Yea, Die Schachtel is a very good label! Nice balance between unearthing old gems of electronic music and eclectic new stuff. I don't have nearly enough of their releases...
Last couple of days I've been listening to the Ilhan Mimaroglu's Agitation cd on Locust. Collects four pieces by Mimaroglu, Tract: A Composition Of Agitprop Music For Electromagnetic Tape parts I & II, To Kill A Sunrise: A Requiem For Those Shot In The Back and La Ruche: An Elegy For Electromagnetic Tape. First two tracks are busy collages of electronics, orchestral music, ethnic stuff, jazz, choral singing, propaganda and tapes. Texts by Bakunin, Marx, Mao, Kropotkin etc. are read (in English and French), like a slogan after another. Some parts work better than others but all in all it's a very charming piece of "program music" (Mimaroglu's words). Not very aggressive like might be suspected, not a call to arms but more like a journey into the mind of a revolutionary. There's aggression and then there's tranquility. Yes it's old-fashioned and "dated" but who cares... A Requiem For Those Shot in the Back is what it says, a solemn "song of mourning". Che Guevara's autopsy report is read, along with names of other fallen comrade's. The music itself is mostly understated electronics, developing into a mass of wailing towards the end. The last piece is less obviously political, although in the liner notes Mimarglu calls it "proto-political". Tape composition from movements written for violoncello, harpsichord and piano with some electronic effects thrown in the mix. Reflective and slightly gloomy stuff, waves of calmness develop nicely into small turbulences. Superb ending to the disc.
