Electro Recommendations Best Of 2014

Review: Following the series of Drexciya retrospectives on Clone, Tresor has dug their own sizable archives to revisit some of the work James Stinson and Gerald Donald committed to the Berlin institution in their time working together. Having already reissued the Drexciya LP Return To Neptunes Lair, Tresor now present a reissue of The Opening Of The Cerebral Gate, the 2001 LP from the late James Stinson's Transllusion project. Initially released on Tresor offshoot Supremat, this new triple LP edition from the label includes three cuts that were not present on the original vinyl version. Given how much og copies command on the second hand market, Drexciya fans without a copy should consider this an essential purchase!

Review: Clone calls time on their Drexciya retrospective series with this fourth and final installment of the Journey Of The Deep Sea Dweller. Commencing back at the tail end of 2011, the series has cast its net over the vast Drexciya archives in seemingly chronological fashion, with Clone enlisting Alden Tyrell to undertake extensive remastering of the material recorded by Gerald Donald and the sadly departed James Stinson. Just over a year since Journey III was issued, this final installment draws from a pool of Donald and Stinson's "rarest and most astonishing" tracks that covers the breath of their output during the 1990s. Drexciya completists will no doubt be most excited by the inclusion of five previously unreleased productions on the 16 track set - "Unknown Journey VI" to "Unknown Journey X".

Review: * REPRESS * Few electronic acts could easily sustain three expansive 'best of' compilations, but then Detroit techno-electro fusionists Drexciya weren't your average electronic artists. In the space of little more than 12 EPs and a handful of albums, released in a ten-year burst between 1992 and 2002, James Stinson and Gerald Donald did more to push electronic music forwards than many of their Motor City peers. This third retrospective in Clone's excellent Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller series expands on the first two volumes, swimming between atmospheric IDM ("Aqua Worm Hole", "Vampire Island"), balls-deep techno workouts ("Nautilus", "Intensified Magnetron") and shimmering future electro (the futuristic Kraftwerk vibes of "Aquabahn").

Review: A big Juno bear hug goes to the folks from Tresor for releasing a string of sublime re-issues this year. The latest is Drexciya's seminal Harnessed The Storm long player, generally a much darker affair than Neptune's Lair, which itself was reissued earlier this year. It is hallmarked by longer, more exploratory tracks, full of sinister twists and turns. The stormy electro thunder of "Digital Tsunami" is perhaps the standout moment here, closely followed by the subterranean squelch of "Soul Of The Sea". "Dr Blowfins Black Storm Stabilizing Spheres" has an eerie crackle that predates the current vogue for dark atmospheric techno by nearly a decade, while the robotic key melody on "Song Of The Green Whale" marks it as the LP's most playful moment. Highly recommended for electro and techno purists alike.

Review: We've lost count of the various projects Robert Witschakowski has been involved in this year, but the Some Other Places series of releases on Clone's West Coast Series is up there with the German's best work as The Exaltics. This hand-stamped purple 12" is the third and final part and contains some fine electro for both the dancefloor and the living room. Opening this five-track release is the snare shaking and in your face ambient intro of "Getting Closer" which is followed by a melodic and grouchy key driven "Never Be Enough". The EP's highlights are "Can You See It" and "SL-W D-WN", which respectively are dubby and mellow and dusty and break beat. Seriously, does Witschakowski sleep?

Review: Phran is a brand new recording artist based out of Barcelona and Venezuela, his debut EP for Klasse Wrecks is a fantastic and blistering trip into live hardware session jams. Buzzing with electricity and fuzz the 'Bad Format' EP is an impressive debut from the young artist and sure to please fans of both traditional Electro and forward thinking House. Alongside the four originals we have a remix from up and coming Belgian producer, Innershades. Innershades recently impressed music lovers with his very well-received 'Nina In The Boiler Room' track which was released via Creme and has turned in an effective interpretation in what is soon becoming a recognizable style from the young producer.

Review: Legendary Finnish electro pioneers Mr Velcro Fastener return after a very long absence with this long-awaited and much-anticipated EP on Cyber Dance Records. Full of the same funked-out, quirky and fresh futuristic sounds that brought them instant recognition in the 90s electro underground the 'TKU' EP sounds like the innovative duo never went away, effortlessly picking up where they left off. 'Brinkkala' opens proceedings with their classic signature brand of Detroit-meets-Finland robotic funk jamming, while the next track 'Bridge Over Nothing' delivers harder and punchier rhythms deftly topped with layers of spaced-out chords and shimmering noises - and a relentless bassline that builds and progresses the grooves to alien dimensions of sheer electro brilliance. The sonic assault continues on Side B with 'Ologrammed', a pulsating monster of a track that pushes the Velcro Fastener sound into ethereal realms that evoke the likes of Technasia or The Hacker in their mid-90s heyday. The EP closes with 'Johnny's Wood', a funked-up, jazzed-out and upbeat adventure over-brimming with robotic positivity and electronic optimism. Copies are limited of this essential purchase for die-hard electro connoisseurs everywhere, so don't be slow as they're sure to go!

Review: If you haven't heard of Nu Era, both the artist name and the title of this new EP would suggest a synthy, possibly modular affair with little structure or seductive beats. In reality, Nu Era is Marc Mac's techno project, and it was last year's "The Third Adam" which caught our attention onto his style of beat-making. This new gatefold 7" with CD contains an incorrigibly diverse set of club sounds for the more daring of DJ's. From house to techno and broken beat, Mac certainly knows how to set a part on fire. Our picks from here are the instantly alluring groove of "Changing Form", the jazzy breaks of "Oscar Styles", and drum machine deviation that is "Finding Time". Top notch!

Review: Even if you weren't aware of his affiliation with the long running Bleep43 collective, a brief glance at the Plant43 discography of producer Emile Facey would suggest heavy involvement in underground electro. Frustrated Funk, Semantica, Central Processing Unit and AI Records are all labels Facey's work has surfaced on and it's great to see him add the blossoming Shipwrec operation to this list with his first Plant 43 LP in some four years. Programmed to be equally suited to home listening or club play, Scars of Intransigence feels like a classic LP in the making with eight tracks of deep, rippling electro that haunt and excite in equal measures. Spend more time with the album and the undercurrent of dystopian despair does begin to seep through as Facey uses his machines to translate his dissatisfaction at ill-run governments and greedy corporations with little regard for how misused and abused Earth is becoming.

Review: Ireland's Lunar Disko continues to impress since last year's Juno HQ favourite by none other than DJ Overdose. Here VC118A return to the imprint with a handsome, polyrhythmic three-tracker backed with a handsome remix. "Click" is a moody, late-night 606 jam, while "Vlucht Naar Nachtschade" brings the tempo down even further to reach sinister levels of deepness. Delta Funktionen's remix is nasty to say the least, heading further into a wormhole of electro doom, and finally, "Variatie Hoogtegraad" strips everything back into a melancholic groove surrounded by lonely, shadowy pads.

Review: The snappily titled World Electronix Remixes 12? does what it says on the tin, presenting remixes of tracks from the World Electronix series that Cultivated Electronix ran across four 12"s over the course of a year. Within this series, Shad T. Scott, JTC, Gerard Hanson, The Exaltics and Boris 'Versalife' Bunnik were amongst the names that contributed to each loosely themed record, it dark, acidic, deep or twisted electro. Naturally the artists that feature on this 12" are of a similar calibre with French electro royalty The Hacker casting his shadow over Finnish pair Morphology, The Exaltics rewired by label boss Sync 24, and Marco Bernardi taking on Sync 24?s collaboration with Abstract Forms boss Dais. However, it's the playful analogue insouciance that is DMX Krew's adjustment of "In Transit" by JTC that makes this record that extra bit special.

Review: Following the release of Terrence Parker's LP, Planet E follows up that veteran's album by debuting the so far unknown Korrupt Data with a three-track 12". Entitled Cryogene - cryogenics being the study of the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures - the sounds here match such a description. The title-track is a highlight and it's a great electro production made at a speedy house tempo that brims with all the Detroit goodness of an Interdimensional Transmission record. "Drifting Vessels" is a little more broken in rhythm and has that deep sea searching vibe of a chilled out Drexciya track, while "Shimmer" is a reflective, sombre, but also hopeful and cosmic piece of electronic music brilliance. Pure freshness.

Review: It's fair to say that few other artists currently working in underground electro can match Robert Witschakowski's work rate at the moment, yet you can hardly accuse the German producer of simply repeating himself. His latest endeavour as The Exaltics sees him on Cultivated Electronics participating in the debut edition of a new series of collaborative releases which see's CE label head Sync 24 joining forces with other artists. If you want an idea of the diversity that can be achieved in current electro, look no further with the aggressive "Ten Days In The Dark" markedly different in tone to the star gazing "Vacuum". To sweeten matters further, The Exaltics has remixed the former track and Sync 24 the latter. A great start to a series that promises much.

Review: Alongside Irish producer DeFeKT, the somewhat mysterious Jeremiah R. is steadily earning a reputation for putting out quality electro, so much so DVS1 closed a recent Panorama Bar set with "Illuminated Process" from the producer's last release on Enklav. Having first surfaced on London label Organic Analogue, Jeremiah R now boosts his profile further with a seven-track mini-album on the supreme Tabernacle operation which shines further light on his Drexciyan inspirations. It's not all deranged synths and brittle snares shots though, with tracks "Far Sight" and "Twin Paradox" suiting the Tabernacle mould of jacking, Chicago-themed house music. As for the rest: quality stuff.

Review: Swedish electro purist Obergman delivers an extensive EP that's so generous you'd think it was a full album... Minimal, undiluted data funk: each of the cuts on here are as sharp as an 80s haircut. Ranging from slo-mo discordance and angular reflectiveness of "Regerlverk" to the dancefloor primed Radioactiveman style jitter-funk "Radio Anstalt" via the syncopated ice boogie of "Haunting Numbers" Obergman has squeezed an exciting array of life forms and narratives from his analogue kit. Stunning.

Review: Proof of Kan3da's timeless qualities were more than evident last year when re-released his 2008 debut album Die Schwan-Maschine. Sounding just as crisp as it did upon original release, his trademark electro palette transcends all genres and fly-by-night fads. "Soundtest" is equally impeccable: six icy compositions that embrace data music's most naked code. Highlights include the skippy rhythm and gale-force synth washes on "Viral Computer Data", the Moroder-esque arpeggiated drones of "Discosux6000" and the Two Lone Swordsmen-level drama of "Bangabnungo". Suffice to say Kan3da's passed this soundtest with flying colours.

Review: The latest release on Abstract Forms finds Swedish electro purist Ola Bergman return for a second offering in his ongoing series of Multiverse releases as Obergman, having inaugurated proceedings with Cyclic Multiverse back in March. Much like that seven track set, there is much for fans of minimal machine funk to savour on Quilted Multiverse, and Bergman uses the album format to really showcase his full production palette. So whilst opener "Resemblance" or "Supersymmetry" are classic jittering electro with subaqueous textures and rippling rhythms, Bergman also indulges his more bugged out side on "Alkaline", "Coma Cluster" and the rhythmically interesting "Gravitational Collapse".

Review: Since debuting on Wicked Bass last year, Belgian artist Innershades has graced a well respected clutch of labels with his brand of electro and New Beat inspired techno (Creme, We Play House, Stay Underground It Pays) With the Love Park EP, he adds Patrick Marsman's Pinkman label to his collar and tailors his sound accordingly. There's a real '80s neon vibe to the whole EP and it's hard to not associate a lot of this record with the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack. Basslines are big and fat, synth lines sometimes sound as though they're recreated themes from TV shows or R&B pop hits, while square wave sound design and monophonic bleeps hark back to the wonder years or OG electro and poppy Chicago house.

Review: The long running TRUST label overseen by Vienna's foremost electro advocate DJ Glow present the first 12" in a three part compilation series called TRUST XV. Featuring contributions from a glowing cast of TRUST artists, each edition of this series will come housed in a full colour printed sleeve courtesy of dextro.org and "a short science fiction story, chronicling the fate of an interstellar mining operation on 61 cygnus e." Part One set the bar pretty damn high with Clatterbox, VC-118A, Morphology's Matti Turunen and Lok44 all dropping exclusive cuts, with "Intersecting Planes" from UK legend Clatterbox a particularly mind bending contribution. With DJ Stingray, Dez Williams, The Exaltics and Scape One amongst those slated to contribute on parts two and three, TRUST XV looks to be very a collectable series for electro heads.

Review: The secretive Bedouin label may only be three (left of field) records old but it's making a name for releasing a mean assortment of threatening electronic music. This time they call upon Elektronik Religion label founder Dez Williams to provide some dirty, 808 thumping electro. "Acid Bath" as you can imagine gurgles with a seething 303 bassline and trademark snapping snares, while "Silvaphish" is melodic, slightly eastern in tonality, and once again 303 driven. The remixes here are well curated with Dutch producer Ekman turning in some more of his usual deranged acid and sewer techno for a remix of "Acid Bath" while an always beat down Bintus adds gabba-esque kick drums to his remake of "Silvaphish".

Review: Dark Entries present the debut album from Sumerian Fleet, the gothic EBM indebted side project of Dutch legends Alden Tyrell and Ingmar Pauli and vocalist Zarkoff. Collectively, Tyrell and Pauli have played a key role in shaping the Dutch electro and techno scenes since the mid '90s, with respective discographies that feature releases on Clone and its various subsidiaries, Viewlexx, Moustache Records and Murder Capital. Pauli and Tyrell's work together as Sumerian Fleet has been a more fleeting concern, with two 12"s on Clone West Coast and Creme Eclipse surfacing between 2010 and 2012. Given the tone of Sumerian Fleet's music - which references Fad Gadget, Front 242, Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy - the project is a perfect fit for Dark Entries, and a full album for the San Francisco-based label is most welcome. The nine-track Just Pressure features all new material that Sumerian Fleet recorded over the past year in Rotterdam and Den Haag with vocalist Zarkoff. Fans of Sumerian Fleet will know the album takes its title from the Sturm Bricht Los 12" highlight "Just Pressure" which is a Silent Servant favourite, and has been re-recorded for this debut LP.

Review: In the canon of certified party starters, few tracks deserve their place as much as "Set It Off" by Strafe does. Mixed by disco legend Walter Gibbons, "Set It Off" was hugely ahead of it's time when originally released back in 1984 and it still goes off today when the more considered selectors drop it in their sets. US label Hard Soul has form with the track and Strafe in general, enlisting the likes of Jovonn to remix it for a 12" release a few years back and this dinky 7" edition of "Set It Off" is a must for anyone that doesn't yet own the cut in their collection.

Review: You know it's a good day when a brand-spanking new Planet E plate drops on you lap! Releases from Carl Craig's institution have been few and far between in recent years, but it's always a special occasion when they do. There is little to nothing that we know about Korrupt Data apart from the fact that a whole LP is about to be released. To keep you satisfied until then, here's a tasty EP featuring two of the album's tracks, "For That Way Lies Oblivion" and "Korruption". Steam-rolling electro funk for the next millennium, like they used to do! For fans of the whole Detroit heritage.

Review: It's been some two years since Dutch veteran Boris Bunnik (AKA Conforce, Hexagon, Silent Harbour, Vernon Facility etc) donned his Versalife moniker. Collission With The Past 1 sees him in fine form, casually joining the dots between bubbling IDM, vintage electro, glacial ambience and icy techno. "Before The Interrogation" sets the tone, delivering waves of subdued melodies and crystalline textures. The more 808 electro influenced "Utilise The Secondary Suspensor" raises the pulse further, before Bunnik lets loose on the dark, hypnotic techno of "Mariana". Best of all, though, is "I See Myself", a formidable blend of Autechre-style IDM rhythms, Drexciyan electro and tipsy electronics.

Review: These tracks are simple experiments using the TR808 triggers with the Dot Com Modular, SH101, Oberheim Xpander, Roland System 100/101, Jupiter 6 Europa, Pro One and other vintage synths. All tracks recorded at real time. This EP include two versions of the main track Titan's Cycle composed by Heinrich Mueller aka Gerald Donald, Arpanet, Dopplereffekt...