2024 / A Lucky 7 / Klangkollektor

With December here, Ban Ban Ton Ton is looking back on the musical year. Since Japanese superstition holds 7 as her luckiest number, we’re gonna try to keep each selection tight to this total, in the hope that our conjuring of 7 X 7 X 7 X … will collectively manifest some magic for 2025. You may witness some attempts to creatively bend the rules, blur / invent genres and rinse formats, in order to squeeze in as many great releases as possible…

Jason Boardman sent me the promo for Klangkollektor’s Dub Tapes Volume 1, but somehow I missed it. I can only think that the email went out while I was visiting family back in the UK. It wasn’t until vinyl copies arrived in Japan that I got to take a listen, and was immediately hooked. I’m posting this preamble to explain why I didn’t review the album at the time. I did try to make up for it by listing the long-player in my “leftfield dub” favourites, and asking Klangkollector aka Lars Fischer for 7 of his own top releases of 2024, which he shares here now. I also asked Lars for a bit of background on the LP…

Super selections and wonderful words by Lars Fischer aka Klangkollektor.

I’m deeply rooted in improvised music. I used to play bass in lots of jazz bands and I also had an electronic freeform band called Stadt aus Draht. Back at the beginning of the pandemic I decided to start improvising on the piano, and away from my commissions, create music that was just for me. I have a pretty decent studio, but the plan was to set myself strict parameters, limits. I only used hardware – both instruments and effects – and everything was recorded in one take. Mistakes and all. I was experimenting with putting a human element back into electronic music, and the results were not intended for any one else. However, I did send them to my friend and colleague, Frank Mollena. Frank and I’d been in the band, Bambi Davidson, and Frank’s CV includes Fürsattl, Mountaineer, and production work for new artists, such as Konformer. He runs a recording studio in Nürnberg and we were in the final stages of mixing the second album by an act called Trak Trak when I gave him the very rough mixes of Dub Tapes. Frank totally freaked out and sent me about 1 Km of Whatsapps about how much he liked it. After final mix and mastering he then sent it to his contacts in the UK, which is how Jason from Before I Die came to hear it. He freaked out too. Volume 2 is on the way, it will be a 12“ 4 track release with Jason.

I´ll try to give you my top 7 releases. This is a bit difficult for me, as I’m not an up to date record buyer… however these are the ones that I bought this year, and I liked them a lot! No ranking, I’ve listed them alphabetically. I can vouch that they’re all very good for train travelling – I have a long-distance relationship.

Acid Rooster / Hall of Mirrors