Recently signing an exclusive distribution deal with EPM has been the best move for Fire Hammer Records as that company has it’s finger firmly on the pulse of music that is more than anything, forward thinking, and treats it’s partners as friends. Something very important to the label owner. The label itself though is ran by an artist that is more an overall force of nature than a regular composer or performer but has until recently kept his kraken like tentacles out of the more traditional techno movement, to a certain extent at least. Miike Teknoist aka The Teknoist and now also ‘Fyerhammer‘ really does leave his manic, war song side behind and steps off the battlefield with Fire Hammer Records. It’s still a project that emits energy, just a very different energy.
‘Big, amazing, electronic music’ is it’s simple description, promise, mission statement and summing up from it’s founder. Filling a lone gap in his label house that has existed for over a decade now. Techno music is at an all time innovative and creative high and so this is as good a time as any. It’s creator, with releases under the Fyerhammer alias on Leisure System, Blackout Audio and Industrial Strength thus far has gathered an already stellar group of artists for it’s 1st bunch of EP’s including Dean Rodell, Hecq, Barker and Fausten and breaking artists like Xellmode. The opening couple of releases (1 & 2 released on the 7th September and 3 & 4 on the 21st) though are just the tip of the iceberg, but what a tip it is. Across the board electronica and just big arse techno where all profits of every single release goes to the Rethink Mental Illness charity for life. The only thing to do now is to give it a listen.
“I’m in love with this label already! Great fresh music for my sets.”
Mark (Blackout Audio)
“The Fire Hammer catalogue stands out with gleaming production and expertly explored ideas that range from intense soundscapes to dungeon bang, often within the same track!…A broad enough remit to not know fully what to expect from the next release, but with an identity that makes sense and joins them all together”
Jerome Hill
“Fyerhammer is a new techno project by veteran producer Miike Hayward, more familiarly known to ravers as “The Teknoist”.
It’s exciting to hear a skilled producer approach a decades-old dancefloor genre, bringing in influences from other areas (breakcore, drum’n’bass, gabber, abstract electronics in this case). While some techno releases can be stuck in cycles of boring, self-referential regurgitation, it’s clear that Fyerhammer doesn’t fuck about like that. All tracks here are sleek, fierce, punchy, heavy on the bottom end (as you’d expect from someone of his history) and imbued with linear, arching riffs designed to drill straight into your brain.
Collaborators come from allies, again picked from the abstract electronic fields such as Xellmode. The latter’s “Light behind your eyes” blends melancholic, rising strings with dirty bass blasts and chopped drumbreaks that would not sound at all out of place in a Rob Hall DJ set. On a similar tip is “Pelvic Sorcery”, whose glacial synth riffs and tight, stampeding beatwork sounds like Deepchord or Rhythm and Sound doing a doubledrop.
Breakcore producer Monster X also pitches in for remix duties, turning the driving, squiggly 4-on-the-floor of “Monica’s Thursday Jam” into a halfsteppy, sub-heavy beast laden with controlled explosions, autechre-esque acid and dense, intricate sound design.
Being a bit of a studio beast, Miike has churned out an impressive number of sleek, technoid tracks in a relatively short time on his own label, as well as “Rethink Mental Illness”, a charity that’s close to his heart.
Fyerhammer is an exciting new creative outlet for a skilled, restless producer and we’re all the more happier for it.”
Stormfield (Combat Records)
OUT 7th SEPTEMBER AT WWW.EPM-MUSIC.COM
Fire Hammer 1. Fyerhammer & Xellmode – Rethink
This is a good a start as any. The 1st ep has vibes of lush electronica that will make you well up on a lone evening and also big summer sounding techno that wouldn’t go a miss in any Surgeon set from the past couple of years. Being rinsed by Brighton’s finest Berlin inhabitant, ‘Sam Barker’ and the likes at festivals and warehouses alike this year. You really must experience the assemblage of seemingly countless synthesizers and drum machines that build through each track.
Fire Hammer 2. Xellmode – The Jam
The 2nd ep is a debut and a solo tribute to the legendary techno place of worship (technically it was an old school but i’m sure you get the idea), ‘Atomic Jam’. That alone as a description should be enough alone to interest you but if not, simply think of 4 tracks themed on early mornings surrounded by like minded techno worshippers locked under one groove… in a giant gothic school hall! It’s dark, moody but with enough vibe to really get lost in.
OUT 21st SEPTEMBER AT WWW.EPM-MUSIC.COM
Fire Hammer 3. Fyerhammer – Intimacy Cramps
Okay, you wanted techno. Well here it is. A 2 track ep of driving and building grooves laced with ever evolving modern manipulations of synth sounds that made Basic Channel famous, only with added energy and girth. That’s just track 1. Track 2 is a 12 minute heavy acidic jam that starts one place and ends up the other side of LV-426. We could say it’s kind of no nonsense techno but that’d be an outright lie. There’s heaps of nonsense, it’s just that it’s nonsense that works… really bloody well.
DJ’s comments: Black Amiga (Room 237) & Marcus Noblett (Littlebig Agency)
Fyerhammer – Pelvic Sorcery
Touchin’ Bass electro with a techno twist, good stuff
Fyerhammer – Monica’s Thursday Jam
Bit more of a Berghain big room track this one. Love the percussive movement
Fire Hammer 4. Monster X – A good superhero is a dead super hero
For the 4th EP on Fire Hammer we tracked down the beast that is Monster X. French electronica demon and one artist that lives up to his name in every way. His 1st track has the aesthetics of a late 80’s electro banger but with that Monster X lilt that adds modern production, extra wonk, twisted basslines and glitched out percussion. The 2nd track is a remix of Fyerhammer’s ‘Monica’s Thursday Jam’, from Fire Hammer 3. He takes the original acid tinged techno at turns it into wall of sonic power with more girth than a redwood. It really does get heavier and more suffocating as the track goes on… in a good way 😉
DJ’s comments: Black Amiga (Room 237) & Marcus Noblett (Littlebig Agency) Monster X – A Good Superhero Is A Dead Superhero Sounds like a Richard Devine / Jimmy Edgar lovechild. Love the funk.
Fyerhammer – Monica’s Thursday Jam (Monster X remix) Love the crushing snares, definitely for fans of Ancient Methods.
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