Back catalogue: All genres

Review: The fourth release in the limited vinyl series BS-LTD features two new and exciting talents. On one side, we have Disco Stup, a rising artist from Hossegor, now based in London and studying sound engineering. On the other side, UK-based Swin, fresh off the success of his sell-out debut EP. He goes first with 'Broken Mute Point' which is a tech-infused disco with plenty of wet synth gurgles and snappy drums, then 'I'll Show You The Attic' ups the pace with more twisted loops. Swin's 'Entropy' bring pixelated colour and echo to a dubbed-out disco-tech groove and 'Loosing Their Minds' is more dubby and tippy to make for another fine outing.

Review: Corsican label Isula Science drop a fresh brooder of previously unknown electro knowns, this time from label founder Flash FM alongside HDV, Sweely and Man/ipulate. Spanning vertiginous dark acid, then moving on through to dreamatic neon breakbeat and expedient Italo - 'Vol de nuit' especially makes signature use of a classic slap bass synth - they've got us entirely covered here. Enticing bumps in the night from the exquisitors.

Review: Over the years, France's Favorite Recordings has been very good at sniffing out lesser-known European gems from the disco and boogie era, mostly for superb and must-check compilations. Recently, they decided to make some of these licensed obscurities available on a series of 12" singles, where a louder, club-heavy cut is preferable to DJs. The latest sees them offer-up two lesser-known Belgian gems produced in the mid 1980s by future new beat don Tony Baron. Jonathan Jr's 'Hanging On To You' is warm, shuffling and synth heavy, with the artist's soulful and jazzy lead vocal sitting alongside squelchy synth-bass, Nile Rodgers style guitars and post-electro beats. Special Occasion's 'Flying To Santa Barbara', meanwhile, sits somewhere between 80s soul, AOR synth-pop and sax-sporting B-movie soundtrack goodness.

Review: SIKU's various artists offerings always result in a nice and varied sound across two sides of vinyl and the sixth such drop is another one worth of attention for techno heads. Onoffon opens with 'Matter What' which rides on raw drums with slapping hits and stark synths, while Sebastian's 'Dreams Metaphors' has a ghoulish energy and dark, twisted synth menace. Rufo brings some cosmic wonder and bleeping melodic sequences to 'Mr Wonderful' and Brian Topham's 'Expressive Dimension' is a straight up tool with burrowing leads.

Review: Dubliner Noah Skelton brings a deep four-track helter-skelter to Zingiber Audio, topping up a well-travelled catalogue whose earprints are borne in the discographies of Amour, Daydream and Mayak. 'Formentario' and 'Pacer' deepen our hearts with fulsome beats n' bass, carefully constructed to manifest in the listener a looser, undammed destiny. 'It's A Flesh Wound', meanwhile, subtly balances emo-breaks and curious acid jazz, with a popout FM and dancing piano plinks proving particularly pacific, not least when set against *those* chords.

Review: Into the fifth dimension flies UK producer Smev with a wicked cosmic acid journey of an EP. Billed as a bridge across the void into an alternate reality, we begin at the 'Tip Of The Iceberg' before plunging down below, concluding on a state of ending up happily 'Lost In The Realm'. Echoic squelch-synths abound, generously doused in reverb as we skirt and skip across atmospheric dusts of half-recalled affirmations - "destruction... believe in yourself..." - on 'Sweet Destruction', where the EP takes a darker turn. More energised, by comparison, is 'Rest Easy', which leaves us paradoxically, affectively unable to do anything but.

Review: To go "sniper mode" implies a mixture of precision and force, and doesn't Gregor Sniper know it! Returning to Rawax after a break, this fresh 12:" killshot emerges stealthily from a protrusive barrel, with guest vocals from fellow producer Exzakt aka. Larry McCormick on the lead tune. 'Homecoming' exemplifies creative vocal processing, working snappy rhythms about reverse reverb and harmonic pitch layers. 'The Iron Raven' contrasts with its purgatory purity, opting for cleaner drums and dastard ricochets, set against an inauspicious detuned tone. 'Golan Heights' builds on the same root note to soar above an emergent landscape, while 'Bornheim 34' again concludes things on an ill-bade note, evoking moods of a goblin kingdom turned collective cyborg zombie.

Review: Under his long-standing electro alias Sniper Mode, German techno veteran Gregor Tresher returns with a new EP. This is a sharp, sci-fi-inflected collection that shows his enduring command of sleek, futuristic sound design. Though better known for his techno output, Tresher’s electro work is no side project. Side-A opens with 'Homecoming', featuring Miami’s Exzakt. It’s a shadowy, pulsing cut built on punchy drums and steely synth lines. This is pure classic dark electro with modern muscle. 'The Iron Raven' follows, a high-definition flight through synthetic skies, all crisp sequences and distant echoes, evoking cold futurism with cinematic flair. On Side-B, 'Golan Heights' ventures into IDM territory while staying grounded in electro’s tight frameworks. Its textures shimmer, its rhythms glitch and glide. This is sci-fi circuitry rendered with surgical precision. Closing track 'Bornheim 34' tips its cap to the old school, fusing vintage 808 bounce with a contemporary finish. Tresher taps back into the pulse of pure machine funk, reigniting a project that’s quietly shaped the electro undercurrent for nearly 25 years. It’s a controlled detonation of style and substance.

Review: Spooky Wooky return with a newly nourished Pandora's box worth of tunes, welcoming four new producers each for their own scare, as well as an opening fourfold fright. Joining forces only under the name Spooky Wooky, 'Cauchemard Ambulant' puns on the French term for "waking nightmare" terming it a "walking nightmare", with fidgety, motile synth snaps and pops aligned alongside bow can scrape samples and strange monstrous gurgles. Our faves among the solo cuts have to be Lazer Man's 'Fuck The Bass' and Gogo Gadgeto's 'FREAK', both of which seem to convey a sort of crazed elvish otherworld.

Review: Lisbon's Hubble Recordings present their sixth release so far, keeping firm to their artist-specific EPs approach following brilliant releases from Kaesar, Costin RP, Miroloja, Octave and Alex Pervukhin. The latest is from tech house hurler Sublee aka Stefan Nicu, whose flight-booking impulse is as strong as ever, here having stopped over from far-flung Romania. After a string of both digital and vinyl stopovers, 'Personal Universal' appears as the pendular follow-up to 2024's Rawax debut 'Simple Two', bringing hugely doubled vocal cantata to a fervent acid build on the title track, while ensuers 'Simple One' and 'Laculesdesample' bring fidgety synth double bass and unorthodox percussions. A personal universe we'd never want to leave!

Review: London's Lonewolf are an unstoppable machine, unerring in their ability to output solo artists' EPs while juggling outputting huger year-end compilations. This latest from Suicide Aftr 7 is a higher-calibre acid techno stirrer, doing a rather sophisticated justice to the otherwise broad aesthetic that is "eerie atmospheres and mystic soundscapes". 'Double Speak' pairs naive vocals with strobing lead lines, while 'Tomorrow's Past' darkens the proceedings by way of descendingly gothic minor tones, before 'Rubber Lover' flattens the mood through classic Chi-claps and breathy vocals.

Review: Three South American artists - SV3, Trajano, Sebastian - converge alongside French maestro TC-80 on a new, gung-ho vinyl release from Coqueto. Reflecting a para-militant mood, from 'Armament Belico' to 'Hipnosis Global', hi-tech metanoia is balanced with a crude militancy here, reflecting an aggressive permutation of trance. Closer 'Desapariciones' (from Spanish, "disappearances"), we round out on a scathing but ghostly judgment call, with gasping transitions and tanky poundings.

Review: Philadelphia producer and DJ Sweater makes a blistering debut on New York's BLKMARKET MUSIC with five cuts that blur the lines between breakbeat, tech-house and low-slung electro. It's a sound rooted as much in dusty record bins he works the counter at Impressions Philly as it is in the warehouse circuits that forged this connection back in 2021. 'The Answer' opens with choppy drums and cosmic static, before both versions of 'Twilight Zone' spin the same eerie motif into sleek machine funk ('Space Mix') and woozy stepper ('Broken Mix'). On the flip, 'Better Ask Somebody' dials up the groove with bumping mids and a ghosted vocal chop, while 'Contact In The Zone' sends things into sludgy, broken-rhythm hypnosis. A bold first outing that speaks in riddles but hits with intent.

Review: Originally released back in 2008, Cultivated Electronics's second 12" features still-fresh tracks from label head Sync 24 alongside the debut release from Matt Whitehead. It was a classic back then and it remains so which is why it now gets reissued. 'Resynth' is pure electronic madness with mad inventive rhythms. The EP also includes a contribution from Pyramid Transmissions label owner ADJ who showed his class on 'Another Level' and Brighton-based acid producer Junq keeps it classy on 'From Below'. This high-energy collection pushes the boundaries of techno and is a no-brainer for fans of bold, analogue-driven sound.

Review: After originally being self-released as a white label, Synthasy's breakbeat hardcore debut quickly gained cult status. It was engineered by Jezz Wright, who did renowned work on Liquid's 'Sweet Harmony' and Lemon D's early EPs and was distributed through London shops. High demand led to a full artwork repress, but copies vanished swiftly and helped cement its cult reputation as a rare gem. Over time, it became a coveted collector's item that commanded high prices - but not any more, thanks to this latest reissue. The rain, directness of the music, rave-ready synths and unforgettable vocal cries that turn the emotion up to 11 mean this debut remains a standout from early '90s rave culture.

Review: A warm welcome back to long-serving French duo Scratch Massive, a DJ/production twosome who have been active locally and internationally since 1994. Nox Anima is, somewhat remarkably, the duo's first studio album since 2018. Rooted in the stylish, atmospheric and occasionally moody new wave sound they've been developing for decades, the album frequently pairs dark and clandestine analogue and modular synth sounds - throbbing, arpeggio-style sequences and ghostly chords - with metronomic or sparse beats, moments of melodic positivity, spacey electronics and whispered or sung female lead vocals. It's a musical blend that pays dividends far more often than not, making Nox Anima a must-check for fans of leftfield synth pop and chilly coldwave sounds.