Premiere: Vaghe Stelle - 'H.O.P.E.' [EP stream]

Italian producer Vaghe Stelle has released on several labels this year – his raw compositions have popped up on new label Danse Noire and leftfield London imprint Left Blank, among others – but he's wisely rounding off 2013 with a new EP on what is probably the best-named label we've come across: Gang of Ducks. 

 

Established in 2012, Berlin label Gang of Ducks have a much darker output than you might expect, with a monochromatic aesthetic and releases to date featuring grubby experimental techno from the likes of Shape Worship and My Panda Shall Fly. It's the perfect home for Vaghe Stelle's bold 'H.O.P.E.' EP, which has a sound that veers between mechanical thumps and gauzy synths and vocal samples, with characterful flourishes gliding over pneumatic rhythms like fingerprints smeared on machinery. The basement boom of 8th Hope and its teeth-clenchingly tense G.O.D. remix are particularly worth a spin. 

 

Vaghe Stelle recently featured in Dummy Found Sound series as part of trio One Circle, with a field recording made in Istanbul. Take a listen to that here.