- Tekres is a jagged edge in the already splintering world of post-vaporwave music. As some adherents move into melodramatic ambient and others make hardvapour—a blend of trance, gabber and noise—Tekres brings an element of orthodox house and techno. The label's first release was only connected to the post-vapor world by the presence of HKE, the founder of Dream Catalogue. More "ghost tech," as Tekres calls it, has since come from Chungking Mansions, Somnus and MOD-COMM 81, whose records were sleek, jacking and steeped in ambience.
The label's sixth release, Asleep / Awake, is a split cassette, with one side by an obscure artist called KAGAMI Smile and the other by Subaeris, one of HKE's many alter egos. Subaeris is among the best of his aliases; you can usually count on it for high production values and a distinct emotional core that pulls it away from the grand gestures or loungey distance of his other music. Both producers present blown-out ambient techno on Asleep / Awake, though in different styles: KAGAMI Smile swamps his tracks in textures, while Subaeris makes wounded techno in the vein of Modern Love.
KAGAMI Smile's side is overwhelming and sometimes indistinct. On "Voices" and "Asleep," the details are fuzzy. Sounds flutter above and below the surface. Tracks like "Drifted" and "Left" approach shoegaze, with snares and hi-hats poking through thick drones. It might be downright noisy if it weren't so pretty.
HKE's tracks are more graceful and distinct. After the ghostly drone and garage beats of the Burial-esque "Underpass," he lays down elegant techno on tracks like "Blue Light City" and "Game Depth," where the drums punch above the surface without disturbing the beautiful soundscapes below. Most impressive is "Awake," a collaboration with KAGAMI Smile that highlights the pair's best qualities. HKE's drums throb amidst a thick ambience that cocoons the kicks after every impact, at once visceral and pillowy.
The album embodies Tekres's position as a techno label unencumbered by the techno scene. Artists on the label are, for the most part, completely separate from the European techno circuit or even the growing gaggle of lo-fi techno and house producers on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. Sure, ghost tech has weird moments and certain aesthetic touches that connect it to labels like Dream Catalogue or Antifur. But Asleep / Awake is simply good techno, which makes Tekres a label to watch for heads and newcomers alike.
Tracklist01. KAGAMI Smile - Asleep
02. KAGAMI Smile - Drifted
03. KAGAMI Smile - Finding
04. KAGAMI Smile - Left
05. KAGAMI Smile - Voices
06. Subaeris - Underpass
07. Subaeris - Blue Light City
08. Subaeris - Game Depth
09. Subaeris - Church
10. Subaeris - Awake feat. KAGAMI Smile