- Repitch, the experimental techno label run by Nino Pedone (Shapednoise), Davide Carbone (D. Carbone) and Pasquale Ascione (Ascion), has been the place to find techno bombs. The 13 tracks on their last compilation, 2015's Selected Cuts, were variations of a theme: industrial techno with burly kicks and churning grooves. Dys Functional Electronic Music is much more free-spirited. The compilation is rooted in industrial techno, but the tracks move between corroded dubstep, electro, new beat and '90s-style acid. Alongside contributing artists like Drvg Cvltvre, Zenker Brothers, The Exaltics and Skudge, Pedone, Carbone and Ascione lead the charge, cementing Repitch's position among vanguard techno imprints like Ilian Tape and Stroboscopic Artefacts.
Repitch's taste for raw and diverse club music has been suggested through other channels. Cosmo Rhythmatic, its experimental sub-label, has put out material from Black Rain & Shapednoise and the late Mika Vainio. Pedone's dismissal of the "heartbeat music" he found in Berlin, after moving there in 2011, might also feed into the compilation's ethos. As he put it in an interview with Self-Titled, "If you are doing a club night it has to be techno or house, which is totally bullshit. Listening to 24-48 hours of techno is super boring!"
If Dys Functional Electronic Music is what these guys would program over the course of a marathon club night, sign me up. The compilation opens with the cavernous bass of Pinch's "No Justice (Part 2)." "Getaway Highway"'s jungle-style diva sample, another UK nod, drags halftime percussion into mucky feedback. Other highlights include Galaxian's sci-fi electro, "Show Of Force," and the sinister new beat of Drvg Cvltvre's "Dead And Gone." The first of Dys Functional Electronic Music's three 12-inches barely dips into 4/4. Though the majority of these artists appear on Repitch for the first time, their tracks match the label's output in mood and atmosphere.
In the concluding section, it's the label founders that come through with some of the compilation's most distinctive material. Ascione and Carbone's "Dritte" gives the queasy ambience of Black Dice's Beaches & Canyons a techno throb, while Carbone's "Comma Wave" mixes acid squelch with dreamy leads, bringing things to a bittersweet end. The title of the compilation suggests a breaking away from electronic music that "works" for DJs. Dys Functional Electronic Music is instead about contrasts and extremes, where no two beats are the same.
Tracklist01. Pinch - No Justice (Part 2)
02. Ascion - Getaway Highway
03. Nuel - Biopunk
04. Galaxian - Show Of Force
05. Drvg Cvltvre - Dead And Gone
06. Shapednoise - 0.1dbhisdoi'fioa
07. Chris Moss Acid - Catacid
08. AnD - TT2
09. Gaja - Any Expectation
10. The Exaltics - Vierundvierzig
11. Sote - Operor
12. Skudge - Buchla.M1000
13. Mike Parker - Ilium Sphere
14. Ascion & D. Carbone - Dritte
15. Zenker Brothers - Perainer
16. D. Carbone - Comma Wave