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Asphalt Records

@asphalt_recs

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Subculture hub and music label.
Continuing the Continuum, 180g at a time.

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Link in bio

Not only today is Friday, but today’s podcast IS Friday in itself. And it’s an Asphalt type of Friday, full of distorted amen breaks, doomsday hoovers, raging acid lines, neonesque rave synths, tiger punching kick drums, trance star-gates, ragga muffins and 90’s hip hop medleys, the whole thing being stuffed in a pumpkin on E, and tainted lovely with the dark colors of the long shadows of the deep fall.

It is with great pleasure that we hereby announce with this mix a forthcoming collaboration with @etches828, one of the sharpest shooters of the scene, and from which we are longtime followers, at least in the musical sense, as we don’t follow him around creepily disguised in washed out halloween gowns -or do we?-. That would actually be a very breakcore thing to do, but instead, we preferred to ask him to encapsulate the euphoric, fast paced, craziest sound of the entire electronic music in a tightly packed sonic adventure, for you, krusty travelers, to grow back your dreadlocks, pack your muggy tents and unchain your pitbulls for a flashback remembrance à la Chateau Morton’s, cuvée du 1992.

Tears in our red eyes came when seeing back together old niche scene mates such as Jason Forrest, Venetian Snares, Shitmat, Bong-Ra, Aaron Spectre (also as Drumcorps) et al. Or was it the tear gas from the forthcoming Curtis Yarvin inspired dystopia accelerated by Russian bots that we are living in? Anyways, this music was a premonition of the times to come, and the times now finally came, and breakcore is now more needed than ever. So massive thanks to Etch for putting it back under the spotlight. That is the 180bpm strobo light flashing under the bed sheets of some worn out e-loving lunatics that is our small and decelerating spotlight.

Anyways, things are coming from Asphalt involving Etch. But let’s leave that for later. The dystopia too. For now he made a podcast for us which is pretty pretty good as Larry David would say. Life is good. Now It’s Friday. This podcast is too. We are happy. So is hardcore… So let's all take a break, and let’s Drop It like it’s hot -not because of climate change- to the sound of breakcore.

Druidic pic by @vansalaman taken in UK by @asphalt_recs

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2 years ago

There’s no better day than a Friday for us to present the A2 track of ASPHALT003 from the new duo super villains Pyramid Of Nahash (@kop32music and @nahashisalive)

Xciot’s is not only the name of the EP but it’s homonymous track, now coming with a flashy video from the elusive artist-turned video smith @tiar_9009, who you will remember from our first EP, and who is btw one of the reasons we founded Asphalt: we needed his music published on record, although here he is now in charge of putting epilepsia inducing images to our videos, go figure... -or ask him to give us more music hahaha).

But now seriously, let’s not get sidetracked. Xciot is a frenetic, drum banging, acid journey through hardcore hyperspace, full of throbbing bass lines and ever accelerating pads, so put on your armored neon spacesuit, and get ready to dodge the rabid meteor showers of ricocheting kick drums that are coming your way.

You can now enjoy this amazing video in your own personal space and time through this app or Youtube (our channel will be launched soon), or pre-order the vinyl or digital record if your path is rather oriented towards launching the most demanding dancefloors at Ludicrous Speed, as the great movie Spaceballs would recall. taken in HYPERSPACE by @asphalt_recs

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2 years ago

As promised yesterday, Asphalt Records is back, and the day has finally come to publish a long brewed video for Xpb1’s Rampant.

Both song and video were recorded around this time of the year, a time which we deeply love, as the (moving) shadows get longer and the days get darker.

The video was shot by @xpb1 and street photographer @vansalaman during the pandemic in different locations of a semi-deserted, dystopian tainted Neo Tokyo 2020.

Although the song had already been named Rampant during pre-pandemic times, the title felt accidentally prophetic while we were recording trainscapes, whilst the wagons crawled through the open tracks of the automated monorail of the Yurikamome line, which serpents through brutalist concrete structures and hyper-futuristic ghost-like stations. We feel that the combination of music and images involuntarily depict the eeriness that humanity felt during those times, whilst the result is at the same time strangely beautiful and full of life, something like the dark rose of Zomby's With Love for lack of a better comparison.

The images have been expertly put together by @guillermosaenz_ who directed the whole thing, making good sense of the countless kilometers of recorded footage.

The amazing kintsugi-like Japanese lettering and it's animation have been patiently crafted by our longtime allied @luishock and the choice of words for the Japanese translation was meticulously cherry picked by Urara Kamiya.

Finally, and for the ones willing to watch it on a bigger screen as we think the effort deserves, it is our great pleasure to announce that “Rampant” will also be available on Youtube in our admired channel Ballacid from the great @balla_zoltan who also is uploading the rest of our catalogue (thank you Zoltan!!).

Wishing you all a happy (or spookily reflective) shadow-bathing.

Link in bio. taken in Yurikamome Line by @asphalt_recs

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2 years ago

ASPHALT003 - Pyramid Of Nahash - Xciot EP

3 tracks of spacecapist breakbeat techno rich in tranced out melodies and acid basslines by the one and only duo @kop32music and @nahashisalive.

Also comes with a classy remix by @rvshes_uk Whilst the record has been mastered and lacquer cut by Jason Goz @transitionmastering into a 180g of pure asphaltic vinyl as it is customary from our imprint.

EP is still available in some of the best record stores around the world. Grab your copy while they last!

Ah and there is also a 4th track called Implantation available only with the record purchase. Just send us a DM with the record picture and we will send it to you.

Asphalt Recs taken in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka by @asphalt_recs

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2 years ago

Thanks to the good curators of collective Mutaforma for including @xpb1's Rampant in their episode number 9 for @radioraheem.milano amongst so many of our musical heroes and amazing songs. In their own words:

"Mutaforma is a collective project between A Hand, @blackseedacts, @luceclandestina and Matteo Fabbri.
A two-hours journey where sounds and experiences merge, diverge and transform themselves into new and unpredictable forms.

A monthly experiment of sharing and listening for a future collective transmutation on Radio Raheem.
Artwork by Beatrice Lattuada."

This show was published a couple of months ago, but we just got tipped off now. Better late than never in its purest form, the mutaforma.

Link is here below:
https://www.radioraheem.it/mutaforma/mutaforma-09/

A few copies are still available at our Bandcamp, but won't last long. So go for it, or don't, up to you... Enough of the capitalist bullshit :) taken in Milano, Italy by @asphalt_recs

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2 years ago

After XPB001, the regular Asphalt series is finally back, this time with a double elite tag team effort, who will be in charge of carving the vinyl grooves of ASPHALT003. For this project, Pyramid Of Knowledge and Nahash, veteran silver surfers of electronic music's underground space time (hardcore) continuum, have aligned their direction and speed and fused into Pyramid Of Nahash, a new vessel set to explore uncharted cosmic trails, building a sanctuary of a record for the most adventurous sonic pilgrims.

The result is Xciot EP, an epic 4 tracker, that merges drum and bass experimentation at high tempos and waves of early trance ambience, with scores of squelching acid nebulae, hardcore influenced drums, and drenched in a constellation of analogue landscapes. Remix duties have been awarded to RVSHES (aka Logos and DB1), who meld elements of the 3 original tracks in their angular and rugged, yet melancholic Recombination Mix.

The whole adventure has been pressed into 180g solid asphaltic vinyl, mastered by Jason Goz At Transition, designed by Studio Tegar and distributed by Rubadub. Legend says that its purchase via Bandcamp (link in bio) is already available in pre-order, and opens an interdimensional wormhole to an exclusive freebie called Implantation.

But let’s uncork this new cosmic saga with the record opener: Dliw, a frenetic space chase in which jittery drum meteorites and collision shrapnell play call and response with acid basslines, while flying over clouds of early ambient creamy gated melodies.

More on this one to follow in the following days! taken in Hamamatsu.Japan by @asphalt_recs

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2 years ago

This podcast series was created to help define and broaden the Asphalt Records sound, ethos and sonic etiquette, and the latest installment of the series does just that, and masterfully so. Madrid based, but Zaragozan born, Rachael’s bio and online presence are so sparse, as prolific is her gigs list and podcast appearances, which leads us directly to a sole truth: in this age of pathologic egotistical behavior, hiper-self branding, and fake humbleness, she lets the technics do the talking, which is frankly refreshing to say the least.

The artist has been storming the most underground and adventurous cabins since a good while now, imprinting her furious blend of high-bpm breakbeats, sharp and banging drums, dystopian atmospheres and sci-fi melodies which conform now her sonic imprint, no matter the speed or style she is playing. Not only that, but she has been doing it the hard way, the way of the vinyl only, which in a present full of dj aids and compressed digital formats, makes her a music romantic on top of a hardened dj, such commitment saying a lot about her personality and activist dedication to a dying craft.

Her mix for Asphalt is tribal, deep and mental, rich in percussive minimalism, with influences between autonomic heritage and with a modern take on the noir tech-steppism of Source Direct and Photek, and evolves into modern jungalist roughness and recent dread mutations, unto the fringes of the sonic experimentation: always pushing forward, always with a dark and twisted narrative edge, always embedded in the nuum’s chemical nightmares and paranoias.

This mix in particular was thought after the effects of the technologic alienation provoked by digital devices, and as framing, here below is an alternative tracklist provided by Rachael herself, so throw your phone and turn on your speakers, it’s time for going back into the matrix.

(Link in bio)

The geometric labyrinth feast has been shot as usual by our image savant, the one and only @vansalaman @vansamono

#breakbeat #hardcorecontinuum #autonomic #techstep #junglemusic #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography by @asphalt_recs

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2 years ago

In these days in which specialised music journalism is a dying form under the constant threats of a new attention economy driven by click bait and sensationalism, a decline in printed media due to the evolution of business models and democratization of music criticism and saturation of content, it is always comforting to open the @boomkatonline website.

When a record of ours passes the Boomkat threshold it's always a good sign. A sign that is completely unrelated to sales volume. Boomkat usually nails it, although sometimes we think they don't, of course but opinions are opinions and everyone is entitled to theirs. But bottom line, just as @hardwax_official, their shop is a tough place to enter, but god it feels good whenever we make it there...

The fact is that they curate and they write well, true masters of a dying art. And the proof of it is the review of @xpb1's opera prima aka Rampant / SubRoyal EP. We know it's basically self-wanking to this point, but to hear such beautifully crafted sentences as:

'The crepuscular creep and lurk-step of XPB1’s debut leads on from the label’s earlier entries of ballistic breakcore shrapnel by Tiar and NeonDemon with a pair of far more lowkey, tense and atmosphere-ratcheting tools.'

Or such as:

‘Rampant’ rolls it out like Ike Yard or Raime on manoeuvres in late night Tokyo, as heard from behind black tinted windows, with oily bass oozing below noirish cinematic synths and neon string fizz.'

Such an outstanding description of our painfully crafted music, the Raime comparison, and such positive review makes us bang our chest like gorillas in the mist, whilst we aquiescingly nod adjusting our monocles and caressing our cats forehead.

For more amazingly written material and one of the best curations in electronic music head to boomkat dot com. taken in Manchester, United Kingdom by @asphalt_recs

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3 years ago

Happy to share that the distribution of Asphalt records will now be handled by our Scottish friends from @rubadubgla

Very soon we will blow our pipebags and announce further news regarding the reach of our latest release, the Rampant / SubRoyal EP by @xpb1

Stay tuned!

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#rubadub #electronicmusic #techno #ambient #hardcorecontinuum taken in Glasgow by @asphalt_recs

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3 years ago

Asphalt comes back from the holidays hiatus with it's Darkest podcast episode to date. 📀

Ravingman delivers in this hommage to Darkcore, a perfect soundtrack for the saddest period of the year, to pass with some music with the longest days, the infamous blue monday, and having overspent...

Embrace the darkside!

Link In Bio 👇🏿
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#hardcoremusic #junglemusic #darkcore #music #blackandwhitephotography taken in Tokyo, Japan by @asphalt_recs

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3 years ago

Happy new year everyone from Hamamatsu!!

2024 will be charged with good releases from us!!
- 13th of January - @xpb1's Rampant/Subroyal
- 13th of March - @kop32music & @nahashisalive's Xciot EP
- 13th of May - new EP called Drop It - more details to follow!

May the fire of good music burn strong for all of you!!

Much love for everyone!!

Asphalt Recs by @asphalt_recs

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3 years ago

-Link in bio-

Ok, so having no idea if this is a good time for visibility -we heard Mondays are ok though- here we present @xpb1's first record called Rampant / SubRoyal (currently in pre-order, release date is 13/12).

Publishing is something very tricky, especially if you have never done it before. Insert here your classic clichés about artist ups and downs, the vulnerability, and perennial self-worth struggles, but the process of creation of this record, from recording until the publishing of this post, has really been painful -from an European privilege point of view, of course-.

In any case, much personal love and sorrow has been poured in the making of this artifact, a love and sorrow that we think is reflected in these songs -particularly in Rampant-. Would be a shame for these tracks to gather dust in a lonely hard-drive, so we pressed it in a nice 180g black label, hand-stamped with golden ink, and hired some competent people to take care of making the vinyl sound properly (see below).

And now the time has come for the record to fly, as a flock of crows into a lonely night, in the search of a new home and some kindred spirits. Or some other pedantic post-burialistic bullshit sentence full of metaphors and stuff.

Special thanks to the following, who have helped somehow for the record to be published:

@damianschwartz for mixing Rampant
@rashad__becker for the masterful mastering
@dubplates.mastering for the lacquer cut
@tegar.manu por el diseño
@estudiogalleta_ for the painful hand-stamping process
@nadiealvolante_ for eternally listening to the dubs in the car
@guillermosaenz_ por cositas visuales que pronto verán la luz
@vansalaman for the uncountable nights strolling around Tokyo which visually set the tone for the record
@fabiovinuesa @somerandomer.t37 @edungongo @silviatorres_____ @urr.in.bcn for the encouragement and support
@mikimilk1@jcachofeiro @pandamalo, @rustifari @mmaterialdeconstruccionn @luishock for the formative years, memories and eternal hangover.

Much love to all.

Asphalt Recs by @asphalt_recs

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3 years ago