TONNOVELLE レコード& CD

Review: Italian imprint Better Sound has released some cracking split EPs of late, offering a side of wax apiece to Dawl, Moxx, Steve Marie and Astral Body. Here they repeat the exercise with similarly strong results. The A-side belongs to Madrid musician Corp, who first peppers a jacking house rhythm with squelchy bass, '90s US house organ stabs and razor-sharp acid lines (the rather good 'Distorted Reality'), before reaching for more ragged TB-303 motifs on the dark, sweaty and spooky 'Time Machine'. Long distance collaborators Tonnovelle take over on side B. They explore similar sonic territory whilst also doffing a cap to the Hartnoll brothers' early work on both 'Mind Bending Chemical' and 'MK Ultra', both of which have heaps of hallucinatory, acid-fired appeal.

Review: Iranians-in-Europe Tonnovelle have yet to really break through, though their releases to date for When We Met, OSMAN and their own Tonnovelle imprint have all delivered perfectly pitched blends of electro and techno. They're at it again on "Equinox", an action-packed EP that we think contains some of their most potent work to date. Check first the weighty, alien-sounding creepiness of "Spooky Action At A Distance", which sounds like a cross between bleep-era LFO and Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia, before admiring the brilliant blend of squidgy synth bass, crunchy machine drums and arpeggiated synthesizer lines that is EP opener "Equinox". Elsewhere, "Open Secret" is a foreboding, horror-flecked fusion of electro, techno and raging acid, while "End of a Beginning" is a deliciously unorthodox chunk of skittish, off-kilter IDM.

Review: Where We Met is an Italian label based in Venice, run by Riccardo Piazza and Re-Up. For their sixth release, they have tapped the duo of Arman Jalili and Kamyar Keramati aka Tonnovelle. Described as two producers and devoted diggers who reconnected over time on a continent away from home, they present their debut release on WWM. The Event Horizon EP features the tunnelling acid of the title track, the hypnotic 303 electro of "Hyper Normalized" (with bongos for added measure) and arguably best of all, the funked-up bleep techno attack that is "Red Shifted" on the flip. Look out for the pair's eponymous imprint coming at you all very soon.