Back catalogue: All genres

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


The second release on 3 Mats features a cast of emergent artists dealing in the vibrant seam where electro synthesis and techno focus collide. If you rate labels like Partisan and EYA you'll be into this record, without a doubt. Frankfurt producer Philipp Boss opens up the record with 'Die Schone', a collaboration with Gianluca, while Gabriel Belabbas creates a rolling warm-up delight of electro breaks with an iconic sample on 'Dance With The Speaker'. Muelsa's 'The Future Is A Trap' is a raw, boxy machine workout and Nico Lampariello finishes the record off with an acid laced workout for the darker side of the dance.

Review: Zodiak Commune Records kicks off a new series dedicated to cutting-edge electro with The Electro Guide 1 featuring four artist at the top of their game. Dust Devices opens proceedings with 'Strain & Reason' which is built on searing acid lines and kinetic drum programming, all with a turbulent cosmic bent. Norwell's 'Clang' los down a little so the manic acid has room to shine and Human Behind Pluto then comes through with the occult pairing of mysterious flirting keys and kicking electro drums on 'Talisman.' G303's 'Riverbank Telescopes' closes with a barrage of breakbeats and prickly 303 madness.

Review: Budapest's Dalmata Daniel rewire the electro efforts of Timothy K. Fairplay for their ninth 12", which also includes a B-side icing by none other than fellow producer Norwell. These four retrofuturist cosmopolitan jams are heard divided between the two artists, and do well to flaunt the specific valences of their production styles, which, while doing well to stick to the cosmic aesthetic, cannot help but betray unconscious stylistic hallmarks. Fairplay's is as tweezy and kick-phat as ever, with 'Caliber 9' being the obvious choice as the sonic equivalent of a 70s infographic on telecoms gone haywire. Norwell's take on the vibe is breaksier and more muted, with closing number 'Natives' being the cut of choice, burbling in a vat of liquid acid and emotive smoke.

Review: Following a strong start with a compilation curated by Hodge and Franklin De Costa, Berlin party promoters Mother's Finest are back with the next instalment on their label which comes from the CEO at Nasty Enterprises: Nasty King Kurl who follows up an impressive run of EPs for 777, low income $quad and Nerang. The Hekate EP opens up with the UK bass influenced title track, leading into the contorted drum'n'bass whirlwind of 'Kimat'. On the flip, 'Ovinnik' lends a change of tempo in the form of a meditative deep dubstep joint and 'Inugami' closes it out all guns blazing with a heads-down techno stomper.

Review: The origins of American act Newcleus lay in a 1977 Brooklyn DJ collective known as Jam-On Productions, including Ben 'Cozmo D' Cenac, Monique Angevin and her brother Pete - all teenagers and still in high school. The foursome named their group Newcleus as a result of the coming together of their families. Originally released on T.K. Records' Miami bass/freestyle subsidiary Sunnyview in 1985, "Space Is The Place" is an underground classic to those in the know. With its obvious robotic influences from the early '80s Bronx breakbeat sound, to the funk and synth pop crossover of "Cyborg Dance' on the flip - this is a true zeitgeist of one of the most exciting times in electronic music's history.

Review: Don't forget to put on your Anorax... A new retro-futuristic outing by veteran dance music exec Neil Rushton marks his latest configuration in techno, which has kept mutant ever since the DJ broke from his infamous, 1970s Northern soul label Inferno. If Inferno was a glittery bodysuit, Anorax is like blast-protective PPE. Here Rushton welcomes Mark Archer and Chris Peat aka Nexus 21 back to the fold. Emissaries of the Salford dance music circuit, Nexus 21 have always harked a frontier-scouring, centennial vibe in sound. Their latest release is reissued from 2008, though the Network Records original only cut it to B-side: 'Self-Hypnosis' is a semiconscious auto-state in sound, bringing jam-born orchestra-stabs and sprung synth toms to a strange brew. We're left spiral-eyed.

Review: Round Qube Music has tapped up Niki Il B for a new EP that explores a mystic take on cosmic electro. 'Ry01' is all eerie lines and punchy broken beats with supple acid squelch in the middle. 'Waiting' then mixes up more gorging acid with hurried drum loops and slow motion ambient pads that make for a fine vibe before 'Lo Spazio' has a heavier low end. The bass here is spanned and the distant pads unsettling. 'Car Sex' closes things in brilliant fashion with suspensory pads and loopy drums that ride up and down next to meandering pads.

Review: Kumquat returns with their second release, his time a various artists' EP packed with sleek tracks perfect for all sorts of movers and shakers. Four standout artists from the legendary French party scene deliver an irresistible blend of wonk and bounce across four groovy cuts. Noiro keeps it slinky and minimal on 'Yougoslash' then Belic & Mani get more stark and twisted with their tech sounds on 'The Flow.' Rancel's sound is laden with a libidinous sax line over clipped and crisp beats and Paradise City Breakers close down with the future tech of 'Mentalist.'

Review: Germany's Eudaimonia Records names itself after Aristotle's concept: the hellenic idea of eudaimonia roughly translates to "flourishing", and refers to the confluence of luck, circumstance, self-discipline, intellect, health and other traits that both characterise and give rise to, if continually nurtured, the good life. If Aristotle had had the foresight to include music in his criteria, the world would be a better place. Thankfully there's a new lyceum in town - also doubling up as a record label - here to pick up where the sophist left off. One of the school's latest pupillary recruits is Not Even Noticed, the Frankfurt duo who've come a long way from Greece. The 'Feel' EP welcomes four tracks by this still burbling pair to an ongoing continuum of artistic esteem, their erudite, cosmic breaks, their typhonic trax, knowing few bounds when it comes to evoking awe and sublime wonderment. Hold out for the clever fusion that is 'Reverie', which mixes future garage and space breaks; if this isn't a cocktail for the good life, we don't know what is.

Review: Swiss label Acquit Records has got a couple of superb outings lined up this month and Nate Nubia is behind this one which offers up a single and three different mixes of it. Original cut 'Dracula Vs. Frankenstein' is a warm analogue world of smeared synths and dusty drums over a crisp broken beat. It's full of machine soul and melancholic moods. The Info Remix is more edgy and driven, while the Kenny Hooper remix layers in extra light and melody. The G-Prod remix is one with its head amongst the stars and plenty of celestial synths.

Review: Electro has so much representation already that we'd have hardly imagined it needed a Coalition, but colour us mistaken, of course. Presumably functioning both as intergalactic senate and record label, here, on 'Robot Connection 001', the Electro Coalition commission four delegates to lay down one lengthy sonic deposition each. Sound Synthesis kicks things off with a moving acid purging, with soaring cutoff filters aplenty, setting the diplomatic record straight with a grand metaphysical treatise - 'Physical Terrain' - on the cosmopolitical terrain thus faced. Then Arsonist Recorder objects by way of a pure immaterial antithesis, with 'T & A' locking in heavy freq-layered constrictions between an accursed beat; then Neonicle's 'Combination' and Sinitsin's 'People Are Aliens', finally, form a worthy synthesis and thesis-return respectively, ending on a suspension of humanly intelligible feeling, in favour of a bellicist's power fantasy in harsh snap-breaks and chromatic arp-arcs.

Review: You'd think there weren't that many stones left uncovered in the quest to reissue all Drexciya-related works, but here's a little nugget from 2013 which may have passed many by. NRSB-11 is a collaborative project from Gerald Donald, Sherard 'DJ Stingray' Ingram and Penelope Martin which resulted in one EP and one album. Disciples have opted to reissue Commodified, and with good reason. This is advanced electro of the highest calibre, absolutely wrought from the same lineage as Donald and Ingram's myriad accomplished endeavours but with a distinct flavour which speaks to Martin's input.