Wolfgang Voigt presents the legendary (and somewhat mythical due to the scarcity of the records) GAS in a beautifully crafted, deluxe box set featuring the albums Zauberberg, Königsforst, Pop and the extended player Oktember. Needless to say this is an essential addition to any electronic connoisseur's collection...
Having compiled the first four Gas albums on the 2008 CD box set Nah Und Fern, we have been itching for someone to give the wax a proper re-run, drawing heavily on the higher end of the Discogs market, to find copies of the original records in anything not resembling a heavily played (as for those of you with OGs know they are an essential winter soundtrack) to get these newly remastered and cut pressings, with the albums spread across six sides (as opposed to the double LP pressings they originally came out as) is something of a godsend.
Over the past 20 years, Wolfgang Voigt has come to be known as one of the fixtures of the electronic music scene of the 90s - through his work with labels like Warp as Mike Ink, as co-founder of Kompakt, but most sustainably thanks to his pioneering Gas releases on Frankfurt institution Mille Plateaux. Voigt was heavily inspired by the forest environment around him, mirroring its feel in evocative, organic synth backgrounds, against which he set his minimal dub-beats. This extended idea of what constitutes techno remains valid to this date, and the meditative quality of his works attributes to that.
The Gas project takes the techniques of the echo-laden Chain Reaction techno of Berlin's famed Hard Wax shop wall and moves it from the urbanite city dwelling to the deepest recesses of the forest. A dense, hypnotic blend of endless loops, and almost classical in structure to create a foggy electronic music that is as dense as it is immersive. The newly cut vinyl sounds absolutely mind-blowing and begs repeated plays, much like Autechre stated with Tri Repetae, "Complete with surface noise" the discs are gonna age very well.
This is a limited chance to own some of the richest electronic music the world has ever seen, and for any fans of old unsure, the art-print book that features imagery from the Königsforst woods and the lure of the extra tracks, this is pretty much the most crucial record to be released in 2016.
