kareem: porto ronco (vinyl edits)

The Death Of Rave is proud to present the first album-length beat-less composition by Patrick Stottrop aka Kareem. Since 1996 the now-legendary, Berlin-based artist has produced nearly 20 singles and albums for both his Zhark Recordings and Ramadan labels, Kanzelramt's K2 0 subprint, and Paris' Fondation Sonore, forging a strong identity split between uncompromising industrial techno and RZA-like instrumental hip-hop, all with a blackened streak of Gothic finesse. Following a hiatus during the late '00s, in 2012 Kareem was prompted by the death of a relative and the need to retreat, spiritually and mentally, into writing "Porto Ronco." Borrowing its title from a village by Lake Maggiore on the Swiss/Italian border where his grandfather bought a house in the '60s as refuge from potential war, and "in case the Soviets would march into Berlin," it manifests marked detachment and evolution from his previous work, abandoning all but traces of rhythm to concentrate and expand upon the downcast atmospheres and Brutalist structures which always lurked behind his beat-driven compositions. In doing so, it implies intrinsic psycho-geographic and hauntological resonance between the place and the piece, opening a space for stoic sehnsucht, elegiac reflection in classic tradition. The original piece is an unabridged 45-minute composition, but for this release Kareem made a 30-minute vinyl edit split over two sides of an LP. Primed for sequestered solo listens, it captures an elusive Berlin spirit which has been lost with successive tides of weekending dunces in the easyjet age; a metaphysical feeling or spectral presence that has long lain brooding in the city since Conrad Schnitzler's earliest invocations and since percolated everywhere from Christina Kubisch's radiant electromagnetic recordings to the gothic industrialism of Einstürzende Neubauten, thru the monotone ecstasy of Basic Channel and the etheric romance of Leyland Kirby in his Friedrichshain period. Ultimately, it's a deeply-personal piece of work bound to capture the imaginations of depleted ravers in the after after-hours. Vinyl cut by Rashad at Dubplates + Mastering.

Kareem - Porto Ronco