glitterbug

You might ask- what???!?!?? That’s exactly what I thought when a dear friend, Adam Butler (known to many as Vert) sent this to me today. ‘Supershelter’ (released in November 2008) feels so far away… sometimes I forget: it actually does not matter when a record came out, it matters when it is discovered by the listener. So I am happy that good ol’ Supershelter found a late appreciator!

And thank you, dear people from Aquarius Records, for taking so much interest in my music!!

GLITTERBUG “Supershelter” (C Sides Label) cd 16.98
We totally flipped for the new Glitterbug record, Privilege, reviewed a couple lists back, the work of Till Rohmann, a German DJ / producer / artist, whose Glitterbug sound was exactly what we had been hankering for, a glorious blend of processed field recordings, soft pulsing glimmering synthscapes, stripped down minimal techno, abstract kosmische krautdrone and pop ambience, so when we discovered there was another, previous Glitterbug, we knew we had to check it out. And once again, were were not disappointed. Supershelter is another heady blend of Kompakt style skeletal techno, and warm swirling synthy drones, dark ominous rumbles, and ethereal after hours party music, skittery, and stuttery, washed out and hypnotic.

After a gorgeous slow melodic intro, that sounds like it could have been plucked from a Burzum record (at least before the plink plonk piano counterpoint comes in), the next few tracks unfurl the beats, wrapped around playful keyboards, percolating clicks and chirps, some sweetly melancholy melodies, even some soaring faux strings, “The Things I Long To Do” almost sounds like a Bjork backing track. “Oh My Hick!” is another skittery techno, warm liquid ambience hybrid, while “Unforgotten” is a brief stretch of hissy static rumble, leading into “Reference System” a low slung slab of synth wrapped late night shuffle, groovy and subtly funky, which butts right up against the warped and muted “Brontohouse” which does evoke some sort of giant beast, with its muddy thumping rhythm, and warm whirring buzz. The record plays out similarly, flitting from minimal thump and pulse, to woozy washed out drift, and quite a few stops in between.

Imagine a less clinical, more playful Kompakt, this will definitely hit the spot if you’ve been digging any of the recent weirdo electronica from folks like Actress, Pantha Du Prince, Klimek, Vex’d, T++, Thomas Fehlman, Oneohtrix and all the rest…

Efterklang-Alike (Glitterbug Remix) by Glitterbug

This is an official remix I did for the wonderful people (and dear friends) of Efterklang for the track ‘Alike’ of their current album ‘Magic Chairs’ on the legendary 4AD label.

It might take a little longer than planned until it’s released on an Efterklang remix compilation, thus we (Efterklang and I) decided, that we’ll post it already, regardless. Efterklang will send a free download link to the track with their next newsletter- so if you want it- and especially want it on your hard drive before it’s released- you’d better quickly sign up for their newsletter today! (you can do so on their website)

I loved working on this track, and it’s also my favorite on this album. We could actually witness it coming alive, since it’s one of the tracks Efterklang started working on in February 2009 in our little c.sides residency in Tel Aviv. You can also listen to the original version as a stream on the Efterklang website (in case you don’t know the album… you should listen to the whole thing!!!).
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PS: In the meanwhile the newsletter as mentioned above was sent by Efterklang. Here is what they wrote:
“During the summer we have aired two remix swap projects and now today we will use the opportunity to air another free remix. This one is made by Glitterbug aka Till Rohmann from Germany. Till actually helped us getting started with making Magic Chairs back in 2009. Together with Ronni Schendar, he runs the c.sides festival and they invited us to Tel Aviv for two weeks in February 2009. During those two weeks we rehearsed and worked on songs like I Was Playing Drums, Alike, Me Me Me the Brick House for the first time.”

The c/o pop Festival is approaching, and one of the tracks from my current album, ‘Float’, was picked for this year’s compilation. By the way- we will perform on Thursday, the 24th of June, at the famous Stadtgarten venue. More info on our show in another post…

More on the compilation here, and the track list please find bellow.

“Included on this lovely package you will find 13 tracks by artists performing on the festival, including some of our favourite acts of the past few months, like Aufgang, Tiefschwarz, Chloé, Glitterbug, and Applescal plus our popular stop motion videos.”

Ray Okpara – Vocal Experience
Munk remixed by Mercury – La Musica (Mercury Remix)
Walls remixed by Banjo Or Freakout – Hang Four (Banjo Or Freakout Remix)
Von Spar – trOOps
Tiefschwarz – Home (Edit)
Applescal – Black Spirals
Aufgang – Barock (Edit)
Brandt Brauer Frick – Button
Glitterbug – Float
Chloé – Distant (Radio Edit)
Thomas Schaeben & Schad Privat remixed by Coma – Body Hotel (Coma Remix)
Telonius – Hit Me (Original Mix)
Tolouse Low Trax – Vai Vai
Schlachthofbronx – Arschboss (Köln Version)
c/o pop – c/o pop 2010 – Trailer #1
c/o pop – c/o pop 2010 – Trailer #2

Our dear friends over at zero” also included the beautiful video for Calcutta in the package…

Our friends at bln.fm had me over for a long studio talk about me, my current album and projects, as well as a lot of personal things. So if you feel like listening to me talking for an hour straight, tune in!

Listen to the stream on their website if you don’t live in Berlin and thus can’t receive the radio signal, on either Tuesday 25th of May at 8pm // Saturday 29th of May at 4pm // Sunday 31st of May 9pm.

“Wenn ein Künstler heutzutage ein Album veröffentlicht, ist das schon mit einem hohen Risiko verbunden. Die Verkaufszahlen stehen meist nicht mehr in einem angemessenen Verhältnis zu den Produktionskosten. Wenn es sich dann auch noch um ein anspruchsvolles Konzeptalbum mit künstlerischem Anspruch handelt, ist der Zugang für den Normal-Endverbraucher fast schon zu hoch. „Kunst? Da muss man sich ja anstrengen!“

Till Rohmann alias Glitterbug hat mit “Privilege” diesen Mai ein solches Album abgeliefert. Einen Menschen, der so gekonnt Emotionen in elektronischer Musik fassen und zu einem fragilen Klanguniversum verweben kann, wollen wir nicht mit einer “einfachen” Rezension ziehen lassen. Deshalb hat Tim Thaler Glitterbug ins Studio eingeladen und mit ihm über sein Leben, seinen Werdegang und seine Einflüsse geredet. Herausgekommen ist eine einstündige Reise durch Glitterbugs Welt, durch seine Projekte und das ganz private Leben mit Kunst und Musik.”

Here’s the vinyl:

And the CD:

So. Since Monday, the 17th of May, ‘Privilege’ is out in the shops, and for me it was such an exciting moment to see it up in the shelves. The long waiting is over…

In case you live in a sad forlorn place that does not have a record shop, you can buy it online pretty much in every major and minor online shop out there.

Two more days until the release… but the first few already purchased some copies, especially the vinyl of ‘Privilege’. As a little reminder: those purchasing the vinyl release of the album are eligible to download the full CD release by sending a photo of themselves with the vinyl, or the vinyl in a scenery of their choice. In addition to the photo, a picture of the number of the vinyl copy has to be sent.

The pictures are published on the microsite for Privilege, but you can also directly jump there by clicking here.

Today, the first picture came in, with the No. 333:

Cuuute! Thank you so much, this was a great start into this little side project!!!

Hurray! It’s done! After hours and hours of HTMLing (which i haven’t done in a while), I hereby proudly announce the new micro site for my upcoming album ‘Privilege’.

You can find the microsite under www.privilege.csides.net

Amidst the possibly most stressful period prior to the release of ‘Privilege’ in four weeks, i thought to share a few updates.

I have been awfully busy with remixing, and, even more importantly, mixing endless podcasts for some of the large platforms out there. Watch out for some nice surprises… mixing the podcasts was an especially wonderful thing, since I have been mostly listening to ‘Privilege’ while finalizing the album, and to endless rehearsals for the new show that we’ll start touring with in May. So going through endless promos and fishing for exciting new music was an amazing treat after all that Glitterbug music…

In the meanwhile, the vinyl edition of ‘Privilege’ came in:

It’s a hand numbered, strictly limited (to 500 copies) double vinyl. No. 1-360 have the beautiful CD booklet as part of the package. The vinyl edition has a bonus track that won’t be available digitally or elsewhere, and since we could not fit the whole 20 tracks / 2,5 hrs of music of the CD on vinyl, everybody that purchases the vinyl (and sends us a picture of the hand written number and of the vinyl in a beautiful surrounding of their choice) will receive a download link to the whole CD album.

We have many great shows in the queue for this summer (among them Spot Festival/ Denmark, Off Centre Festival Amsterdam, c/o pop Cologne, MIGZ Festival Moscow, and Oslo Live Festival), so make sure to check the dates section every once in a while and come visit us in one of our shows!

Today, one of the first news items on my album was posted on Resident Advisor. You can find the article here. Exciting!