To celebrate PAN turning 10 years old Kamikaze aka Paul Ackroyd has put together a 3h+ radio journey and a decent read below taking us through their first decade. In the style of his dedicated sessions to Muslimgauze, Ras G or the Olympics, he went on all out with research and delivers a sonic exploration that needs to be heard in full to be properly appreciated. Scroll to the bottom to start the stream of the show or grab the download link underneath the track list.
Berlin-based label PAN started out in 2008, founded by Bill Kouligas. Initially a home for electroacoustic, noise, electronics and experimentation, the label has branched out over the past few years, developing a strong dance ethos to a core of its releases, as well as an increasing number of curveballs. This month the label turns ten years old, and as we’ve always been such huge fans of the label’s output here at Awkward Movements, we thought we’d mark the anniversary.
For us one of the most striking things about the early days of PAN relates to the climate during which the label first reared it’s noisy head. There are exceptions to this rule, but we’d by and large been enduing a period of a decade or so of vinyl abandonment, of a large majority of people putting all their faith in iPods and the like, and chucking all their records away. Things seem to be moving back in the right direction now, thankfully, but back in 2008 vinyl was just not fashionable. Also consider that more experimental sounds tended to find their way onto CDs much more frequently than they did vinyl. So, taking these things into consideration, PAN suddenly seems, with hindsight, to have been very brave in its early approach. The likelihood, for example, of managing to shift any numbers of a Sewer Election album, let alone one on luxury vinyl during the wax wilderness years, takes balls and deserves applause. The fact we’re here bigging up the label ten years and 90-odd releases later speaks volumes. It was a risk worth taking, executed with aplomb.
Musically the early years, by which we mean approx 2008-2011ish, were defined by experimentation, electroacoustic, noise and the like. We’re talking Billy Bao, Frieder Butzmann, Trevor Wishart, James Hoff, Sewer Election, Rehberg and Schmickler, Hecker, Blood Stereo, Eli Keszler… Basically a playlist of outsiders, a roster of artists unlikely to have found themselves on many people’s playlists or xmas lists, or indeed find their way to many peoples’ ears at all. So enormous respect to PAN for providing a home for them all.
As the label progressed, a dancier side started to emerge. Heatsick, for example, could keep a dancefloor moving all day, or indeed the three crackin’ volumes of NHK Koyxen’s Dance Classics series. Still plenty space for the blips and beeps (Rashad Becker, Ben Vida) and drifters (Helm, Mohammad), the experimentalists ( Aaron Dilloway & Jason Lescalleet ) and the collage masters (Jar Moff); but like we say a beatier shift was also underway. Step up Lee Gamble, Sensate Focus, Black Sites, Afrikan Sciences, M.E.S.H., Objekt… PAN has infiltrated the dancefloor!
Interestingly though, the last three or four years of releases seem to have retained the initial playful experimentation that defined the label, plus the aforementioned dancefloor shift of the next phase of releases, but also blown the doors wide open for total sonic exploration. In short we are enjoying a period of PAN releases where it’s hard to predict what the label’s next move might look or sound like. It’s a privilege to watch the releases unfold, a joy to witness a label with such a diverse output whilst still retaining its identity and integrity. That any label can drop the likes of Konrad Sprecker, STILL, Eartheater, Puce Mary, Yves Tumor, Errorsmith, Amnesia Scanner, Stine Janvin, and the Mono No Aware compilation in a two year window sets PAN apart from the rest. They’re all completely different, but they all belong here.
Thank you PAN, keep up the good work!
Here are ten of our most vital PAN releases…
Joseph Hammer – I Love You, Please Love Me Too [2010]
Plunderphonics at its finest, Joseph Hammer’s I Love You, Please Love Me Too takes you on a dizzying journey, leaving you confused and comforted in equal measures, but ultimately wanting more. Stunning release.
Trevor Wishart – Fanfare and Contrapunctus / Imago [2010]
Trevor Wishart’s Imago trumps everything else on the label, and most other things that exist in life if we’re honest. As the back of the record says, the universe in a grain of sand. Or in this instance a 26 minute behemoth in a single clink of a whisky glass. Extraordinary.
Ghedalia Tazartes – Repas Froid [2011]
Born in Turkey, raised in France, Ghedalia Tazartes’ unique approach to vocal work stands him aside from most others. Here at Awkward Movements Repas Froid kickstarted a bit of a love affair with the man and is a vital addition to any record collection.
Helm – Impossible Symmetry [2012]
Luke Younger has appeared numerous times on PAN, but it was Impossible Symmetry’s post-industrial dirge that first announced his work to us at Awkward Movements. Do check Olympic Mess too as that’s equally grand, but Impossible Symmetry wins out here for the twelve minute beast that is ‘Liskojen Yo’.
Lee Gamble – Diversions 1994-1996 [2012]
Arguably the release the brought PAN overground, or at least exposed the label to a larger audience. Lee Gamble has had a handful of releases on PAN, including the excellent long players Koch and DutchTvashar Plumes, but it was the deconstructed rave styles of Diversions that first captured the wider imagination.
Rashad Becker – Traditional Music Of Notional Species Vol. 1 [2013]
Rashad Becker engineers everything, and his name on your record equals a quality job in the mastering suite. You’ve all got Becker-infused sounds on your shelves, the man is hugely prolific and is a legend in his field. But very few of us were expecting him to release his own music, so it was a pleasant surprise when Notional Species dropped. It’s an unsettling but magical world he paints, squealchy as you like, trippy, eerie, and at times downright unpleasant. Bowel movements or a mystical wonderland? Either way we love it. Vol. 2 is equally brilliant.
Yves Tumor – Serpent Music [2016]
Who says soul has no place on an experimental label? Not us. Yves Tumor’s debut release smacked us all round the chops. Heart-wrenching slow jams one minute, industrial scrapings the next, Serpent Music sets the tone for a new era of experimental crooning.
Pan Daijing – Lack [2017]
Chinese-born, Berlin-based, Lack was Pan Daijing’s debut offering. Sinister throughout, often nauseating, at times out right menacing, Lack should be the stuff of nightmares, yet somehow it leaves you hungry for more. This frequently challenging listen provides the ultimate payoff in the shape of closing piece ‘Lucid Morto’.
STILL – I [2017]
The release that brought wonky dancehall to PAN, Simone Trabucci and his merry wo/men served up an absolute delight of an album in the shape of 2017’s I. So much fun, so playful, and rammed with absolute bangers. It’s truly one of the best dancehall albums in years, really takes the genre to new levels. We await with baited breath more from this Milanese collective.
Errorsmith – Superlative Fatigue [2017]![Errorsmith - Superlative Fatigue [2017]](https://i0.wp.com/awkmo.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/PAN-81-Cover-web.jpg?ssl=1)
Wiegand’s second appearance for PAN following 2015’s collaborative effort with Mark Fell, though this was his first full album release since 2002. Superlative Fatigue is essentially a dance album, just a very cheeky and clever one, and we’d expect most to fall in love with it at first exposure. Both a joy for the armchair or the dancefloor, and, if you’re sick and twisted like us, some karaoke classics to boot.
Stine Janvin – GLITCH
Pan Daijing – Nerver Meter
Lee Gamble – Dollis Hill
Aaron Dilloway & Jason Lescalleet – Shattered Capsules
Toxe – Honey Island
Eartheater – Inclined
Helm – Liskojen Yo
Afrikan Sciences – Feel
Acre & Filter Dread – Flash Speed
NHK – 2ndhalf
STILL – Nazenet (Wasp Riddim)
Ghedalia Tazartes – Repas Froid
Eli Keszler – Cold Pin
Blood Stereo – The Giving Of The Grape
Mark Durgan – Detail Builds Compression
Mohammad – Lapli Tero
Kareem Lofty – Fr3sh
Spectre ft Sensational – Get Into This
Objekt – Secret Snake
Sensate Focus – X
Errorsmith – Lightspeed
Kamixlo – Paleta
Das Synthetische Mishgewebe – Untitled
Puce Mary – The Size Of Our Desires
Billy Bao – Urban Disease
Ben vida – Sssseeeeiiiii
Keith Fullerton Whitman – Disingenuousness
Amnesia Scanner – AS Too Wrong
Ling – Blue
Jar Moff – Tziaitzomanasou
James Hoff – How Wheeling Feels When The Ground Walks Away
Joseph Hammer – I Love You, Please Love Me Too
Yves Tumor – The Feeling When You Walk Away
Heatsick – Ice Cream On Concrete
Hecker – bsf’tyk 5
Rashad Becker – Dances II
Lee Gamble – Tvash Kwawar
Konrad Sprenger – Opening
R/S – Chicago II
Sewer Election – Vidoppna Sar
Frieder Butzmann – Wie Zeht Vergeht
M.E.S.H. – Signal Ride Drum
Trevor Wishart – Imago