Techno Recommendations August 2012

Review: ** Repress ** Dave Huismans swiftly follows on from that incendiary 50 Weapons 12" with an equally explosive return to the Clone Basement Series. One of the first names to contribute to the series back in 2009, both "Hang Up" and "Sweetback" find Huismans eschewing the jagged, garage flecked drill techno dynamism of last year's "Take The Plunge" for some of his "most banging, straight-forward club material to date". The lead track is bristling with uneasy liquid funk, heavily diced Hancock vibes cascading around the buccaneering drum patterns with glee. "Sweetback," meanwhile, creeps out from the murky depths, driven by dust battered kicks and gnarly, sinewy analogue twists - there's no greater philosophy at work here, it's simply dark techno for dark rooms.

Review: Clearly hitting his stride with the 4/4 focus of his Trevino alias, Marcus Intalex dishes out his third single under the moniker on his own Revolve:R label, and the quality hasn't dipped even slightly. "Discovery" works a solid tech-house pattern, letting snippets of moody chord flirt with more abrasive scrapes in a mechanical funk. "Lag" is more rough as it works a nasty bass guitar lick to deadly effect while the synth flourishes come in dramatically. "Tweakonomics" gets dirtier still as the 303 gets pulled out and twisted to a more broken kind of house template, leaving it to "Shorty" to really scrape the barrel with guttural sub, snappy claps and a hat-less garage flex that sounds set to explode at any given second.

Review: Modern day NYC legend Jason Letkiewicz adds the ever excellent Construction Paper label to his increasingly bustling discography with the aptly titled Analogous Desires EP under his familiar Steve Summers alias. A rich Juno bassline kicks off the title track, and before we know it we're taken on a Chicago-inspired journey through chimerical strings and crispy 707 drums. "Between Thoughts" opts for a more bumping approach but still retains that trademark brand of Summers euphoria we love so much. On the flipside, Summers presents the classic late-night jam "Beyond The Night," a production filled with warmth and mystique, whilst 'First Love Syndrome' goes even deeper and delivers a comforting cocktail of hi-hats, cascading drums and that infamous NY feel. One for the house heads!

Review: As you might think, Deepchord are thoroughly well placed for soundtrack work, able to fully indulge their dubbed out tendencies without concerns for the dancefloor. That said, throughout the Silent World soundtrack there are still 4/4 pulses to be found, chugging away underneath the languid tones of "Orbiting" or more prominently on the techno fug of "Ghost Theory". By and large though, this is Echochord in their prime, bathing in a torrent of reverb while winsome notes from forgotten sources cry harmoniously over each other, with only static for company. If you're not a fan of the most beguiling hypnagogic dub techno, turn away now.

Review: Moving from his own imprint to the auspicious Prologue, mysterious Swedish producer Abdulla Rashim provides an EP of intricately textured techno on this superb release. "Weldiya 1" has all the nuance of Shifted's recent productions, as a tense synth drone is tightly wound around a rigid beat. "Weldiya 2" sees a subtle variation on the same theme, as gentle hi-hats drift over a firm, hypnotic pulse. "Weldiya 3" meanwhile is an enthralling piece of looping ambience, kept from drifting into oblivion by its crackling textures, and concludes three productions that should mark Rashim out as someone to keep an eye on over the coming year.

Review: Starting to get some real recognition for his icy take on vintage electro and techno, Robert Witschakowski seems unstoppable in his quest to mould ever fresh and vital shapes out of well-worn approaches. On this EP for Modal Analysis, he starts proceedings with the devastating half-speed lurch of "Node#1", eroding the beat with lashings of distortion and letting the synths swerve into each other in the fuzz. "Node#2" is far more incisive, stomping out a guttural line in electro synths and booming 808 kicks. Delta Funktionen smacks things up sharp with a punchy remix, retaining the dominant character of the tune.

Review: Sean Hernandez's Chicago Skyway project has been a constant source of sturdy, old-skool jackers since he first crept on the scene, and Eargasmic represents the label that has supported his music the most. Having initially issued Wreckage as a CD-r release two years ago, the label is finally returning to place the eight tracks on the medium they belong on. There's often a wilful abrasion to Hernandez's productions, as in the caustic synth line that dominates "Sound One" while gentle pads try in vain to calm the vibe down, but then he just as easily turns to the wistful piano tones of a track like "Joaquin Look At The Stars".

Review: "If you do not hear this" a distorted voice says at the start of Shed's third album, The Killer, before deploying a low bass frequency, "or that, you will not feel it". It's a statement of intent which is followed through with some of the heaviest material of the producer's career - whether it's the dense ambient of "STP3/The Killer", the tunnelling, waspish drone of "I Come By Night", or the screaming oscillations of "Day After". Despite being an album grounded by monolithic rave-era breakbeats, it's also an album of contemplative moments - the thermal current melodies of "Gas Up" and "The Praetorian" chief among them. The artwork says it all - this is an album made for the body, and our advice is to turn it up loud and let techno's greatest contemporary producer work his magic.

Review: The man from Detroit known as Brooks Mosher is finally back on the cut for Dolly, after impressing all with his debut for Steffi's label last year and the In The Air EP is every bit as essential. Mosher opens in style with the old school rave anthem in the making "Refraction" which comes complete with deliciously rippling basslines, catchy melodies and an all-round classic Chicago house sound. "Nimbus" contains similar rave elements but allows more space for grainy hi-hats to fall into place between deeper synth hooks. As the name suggests, 'CS-137' takes a more techno approach and places beautiful shuffling percussions over short bursts of acidic basslines reminiscent of DJ Qu and the modern NY sound.

Review: The Livity Sound imprint has swiftly attained a buy on sight reputation thanks to the impeccable releases from the three Bristol lynchpins that run it - Punch Drunk boss Peverelist, the prolific Kowton and Project Squared regular Asusu. And now, four releases deep and Livity Sound expands operations with the launch of a sub label, cunningly named dnouS ytiviL, seemingly established to "release music that is in line with the Livity aesthetic but isn't produced by the trinity behind it". Manchester based Alex Coulton further cements his links with Bristol's ever bustling music scene via a quite excellent Idle Hands 12? by stepping into the breach for the debut release. "Bounce" will advance his claim to be fully accepted as one of the West Country's adopted sons. A ripe slice of broken techno with a sly nod to Skull Disco percussion, you can see why Pev and co elected to found a new label in order to secure it! The Punch Drunk boss turns in a remix on the flip which cranks up the pressure markedly.

Review: Always a label known for unearthing some of techno's deeper producers, 7th Sign present the debut from Glasgow based producer Leeon, a producer with a flair for Detroit moods that evoke the productions of Rick Wilhite and Marcellus Pittman. "Birth of a Season" wraps sunset pads around restless strings, while "Miles and Miles" creates a piece of helium-light intergalactic soul that Space Dimension Controller would be proud of. "The Outsider" is the real killer though, as a twisting arpeggio rushes across deep Rhodes keys. Finally, Dutch techno don Conforce delivers his own take on "The Outsider", placing the melody firmly in the background, swathing it in delay and firming it all up with gritty 909 beats.

Review: After the disco-led Fever album as 2562, Dave Huismans returns with more typical club fare as AMUS. "Malfunction" is a dense roller, its heavy drums and offbeat rhythm inhabiting the same bass-meets-techno space as Martyn. That's not to suggest that Huismans is a copycat and the track's centre piece is a spooky synth riff that may have been recycled from an old house track. He provides an even bigger surprise on "Malfunction (Despair)". This version features broken beats and haunting synths that hang like barbed wire on a beachside fence. Like the waves crashing onto the sand below, Huismans then unleashes a bass that rumbles with all of nature's force.

Review: Developer continues his fine run of form with this EP for Gynoid Audio with four tracks of typically driving yet intelligent techno. "Tiburon" opens on a decidedly mechanistic tip, as factory line rhythms drive forward gaseous textures, while "Shade" is decidedly chunkier affair, with shackling hi-hats playing off against deep organ drones. On the flip, "Bodega" fills its rhythmic gaps with shrill bleeps and electro-acoustic tones, but it's "Formu" that's the real powerhouse of the release, as pounding kicks go head to head with undulating sheet metal chords.

Review: Formerly seen performing mixing duties on a clutch of Sound Signature mixtape CDrs along with the one 12" drop on Theo Parrish's label, the man known to some as H Fusion and others as Howard Thomas makes an overdue return - helming the sixth release on the increasingly on point Fit Sounds imprint. Lead track "Wicked, Wicked Bitch" features assistance from another Fit Sounds acolyte in the shape of Marcellus Pittman, and is one of those raw, off kilter examinations of the Detroit sound - all detuned keys, underplayed percussion and sudden deviations into moments of pure Motor City emotion. From here, proceedings go curveball with "Morocco" a suitably titled exploration of beatdown that uses all manner of North African tones and percussion as its influence, whilst "Eradicate Me" is a relentlessly shifting exercise in chopped up, sparsely delivered Detroit electro rhythms.

Review: With his Modularz label becoming a firm bastion of unfiltered techno machinations, Developer sets about bombarding our senses with his productions and curations across two vinyl releases this month. For the first part, his own "Heated" rattles through an industrial landscape devoid of colour, instead populated by reverb decays and distant clangs of metal. The rest of the record is handed over to Truncate, whose "Diffraction" flips the script with a central melodic hook and a thoroughly austere beat. Jonas Kopp's remix beefs up that same theme by doubling up the phrase and edging towards a peak time monster, while Markus Suckut takes things deeper and into a more house compatible realm.

Review: Mote Evolver return with another salvo of reworks from three of techno's biggest names, following last year's remixes of Planetary Assault Systems' massive "Function 4" from Marcel Dettmann and Chris Liebling. Dettmann returns for more with a "Base dub" remix which is a more stripped back affair than his more full bodied first attempt, concentrating instead on subtle rhythmic nuances. Stroboscopic Artefacts' Lucy provides two remixes - one utilising a minimal breakbeat over shrill pads, and one that piles on the atmosphere with its swathes of reverb. Our pick however is Shifted's slickly executed revision, with a rolling rhythm that's packed densely around abstract tones.

Review: Bio Rhythm boss Paul Du Lac makes a welcome return to Clone's all conquering Jack For Daze initiative, some three years after dropping the incendiary Blowback 12". From the opening "Set IT Off" style bars of the title track, it's overtly clear Du Lac is in Jack For Daze appropriate mode, slamming down bumping rhythm on top one another whilst playfully laying down a detuned key line, making for the label's most unhinged homage to the days of Dancemania since Geeeman's "Rubberband2" a few years back. "Spaces Below" comes from a deeper place, with growling synth lines and textures expanding across the channels as Du Lac works the drum machines to the bone and "Tantra Master" greedily hogs the flip as submarine FX are thrown around the lower depths and the Rotterdam resident gets tantric with the groove. Download codes included for the time when you've rinsed the frack out of the vinyl.