1. the warsaw disaster (cheap drum mix)          1996
2. sakrileg am mittag (high noon edit)           1996
3. generatorenkonflikte (ramp vs. Antidot)       1997
4. tribejagd (tribal edit)                       1997
5. whatīs the point of eating concrete?
   (definite edit)                               1998
6. looking back in anger
   (the real huizen finale edit)                 1999
7. so far ([īramp] and markus reuter)            2000
8. scissors (short and painful edit)             2004
9. nothing (keep the balance right, jhonn)       2006

total time: 77:56

 
1. the warsaw disaster (cheap drum mix) 1996

this track was one of the first ever recorded by the threesome of lambert, frank, and stephen in april 1996. at that time lambert was still a member of RPM, like they used to call themselves around then. "the warsaw disaster" goes to show how firmly they were rooted in the traditional electronic music background of germanyīs tangerine dream and klaus schulze as this sounds very much like a t.dream track from around 1982 to 1984. an excerpt from this track was originally released on the first "goldtri" cd compilation in 1997. here, youīll find the original track in its full length (minus some bum notes and lengthy bits).

 
2. sakrileg am mittag (high noon edit) 1996

frank and stephen recorded "sakrileg am mittag" ("high noon sacrilege") during the second RAMP session in august 1996 as an afterthought to the intro of their track "phasenverzerrung" which can be found on RAMPīs
1998 debut cd "nodular". they both were not completely happy with lambertīs contributions to the intro (lambertīs proverbial "twitters-in-a-pinch" annoyed them quite a bit which later caused lambert to bail out, among other things). thus, they tried to record some alternative take which could later be blended with the sequencer parts of "phasenverzerrung". it quickly became obvious that this track had a life of its own, and stephen and frank admit they wanted to make a pun of klaus schulzeīs use of operatic voice sounds. originally, "sakrileg" was on the demo the band gave to manikin but mario schönwälder refused to include this track on the album for its strong "gothic" undertones, as he put it. the vocalizations reappeared in 2002 when the band performed their "caverna larvarum" concert at the dechenhoehle in germany.

 
3. generatorenkonflikte
   (ramp vs. Antidot) 1997

yet another of those tracks that were shoved aside for future albums but never made it onto any album recorded by frank and stephen. RAMP was supposed to be a platform for collaborations with other artists, and stefan kraft aka "antidot" was among the first musicians outside the RAMP circle to join the band. stefan was very good at both rhythm programming and processing, and often heīd work with only two or three very

basic synthesizers and rhythm machines to produce his tracks. this "[īramp]-goes-autechre" gem was recorded in august of 1997 during preparations for the first RAMP concert at the insel in marl, and it clearly shows how multifacetted their musical interests were already at that time. they never created something similar ever after, and this track never got beyond some minor airplay and appeared on some fan bootlegs. even though stefan quit playing with [īramp], his brief stay left a deep impression on their music and this track still sounds fresh and timeless.

 
4. tribejagd (tribal edit) 1997

martina beine ("fantar" in arte) was yet another musician who joined the band in may 1997. she stayed with the band only briefly until september 1998 when she tossed herself out of the group due to improfessional

behaviour. this track was recorded during rehearsals for the second RAMP concert in november 1997, and it is one of the few examples where her vocalisations really worked. on other occasions, her over-indulgent style
and her continued presence on stage (even when her contributions were not needed and she was supposed to withdraw to the background) quickly became a drag, especially for frank. on one such an occasion, right after a concert was in full flight, she complained to frank and stephen that her white underwear would be visible to the audience through her black velvet gown because they were using blacklight on stage. frank was pretty much annoyed while stephen drily replied that this was the very reason why he was playing with eleven fingers. accepting musical advice and directions wasnīt easy for her, either. you might be tempted to think that this is why you can hear martina sing something that sounds vaguely like "ach, fick dich selber!" ("oh, fuck yourself!") in the fade-out of the track.

 
5. whatīs the point of eating concrete?
   (definite edit) 1998

not this one again, you may think, as an alternative take already showed up on the second goldtri compilation in 1998, while an alternative mix of this version adorned manikinīs 10th anniversary compilation. neither version was to stephenīs satisfaction, thus he took the original recording, shortened

it a bit and gave it some proper equalization, and now this little gem shines the way itīs always been supposed to. "whatīs the point..." was recorded in july of 1998, together with jens peschke during the sessions that later produced the raw material for [īramp]īs second album "frozen radios". jens got in touch with the band through the goldtri network and later recorded some albums with navigator, weird, and kubusschnitt. born from total improvisation, the band used this track to mock at their british (then-)competitors of radio massacre international who claimed it took them one day to throw an album together. it took [īramp] even less...

 

6. looking back in anger (the real huizen finale edit) 1999

many people got back to [īramp] in course of the years and asked for a recording of the finale they did during their concert at the sixth alfa centauri festival back in 1999. as some of you might remember, the main

sequencer rig crashed during the second half of the show, thanks to some mobile phone interference (clearly audible on both the audience recording and the recording straight from the desk). hence, [īramp] were not able to perform the finale the way they had originally planned, and stephen did some wild but pointless sequencer noodlings with his arp 2600, the only bit
of equipment that was still working. the audience was gobsmacked by the brute force emanating from that old dinosaur, but [īramp] were more than just a little pissed off. luckily, stephen and frank always record their rehearsals in order to capture some unexpected magic coming in through the backdoor, and on one of these dat tapes (which had broken shortly after the rehearsals and put away in a shoebox) this finale was recorded! stephen fixed the tape and saved the track which he later remixed at his studio to make it enjoyable. itīs amazing to hear how close to the rehearsals the concert went up to that point. the only other saved bit of this finale appeared briefly on frankīs "core" album in 2001.

this is [īramp] at their most steaming sequencer work and as massive as they could get around then. you may wonder what [īramp] are looking back in anger. there were quite a few people who crossed their paths and who turned out to be false friends and backstabbers in the end. you might also blame it on tools that didnīt work properly. make of it what you wish.

 
7. so far
   ([īramp] and markus reuter) 2000

in november 2000 [īramp] met for a weekend session at frankīs place in marl and recorded some music with guitar ambiences and phrases markus kindly supplied [īramp] with. the session was rather hilarious, kicking off in a really deep and gloomy fashion with frank and stephen laughing their bums off at how easy it was to sound like any other fellow dark ambient performer. during these sessions they recorded more than two hours of music which was later
edited and remixed for the collaborative [īramp] and reuter album. this track, however, remained unused for the album as markus found it too similar to the rest, hence stephen and frank decided to leave it out.
"so far" was recorded and remixed using rough material produced during the november session at stephenīs electronic junkyard in moers on december 31, 2000. it went through various incarnations and edits until it took on its final form for this release which was created by stephen at his zwischenraum studio in april 2006. originally, [īramp] wanted to include a different edit of "rapture of the deep" which they created from remixing a track by their american colleague paul ellis but they felt it wasnīt genuinely their own work but "only" a remix in the first place, therefore they decided to use some original music instead.

 
8. scissors
   (short and painful edit) 2004

between 2001 and 2003 [īramp] performed a couple of live shows which were released in the meantime, either officially or on their doombient series of limited cdr albums. in 2003/04 the band briefly folded as outer circumstances forced them to quit making music for a while. "scissors" was the first and only [īramp] track recorded at stephenīs new bonemill premises in september 2004 before these also folded in early 2005. "scissors" sees [īramp] return to their sequential roots, although they tried to add a certain minimal twist to their sequencing. a beautiful finish which sees the band go full circle, and which also shows the technical progress they went through.

 
9. nothing (keep the balance right, jhonn) 2006

actually, [īramp] wanted to include a minute of silence for this track, but they thought making a pun of coilīs track "something" would be funnier. here it is, stephen saying "nothing", looping the word over and over again and processing it heavily until it produces one massive and abrasive wall of noise.


 

(pictures taken by denis bryll, olaf hellenkamp, ed in den bosch,
heinrich parsick, marc raude, peter schueller, stephan schelle,
annette steup and [īramp])