Techno Recommendations October 2015

Review: NYC's Patricia is one of the most hyped artists of the moment, let's be honest. But it's all worth it right? His last release, Body Issues was one of the most celebrated releases of last year, and rightly so. Rest assured that this follows in suit. Six cuts of haunting and subterranean groove that will shock you to your core. Opening track "Mercury In Retrograde" makes it clear from the get go with its morose and cavernous groove assisted by the most rusty of analogue rhythm patterns. Just in case you hadn't caught onto his vibe, "Life Is a Hideous Thing" spells out his modus operandi loud and clear with its gothic take on stripped back early Chicago house in all its lo-fi glory while "Needs A Nap" features the most tunnelling, almost Jeff Mills like melody transporting you into the abyss. Tip? Absolutely!

Review: Having first emerged as one of the last contributing artists to the now defunct Sandwell District, the enigmatic techno producer Rrose has since channeled her unique brand of techno through the Eaux label. Vanishing Pools is the second Eaux 12" release this year and finds Rrose once again providing some superb spectral techno. Proceedings commence with the creepy modular throb and off-kilter touches of "Hole", before ratcheting up the intensity on the discordant dancefloor buzz of "Purge". There's a strange, industrial-influenced feel to the droning electronics and metallic hits of "Curl", while "Adrift" seems more concerned with mood and texture than dancefloor dynamics. As if to make amends, Rrose finishes with "Undergrowth", a paranoid chunk of slowly evolving ambience.

Review: Schmorgasbord Records continues to examine the creative results of collaborative experimentation within contemporary electronic music, following releases from Appleblim & October, Spatial & S-Max, Al Tourettes & Paradroid and Bass Clef & Frak.

Pev is one of the leading lights of the fertile Bristol music scene, responsible for the hugely influential Punch Drunk and Livity Sound labels, as well as numerous releases on Tectonic, Skull Disco, Hessle Audio and The Trilogy Tapes.

Steevio is the co-founder of Mindtours Records and the Freerotation electronic music festival. His live improvised techno performances on modular synthesisers have been witnessed in Berghain in Berlin, Concrete in Paris, Corsica Studios in London and many more besides.

The two artists created original tracks and then remixed / reinterpreted each others work resulting in truly unique tracks neither artist would have conjured up otherwise.

Review: REPRESS ALERT : After landing his malfunctioning PX-4000 on the purple planet, Captain DMX steps out of the smoldering cockpit. After barely setting foot on the dusty landscape, the Captain is startled by deep thudding from over the hills. Dragging his oxygen pack with one hand and his atomizer with the other, he sets off in search of the other-wordly din. Over the hill his pupils adjust to the stroboscopic lightning and below him lies a sea of strange creatures moving together as one body. A cosmic sermon takes place under the three suns in the sky, mechanical and stuttered frequencies set a manic pace and drive the dark creatures back and forth. Captain DMX sighs a heavy breath and starts to descend into the fray....

Review: Since establishing the illicit My Rules imprint earlier this year, New Yorker Justin Vangdervolgen has used it to deliver a mixture of sneaky edits, hush-hush remixes and sly, sample heavy original productions. "Sketch 2" is towards the rougher end of Vandervolgen's output, and sees the former !!! man laying down some seriously tough, twisted beats, jagged analogue motifs, bleeping melodies and mind-altering acid lines. It sounds like the sort of sweaty machine jam that will get dancefloors in a frenzy of flailing arms and legs. It has a kind of EBM-meets-techno feel, but at a house tempo. Either way, it's something of a breathless banger.

Review: Liverpool's Binny started on his techno path back in 2012 with an EP on Orbis, and it's taken him only three years to rise to Dax J's Monnom Black imprint, a label reserved for the darker of techno joints. In apt style, "Mispress" kicks things off in a menacing fashion, blasting out heavy kicks, minimal melodies and rough shots of percussion, followed by the bouncier but nonetheless charged belter that is "Outline". Over on the flipside, "Quarantine" is a dirty squelcher in the style of Surgeon and Regis, while "Event Horizon" recalls Jeff Mills at his poignant and would sit incredibly well in a set by the man himself. Belters.

Review: Moodcut first appeared on Greece's Nous imprint one year ago with a rocking house EP that was full of dusty swings and lo-fi melodies; the excellent "Late Night Jam" was remixed and crunched-out by Juno HQ favourite, Moon B. The mysterious house producer returns to action, this time on Lobster Theremin off-shoot Mork, with a second helping of weirdo dance music that floats between ambient and deep house. The 12" offers five delicious cuts, the beatless "Breathe Easy" and the watery percussions of "Under Rocks & Tangerine" on the A-side, while flipside enters more concrete house domains thanks to the dubby beats of "Trampling Between Cats", the swamped and gritty sounds of "Muffled Strangers", and some pure sonic experimentation via "Heart Beat Takeaway".

Review: Paris' Zadig has been dishing out the dancefloor servings left, right and centre, putting out heavy house beats on everything from Syncrophone to Deeply Rooted House. He does, however, also run his own label Construct Re-Form, on which he appears at present. This new EP, Lost Tape, is a three-track guillotine, starting with the dubby sways of "Tape 1", before moving onto the much heavier and distorted licks of "Tape 2". "Tape 3" is another techno attack, except this time the beats slither more steadily amid morphed slices of percussion and a fine layer of atmospheric grit. Lovely.

Review: Scott Fraser and Timothy J Fairplay's Crimes Of The Future label has had quite the banner year, ushering in various projects from the pair as well as seeking out like-minded contemporaries such as Perseus Traxx. The latest Crimes of the Future release introduces Bulb, another project bearing the label founder's finger prints along with a high profile third colluder in one William Burnett. Apparently laid down at WT Records HQ in the spring of 2014 whilst Fairplay and Fraser were committing Crimes in NYC, Bulb is a bold offering from the trio with two extended dancefloor workouts taking a side each. "Light It Up" pairs ghetto techno breaks with something from wayward Kosmiche studio experiments in deepest Germany, whilst "Dimmer Switch" plunges into a world of psychedelia and cavernous cave dwellings thanks to some dark ambient synthesis and stabbing drums.

Review: Although he's probably travelled beneath most house and techno enthusiasts' radars, Germany's Andreas Gehm has released music on some of the most respected and coveted independent labels in the game. First and foremost, he debuted back in 2009 with an appearance alongside Steve Poindexter for Jamal Moss' mythical Mathematics imprint - having subsequently released a string of EP's for the dread-haired techno outsider - and then he landed on everything from Chiwax to Solar One Music alongside Helena Hauff. This week he's out on the ever-impressive Super Rhythm Trax and he's brought four jacking cuts with him. The flavour is steeped in the finest of Chicago flavours, boldly manifested by the 303-driven opener that is "I Don't Dance", but it's also one that verges onto the Berlin sound via "Control Your Mind". Check em', they're a squadron of killers!!

Review: Jasper Woolf and Maarten Mittendorff's Indigo Aera specialises in soulful, Detroit inspired techno and once again they're putting their money where their mouth is and offering up some serious goods. Who else better to step up next than Edinburgh's Stephen Brown, true underground hero and a producer who's had the dubious honour of releasing on Transmat and Subject Detroit. "Hot Shoe" is surprisingly on more of a house tip (and its awesome) with its synth line reminiscent of "Groove La Chord" or "Hardlife". "Lux" follows in suit with an equally infectious lead melody and nice broken beat that trips over itself with such grace. Finally Parisien Antigone gives said track a peak time hypnotic techno makeover.

Review: Madrid's Go! Finger is the latest label to make the migration from cassette to vinyl with their debut 12" featuring music from their last tape! Brooklyn selector Chupacabras no doubt made links with the Go! Finger founders during his time in Barcelona, spending four years in the Spanish city "sweating it out in the underground illegal party scene" before becoming a resident at Sala Neon. All the tracks on I See Light are culled from the Forgotten tape released on Go! Finger last year with two Chupacabras cuts backed by remixes from Legowelt and Willie Burns. Those two names are probably reason enough for many to investigate but don't make the mistake of glossing over the wonderfully strange original version of "I See Light" from Chupacabras, which pairs strange wind instrument with an insistent raw techno groove.

Review: Opening their doors every Saturday for mind-altering shock treatment, Power Station has been giving their raging punters a potent dose of megawatt reality. Their curatorial expertise has established an institution that will now extend the mythical energy generated with a record label in the form of annual limited 12"/digital compilations, grouping tracks that have already become the club's signature tunes. Resident, booker and co-founder Kris Baha finds himself on both sides of the inaugural disc, with the ball of confusion solo production 'Something Something, and again as Heavy Concern in collaboration with Otologic's Nick Murray, a name synonymous with the Melbourne club circuit being one quarter of the Animals Dancing massive. Young gun Disrute captures the optimum warm up set with the shape shifting slow burner 'Ka-Bu' while scene veteran and Haul Music boss Mike Callander discovers a new lab mutation of sci-fi soundtrack, damaged funk and cerebral house.

Review: Don't you just hate it when remix EPs come filled with dull, similar-sounding reworks? Happily, Ostgut Ton is above all of that. Their choice of producers to remix cuts from Nick Hoppner's recent album, Folk, was inspired, and the results are uniformly superb. There's a brilliantly analogue-sounding rework of "Relate" by Chicago's The Black Madonna that doffs a cap to Jeff Mills, acid house and early British rave, and a trippy, dub techno-influenced, Berghain-friendly take on "Come Closer" by Lilt. On the flip, Dutch veteran Aardvarck makes "Grind Slow" sound like a mixture of instrumental industrial pop and hypnotic techno, before Herva steals the show with a rather brilliant, ambient-meets-experimental dub revision of "Rising Overheads". The latter may not be dancefloor dynamite, but it's really rather good.

Review: Madrid's undisputed master of peak time hypnotic techno returns with some of his finest work lately since "Black Propaganda" a few years ago. The second in the limited Pattern series, this is definitely one to be heard. Second track "Pain" is the real highlight on this one; throbbing and pulsating away in a warped fashion and soon turning violently acidic in a way that would make Mike Parker stand up and notice.

Review: After a pair of superb 12"s from Duckett, Untilmyheartstops turn their attentions to across the Atlantic with the label debut of Zachary Lubin. Fans of the Kimochi label will recognise Lubin from the two wonderful 12"s he's committed to the cause over the past three years, and this four-track Future Laboratories record is a fine addition to his small discography. "Flooring Operations" opens proceedings on a dizzying techno tip, a kaleidoscope of sound billowing up around the taut bass drums, whilst "Mediation Garden" will please those who like some sonic grit in the mix. By contrast, the excellently titled "Ambivalent Robot" veers off into insouciant, glistening techno and is quite life-affirming. "Chloroform" rounds out the 12" on a similarly warm tip.

Review: Eleven years ago Jeff Mills' Exhibitionist DVD undertook a rather ambitious project. An audio visual presentation where from varying camera angles, viewers got to witness the sheer dexterity of Mills' DJing style across three decks and a 909, warts and all. The second volume promises more of the same across two DVDs and a CD. So expect some epic mixes and the opportunity to witness The Wizard in true form in collaboration with a live drummer and even an interpretive dancer! But best of all; hear some brand new tracks, all exclusive to the mix. They're captured right here on this 12", the second volume. Hearing him do 303 acid over his typical 909 jam sounds as brilliant as you'd expect on "Studio Take 1" and "Studio Extra". On "Studio Take 3 & 4" he goes for the classic Axis sound complete with Millsian bleeps and dreamy pads and all with the trademark metallic hiss and crack of the 909, lurking in the background. Don't miss this.

Review: Having taken time out to collaborate with pal Luke 'Torn Hawk' Wyatt on the decidedly eccentric Becoming Nice, William Burnett goes solo again with an EP of left-of-centre Willie Burns gems for the consistently impressive Off Minor Recordings. On the A, Burnett sets his sights on the dancefloor, impressing with both the modular-sounding throb and ricocheting percussive hits of "Doesn't Feel Right", and the metallic, bittersweet techno of "2nd Try". On the B-side, he switches back to experimental mode, dropping a pair of melodious, melancholic chunks of out-there electronica in his inimitable, imaginative style. It's actually these, in particular the spiraling, hedonistic synthesizer lines of "Straight Water", that most impress.

Review: Those with their heads wedged deep in the underground will recognise M//R from his superb debut 12", Gathering Response Data, issued through Phillitronics outpost Great Circles last year. Standing for Magnetic Resonance, M//R is the current production focus of Philly resident Billy Werner and close ally to the LIES cause and his four-track debut for Ron Morelli's label is a further statement of intent. To put it mildly, M//R can craft some mean dancefloor cuts and doesn't approach the art from just the one angle. First up "Let That Shit Breathe" rips a groove like Population One in a nasty, nasty mood, whilst "Just Say No" sees Werner slow it down and space things out for some deviant electronics. "Slinky Kids" dips into redlining brukked-up territory, whilst "Coconut Jar" has a similar evil streak to some of Beau Wanzer's more techno-focused work.

Review: Over the last few years, Dario and Marco Zenker's excellent Ilian Tape has given us some of the purest and most bold-faced techno around. The label has built up a solid reputation as being all about the music, minus the hype, and Italy's Andrea has been there at the forefront of their growth. The Turin-based producer returns to the moody imprint with his third EP for the label, led by the thumping, hypnotic swings of "Outlines" - containing possibly the best kick drums we've heard since Head High - and the break-ridden journey that is "Rainbow", on the A-side. The flip sees "Machine" enter a no nonsense mode, where a fast percussive groove locks tightly within a sea of intergalactic pads, and dubby, broken pastures on "Choral". All in all, this is a fine selection of wild, dare-to-be-different dancefloor tracks that span many styles and influences. Tip!

Review: The most pristine of dub techno on offer here from Stephen Hitchell aka Variant. The densely layered Arctic atmosphere of "A Gentle Embrace (original mix)" is as mesmerising as it is haunting, but will engage you thoroughly with its incredible attention to detail. Don't worry, there's more of the same on the flip with "A Gentle Embrace (reduced mix) which does exactly as it says; stripping back some layers (typically; there's quite a few!) to give some of the trademark basses and otherworldly pads some space to breathe, out of the chilling glacial soundscapes he weaves.