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Asphalt Records // Post Club // Hooded Records
Follow: @asphalt_recs @postclub @hoodedrecs

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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 @xpb1

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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 @xpb1

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3 years ago

Ojalá empezar el año así todos los años!!

Gracias a @hardwax_official por las breves pero impactantes palabras (para mí al menos) y especialmente a:

@rashad__becker por el máster y @dubplates.mastering por el lacquer cut
@mnl.tegar por el increíble diseño
@galletarecords por la meticulosa estampación y paciencia
@vansalaman por la inspiración y las horas grabando birra y bebiendo video (o algo así)
@guillermosaenz_ y @luishock por lo que se viene pronto
@urr.in.bcn @fabiovinuesa y @somerandomer.t37, @edungongo y @silviatorres_____ por el empujón
@damianschwartz por la inestimable ashuda mezclil
@nadiealvolante_ y la post club massive por la turra

Oficialmente sale el 13 pero ya está disponible Madrid's finest:
@palmatreintaynueve
@meltingpotrecords
@elalmacendediscos

En Barcelona también muy pronto:
@discosparadiso
@djbruceleeone

Sevilla igual @__riseblack

Y esperem que en Valencia insha'Allah pronto també

Para más info, fotos en blanco y negro, textos largos y demás brasa esporádica sigan el betún de @asphalt_recs taken in Hamamatsu Castle by @xpb1

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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 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
@mnl.tegar por el diseño
@estudiogalleta_ for the painful hand-stamping process
@nadiealvolante_ for eternally listening to the dubs in the car
@vansalaman for the uncountable nights strolling around Tokyo which visually set the tone for the record
@guillermosaenz_ por cositas visuales que pronto verán la luz
@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 taken in Tokyo Big Sight by @xpb1

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3 years ago

ELECTROMAGNÉTICA - THE KLF

[Nota para el oyente: este programa se enlató en el verano de 2020, se decidió no emitirlo dada su extensión prometiéndonos regrabarlo con un resultado más sintetizado, nunca se hizo. El caso es que la grabación ha cogido bien el polvo y escuchado 3 años después hemos considerado que es un archivo que no puede quedarse en el cajón, más bien todo lo contrario ya que contiene la esencia de nuestra emisora como pocos. Es un programa largo, donde se divaga y se disfruta de ello con una borrachera creciente a cada tránsito, lo que viene siendo electromagnética. Lo grabé con anginas y mi voz es gangosa,mi ego empujó a no publicarlo creo, me he dado cuenta en esta re-escucha, divino que es uno, que me jodan]

El programa es un regalo para los y las nerd de la historia musical, es una conversación de amigos cultomonguers transversal a todo, desde la sociología, el misticismo, la lucha entre el under y el main, el arte como expresión y no como pose, y un mazo de cosas más que no cito para no ser más pretencioso aún. En las primeras 2 horas casi no suena electrónica, solo las influencias y primeras acciones (tremendos temazos multigénero) de estos artistas de culto absoluto para luego reventar a nivel selección con su música tanto propia como aledaña, aquella de los 90 que fraguaron los cestos de mimbre donde hoy organizamos la electrónica.

Fueron el primer y último caballo de troya del underground más tóxico y belicoso para con el mainstream, situándose dentro de él para ello. Un grupo que inundó el chart británico de números 1´s con el objetivo de lanzar un mensaje beligerante contra ello mismo en el escaparate donde miró el 100% de la población en aquel momento. Podría ser una leyenda todo lo que se cuenta si no fuese porque pasó de verdad.

No es un archivo sobre música, ni tampoco sobre su propia música, ya que tienen un metraje corto como grupo. Es un texto en audio que desentraña el concepto del arte como mensaje general donde las notas musicales actúan como catalizador de ello, dando pié a reflexiones tangentes a punta pala.

#theklfgroup #theklf taken in United Kingdom (UK) by @xpb1

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3 years ago

by @xpb1

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3 years ago

by @xpb1

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3 years ago

Manila sky aka copiando a Liam Wong by @xpb1

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3 years ago

Mohamed Ali vs Joe Frazier by @xpb1

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3 years ago

by @xpb1

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3 years ago

Mendoza Wildlife by @xpb1

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3 years ago

Uraracidio.
(Espada sobre mujer, 2022)
Museo de Arte Islámico de Qatar by @xpb1

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4 years ago