Back catalogue: Electro

Review: "Way back in the 1990s, Mark Hand, Neil Iceton & Jez Nicholl channelled their love of sci-fi-fired Motor City techno into a string of inspired releases under the alias Cubic Space Collective.

After reuniting for a memorable machine jam at Freerotation festival in 2016, Hand & Iceton headed back into the studio for a one-off session and recorded 'Holiday in Beta Centauri', a musical love letter to Mad Mike and the rest of Detroit's most militant futurist techno crew.

Sending us surging skywards via 'Binary System', where lilting lead lines, fizzing electronics and enveloping chords dance atop a snappy, cymbal-heavy drum machine rhythm, before 'Arps in Hyperspace' sees them step things up a notch via layered waves of synths, sparkling melodies and a driving, hyper-speed groove.

The North-East-based twosome then attempt to warm us to the core in the shape of 'Rigil': restless organ stabs, undulating Michigan bass, alien electronics, psychedelic acid lines and Galaxy 2 Galaxy style chords catching the ear. Bringing us gently back down to earth, they complete their deep space mission with 'Beyond The Nebula (Holiday in Beta Centauri)', a bustling electro number full of stabbing analogue bass, star-burst electronics, meditative ambient chords that shimmer full of night-sky melodies.

A fine return to action for this Teesside UR-loving techno twosome... 3,167 miles away in Detroit, their achievement will be noted."

Review: Night Defined Recordings is an Austrian electronic music label based in Salzburg that has featured previous releases by Spanish veteran Eduardo de la Calle, Romanian upstart Serb and label chief Juergen Vonbank. It now presents the second edition in the NDVAX various artist series, featuring Finnish producer Mesak (Klakson/Cleaning Tapes) with the hard minimalism of 'Palek', as well as Erfurt, Germany's Mary Yalex with the unsettling ambient house of 'Running Out Of Time' and Workshop affiliated Even Tuell with the dusty twilight dub of 'In Circles' delivered in typically understated fashion.

Review: Over the past few years Nick Gynn has been whipping up a storm with his loose and limber strain of trance-inflected club melters. Now he's landing in exactly the right spot to kick off 2022 alongside the good folk at EYA Records. Minting their Lonewolf series specifically, the 2000 & Something EP deals in maximal acid wrigglers with a playful but dark-tinted edge which should go down very well with the buoyant wave of psychedelic party people. Watch out for the electro stylings of 'Ritmos Obscuros', which closes out the 12" in body-popping fashion.

Review: Parallel Universe is a label into its second release here, following up a terrific debut with contributions from some of the scene's most ascendant names. On its second missive, they've tapped Antwerp's Nathan Boost who contributes the trippy, boompty, minimal house groove of 'Cloning Sequence', while Irishman Dylan Forbes serves up a throwback to early '90s rave on the breakbeat-infused euphoria of 'Ephemeral Ecstasy'. Elsewhere, Luke Mazzeri aka ModEx takes you to a higher state of consciousness on the early techno sound of 'Standardised Retro Augmentation' and finally E00's 'Birdwatching' is a mish-mash of tropes from classic house, IDM and trance.

Review: Iranian DJ/producer Ramtin Niazi (1000PA, Ben & Jerry, KAHKLI Cru) inaugurates new imprint Needlessness with some sleek and ravey tech funk on his new offering titled 'Reaction'. It comes with two remixes: London's Voigtmann (of Toi Toi fame) injects more groove into proceedings with his minimalist take, while Tbilisi-based Giorgi Koberidze aka Cobert (Casa Voyager/Partisan) equally impresses with his swing-fuelled electro beat re-rub, over on the flip.