rump recordings releases

Icarus Sylt & Sylt Remixes Bundle

Release date: November 22, 2011

Prices include free shipping to all over the world. We only ship out on wednesdays, so please be patient.

Given the feeling of flux that imbues Icarus’s music a remix album makes perfect sense, while judicious choices regarding the producers chosen to carry out the task mean this feels more like a collection of brand new music than reinterpretations … so much inventive and engaging work. (SYLT REMIXES)

- Chris Power, BBC (UK)

Sylt Remixes is a consistently challenging record which opens up the already vast sound world of Icarus to entirely new textures. (SYLT REMIXES)

- Textura (Canada)

It's almost impossible to place this album anywhere other than in the 'slightly uneasy listening' bracket. In an age of mass-conformity and mainstream music-by-numbers, such non-conformity can only be a good thing. (SYLT REMIXES)

- Whisperin and Hollerin (UK)

Overall the listening experience is as invigorating as it is unsettling. (SYLT REMIXES)

- DJ Mag (UK)

"Icarus’ Sylt på nye hænder forvaltes kompetent og kærligt." 5/6 (SYLT REMIXES)

- Gaffa (DK)

"Hier wird nicht zitiert, hier wird tiefgreifend, ehrlich und substanziell neu gemischt und dekonstruiert." (SYLT REMIXES)

- MTV (DE)

Our old pal John Twells (Xela) avoids the sort of pitch-black drone studies we’ve become accustomed to in favour of BOC-like beats, brightened synth basslines and layered, harmonising vocals. It’s actually incredibly poppy, and underlines both the diversity and overall quality of this fine compilation.

- Boomkat (UK)

"Imagine placing albums by Four Tet, Amon Tobin, Squarepusher, Murcof, Lutz Glandien, György Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, SND and Philip Glass into your cd changer and then pressing play only to find them all playing at the same time." (SYLT)

- KS/Experimusic.com

"Icarus are one of the most underrated and overlooked electronic groups who are so perfect at their craft, it almost concerns me how they´ve gone virtually unnoticed. They deserve far more attention then they have ever gotten throughout their entire career, and it is my hope this album will prompt people to invest time into the strange, wonderful and confusing musical progression that is Ollie Bown and Sam Britton´s music project, Icarus." (SYLT)

- Eric Common/The Silent Ballet

"A playful masterpiece of hyperrhythmic avant beat freetronica" (SYLT)

- audioculture.org

"Great as always!" (SYLT)

- Fernando Corona (Murcof)

"deliciously and maddeningly unclassifiable" (SYLT)

- Chris Sharp/The Wire

"Sam Britton and Ollie Bown create uncompromising experimental improvised music that manages to be at once evocative and captivating, and Sylt only serves to strongly reinforce their vision." (SYLT)

- Bruno/The Milk Factory

"Giver man sig tid til at opleve Icarus’ til tider frenetiske og altid krævende musik, belønnes man med et givende album, som bør begejstre fans af Sun Ra såvel som Autechre.’" (SYLT)

- Jesper Buhl/Gaffa

ICARUS have just announced the release date of their forthcoming "Fake Fish Distribution". Perhaps the first generative album ever!
Read about it here: http://www.icarus.nu/wp/2011/10/30/icarus-fake-fish-distribution-release-date-in-2012
To celebrate this interesting project from the always innovative group, we've put both of our ICARUS titles ("Sylt" and "Sylt Remixes") on sale as a bundle for just €10 in the Rump webshop - including worldwide shipping. That's half of the normal price!
Why not spoil your grandmother in the upcoming holiday season with some free-form avant-tronics from way out there?

Sylt
'Sylt' was Icarus' first album in two years, and followed the understated 'Carnivalesque' in 2005, and the acclaimed 'I Tweet the Birdy Electric' in 2004, over which time the duo Ollie Bown and Sam Britton have continued working on related projects in electroacoustic performance, composition and music-related research.
The album builds on the band's inquisitive approach to electronic music production acquired over 6 album releases spanning over a decade, and spread across a mix of record labels: The Leaf Label, Output, Hydrogen Dukebox, Temporary Residence, Not Applicable, and for this latest release, Rump Recordings.
'Sylt' was devised around two extended improvised tracks, 'First Inf(E)Rænce' and "Second Inf(E)Rænce', taken from one live performance in Toulouse in 2006. These recordings represent the accumulation of unreleased material built up over a spate of live performances as well as the documentation of the band's development of an improvised electronic music style in which flourishes of rhythmic and harmonic structures are restlessly set up against each other by the duo.
Alongside these live recordings, 'Sylt' also revisits the recognisable structures of Icarus' earlier anthemic style in tracks such as 'Keet' and 'Volks', outbursts of joyous rhythmic lunacy in the bricolage of 'Selfautoparent', and a developing sense of instrumental musique concrète in tracks such as 'Jyske' and 'Rugkiks'.

Sylt Remixes
Icarus' 2007 album 'Sylt' further consolidated the band's exploration into remixing recordings of live performances, which were in turn remixes of earlier studio tracks (a trait first explored in 2005's 'Carnivalesque').
With the 'Sylt Remixes' album, this reprocessing passes over to third parties, gathering contributions from Denmark (home of Rump Recordings), the UK (home of Icarus) and further afield.
The collection opens on a dancefloor tack, kicking off with teenage prodigy Nabo's wonky mix of "Volks!", and passing via Björk-collaborator Opiate's abstract mix of "Keet" into Frank Bretschneider of Raster-Noton's pulsating edit of the same.
Karsten Pflum's bass-driven take on "First Inf(E)Rænce" strips the hoover bag out of a frenetic crescendo to create a minimal dub-funk work out, while ISANs version of "Keet" adds glockenspiels and an almost shoegaze vibe.
Elsewhere, Planet Mu's Ital Tek puts the dubstep into "Selfautoparent", while Svartbag extends "Rugkiks" with guitardrones and noise and Throbbing Gristle-collaborator Ivan Pavlov (aka oxy/CoH) gives a minimalistic take on Keets lop-sided beats.
The remixing then pushes out towards more abstract territory with electro-acoustic improvisers Isambard Khroustaliov / Lothar Ohlmeier, cyber-jazzers Badun, Xela (in a surprisingly hip-hop workout of "Second Inf(E)Rænce"), and Swedish 8-bit wizzard Goto80.
Finally, Icarus themselves also provide a pre-original mix of 'Sylt's opening track, "Keet", redecorated with fragments of orchestration, before Digitonal finishes off with a soothing take on "Jyske".

The artwork weaves London parakeets into the mix, courtesy of a video created by Alice Scott to the track "Keets", which is available as a download from the band's website as an accompaniment to the album.