B12
One of only a handful of British techno acts ostensibly pursuing a legacy of British techno firmly rooted in its Detroit pre-history, B12 are also (perhaps as a result) one of the few British techno acts also hailed by the Motor City's aesthetic elite. Notoriously shy of the music press, the London-based duo of Mike Golding and Steve Rutter have quietly made their contribution to post-rave techno by updating Detroit's signature optimistic/dystopian futurism for a digital age, constructing tracks of glinting, heavily syncopated electro-techno with a strong base in melody and mood.
They issued their first handful of untitled 12"s -- attributed to a loosely structured catalog of pseudonyms like Redcell, Musicology, and Cmetric -- on their own B12 Records label, and were immediately hailed alongside U.K. techno acts like LFO, the Black Dog, Sweet Exorcist, and Tricky Disco as heralding something of a new age of post-acid house techno-based electronic music. The pair signed with Warp in 1992, and were included (as Musicology) on the label's seminal Artificial Intelligence compilation. Electro-Soma, issued by Warp in 1993, assembled the best of their early years, and the group followed the release with a three-year hiatus before releasing the like-sounding Time Tourist in 1996. Both full-lengths were reissued in the U.S. by Wax Trax!/TVT.
The darker, breakbeat-driven 3EP was released in 1998, but B12 subsequently disappeared from the music scene. In 2005, Golding and Rutter announced the relaunch of B12 Records. The duo began performing shows again, and they released three EPs in 2007 (including the full release of an EP which never made it past a test pressing in 1996) before issuing the full-length Last Days of Silence in 2008. The album included a bonus disc of live material, and a separate disc of remixes was released later in the year. Additionally, several volumes of B12 Records Archive collections were issued, compiling released as well as unreleased material from the duo's various projects.
During the first half of the 2010s, B12 seemed to disappear again, but they returned in 2015 with two EPs: Bokide 325, issued by Soma, and Orbiting Souls, released by Delsin. In 2016, the duo started a new label, FireScope, and continued their prolific run of EPs and singles. Additional releases also appeared on Central Processing Unit (All Abandon All), De:tuned (Transient Life), and Touched (BrokenBroken). In 2017, Warp reissued Electro-Soma along with a disc of archival material, Electro-Soma II.
© Sean Cooper & Paul Simpson /TiVo
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Time Tourist (Expanded Edition)
Alternative & Indie - Released by Warp Records on Feb 26, 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Electro-Soma
Alternative & Indie - Released by Warp Records on Aug 25, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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All Abandon All
Techno - Released by Central Processing Unit on Oct 28, 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Electro-Soma II
Alternative & Indie - Released by Warp Records on Aug 25, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
B12 Records Archive, Vol. 3
House - Released by B12 Records on Jan 26, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Last Days of Silence
House - Released by B12 Records on May 26, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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B12 Records Archive, Vol. 1
House - Released by B12 Records on Nov 17, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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B12 Records Archive, Vol. 5
House - Released by B12 Records on Mar 30, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BrokenBroken
Dance - Released by Touched Music For Macmillan Cancer Support on May 4, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Last Days of Silence Remixes
House - Released by B12 Records on Oct 20, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Electro-Soma I + II Anthology
Alternative & Indie - Released by Warp Records on Aug 25, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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vallahi sevdadan
Punk / New Wave - Released by 3950332 Records DK2 on May 20, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Infinite Lites (Original Mix)
Alternative & Indie - Released by Warp Records on Oct 10, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Kollection
Hip-Hop/Rap - Released by 12 Entertainment on May 12, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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