrior, I was thinking people would come to see me for that, but it was actually because I was one of the active netlabel producer at the moment. I also realised that people who are into netlabels are very knowledgeble, know a lot about music and are extremely passionate to get the latest thing available. That's very refreshing to see we're not working for nothing. From what I experienced, the vinyl releases seemed to give me a lot of credibility for DJs as for the netreleases got me a lot of supporters from people who love to browse and search for music online."
Having said that, the tour went pretty well and Pheek used the time for extensive networking, so he brought a lot of impressions back home to Canada: "I think meeting a lot of people in Europe made me feel like moving there as well. This is something that a few american artists did and I'm getting there. Somehow, I feel a bit isolated from a distant scene in which I feel I have a place and where I'm appreciated more than where I come from. We'll see by the end of the summer."
Being active in the music biz since many years now Pheek knows very well that the road to success is a long and windy one. We'll indeed see what happens but one thing for sure - Pheek carefully watches developments taking place and will take the right decision. Whereever he will decide to stay." (From the Thinner's release page)

"Confronted with the idea of only using 3 samples from the samplepack and then picking one extra, a bunch of Archipel artists went beyond their usual creative routine to deliever a massive effort. Eight tracks that introduce you to an exercise which will be repeated regularly, as Archipel is a label about challenges and new ideas. Only reprocessing and effects were permitted, as Archipel believes that creative limits are actually a door that leads beyond our personal limits.
This release opens up with Navarro, who goes on an ambient excursion and sets a tone for the whole release. If minimalism is the operative word, Bern follows with a very cold and heady track, a perfect tool for DJs and also a door opener to personnal introspection. Tpolar is next with a moment of glitchy punches, followed by Le_Cantin who takes it deep. Then, we introduce a new artist to our label, Plaster, who makes his first appearance with a bit of the dark side, very deep and serious. Next is Gyges with an intensly minimal track, reminiscent of Richie Hawtin's Concept series. Finally, Jesse Somfay and Pheek close this first Assignement with 4/4 tracks, as they love to do.
Should you have any idea of challenges for future Assignement Compilations, please share them with us at info@archipel.cc" (From the Archipel's release page)

"After 10 releases and simmering for 6 months, something exceptional was bound to happen. Something new... Something almost unheard of in the world of netlabels... Why not a mix session compiled by DJs?
The Autist and Véga, the two renowned DJs of the Refuge Électronik, have a unique musical synergy which has brought them to repeat performances in prestigious clubs such as Circus, Gravity, Ambassade, 1234 and others. In fact, it was in working frequently with Éloi Brunelle at these venues that a tight bond was formed among the three.
On the release, 15 carefully selected savory tracks offering a spectacular voyage into the musical land of epsilonlab.com. No artist was forgotten, you'll find them all. Download the tracks individually to create your own CD, or save it as is on you hard drive. Enjoy." (From the Epsilonlab's release page)

"2004 has been the most prolific year of Belfasts' Gary Spence aka T-Polar so far - something set him on fire, and we're proud to be part of it. His releases on Morris Audio Citysport and the Substatic Sublabel Karloff, aswell as the incredible "Boobcube EP" on Epsilonlab set new benchmarks in terms of versatility within the more minimal settings of Housemusic.
Being guest on Thinner on THN050 (w/ Clive Kells) and recently remixing Benfay with a superb Klackerhouse tune, T-Polar presents a delightful four-tracker, whose title "Tonal Soul" couldn't better describe the feeling of those four songs.
The starter "Global Animal Dub" starts with glassy pads and mincing percussions. Within 2 minutes T-Polar manages to create a totally mixed up setting that carries elements from 80's Chicago funk, late night essential deephouse and top-recent minimal house tendencies, all somehow mixed and splattered, but also somehow so much arranged precisely. "Slugs" is a flat mystic minimal tunnel of splitting beats, twisted voices and shattered, twirling effects that are set on run-stop-restore. The title cut "Tonal Soul" comes up with a warm detroity pad we've been all waiting for, passed-out voices within a bed of microfunk textures and shifting percussive portions and a static doodling bassline. Again everything so unusual and on first sight so chaotic, but in between timeless seductive in it's sensuality. "Wracket Shield Fleet" is a hymn that underlines everything this EP is about with damped unfolding groovey basslines over bleepy chiptune (!) spots and silly voices snippets. A very strange, but immensely initimate melange of pixeled house stabs and deep filtered funk shiftings, that leave the listener with a big exclamation mark to watch out for the next releases of this guy." (From the Thinner's release page)

"After Thinner's summer holidays we welcome the next batch of Thinner releases with a remix compilation for Benfays versatile warm summer breezed ambient/lounge/ dubhouse album "One Touch Button Music". Since Benfay is a long time Thinner artist and had presented a playful and decent album in April, we felt it would become an exciting experience to ask our artists for their point of view on his tracks.
This result "One Touch Button Remixes" is a compilation that features reinterpretations of the most wanted Thinner artists, moving in between the multiple genres of modern relaxed electronic music the original album had provided.
Mikkel Metal, recently showing up with a new 12" on Kompakt, opens up with a sticky chemical interlude of "Elfenblond", that loses the downbeats and creates glueing lava textures out of the sensitive original sounds. Thinner's Joerg Schuster, aka Digitalverein, prepared an exotic melange of the mellow ingredients "Segelflieger" provided, utilizing tricky dub beats instead of the linear programming of the original, while Joerg, being Lufth, did a deeply filtered mix with stargazing dub chords and lush snaredrums.
The easy-listening "Allein Unter Den Arkaden" received a concentrated transition by krill.minima, keeping the mellow emotionality of the original by directing the attention to the fragile riding cymbals and carefully placed fading melody dots.
Paul Keeley felt inspired enough to do two totally different remixes for "The Carribean Bar" - proving the diversity of the original material. His "Wet Coast Mix" is a shallow and soothing downbeat jam, while the "Starlight" mix features the clicky midnight deephouse spheres we use to get seduced by Paul.
The fairytale "Jack And Jill" seemed to be perfect source material for Thinner's latvian lounge specialist Selffish, whose reinterpretation turned out more dashing and windy in relation to Benfays work.
The steamy "Oak" received a Pheek treatment, whose beats are more earthy, with clever shifting beats and rattling percussions, while "Blüten-Konfetti" got reworked by TPolar, whose splatter houze bonus beats are foreground shaking, with the original pads fading over in the background .
Jason Corder, with his recent Thinner album in the backpack, did a stunning microhouse cut of "Flussbett", with californic filter sweeps and easy dubs. And our old friend from Switzerland, Niels Jensen, gave the subtle "Bluestone" his unique uplifting, yet carefully arranged pattern twist that shine through his hardware production skills.
The remixes by Dennis DeSantis and Mateo Murphy turned out floorfilling, concrete and late night essential tools with pounding hit potential. Enjoy!" (From the Thinner's release page)