Aircrash Bureau were F. Schmidt (electronics), Stephan Klaus Kessler (voice & programming) & Michael Will (electronics & drums), a short-lived German trio active in 1989. This group should not be confused with a more recent Aircrash Bureau from Sweden, which is a progressive trance/house project. After the release of this lone 12″, two songs, “120 BPM” and “Time to Die”, made it onto the Zoth Ommog compilation Body Raptures. Stephan Kessler had one other techno / industrial release in 1990, under the artist name Art Academy, but then later became involved in the acid / jungle scene in the 1990s and since then has also released hard house and trance material under a variety of psuedonyms. The embedded audio are from the actual 12″ release, while the download contains the tracks from Body Raptures, an A.B. remix of “Exhibition” (from the first Technopolis compilation), and a rare Razormaid remix of “Exhibition”. All are in 192 kbps.

Tracklisting:

1 Machine
2 Exhibition
3 Exhibition (Remixed by A.B.)
4 Time To Die
5 120 BPM
6 Exhibition (Razormaid mix)

Aircrash Bureau – Machine

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Aircrash Bureau – Exhibition

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Die Krupps is a long-running German band that released their first material in 1981 and whose sound has changed drastically over the years. Starting out as a kind of noisy synth-pop (comparisons could be made to fellow Germans Einsturzende Neubauten and KMFDM), Die Krupps would move through EBM / industrial territory, before settling in on a strong electronic / metal crossover in the 1990s. The mini-album Entering the Arena, from 1985, is the band’s only release for a 7 year span from 1982 – 1989. Entering the Arena may be some of the band’s most accessible material; a mixture of mid-80s synth-pop and EBM. It is also one of the few albums that has been un-re-released in the band’s recent period of activity, which includes re-issues of much older material. Die Krupps, of course, was much maligned in the 1990s with their metal period (their line-up included one-time Heathen and current Exodus guitarist Lee Altus). Particular scorn was heaped upon A Tribute to Metallica, which saw the band included in a similar style of heavy electronic metal with the likes of Ministry and KMFDM. Die Krupps went on hiatus in 1997 after the release of Paradise Now and resurfaced 10 years later with new live activity and an anthology entitled Too Much History. This anthology is not simply a reissue of old material but fresh re-recordings of songs from the past, including a new song. To date, the most recent Die Krupps release is Volle Kraft Null Acht, issued in March 2009. This CD contains remixes of older material by artists such as KMFDM, Leather Strip, Funker Vogt, Thomas Heckmann and more. There has been no information about the possibility of new material being released, nor has there been a mention of a possible re-release of Entering the Arena, as the previous two editions from 1993 remain out-of-print.

Tracklisting:
1 Risk (3:52)
2 The Rise & Fall (5:30)
3 Communication Breakdown (3:00)
4 Risky Soul Version (6:32)
5 Gladiators (5:24)
6 Your Voice (5:35)
7 Communication Breakdown (Don’t Speak Mix) (3:09)
8 This Day Is Not The Last (3:53)
9 Risk (Operatic Intro) (3:50)
10 Risk (Metallic Outro) (3:17)

Die Krupps – Risk

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Die Krupps – Gladiators

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Different Mixes was released by a German electro-techno label called BOY Records in 2005. BOY has been known for releasing material by other artists such as Time Modem, New Scene, and many more. Contrary to its title, it is not in fact the complete collection of MCL, nor is it even the complete collection of different mixes. The bulk of the CD is 6 remixes by Razormaid, as well as 5 different remixes of the song “New York”. Several alternate mixes from early releases were not included, and all by two tracks are included from the LP Code Numbers, and those mixes are indeed different than those on the LP. While I am a big fan of this CD, I feel that the loss of several other tracks in favor of over the half of the running time being remixes of the same song sort of hurts the collection. I really wish someone would just give Code Numbers a proper CD release with some bonus tracks. However, as it stands, this is the only available MCL CD release. Code Numbers was supposedly re-released a few years back, but I’ve yet to find evidence of this fact. If it is in indeed true, that the CD re-release is much rarer than the actual LP itself. Copies of Different Mixes have turned up on Ebay and various sites, but I recommend the store below. I am unaware of how many copies they actually have in stock, but the link will remain until I find that they have run out.

Tracklisting:
1 Communicate (Atomic Part Mix) (6:02)
2 Satellite (Original Mix) (5:05)
3 New York, New York (Double NY-Mix)
4 New York, New York (Dancefloor Cut Mix) (5:10)
5 Communicate (Razormaid Mix) (7:21)
6 Satellite (Razormaid Mix) (7:31)
7 Power Plant (Razormaid Mix) (6:08)
8 Stranger (Razormaid Mix) (6:26)
9 New York, New York (Razormaid Mix) (6:26)
10 New York, New York (Razormaid Remix) (6:44)
11 Microchip League (Humatic Mix) (5:44)
12 New York, New York (Midnight Mix) (6:10)

From ektoplazm.com: Shapestatic is Chris Johnson (AKA Kri) and Alex Falk (AKA The Bastard) from the Appalachian Mountains of the southern United States. Typifying the growing Psytrance scene in that region, Shapestatic’s debut release Metaphim on North American record label Gaian Mind is a bombshell collection of raw, energetic, and passionate tracks meticulously put together with not a moment of sound wasted. Metaphim combines in-your-face bass lines with gritty, acid-drenched synth strata, tight percussion, tweaked-out samples, and purposeful harmony. Hard-edged and very psychedelic, yet still bouncy, positive, and musical, Shapestatic bears a sound which is wholly unique to America. Metaphim will keep your body moving well into the first rays of dawn! Metaphim by Shapestatic is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States license. Gaian Mind originally released this album on CD in 2007 and have been gracious enough to offer it up for free and legal download here on Ektoplazm. If you enjoy the release be sure to show your support by purchasing a physical copy from the T.O.U.C.H. Samadhi web shop.

Tracklisting:
1 Platform (7:39)
2 Lightened (8:02)
3 Dancefloor (7:27)
4 Dream This (8:05)
5 Time Flies (7:19)
6 Drum (8:12)
7 Blastorb (8:07)
8 Grain (8:10)
9 Paralyzed (9:10)

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Terranoise is the psychedelic trance project of Ukranian-born Maxim Galinov, who has been based in Israel since 1995. He discovered trance and started DJ-ing on his own in 2000. Since then, he has released two full-length albums and two MP3 releases, including his most recent one, Cross-Dimensional Feedback, an epic dark trance album that was released in May 2009. In October 2008, he made this 7-track unreleased promo available via the isratrance forums. He states that the tracks are no more than 2 years old, but decided not to use them because he is creating a new style, which I assume is represented on the new album. Each of the files are in WAV PCM format and can be downloaded for free from the links on isratrance. If those links ever go down, I might be able to mirror them here. His most recent news shows upcoming live sets in Mexico and Portugal.

Tracklisting:

Beautiful Future
Central Nervous System
Earth’s Most Powerful Soldier
Last Hope
Space and Motion in the Factory
Tempo Fixed
There Are Others

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