Musique Pour La Danse Holland レコード& CD

Review: Although it's a genuinely terrific album, A3000's 1994 set Magnetic Gliding remains unknown to all but a handful of 90s ambient and ambient techno enthusiasts. Musique Pour La Danse has, wisely some would argue, decided to reissue it. Produced by Swiss scene stalwarts Marco Repetto (best known as part of cult post-punk era combo Grauzone) and Stefan Riesen - who later joined forces again as Synectics on Reflex - the album flits between spacey deep techno workouts (sublime opener 'Sonic Stripes'), psychedelic ambient soundscapes (see the similarly impressive 'Flow'), and the kind of hybrid cuts served up by 90s contemporaries such as Spacetime Continuum and Air Liquide. In a word: essential.

Review: Between 1986 and 1994, Tony Boninsegna released an insane amount of music under dozens of different aliases, offering up rave-ready tracks that variously mixed and matched elements of acid house, bleep & bass, hardcore techno and breakbeat. Yet he remains almost unknown. Notes From The Underground, a two-part retrospective of his career, is therefore well overdue. This second part, which boasts extensive sleeve notes from UK dance music historian Matt Anniss, is packed to the rafters with re-mastered treats, with highlights including the electro-tinged bleep business of Lab Technicians' 'We Gave You Life', the weighty acid breaks of Sykosis 451's 'Monsoon', the breakbeat hardcore funkiness of MI7's 'Show I', and the proto-jungle madness of Raggahead's 'Give The People What They Want'.

Review: At long last, a light has been shone on the career of one of the UK's true underground rave heroes: Bedford producer (and man of umpteen aliases) Tony Bonisegna. Cold Blow and Musique Pour La Danse have done a terrific job on the two-part set, offering up remastered killer cuts from Bonisenga's vast catalogue alongside extensive sleeve notes by Join The Future author Matt Anniss (whose book was the first to tell the producer's remarkable story). There's plenty to set the pulse racing on this first volume, including Bonisegna's earliest explorations of house in the late 80s (both as part of The Rhythm Squad), the clonking and bleeping shuffle of Original Clique's 'F (Whistle Mix)', the Pet Shop Boys-go-to-a-rave shimmer of 'Tonnere' by Pierrepoint, the acid-flecked breaks madness of Big Showdown's 'They're Here' and the sub-heavy early breakbeat hardcore of AEK's 'Lick It'.

Review: Hypnotone's iconic self titled mini album reissued and released just in time for this Summer Solstice. Originally released by Creation Records in 1991 - long out of print and now reissued - this one comes now meticulously remastered and pressed onto pristine white vinyl, aesthetically bolstering its pure, ascendant sound to match. The Hypnotone moniker was formed out of the bemused miasma that came after the wake of the infamous Hacienda nightclub in Manchester; made up of another related but no less legendary Tony (Martin, not Wilson) and yet another Martin (Mittler) (don't get confused, now), their eponymous debut came after an inspirational spell of digital sampler experiments and intentional Balearic hitmaking.

Review: Musique Pour La Danse proudly presents 8 Coffins, an essential collection of original tracks by the British duo Dougie Wardrop (of Conscious Sounds fame), and Nigel Lake as Jungle Neck, unearthed from the original masters laid down in the mid 90s. Eight raw tracks span four sides, two tracks each, authentically laying out a quick octave of bodybagging heaters. '8 Coffins' prophesies this (high) octane sequence of hits, ticking the first target off its list with a jungle cut bordering on a muted dub version, with offbeat bubbles and lowpassed vocals sounding as if the melody was being sung behind an ebony, mist-shrouded room divider. 'Kingdom Rise' moves further in this dub/jungle techno direction, working in lasery descensions into a take on Lennie De Ice, while the singular rollage of 'Bodyguard' ups the clarity while matching a sample-spread vox jab to the bass sequence. The inverse record equally dazzles, with its far-Eastern koto against mecha-jungle on 'No Wicked', and rapid snare delays against frank flutes on 'Latin Flute'.