PT015 - The JDs - Education

JD#1 = Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto
JD#2 = Jon Drukman of Bass Kittens

Seriously, what else do you need to know?




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PT014 - Copthorne MacDonald - Vidicon

Little is known about the mysterious Mr MacDonald, other than he shares his name with the inventor of slow-scan television. His demo arrived in the mail one day, covered with stamps from various Eastern European post offices. It's a bit of a departure from the normal Pretension sound, but we value good music above all, so we were thrilled to be able to put it out.

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PT013 - Bass Kittens - Terminus

Another odds and ends compilation, but the Bass Kittens Sound is so cohesive that it works (or you could just say that I'm a lazy bastard who only ever writes one kind of music.)

A little behind the scenes insight: People who have worked with me know that I'm a real one take kind of guy.  If the track, or parts of the track, aren't happening instantly, I usually just give up and do something else.  "Mono Melo" started life as a really melodic old school kind of thing but I just wasn't feeling it.  Normally I would have thrown it on the junk heap but for some reason I was compelled to keep messing with it.  Eventually I hit on the idea of turning it into a patented Bass Kittens triple-acid line jam.  The acid version was turned around in no time at all and I think it turned out killer.

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Addictech

PT012 - Jeff Taylor - Forgotten Colonies

Everybody who knows Jeff had a copy of this album on CD-r for years. And the one question was on everyone's mind was, when the hell was Jeff going to release it? We begged, we pleaded, we cajoled, we whined... Finally, he could hold out no longer and Pretension won the bidding war.

I love this. Deep space, funky, hallucinatory electro. Nobody does 30 second reverbs like Jeff. Classy.

Oh, and get a load of this cover art. Genius or what?

Addictech
iTunes
Amazon
Beatport

PT011 - Bass Kittens & Various Artists - Vs.

I love working with other artists. This release is so much fun for me, mainly because I can ignore all the parts that I did that I'm not so sure about and focus on the stuff that the contributors did. Getting "Storm The CPU" out was a real triumph too - I'm pretty sure we originally did that track in 2001! It hasn't aged a microsecond.

1. Bass Kittens vs Volum - Storm The CPU
2. Bass Kittens vs Single Cell Orchestra - World War 2.5
3. Bass Kittens vs Justin Maxwell - Delicious Algae
4. Bass Kittens vs Volum - Robots 1, Hippies 0
5. Bass Kittens vs Single Cell Orchestra - Look At The Sky
6. Bass Kittens vs Freaky Chakra - Ill Machine

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Addictech

PT010 - Bass Kittens - Inside The Electron

This, for my money, is really where Pretension 2.0 starts. No more messing around. We're going to have a regular release schedule and we're going to make sure our stuff is everywhere people want it (except vinyl - don't get me started on that).

Addictech
Beatport
iTunes
Amazon

PT009

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PT008 - Bass Kittens - Dude, Where's My Sequencer?

After Carl's last record came and went we went into lockdown mode for a bit of a rethink. Actually, that makes it sound all cool but really we just sort of gave up with a disgusted shrug.

However, you can't keep musicians from trying to flog their wares in front of the whole world, so the label was reborn as a digital-only affair, in keeping with the style of the time.

(The whole notion of Ableton DJs buying vinyl just to convert it to mp3s gives me the heebie-jeebies. Both formats have horrible compromises. Why not just get the mp3 (or even better, flac or wav) directly and cut out the middleman? I guarantee you it will sound better.)

To test the waters, I put together this EP which was made up of odds and ends lying around. You've got the Obligatory Angry Electro Number ("Self-Destruct"), the Obligatory Tweaky Acid Track ("Arctic Dak" - an anagram of... wait for it... Acid Track), a synthypoppy number (Love Robot) which someone on a mailing list once called "Kraftwerk with a boner" - I love that!!, and finally Something With A Funky Breakbeat In It Because That's What I Do.

Despite all that, I really like this release.

This also has the distinction of being the first (and so far only) release of mine that was pirated. Go pirates!

iTunes
Amazon

PT007 - Limbertimbre - AABA

Carl strikes back with two absolutely mental tracks. I really wish we could have done better work for him, but at this point the electro market was imploding with distributors failing left and right. In fact, this would be the last Pretension vinyl release.

At this time it's only available in one online store.

Addictech

PT005 - Justin Maxwell - Pillow Filter

I found this blurb on atome.com:

After the worrying "M-439 Class A EP", co-written with Limbertimbre, Justin Maxwell (Trapez, Palette, World electric) orchestrates solo the fifth sound assault of Pretension Records, the Californian label he manages along with Bass Kittens. Marrying robotic groove, carefull sound design and avant-gardism, "Pillow Filter" serves on A side a fearsome new school electro construction based on a progressive yet distorted rhythmic, reinforced in the middle of the track by an ultra sophisticated DSP programming. A monument of complexity with subtle melodies and mecanic effects re-used on the flip side original version ("Pillow Filter Insectiod Inversion"), some synthetic textures of arpegio in addition. At last, in a more mental register, "Is That A Gameboy Or A Cellphone" delivers an evilistic exercise of futuristic modulations where explosive break and psychotic loops combine with maestria. A pure dancefloor advanced electro anthem signed by a Justin Maxwell at the best of his possibilities. This banging EP offers a unique audio treatment. Vital!

Worrying? WORRYING? Ah forget it...

iTunes
Amazon
Addictech

PT004 - Diskchordians - M439 Class A

Diskchordians is Carl Bradshaw (Limbertimbre) & Justin Maxwell. Carl's solo music is punishing. Justin's is mechanically funky. Put them together and you have a recipe for supreme evil metal machine music. I hadn't listened to this EP in forever, but I just listened to it today and christ it's good. The bit in the first track where it drops out for the sample about factories and battle stations, and then the beat comes back but rearranged and even funkier than before just kills me.

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iTunes
Addictech
Amazon

PT003 - Limbertimbre - One Big Bit

Carl Bradshaw, aka Limbertimbre, is one of my favorite producers. The stuff he did for Pretension is among my favorite stuff on the label. He's got such a unique style. Not quite industrial, not quite techno, not quite electro... not quite normal. All good.

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Amazon
iTunes
Addictech

PT002 - Bass Kittens - Another Day/Silent Running (Volsoc Remixes)

I don't know how these artist/title mistakes get out there, but they do. iTunes has this listed as "Bass Kittens & Danja Koja" which is nice and generous but I sure never mentioned her name when I set up the release. Also the single was never called "Remixed by Volsoc". I learned long long ago that the music business is no place for people who are careful about details and like having their name spelled correctly.

Anyway, two of my attempts at being the Human League circa 1981 and two absolutely mind melting remixes by Volum and Justin Maxwell of Volsoc. I am really proud of this release. Justin did some fabulous artwork for the vinyl, which is unfortunately not being used online. It shows a creature made up of volleyballs and socks (volsoc, get it?) beating up a creature made out of cats and subwoofers.

This was issued on regular black vinyl and then re-released later on clear vinyl.  I've never ever seen the clear vinyl version, and needless to say I've never seen a penny of the vinyl sales either.

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Addictech
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PT001 - Bass Kittens - Four Things I Hate About You

This is where it all began. Originally self-pressed on standard 12" vinyl, we searched for a distributor for ages. I don't remember all the details now, I think we got some of them to a US based distributor, who went under without paying us. I eventually found a box of them in the Lower Haight at the office of Fuel Records USA. They were supposed to distribute them, which never really happened. I sent the box over to the UK where they were sold, and again I never saw a dime.

It's available on digital now. Have a listen/purchase at one of these fine establishments:

emusic
Amazon MP3
iTunes
Addictech

I found a really nice writeup of it on nuloop:

Originally released in 2000, this was the very first statement of musical intent from john drukman & justin maxwell's label pretension. a four-tracker of hybrid electro/breaks, in the style that bass kittens (drukman) had been developing over several years, it still sounds remarkably fresh today, in this time of homogenous sample cd-created breaks-by-numbers. in parts reminiscent of dhs, elsewhere sounding like nothing but itself, this was a strong start for the label, and its reappearance now sets things up nicely for the label relaunch in may 2006

Aw, thanks guys. At the time it was me and J running the label though. Justin came later.