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Label releases are listed here in reverse chronological order. Physical Merch and Legacy Items are listed at the bottom.
Dead Red Velvet Returns
Mohr’s Late Viennese period gave rise to his darkest and most insightful work.
Skeleton Shore
Tape Life Records presents Dead Red Velvet’s second release, Skeleton Shore, a six-song romp through dark techno, gritty electropop and cinematic dark ambient. The follow-up to The Ghostly Divide drops the guitars in favour of Mohr’s trademark synth work, seducing with urgent songs touching on arboreal ghosts, Austrian immigration, nuclear power and otherworldly luminosity. Culled mostly from the period 2004-2006, this is Mohr’s most tonally-consistent work. An electronic music acid bath of edge and depth, this short album is recommended for fans of 80s alternative, dark ambient, golden era industrial, Skinny Puppy and darker sides of Shriekback. Buy at Bandcamp.
Rex Ramsa – Debut Album
It took some twelve years to remaster the destruct-o-funk of Droid Charge into what has become the genius inception seed for Rex Ramsa’s prodigious and boisterous dancefloor legacy. Tape Life is thrilled (and a little bit withered) to unleash a remastered Stamina Charge with six more Rex Ramsa albums chomping at the bit.
Stamina Charge
Rex Ramsa is an industrial-inspired hard techno project rigorously delivering the most demanding metal-tech psychic-stamina experiments.
Engrossed in recording material for Full Moon Film in 2006, Karl Mohr took pause to let off steam with his minimalist hardcore machine-music effort Droid Charge: punishing techno tracks manipulating timbre and tempo wildly across a palette of dance floor destruction. In 2017, Mohr reframed Droid Charge as Rex Ramsa. The original album has been renamed and re-mastered for release on Tape Life Records.
Encapsulating soulless abstract art techno, noise and hardcore dance music, this debut from Rex Ramsa is dedicated to blatant, caustic, mechanical expressions: clone non-music for a non-audience devoid of aesthetics and empathy. A volcano of dirty and ugly minimalism, Stamina Charge is not for the faint of heart. Some reactions to Stamina Charge: “Daft Punk in an angry mood on a bad day.” “Percussion carpet-bombed by the Droid Army.” “A karate chop to the throat!”
With a specific focus on driving human biorhythms into accelerated states using tempo manipulation and sonic bombardment, this fracas can induce heightened physical effects and anxiety. For fans of: hard hypnotic schranz, extreme electronic, rhythmic noise and the UK dark techno scene. Buy at Bandcamp.
Blue Visions – Catching the Chill House Wave
Mohr had only just solidified his new goth rock path when he was whisked off to Austria. He was given the opportunity to research motions in the chillout genre and develop tracks in his own style. This led, ultimately, to the recording of a full album’s worth of chill house. Originally designed as a thru-mix album, the tracks were steered back to regular album format in 2004 where the collection enjoyed considerable success. Tape Life is proud to release the remastered album as Chill House Voyage.
Chill House Voyage
Levitate into scintillating Adriatic dreams with Chill House Voyage, a splash of invigorating electronic music. Karl Mohr’s Viennese period featured a foray into broader-appeal ambient house music: percolating late summer nights and early pool-side after party mornings are called to mind on this moody, azure delight. Blue Visions has been Mohr’s most successful music project, distilling the best aspects of European deep house and ambient dub into a brisk, refreshing uptempo cocktail. In its first incarnation as 2004’s A Journey Into Chill House, the single “Wassernixe” was featured on a Sony/Columbia compilation Vienna Vibrations 2 – The 2nd Gathering; a clear blue vinyl 12″ Wassernixe/Froze Like Ice was released by Interdimensional Industries. “House Of The Rising Void” appeared in a feature film sequel to Trainspotting called Ecstasy (2011), and many of the tracks were heard on the Canadian television series Metropia. The gorgeous remastering of Tape Life’s new re-issue of this chill house classic reveals two previously unreleased tracks. Ideal for the dance floor, cocktail party or melt-away summer vacation, the shifting tones of the chill house genre are addressed with panache by Blue Visions; two tracks incorporate beautifully the brazen torch vocals of jazz singer Chantal Thompson. For fans of Café Del Mar, José Padilla, 808 State, Todd Terry. Genres include chillout, chill house, deep house, ambient, electronic. Buy at Bandcamp.
Dead Red Velvet – A Shift to Dark Songs
In 1997, Mohr shifted from dancefloor-oriented samplist electronica to a focus on songwriting. The seeds had already been planted in previous cassette releases, and came to fruition on songs like “Elevator”, “Powder Blue Vampire” and “Waiter Waits” — Dead Red Velvet was born.
The Ghostly Divide
The debut release from Dead Red Velvet, The Ghostly Divide, picks up where Karl Mohr Audio-Yo left off, with a grave shift towards heavy, mood-laden songwriting. Flirting with gothic rock, Mohr’s 6-song collection of dark, slow burners features his best work from 1997-2001. For fans of dark ambient, goth rock, dark electronic, 80s alternative. Tags: dark ambient, dark electronic, goth, post-punk, Alternative, rock, electronic, atmospheric, male vocal, synthwave, synth pop, dark synth, new wave, Toronto, Canada. Buy at Bandcamp.
Karl Mohr Audio-Yo – The Full Discography
Before there was the darker, song-oriented Dead Red Velvet, there was the more electronic and elliptical Karl Mohr Audio-Yo. The entire 8-album KMAY discography is now available for sale at Bandcamp – listen for free now! Support the artist with a purchase and own the collection!
Standard Deviation
Tape Life presents the eighth and final Karl Mohr Audio-Yo release: Standard Deviation, a dark ambient film score. Following his 1997 techno-industrial tour de force, The Heck, Mohr switched gears into songwriting as Dead Red Velvet, but not before composing this dire soundtrack to Samuel Kiehoon Lee’s independent feature, Standard Deviation. The film concerns psychic hotlines, lottery pyramid schemes and the Y2K Problem; the accompanying music is no less intriguing. Acoustic and electronic instruments blend tastefully with copious sampling – the album stands as a mature, sophisticated and textured body of work. This pivotal release echoes, in chrysalis anguish, Mohr’s early experiments and also foreshadows the bleak, downcast goth elements found in Dead Red Velvet. Recommended listening for fans of film music and dark ambient; reminds at times of Peter Gabriel’s Passion or Alexander Zlamal’s score for Heller als der Mond. Tags: alternative, techno, dark ambient, industrial, electronic, soundtrack, film music, film score, ambient, ambient music, instrumental, drone, electroacoustic, atmospheric, dark electronic. Buy at Bandcamp.
The Heck 2017 Edition
Tape Life presents the seventh Karl Mohr Audio-Yo album, The Heck 2017 Edition. This twentieth anniversary re-release has been meticulously remastered and features updates to the original 1997 track list. Featuring material recorded 1993-1997, the critically acclaimed The Heck was a future-forward album of Mohr’s best work; the 2017 Edition sounds fresh and relevant two decades later. Claiming “100% Electronic Thrills,” the album is mostly instrumental, with Mohr’s vocal work sparse against the mad sample collages and towering techno architecture. Equally influenced by rave culture and industrial music, this eccentric and daring milestone reissue is recommended for fans of dancefloor-oriented electronic music. Tags: alternative, techno, dark ambient, industrial, electronic, techno music, dark techno, ambient techno, industrial techno, tech house, rave, DIY synthesizer, jungle, electronica, Canadian. Buy at Bandcamp.
Transgalactic
The sixth release from Karl Mohr Audio-Yo, Transgalactic, presents instrumental material from 1993-1995. It’s a wild, electronic ride spanning many genres and would foreshadow in flavour Mohr’s critically acclaimed 1997 follow-up, The Heck. The basement outtakes feel goes deep with spacey ambient, maximal house boppers and weirdo electroquirk, peaking with the brilliant techno anthem “Flowers”. Influenced by the electronic music of the time, this collection will be loved by fans of 808 State, The Orb, Terre Thaemlitz, Aphex Twin and Art Of Noise. Tags: alternative, techno, dark ambient, industrial, electronic, ambient, ambient music, house, techno music, rave, tech house, ambient techno, synthesizer music, instrumental music, Canadian. Buy at Bandcamp.
Galaxy Overmind
A major milestone release for Karl Mohr Audio-Yo, the fifth album Galaxy Overmind (1993-1995) sets an extraterrestrial techno-industrial world alight with grinding songs of dystopian iconoclasm and anguished precognitive future shock. Featuring the Canadian campus hits “Highway” and “Famously Famished”, this sequencer-directed energy blast – newly-remastered – will appeal to fans of Alien Sex Fiend, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Billy Idol, Nitzer Ebb, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. Tags: alternative, techno, dark ambient, industrial, electronic, electro-industrial, techno-industrial, new wave, electro-punk, electronica. Buy at Bandcamp.
Skyfire Sessions
The fourth album from Karl Mohr Audio-Yo explodes with a technicolor splash of Nineties rave power. Skyfire Sessions is a psychedelic dance trip navigating techno, house and ambient grooves, featuring recordings from 1992-1993. His prodigious techno recording sessions were inspired by the burgeoning rave movement of the day and, in particular, the dedicated rave community rocking Kingston, Ontario. Tempted since 1987 by the lure of acid house, in 1991 Mohr turned his attentions away from electro-industrial and dark ambient to the kinetic music of blacklight visions and strobing lasers. Ten finely-milled dance floor tracks, remixes and megamixes will appeal to fans of: The Orb, Underworld, A Guy Called Gerald, The Shamen, 808 State, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, Aphex Twin, Orbital, Todd Terry, Simon Harris and Lil Louis. Tags: alternative, techno, dark ambient, industrial, electronic, techno music, rave, rave music, house music, tech house, acid house, ambient techno, remix, megamix, Kingston. Buy at Bandcamp.
Strange Tides
Tape Life presents the third Karl Mohr Audio-Yo release, Strange Tides, a moody journey into ambient instrumental works recorded 1991-1995. Five pieces demonstrate a vastness of desolation in pensive electroacoustic art, conjuring images of tidal flats, pagan ritual and surgical purgatory – an opening of the floodgates to become submerged in cinematic sound. A dark ‘make out record’ for intimate moments of melancholic escape, this album is recommended for fans of dark ambient and film music. Tags: alternative, techno, dark ambient, industrial, electronic, ambient, ambient music, electroacoustic, soundtrack, film music, film score, synthesizer music, instrumental music, atmospheric, drone. Buy at Bandcamp.
Psychocinematic
Bristling with industrial dance vitriol, paired with estranged romantic introversion, the second collection of Karl Mohr Audio-Yo, Psychocinematic, focuses on an edgy period (1990-1992) rich in dire poetry and heavy-handed drum programming. A well-balanced presentation of Mohr’s varying musical spaces, this short and jagged album will appeal to fans of electro-industrial, new wave, gothic, minimal synth and dark ambient. Tags: alternative, techno, dark ambient, industrial, electronic, new wave, post-punk, minimal synth, gothic, Canadian, electro-industrial, post punk, dark wave, EBM. Buy at Bandcamp.
Into The Doomhole
A riveting collection of early experiments by Karl Mohr Audio-Yo, Into The Doomhole reveals earliest recordings (1988-1991) by the musical mastermind behind Dead Red Velvet. Industrial, gothic, minimal synth, dark ambient are influences within Mohr’s strange, shifting environment. Recommended for fans of dark electronic music. Tags: alternative, techno, dark ambient, industrial, electronic, weird, post-punk, gothic, Canadian, dark electronic, electro-industrial, experimental music. Buy at Bandcamp.
Physical Merch
Physical merchandise from Tape Life currently consists of a full-colour digipack CD of Dead Red Velvet Full Moon Film…
…as well as 10 different Dead Red Velvet pinback buttons, also available in a 10-pack.
Legacy Items
For a limited time, these albums from the Multibeat Records period are still available as well:
