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The holiest of holy time for some, and just a 4-day holiday for others, Easter is alot of different things to alot of different people. Essentially though, Easter celebrates the ultimate comeback of all time.... which got us thinking about comebacks, and in particular comebacks in music. What artists do we miss the most? Who should consider a career comeback? Who should stay gone? Whose 2009 comeback are we looking forward to the most?
... and here's a hint: pay close attention to the artists, label and album links below, as in the spirit of the holiday we've hidden some free musical Easter eggs throughout the site for you to nibble on and enjoy without the chocolate guilt.

Happy hunting and let the zero" Easter Ghost guide you to some free download codes!


Who we'd love to see have a comeback

In the world of dub techno there are none more influential than Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus' Basic Channel production team and record label. Widely regarded as having created the blueprint for dub techno in the mid 1990s, they fused the disparate elements of dub reverbs and delays with deep techno on nine vinyl-only releases, before they stopped producing records under that name and evolved into Rhythm & Sound.

New York post-punkers Liquid Liquid were given a new lease on life last year with batch of new remixes by Matthew Dear, Optimo, and Tim Goldsworthy on Domino, as well as the release of 'Slip In An Out Of Phenomenon', a singular collection of the band's first three EPs, plus live tracks and unreleased material. Championed by the likes of DFA and The Rapture, and regularly name-checked by fans of current indie-dance, Liquid Liquid's legacy is all the more impressive considering the band existed for just three short years in the early 80s and never released a full album.

Also albumless-but-influential were Austrian production group IO, consisting of Cheap Records' core members Patrick Pulsinger, Erdem Tunakan and Gerhard Potuznik. Only four now-classic records were produced from the group, which were compiled in 1995 for the double CD 'ASDR - 90 Minutes In The Eyes of IO'.

Keeping it on a techno tip, Detroit producer James Pennington was a collaborator on Inner City's crossover hit "Big Fun", but he maintained his militant underground status as Suburban Knight with early releases for Transmat and Underground Resistance. His acclaimed debut album 'My Sol Direction' was released in 2003 and was lauded for it's deep & moody Detroit sound, but apart from a couple of 12" releases he has been quiet on the production front ever since.

At the other end of the spectrum Austrian chillout masters Kruder & Dorfmeister have also been keeping their fans waiting for more new material, but their popularity lives on in the ageless blunted beats and smokey grooves of their 1998 opus 'K&D Sessions'.


Who we miss the most

While we can indulge in wishful thinking for the above artists, sadly some of our other favourite acts can not and will not be returning to us anytime soon.

Highly-respected when he was alive and gaining legendary status since his death in 2006, James Yancey aka Detroit hip hop producer Jay Dee / J Dilla lives on in his productions for Slum Village, Pharcyde, Tribe Called Quest, his Jaylib collaboration with Madlib and his collections of instrumental beats and undiscovered material from BBE and his home label, Stones Throw.

Another American artist whose cult status has grown exponentially since his death is Moondog, a blind, bearded, viking-attired eccentric with a penchant for bodily percussion, Native American rhythms, found sounds free jazz, poetry and inventing unique musical instruments . For many years he busked daily the corner of 53rd Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan, before passing away at the age of 83 in Germany in 1999, but he has found a new audience with the help of UK label Honest Jon's who have re-released much of his seminal recorded material.

Back to Detroit again, the loss of core Drexciya member James Stinson was only recognised some time after his death in 2002, as until that point the identities behind the enigmatic Drexciya were widely unknown. The legendary electro-techno duo performed in masks and were never photographed, but surviving member Gerald Donald continues to record under the Drexciya name, alongside his Dopplereffekt outfit.

Thankfully still with us, but still unlikely to make music together again are German duo Funkstörung, who made a name for themselves in the latter half of the 1990s with their complex but accessible IDM and glitch rhythms for labels like Acid Planet and !K7. After announcing their split in 2006 due to personal and professional reasons, Chris De Luca and Michael Fakesch have both moved on to separate projects, with Chris most recently branching out with Phon.O for their CLP outfit.


Who will comeback soon

We can't leave you on such a sad note, so let's fast forward past the dearly departed to the musical equivalent of Easter Sunday, with some artists who've been out of action for a while but thankfully have a revival just around the corner...

Losoul's new album Care is set to drop at the end of this month, the first album in five years from the Playhouse family's house music master.

Also returning to the musical spotlight in a couple of weeks is Moderat, the Bpitch Control super-trio of Apparat and Modeselektor. After whetting our appetites back in 2003 with a single 12" Moderat release we've had to make do with the occasional Moderat remix as Apparat and Modeselektor have created beautiful music separately, but they are joining forces yet again and this time with a full-length self-titled album.

A Warp Records' triumvirate are also set to return to the stage later this year: after an acrimonious split in 2002 Beans, M Sayyid, High Priest and Earl Blaize have resolved their differences and are working on a new Anti-Pop Consortium album of abstract rhymes and beats, with the working title of 'Fluorescent Black'. Keeping with the leftfield hip hop theme, instrumental beatmeister Guillermo Scott Herren is keeping to tradition of releasing a Prefuse 73 album every 2 years , and his 5th longplayer, 'Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian' is due out this month. Aphex Twin needs almost no introduction, the window-licking high king of IDM and mental electronica had his fans champing at the bit after Warp announced last month that Mr James would be producing a new Aphex Twin album before the end of 2009.

Last but not least, a comeback of sorts that that dominated 2008 as X-102 aka Jeff Mills, Mike Banks and Robert Hood re-released the absolute 1992 classic 'X-102 discovers the Rings Of Saturn', inspired by the planet's physiological makeup of Saturn an unique at the time for reinterpreting space discovery through the language of Detroit techno. With the release of the album with four unreleased tracks the 3 producers performed the album live throughout 2008 accompanied with images of the planet that inspired the project, which will hopefully continue into 2009.
Moderat, Jay Dee, Anti-Pop Consortium, Moondog, Losoul, X-102, Drexciya, Liquid Liquid, Prefuse 73, Basic Channel, Aphex Twin, Funkstörung, Suburban Knight, Kruder & Dorfmeister, IO, Happy Easter!
thanks! happy easter to you!
jay0, 3 years ago via zero-inch.com
Thanks Fellows!!!
mymylittle, 3 years ago via zero-inch.com
YES! Re: elegantos - you are spot on!
This is awesome, this is cool, this is so underground, this is love, this is great music!
Thanks and I hope to catch this Easter Gift!
mellibelli73, 3 years ago via zero-inch.com
Bravo!
Really cute and sophisticated way of saying thank you to the community! Can´t think of anyone giving away this good music for no money at all (!!shame on you--market leaders!!). I love the creative execution which shows us again what great minds must be in charge!

Bussi
;)
elegantos, 3 years ago via zero-inch.com
Fun Easter Hunt! I miss a lot of these folks too and it's fun to hear them again. Bummer that more than half of the tracks are "Unavailable to users in the United States" but still, it'd be greedy to complain about such lovely eggs! Thanks for the fun twist, and happy Easter!
337is, 3 years ago via zero-inch.com
ARCHIVE
Basic Channel
Location
Berlin
Labels
Basic Channel
and 2 more...
© by Basic Channel
Liquid Liquid
Location
New York City
Labels
DFA
Rush Hour
© by 99 Records
iO
Location
Vienna
Labels
Cheap Records
and 5 more...
Suburban Knight
Location
Detroit
Labels
Electrofunk Records
and 2 more...
© by Suburban Knight
Kruder & Dorfmeister
Labels
Compost Records
and 2 more...
© by k&d
Jay Dee
Location
Detroit
Labels
BBE
and 2 more...
© by Stones Throw
Moondog
Location
New York City
Labels
Honest Jon's Records
© by Moondog
Drexciya
Location
Detroit
Labels
Clone
and 7 more...
© by Drexciya
Funkstörung
Location
Rosenheim
Labels
Compost Records
and 5 more...
© by Funkstörung
Losoul
Location
Frankfurt
Labels
Broque
and 20 more...
Moderat
Labels
BerMuDa Music
and 5 more...
© by moderat
Anti-Pop Consortium
Location
New York City
Labels
anticon
and 4 more...
Prefuse 73
Location
Barcelona
Labels
Ghostly International
and 2 more...
© by Prefuse73
Aphex Twin
Location
London
Labels
!K7
and 3 more...
© by Richard James Myspace
X-102
Labels
Tresor
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