Album Lhasa - The Attic

One of the very first Belgian tracks i bought on import in 91. Amazing tune! so simple but awesome

https://www.discogs.com/Lhasa-Acetabularia/release/13350851Hello all, the darkentries release is coming , features extra tracks (home demos) i recorded in 1990 to 1991 , gather like dust was supposed to be the opening track for lhasa vol 2 but music man rejected, into the desert came from the attic session, the call i had some brian de palma scene in my head ,cheers Alain

To understand where 'The Attic' came from, we have to go back to one of my oldest memories: watching Der Phantastische Film on German tv. The movies that left the deepest marks on me were the ones that zoomed in on the possible bad sides of technology and predicted the downfall of mankind. A next personal cornerstone was Tubeway Army's 'Are 'friends' electric', from 1979: it was the first time I was blown away by the sound of synths. It felt so new, an expression of the perversity of technology through music. The song was about androids who seduced humans in order to rape them. The shortcomings of human beings transported to technology. It was machines turning against humanity. It wasn't like Kraftwerk who were very first degree, unpersonal and too clean.I was an early adopter of home computers, but the instruments and studio stuff to make music were still out of my reach in the early eighties. So when sampling came along, for me it was not only an important change in sound image, but it opened up all these possibilities too. And then finally, in the mid-eighties - I was working in the military - people started selling their hardware to make the switch to digital. I bought loads of old gear and started experimenting with sound. It was around the time when the whole new beat thing exploded in Belgium. I despised it. To me they were yuppies with smileys plundering a subculture, shitting out one bland record after another... At the time I was listening to B-2 Unit by Sakamoto, or the weird electropop of YMO. That's probably where my idea of techno was shaped: this idea of electronics mixed with the German Bauhaus school, or with abstract Malevich paintings.I quit the army around 1990, and shortly thereafter I had a dark dream that caused me to make 'The Attic'. I was in the attic of a house. It felt magical, but there was a sense of underlying danger. I looked up and the roof came off and started to dissolve, and I heard voices with bird like frequencies calling from the cosmos: 'come with us, come with us.' Maybe it was about the deification of technology Anyway, the image and the feeling of the dream were so vivid I transcribed them to music in maybe two days.When the demo was finished, we went straight to Boccaccio and handed it to Olivier Pieters, who immediately played it. 'The Attic' went on to become one of the signature songs for which they switched on the big lasers. It started to live its own life: I heard it in shopping streets in Amsterdam, it was blazing from cars, it was huge in Germany after the wall fell, etc.I quickly realized the music business wasn't something for me though: all these people with their profiling urge, the bootlegs, the fact that music got pushed into formats ... In retrospect, I was part of a scene without really taking part in it.

actually it's not me, I just copied the comment from Facebook or somewhere else :)

Wow, thanks for writing that. I was listening to your tune on the train to work this morning, I was actually wondering what was going through your mind when you wrote it! Particularly the little tweety-bleep sound - I assume it's the birds talking to the cosmos? That's really cool.

At least 10 words to say the repress is coming!https://www.discogs.com/Lhasa-The-Attic-Sexxor/release/12726879

Hello all, the re-release on Stroom is in it's final stage , releasedate is the start of 2019 1/1 , totally new sleeve art and detailed liners to discribe the story how the attic came into being , also contains a nod to the belgian coasttown where it was created ..

Great to see you revisiting it. Your a little part of history and should be proud!

awesome, that's a straight buy for sure. are there any remixes in planning?

thanks for the update, great news, can't wait ! :-)

Purple neon neon lights in the club - this track was unconsciously an inspiration for my scifi release of 2000 - every day in 1990 this album turned crazy in my room

Sci Fi release. I'd be interested to know further. And yes this EP was and still is very very interesting to listen too ;)

The Attic will be reissued by the amazing label STROOM, together with 'Logo - Businessmen' !!!

are there infos when this release will be up for sale? googled about it but no informations available, only source is this post here

That's great news, I'd love a copy :-) more words even more words

please include the amazing (!!) demo version of lhasa - the attic there.. whe talked about it some years ago, heard it at the tekknozid revival in berlin in 2000,otherwise i would not have even known it exists ..!

Hey lhasa67, that's cool! I'm happy to see Dark Entries are moving into Techno.

Thanks, Alain! (at least 10 words must be entered entered)

Yes, Ziggy would like me to make some new b-sides for it, time management for creating those is not easy for me, you might be interested that also darkentries releases a mini 6 track lp (not the attic ep) with unreleased demo's from lhasa 89-92

This track is just still Amazing. Pure genious.Alain, where did you find the inspiration for this track ? Timeless.

Ah finally explained. Coldwave minimal synth . Post up a comment when this record is repressed! Many thanks ;)

Thank you for the appreciation, I will give details info on the reissue but basically i came from a newwave/ coldwave music background, this combined with imagery like found in the 1983 film the keep and a dream i had the night before about an attic resulted in the track wich is both magic but spelling danger

Ps why was it called the Attic? The vocal sounds quite menacing but the sounds are not! Mysterious sounds but in a positive way.. ;)

lhasa67 Yes indeed, the original master of the 12 inch version is still intact, as Stroom wants to ditch the original b-sides (that is how Ziggy works????) we have a unreleased 1992 demo wich he likes and an 1993 ambient track that he is crazy about, I made a backcatalogue of my never heard before demo's and maybe ones running into the 1986 caveman years when my sound was very coldwave, you have to know in the mid 80s I didn't like the fact that NB pillaged newwave, and to drop a bomb I never was a big kraftwerk fan (most overrated pioneers ever) my dada is darker and anomaly . Wow, I am excited about the forth coming music from you Alain! And yes I kind of agree about Kraftwerk. Some tracks I love and some just go no where special. I infact prefer the earlier work beore they went toally electronic! And I also agree that I prefer a lot of the New Wave instead of New beat. New Wave could be cold but with a funkiness (Detroit Techno- Juan Atkins). Hope you havea great year 2018!

Yes indeed, the original master of the 12 inch version is still intact, as Stroom wants to ditch the original b-sides (that is how Ziggy works????) we have a unreleased 1992 demo wich he likes and an 1993 ambient track that he is crazy about, I made a backcatalogue of my never heard before demo's and maybe ones running into the 1986 caveman years when my sound was very coldwave, you have to know in the mid 80s I didn't like the fact that NB pillaged newwave, and to drop a bomb I never was a big kraftwerk fan (most overrated pioneers ever) my dada is darker and anomaly .

Hello lhasa67, will the reissue be from the original master tape / DAT?

i got word it's scheduled jan -Feb 2018 , the label that reissues https://www.discogs.com/label/1034172-STROOM , cheers alain

detailed answers to your question in a new reissue

The prices are pretty high for this ep!!And if you only want the ep for The Attic may I suggest investing in this https://www.discogs.com/Various-TSOB-The-Sound-Of-Belgium/release/5149569 ...Deffo more bang to your techno buck! ;)

It's all about adhesive though, stand out on the Ep...

The Attic....Every time I hear this I well up! So from 1990-2016 (nearly 2017) thats nearly 28 years that this track has had such a profound effect on myself!...Wow wow and f***ing WOW! All of Lhasa's tracks are worthy of a listen...Musical journeys start right here!

Best example how Belgium sound very quality! Pure classic!

From 89 to 94 the best time for dancing ever....

YES,ROUND THIS TIME THE MUSIC WAS VERY ORIGINAL AND COOL.

I'm with ADT1974 I heard for the first time dropped by Frankie Bones at Energy, an amazing track pure techno classic & so underrated. "Evangelical sound system"

No need to be hard or agressive to be intense. No need to be gloomy or depressive to be haunted. A darkness full of innerlight : here's The attic from Lhassa...

actually in the details section Kris tremmery P K stands for public kontakt not production and keyboardssince he has never played on any of the lhasa records , i owned the complete studio equipment and composed , programmed all sounds, produced all the records on my own , Kris was a dj at the time (mr trax)and we had a royalty agreement because he acted as a link to what was happening at the boccacio and import releases , but he never played a single key on these nor had any technical synth background , thanks for your kind reviews Alain raes (lhasa)

Alain - Thanks for the background information to this great record - this still remains one of my favourite records in my collection and holds fantastic memories of crazy nights at Rave events in the U.K in early 1991. Massive respect to you for producing such a wonderful piece of music - 'The Attic' = pure genius - Cheers Andy

The Attic - possibly one of the best techno records of all time in my opinion. An amazing Belgium track that lasts long in the memory. I heard Frankie Bones drop this at Energy at The Eclipse Club in Coventry and it almost put me on my backside - a real powerhouse of a tune that took the dancefloor to another place - Unforgettable

Lhasa - the attic; this is techno, this is fresh, pure genius, period.

The Attic is a.) a sign for the upcoming techno sound which was developed by Belgium, again putting more atmosphere into the previously developed sound called "New Beat" b.) how a small track on an E.P can become so famous, it is really one of the techno milestones in the history of electronic dance music. Minimalistic in it's choice of sounds but brilliantly arranged and prickled with atmospheric sounds (mainly strings) which make this song never sound boring. It is still future techno when you here it today.

One of those little forgotten wonders from 1990, the year of the second revelation for Belgian dancemusic. Belgian producers were getting rid of the stigma of bad gimmicky pop newbeat and were beginning to move on to a sound that would later on evolve into Belgian rave. Here you got one of those twilight-zone trax, still very new beat in approach and sound (dramatic strings, spooky atmosphere), but already supercharged with a mean Belgian "4 to the floor" basskick (instead of the swinging kick-snare pattern of new beat), ultracrisp sounds and mean production, and above all a track that stood the test of time with flying colours. "the Attic" sounds SOOOO FRESH that it's getting aired again in the electro-y new-beaty revival parties all over the place !! KICKASS TUNE !!