Cracks In The Surface - Magical Mistakes

Magical Mistakes is Osaka-based producer and musical community organizer Erik Luebs. As a U.S. immigrant in Japan, Luebs has built himself into a community of like-minded artists through his Perfect Touch label and club night while releasing music on imprints in other parts of the world, including King Deluxe, Kill Quanti, and Civil Music.

The culmination of these efforts is Cracks In The Surface, Luebs’ long-awaited debut release for Astro Nautico, out exclusively now on QRATES and due out on August 21 in 12’’ vinyl and digital formats.

Cracks In The Surface is the product of a globetrotter. Straddling the lines between cult techno, krautrock and synth-punk, it expands the confines of contemporary club, electronic, and experimental musics in the process. Luebs strikes a variety of tones, from resounding and bright to somber and resolute. Inspired by the experience of losing connections with friends and loved ones, Cracks contains as many steps as missteps. Hard-hitting, insistent rhythms fracture and refracture, establishing new funks and unconventional shuffles, while bursts of analog noise bring a level of severity to the polish.

Previous engagements with Astro Nautico include a track on landmark compilation Atlantics Vol. II, a Japanese tour with Obey City, a remix of Kuhn, and the cross-Pacific compilation 7 by 7, for which Luebs brought seven Osaka-based artists in musical conversation with seven U.S. producers to remix VHS audio ripped from the films The Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven.

In the Internet Age cross-cultural pioneering is perhaps nothing to brag about, but in this category we have encountered few musicians as bold and perspicacious as Erik Luebs.

Magical Mistakes is Osaka-based producer and musical community organizer Erik Luebs. As a U.S. immigrant in Japan, Luebs has built himself into a community of like-minded artists through his Perfect Touch label and club night while releasing music on imprints in other parts of the world, including King Deluxe, Kill Quanti, and Civil Music.

The culmination of these efforts is Cracks In The Surface, Luebs’ long-awaited debut release for Astro Nautico, out exclusively now on QRATES and due out on August 21 in 12’’ vinyl and digital formats.

Cracks In The Surface is the product of a globetrotter. Straddling the lines between cult techno, krautrock and synth-punk, it expands the confines of contemporary club, electronic, and experimental musics in the process. Luebs strikes a variety of tones, from resounding and bright to somber and resolute. Inspired by the experience of losing connections with friends and loved ones, Cracks contains as many steps as missteps. Hard-hitting, insistent rhythms fracture and refracture, establishing new funks and unconventional shuffles, while bursts of analog noise bring a level of severity to the polish.

Previous engagements with Astro Nautico include a track on landmark compilation Atlantics Vol. II, a Japanese tour with Obey City, a remix of Kuhn, and the cross-Pacific compilation 7 by 7, for which Luebs brought seven Osaka-based artists in musical conversation with seven U.S. producers to remix VHS audio ripped from the films The Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven.

In the Internet Age cross-cultural pioneering is perhaps nothing to brag about, but in this category we have encountered few musicians as bold and perspicacious as Erik Luebs.

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Magical Mistakes, the production moniker of musician Erik Luebs, works with natural and synthetic sounds to explore honest and intense corners of the human emotional spectrum. While taking influences from the club, he is also inspired by ambient and drone music, which manifests in the sound design and ambient spaces characteristic of his tracks.

Currently based in Osaka, Japan, Erik runs the small events and boutique label Perfect Touch, working with labels and artists (Leaving Records, Shigeto, Free the Robots, Lefto, Yosi Horikawa, Obey City etc.) on tours and cross cultural creative projects.

His last EP 'Decompose / Reassemble' came out via Canada's King Deluxe label, and a forthcoming 12” from NYC's Astro Nautico is slated for August 21st, 2015 followed by a release on Project Mooncircle under his original name, Erik Luebs.


Magical Mistakesはカリフォルニア出身のERIK LUEBSのソロプロジェクトで、現在は大阪に移住し活動している。音源は生の音に根ざしているのが特徴で、独特なリズムとともに叙情的に醸し出される。
彼のPerfect Touchというレーベルは、日本のみならず海外からもアーティストを招集しイベントを開催している。
2012年にDay Tripper Recordsよりフルアルバム「Everything Uncertain」を、2014年にKILL QUANTIよりカセットEP「Single Cells」をリリースし、最新ではカナダのレーベルKing DeluxeからEPのリリースが。Shigeto, Matthewdavidなどと共演し、2013年のSonar Soundにも出演した。

Cracks In The Surface

Magical Mistakes
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