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Sometimes we bring you the future, sometimes we bring you valuable restitutions of the past.
Get ready for an epic 13 years throw back to revisit a stepping stone in the evolution of Romanian electronic music!
Bucharest Chills and Thrills is the first compilation of its kind published in Romania, and a manifest of the new generation of electronica artists that emerged after the fall of communism.
Its title might be reminiscent of the Buddha Bar type of compilation albums, but this is chill-out but not as much as it's thrill-in'. The sound is not all sweet and uniformly, quite the opposite: it's deep but twisted, eclectic, emotional and a bit unsettling at times.
The album was conceived and compiled by Silviu Costinescu (best known as Alien Pimp, but hidden under many other monikers, currently head of DubKraft Rec/FFO) and released firstly by Romanian label La Strada Music in 2014, as a limited-run collection CD, with an unique packaging, the case containing real coffee beans and no paper prints. It sold out pretty quickly and later we "inherited" it after the demise of LSM.
The release was thought as an "un-mixed mix-tape", the standard 3 second break between the CD tracks being technically eliminated so that the tracks flow uninterrupted, while still being searchable and skippable. We will maintain that concept in our re-issue, making it available for free download as one file mixtape. We are working on the arrangements to distribute it worldwide in normal album format too, but we can't make any promise.
All of the artists are established names in their home countries, but not all known internationally, so let us briefly introduce them:
When it comes to deep, melodic experimental electronica, Silent Strike is one of the most popular names that comes to mind for a fan in Romania, but he raised to worldwide respect too. BC&T it's what propelled Silent Strike as one of the biggest new promises of the scene and ensured him a long term collaboration with the label that later resulted in various releases and concerts and established him as a reference artist in the genre(s).
Vlaicu Golcea is one of the most prolific artists in Romania in the last 25 years, in more genres than we can remember. Classically-educated, with a strong jazz background, multi-instrumentalist, experimentalist and performer, these are just few of the attributes that made Golcea a name that cannot be omitted from modern Romanian music history. He appears here with a collaboration with Sonic Tonic, as well as member of Ciot, one of his many projects, alongside jazz vocalist Marta Hristea. Ciot explored Romanian folklore themes from the perspective of an electronic experimentalist, pushing sonic boundaries way beyond the many attempts of this kind.
As for the aforementioned Sonic Tonic, that's one of the earliest Alien Pimp projects, focused on left-field/broken beats/trip-hop. He eventually merged these vibes into his more commercial Alien Pimp sound, making ST redundant and taking it off the circuit.
Junkyard is best known as an MC for various dance/electronica groups in Romania, but he started out as an experimental hip-hop/electronica producer and rapper. Very solicited as MC, later he couldn't find anymore time and motivation to continue producing his deep twisted beats, and very few vestiges of his craftsmanship are left for us to enjoy, as most of his work has never been officially published.
Nemos is another veteran collective that left a strong mark on the pre-2010 era of Romanian electronica, but not so active last few years. Its formula suffered many changes along the time, the main pillars being Dan Handrabur and DJ Vasile. They have few local releases and more international appearances.
Gojira is a local star, simple as that. He's recognised best as a breaks/bass music dj and producer, but he adventured in many genres of electronica and even in comedy and acting. His track here is a rarity in ways, a simple catchy tribal groove with oriental samples, you wouldn't know he made it if we haven't told you.
Electric Brother is another prominent pillar of the electronic scene in Romania, with a career bigger than life, that expands in movie soundtracks, jazz and even advertising. If you can think of it, he probably did it already. The track featured on BC&T is a live take of one of his best known themes, but in an unique experimental/glitchy approach (with contribution from Danish artist Troyer) that has never been repeated, so we're just very lucky to have it at hand.
Sunday People is a group consisting of the Nasser brothers, and it's not much of a stretch to call them the Romanian Nightmares on Wax. You cannot talk about Romanian chill-out/trip-hop/leftfield music without mentioning them. That is not to describe their vibe entirely, their reach is even wider and they dare to adventure more into sound than NoW..
And finally, the mysterious WeAreNotSure band! It briefly existed for a couple of years and its members wanted it to have its own life separate from their own, so they didn't made a buzz around their implication in it. But later it was revealed that it was comprised of Alien Pimp, Silent Strike and Norwegian vocal Gunhill. They only recorded about five songs and a couple of remixes were made, but not much else survived besides the hidden gems included here.
All in all, this album is not perfect, you can see it's a late stage in a maturing process of a new scene, but it's rich in flavors, creativity, bass and nostalgia. Also an unforgettable piece of local history for music nerds. Grab it, love it, tell your friends about it!
