Unfinished Business by Cloud Management
Pre-order tape & digital release:
https://digitalsting.bandcamp.com/album/unfinished-business
Starts Shipping on 4/15/25
German trio Cloud Management approached Digital-Sting in late 2023 and started a conversation concerning a loose configuration of improvisations, studio experiments and rehearsal jam recordings. The timing was particularly serendipitous with Feel Free Hi Fi fresh off a West Coast USA tour with Exotic Gardens where we had spent several long drives along the California coast listening to Cloud Managements prior records on Altin Village. The second of which included collaborations with Exotic Gardens. This release "Unfinished Business" inhabits much of the musical history and influences foundational to the Digital Sting sound and ethos making the link up an obvious one. I don't want to be overly predictable in the comparison to the great body of work created by German legends like Moebius, Roedelius, Plank and others but it is there. Also present are heavy doses of dub wandering not too far from the furthest out zones created by African Head Charge or Dub Syndicate. Some creeping psychedelic unease in the way of Industrial Records also sits in the mix. Comparisons aside, Cloud Managements embrace of collaboration and jammy experimentalism create a sound that is unique and a bit rare in the contemporary dub and electronic music continuum where perceptions of genre restrictions can guide a bit too much. The two side long continuous tracks documented in this release lock in and groove as much as they wander, drift and break apart in subtle shifting ways making for special repeat listening where something new is always waiting.
Credits
Music by Cloud Management
Recorded 2022/2023 in Hamburg Germany and Ojén Spain
Mixed 2023 in Ojén
Mastered by Derek Maxwell
Artwork by Shawn Reed
Thomas Korf and Sebastian Kokus have been responsible for some stunning leftfield neo–kraut releases with their band Love–Songs in recent years; Ulf Schütte has been one of the most productive, and innovative protagonists of experimental electronic music in Germany for many years — see Datashock, Phantom Horse, or his most recent collaboration with G. Steenkiste / Hellvete for example.