Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Burnski's high-quality Constant Black is back with more essential club-ready sounds. Donnie Cosmo and Pascal Benjamin step up for one side of action each. Cosmo's 'Holo Glitch' is first and pairs balmy synth work that is colourful and silky with some punchy tech drums and rolling bass that pulls you in deep. 'Echo Drift' is another lithe and lively one to get you on your toes while the groove flows and 'Airplane Mode' is another stylish mix of lush synth design and great rhythm. Benjamin's trio on the flip is a little more gritty with industrial-space-tech many the most fitting way to describe these curious cosmic cuts.

Review: "Are You in Heaven?" Is a phrase immortalised by Roxy DJ Eddy de Clercq during one of Amsterdam's earliest house parties and it captures the spirit of what was a transformative era. Arnoud Winkler and Jochem Peteri (later known as Newworldaquarium) dropped this EP back in 1991, and it explored a then-new mix of euphoric energy with youthful, clever charm. Drawing inspiration from the booming European dance scene of the time, it's a passionate Dutch interpretation of American house music that very much stands up. Featuring blissed-out pads, dub textures and peak-time vibes, the reissue includes a new Gerd Janson edit of 'Ulysses Horizon' that brings it right up to date, plus the dreamy melodies of 'Flowerdale Beach' and the title track, and all three are timeless cuts that still radiate magic and meaning.

Review: As you can tell from the title of this ongoing series, System Error likes to serve up only 100% party bombs. The third volume lives up to that once more with Parchi Pubblici kicking off with the acid-laced bumps of 'Perfect Vacuum2Disco' complete with zippy synths and snappy percussion. Lanzieri's 'Twisted Tango' hits just as hard with an electro-techno fusion that rides on psychedelic synth loops with jacked-up drums. Raku's 'Valle Dei Templi' has a more pared-back sound with a menacing and rubbery low end and creeping synths that keep you on edge. Phill Prince's 'Indigo' shuts down with something tripped out and retro with 90s techno vibes colouring the drums.

Review: Long-serving Italian producer Marco Passarani continues his newly minted Studiomaster label project with its second instalment, serving a quintet of typically floor-focused jams on 'The Temple' EP. Arguably best known for being one half of the looped-up disco duo Tiger & Woods, Passarani is also known and loved for the more techno-tilted offerings he turns out from his hometown of Rome. His latest work sits somewhere in between his two trademark sounds, starting with the throbbing sleaze of opener 'The Empty Temple', with its purposeful bass, paranoid synths and dirty vocal whispers. The fierce, snare-driven rhythms of 'Night Walker' power grubby bass and glistening synths, while the descriptively titled 'Rotten Disco' offers a brilliantly wonky glimpse of future Italo. The distorted percussion and jagged bass of 'Dirty Hands' are aimed squarely at the floor, while the storming closer 'Cheater's Smile' bangs as hard as nails to complete a suitably stirring and tightly produced set.

Review: 'Let Me Go' is the debut EP from Italian duo Pathagonia, which is made up of Noha and Alex Tea. They are a pair of minimalists who craft sounds for the late-night hours, starting with the title cut. 'Let Me Go' has warm solar winds blowing over the kinetic, crispy drums so makes for a nice soulful sound while 'Swirl' is heavier. The dub quotient is upped, the chords rattle and there's a heads down feel to the way things move onwards. 'Atomic' takes another tack - it's more sparse, airy and shady with whimsical synths doing a nimble dance over tight, loopy drums. Last but not least, 'Boys Can Cry' is a turbocharged but serene tech house wafter. All four are well designed and sure to appeal to real heads.

Review: Peverelist stands as a defining figure in UK electronic music, shaping the intersection of bass-driven sound system culture and forward-thinking techno. Emerging from Bristol's fertile underground scene, his work as a producer, DJ and label head has been instrumental in pushing the boundaries of UK dance music. Closing out his long-running series, he distills his signature sound into four meticulously sculpted tracks. 'Pulse XVII' bookends a skeletal, stepping groove with shimmering synth strings and crisp chord stabs, injecting a dose of Motor City euphoria into his typically weighty framework. 'Pulse XVIII' strips things back to bare essentials, constructing a taut, jacking house cut from pulsing low-end and precisely placed percussionia masterclass in restraint and impact. The energy escalates with 'Pulse XIX', where dub techno textures are reworked into something sharper and more urgent, its rolling momentum underpinned by a driving rhythmic core. 'Pulse XX' then flips expectations, shifting into leftfield steppers territory with elastic bass motifs and alien hooks, recalling the producer's earlier experiments while pushing his sound into fresh terrain. It's a fitting conclusion to a project that has consistently balanced dancefloor functionality with a forward-thinking approach.

Review: The Montreal-based boutique label, Aissa Records, a vinyl-only sub-imprint of Suleiman Records, continues to carve out a niche for sophisticated, nuanced techno with this new one from Pheek. 'Maybe It Was A Dream' merges ambient textures with crisp minimal techno that is dreamy and hypnotic. 'Goldfish Memory' is a track that feels both meditative and kinetic so is perfect for deep listening or late-night sets. On the flip, Mihai Popoviciu delivers a tight, club-ready remix that adds punch without losing the original's subtlety and lastly, 'YEAH' is a dubbed out and reverb-rich roller with abstract sonic details keeping the mind as busy as the body.

Review: Marcellus Pittman is one of the Motor City's finest. The long-time house explorer has a singular sound that is built around brittle drum loops, hissing and dusty hi-hats and loose-limbed arrangements that are stark and dehumanised but somehow full of intriguing machine warmth and soul. Take this EP, 'Loneliness Leave Me Alone,' first dropped back in 2010: the title cut has bouncing, bulbous bass and jacked up drums that sound both menacing yet playful, which the fizzy, sugary chords spray across the mix like a mist of pixelated water. 'Razz 09' has that Omar-S style melancholy and trudging rhythm that's heightened by the curious melodies which unfurl with a mind of their own in the background. Superb.

Review: DBH welcome Mihai Popoviciu & David Delgado the the Pleasure Zone series with the 'Evolution' EP. Bringing jazzy, sloshy, jerking flavours to the tech house palette, 'Evolution' and 'Shifting' evolve and shift, convoking a delegated moot of propulsive chords and forward-driving janks, conveying the mood of a finely tuned closed clockwork system chugging away like the central engine of a wider contraption. Closer 'Black Light' operates more readily in the lower regions of things, proving unafraid of sounds that lean towards the more peripheral and umbral.

Review: We hear distant soul croons, and lyrical talk of silver linings, on this latest EP from Pornbugs and Frink, as the pair draw another heat on the EPs game after 2023's 'See Through My Eyes'. Striking while the rod is still hot, these two've releases through the likes of Spielgold and Sublease since 2006, which have surely informed on this rippling release, which keeps one foot in the chillout vault and the other in room one. But both moods are held in impossible superposition - we feel relaxed and upbeat at the same time. 'Keep It Down' especially impresses with its distant use of a vocal line that might otherwise be put to more focal use by less patient producers, proving the compatibility of lyricism and soundscape.

Review: New week, new Instinct, new weapons. Burnski's unstoppable label continues to offer up the most fun and functional garage and house fusions out there right now. For this one, Prozak steps up with screw-face basslines and throwback organ stabs on 'Yush,' then 'Dash' rides on a pumping deep house groove that's underpinned by slamming bass. Benson steps up for collab cut 'Gangster' complete with gunshots, rude vocals and ridiculously naughty reversed bass stabs. 'Bounce' is a final fist pumping garage house banger to close an effective 12".

Review: Russia's Moonrover Records triple up as a vinyl, digital music and podcasting platform, exploring the outer spatial limits of our shared cosmotic consciousness through sublime, interstellar minimal tech house. Here Stanislav Gontar aka. PRT Stacho crosses the event horizon, as 'Time' and 'Sputnik' offer flux-continual swells between otherwise calculated and regrounded beats. It's like gazing out the satellite window, as warp-drive thrusters on the hull's flanks illume junky space debris as it whizzes past.

Review: Seasons Limited made a welcome return in 2024 and now keeps up that good momentum with another big single from French house mainstay Franck Roger with some fine vocals by Paul B. It's a super smooth sound with drum swaying back and forth, molten synth adding late night and tissue soul and the tender vocal adding intimacy and late night romance. Rocco Rodamaal steps up for remixes and first of all he pairs things back to a sedate, seductive deep house roll then fleshes out the drums with some dubby weight to finish.!

Review: The debut album from Ukrainian collective Noneside unites musicians and visual artists under the inspiring words of poet Taras Shevchenko, who said 'Make love, o dark-browed ones.' Framed by a painting from contemporary artist Iryna Maksymova, the music explores the trance and tech house that is destined to bring souls together on the dancefloor this summer and beyond. Shjva opens with fresh and mashed bass and sleek trance pads that are subtle but effective. Lostlojic layer sup deep, bubbly techno drums and bass with an angelic vocal tone and Saturated Color's 'Trancia' is a speedy, scuffed-up tech groove for late-night cruising. Peshka and Yevhenii Loi offer two more future-facing trance-techno fusions packed with feels.