Review: Third part of the compilation celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Milanese record shop. This collection is entirely composed of previously unreleased music, exclusively produced for the occasion by many artists of great relevance in the worldwide music scene, who supported the store over the last ten years. The artists who produced the music for this compilation are Egyptian Lover, Ellen Allien, Thomas Brinkmann, Neil Landstrumm, JD Twitch, Matias Aguayo, San Proper, Tolouse Low Trax, Jay Glass Dubs, Dj Marcelle, Jorge Velez, Tamburi Neri, Fabrizio Mammarella, Heith, Itinerant Dubs, Timeslip89, Kreggo and Intersezioni Ensemble. The entire work is composed of 4 x 12", plus a bonus EP.
Review: Sure Thing presents Well of Sand, its second compilation. Six tracks from the label's friends and favourites, each new to the roster, offer bold, untempered explorations of tempo and weight, a concise yet expansive collection recalling the deliberate cadence of rippling sand and the sheen of shimmering oases. From Command D's subtly groundswelling, but snappy 'Half Blue (Violet Mix)', to Foreign Material's alarmingly alien 'The Living Planet' and Third Space's supremely stereoized, lowercase opus 'Push (Part 2)', this is a release for that large intersection of audiophiles and techno-philes.
Review: Canadian DJ and producer Marie Davidson returns with her latest single 'Contrarian', a collaboration with Pierre Guerineau and Soulwax, released via the DEEWEE label. Featuring a fierce blend of raw electronics, 'Contrarian' stands out as one of Davidson's strongest club tracks to date. Earlier this year, Davidson made her debut on the iconic DEEWEE imprint with her track 'Y.A.A.M. (Your Asses Are Mine)', reuniting with Soulwax, who had previously remixed her acclaimed anthem 'Work It'. This release continues to showcase her forward-thinking approach to electronic music production.
Review: Dark Entries label regulars De-Bons-en-Pierre are back with more of their scuzzy delights in the form of their Card Short of a Full Deck EP. It's drenched in textbook sludginess as is often the way with Beau Wanzer and Maoupa Mazzochetti ever since they came together in 2016. These tunes were all originally written back in 2019 for live performances and really find the pair pushing at the boundaries of accepted social norms. The absurd sounds pair skipping rhythms with dark and freaky basslines and plenty of eerie rave chords to make for an all-new kind of dance floor energy.
Review: Techno doesn't often come on 7" but do not let that put you off this superb new drop from Bump'n'Grind. It features dub techno legend Deadbeat in fine form across two devastating cuts. A-side 'Ark Welders Dub' is a menacing and prowling track with a picked bassline and smeared chords to add real depth and weight. It's one to foster a heads down mood on the dancefloor, while emotional release comes in the form of the flip side. 'This Bitter Dub' is a more sparse sounds with hissing hi-hats skating over the drums while bittersweet synths and an aching blues vocal ring out up top.
Review: Few producers do the dub techno sound better than Rod Modell and on this second Atmospherica instalment, he shows why he is so revered. "Exploring The North" is dense and subdued, the hisses and crackles ebbing and flowing fluidly over a powerful sub-bass. "Pinewood Lodge" is more atmospheric and floaty, its chords flitting about like fireflies over a camp fire on the first night of autumn. Rounding out the release is "Shot Point". Immersive, hypnotic and ghostly, it washes through the speakers like waves crashing on a deserted beach at midnight. This is electronic music that is designed to get lost in.
My Favourite Stranger (Boris Brejcha remix) (7:10)
My Favourite Stranger (Ela Minus remix) (3:46)
My Favourite Stranger (Lond Island Sound remix) (4:48)
Review: Much loved doom monger emo kids Depeche Mode have always been ripe for remixing by new generations of electronic music artists and so it is that there 'My Favourite Stranger' gets a series of re-rubs here on Columbia. Tech house mainstay Boris Brejcha remixes first and elongates the grooves with mournful pads up top. The Ela Minus remix of the same tune brings some extra textured and darker moods and the best is saved till the last if you ask us. The Lond Island Sound remix is high speed and tinged with electro synth work as the moody vocals echo about the mix to trippy effect.
Review: Berlin's Cocktail d'Amore and Tokyo's Ene Records have come together once again to present the music of Solidair. The duo of Cocktail alumni Luigi Di Venere and Jules Etienne present three tracks aimed to induce a dance floor hypnosis. Orgonite (Riding the Waves) does just that, a slow build awash in the ebb and flow of acid tinges, just enough to wet your whistle on a Saturday night. The original mix keeps the skeletal support but throws in a life preserver of 8 bit gaming synthesis. Frisky arps call and respond to each other before making way for sinewy pads to lift off. Tiger's Eye sets itself onto cruising speed incorporating elements of late 90's acid techno with the sleek and smooth clubbing aesthetics of modern day Berlin.
Review: You might well have caught two thirds of Dina Summer lurking around modern minimal wave circles as Local Suicide, but now they're pressing on into further sinister synthscapes as Dina Summer. Following their standout debut LP Rimini in 2022, the trio are back with a seductive new EP that sees them strutting into 2024 with some of their best material to date. The synth hooks on 'Unter Strom' are towering triumphs of pop-minded sound design, with some discernible Italo throb happening in the low end. 'All Or Nothing' is a fierce and formidable peak time slammer, while 'Excess' is the kind of supersized electro-goth workout you'd equally expect from Miss Kittin & The Hacker.
Review: The Trails label, as is often the way in so many cases in electronic music, is the natural next step for the party crew of the same name. Having established a sound and a community, they now branch out with music from associated producers all keen to offer up their shared musical visions. First up, the label introduces friend and graphic designer Bogdan N?stase aka DJ Bogdan. Setting a fine tone from the off. the EP explores melancholy, introspection, mystery and hope, all infused with a nostalgic nod to 2000s electro-techno and synth-pop. The A-side opens with 'Shade Detector,' an energetic peak-hour anthem which is followed by the melancholic 'Freakshow Parallax' for after hours. The B-side features 'Videofreex,' a versatile party gem before closer 'Fantana Cartezian?' is a twisted minimal techno homage to Bucharest's lost history.
Review: A three-track journey through meticulously crafted linear techno. Kicking off with the title song, the sci-fi groove, pulsates with a hypnotic energy perfect for main floors in the techno club. The production feels futuristic yet grounded, drawing listeners into a deep, atmospheric rhythm. On the flip side, 'Engine' intensifies the vibe with its crisp, addictive production. The track evokes an alien world, its steady beat anchored by sharp, precision-driven elements that build a sense of both tension and release. Closing with 'Cali', the EP takes a detour into ambient territory, offering a spacey, atmospheric experience. This one has you feeling like drifting through the cosmosiits sounds evoke a sense of weightless movement, accompanied by abstract noises that conjure imagery of space junk and distant space flights. Each track offers a different layer of sonic exploration.
Review: In the wake of The Knife, Olof Dreijer has been plenty busy behind the scenes and scattering hints of his incredible production for those paying attention. Now it feels like he's building to a wider profile breakthrough as he lands a knockout blow with this release on Hessle Audio. It's a maverick release, which is its pass into the curious sound world shaped out by Ben UFO, Pearson Sound and Pangaea, but equally it brings something new to the label. The joyous, colourful melodic daubs across the EP alone are something to make a dance collectively look up in wonder, with 'Camelia' being an especially beautiful, uplifting track to bring hope and positivity when so much club music tips towards the darkness.
Review: The fledgling Detach label continues to show it means business with a new 12" in a lovely screen-printed sleeve. Romanian artist Dyl is the one in charge and has been serving up consistently excellent and innovative sounds now for serval years. All of these cuts mix up great sound design with languid rhythms - the first is eerie, with watery droplets and glassy tinkles hanging in the air, while 'Glasshouse 2' has a percolating rhythm down low. 'Glasshouse 3' gets a little more dynamic with a shimmering low end and freaky abstract life forms and 'Glasshouse 4' layers in more intense and ever-shifting synth lines while the closer sounds like it's roaming through a deserted factory long after it shut down.
Orbital, David Holmes, DJ Helen - "Tonight In Belfast" (feat Mike Garry) (11:58)
Orbital - "Belfast" (David Holmes remix) (12:03)
Review: Poet, librarian, Mancunian, father, husband, uncle, brother. Mike Garry is many things to many people, but tonight, Matthew, his voices guides our eyes upwards, inviting us to stargaze to one of Orbital's most emotionally resonant and timeless pieces of rave noise. Belfast Revisited would be one way to describe it, taking some of the classic and unmistakable elements of that anthem and turning it into something new. First and foremost freshness comes with the spoken word addition - a thoroughly positive, passionate and amorous declaration of unending love that could feel jarring depending on whether you always felt 'Belfast' was reflective and slightly melancholy, or not. Gone too are the breaks, replaced now by stadium-sized four-to-the-floor turning what was once the end of the night walking home at dawn into something that sounds way more 11PM at the concert.
Porter Brook - "Three Things You Can Watch Forever" (5:58)
Ayu - "Light & Reflection" (4:51)
Atavic - "Subconscious" (5:30)
Tammo Hesselink & DYL - "Accent Award" (5:10)
Plebeian - "Gowanus" (5:05)
Review: Aaron J's Sure Thing kicks on towards its tenth release with a superb new 12" packed with fresh techno jams. Myriad different mods, grooves and tempos are on offer here starting with the puling rhythmic depths of Vardae's 'Pahlevan' then moving on to Kick21's 'Bright Interface', a dark and haunting low-end wobbler. Atavic's 'Subconscious' is a heady one with ambient cosmic pads over deeply hurried, supple rhythms then while Tammo Hesselink & DYL combine to mesmeric effect on the carefully curated broken beat brilliance of 'Accent Award.' A forward-thinking EP for sure.
Review: Minimal wave pioneer Das Ding aka Danny Bosten is back after ten years on Electronic Emergencies with a nicely curated collection of archival tracks sourced from early 80s tape recordings. Working with friends in a bedroom studio in the Dutch countryside, Das Ding crafted raw, experimental music with cheap analogue equipment that drew on new wave, early EBM and proto-techno. Listening back now these sounds are unmistakably Das Ding and this clear vinyl pressing preserves the original lo-fi atmosphere with meticulous remastering by Ruud Lekx. A real triumph of the DIY spirit of the era.
Review: Marie Davidson's sixth studio album finds her collaborating with Belgium bossmen Soulwax - previously responsible for the massive rework of her 'Work It' track - and Pierre Guerineau. It follows her fiery single 'Y.A.A.M. (Your Asses Are Mine)' and the intense club track 'Contrarian' and marks a return to the dance floor but reimagined with the artist's signature sense of evolution. Blending the techno punch and spoken-word edge of Working Class Woman with the melodic pop structures of Renegade Breakdown, City of Clowns delivers a striking sonic fusion that is inspired by her pre-pandemic roots yet shaped by fresh antagonism, all while Davidson confronts a new foe: Big Tech.
Review: Marie Davidson's sixth studio album finds her collaborating with Belgium bossmen Soulwax - previously responsible for the massive rework of her 'Work It' track - and Pierre Guerineau. It follows her fiery single 'Y.A.A.M. (Your Asses Are Mine)' and the intense club track 'Contrarian' and marks a return to the dance floor but reimagined with the artist's signature sense of evolution. Blending the techno punch and spoken-word edge of Working Class Woman with the melodic pop structures of Renegade Breakdown, City of Clowns delivers a striking sonic fusion that is inspired by her pre-pandemic roots yet shaped by fresh antagonism, all while Davidson confronts a new foe: Big Tech.
Review: Scott Monteith returns with his first solo Deadbeat album in five years having recently collaborated with the likes of Sa Pa, Om Unit and The Mole. As ever, Monteith's long-standing dedication to dubwise experimentation drives his music forward on this new set, and there are some welcome threads that run further back in his career. 'Brick Stick Blick Blade (Anger II)' features a vocal flow from Black Noble Oluokun, who first collaborated with Monteith on the 2007 album Journeyman's Annual. That's but one standout element in an album rich with soundsystem immersion and techno propulsion delivered with the meditative poise that we always expect from Deadbeat.
Review: Some 24 years into his career, we know exactly what to expect from Scott Monteith AKA Deadbeat - namely trippy, off-kilter techno heavily informed by dub, underpinned by rhythms that frequently eschew the obvious. Inspired dually by the "five stages of grief" and "the act of speaking one's thoughts aloud alone by oneself", Kubler-Ross Soliloquies - his first solo set in five years - has a defined structure and purpose, within which Monteith giddily goes in all manner of different but loosely connected directions. Compare and contrast, for example, the moody, twisted steppers-techno of 'With Grand Trepidation (Acceptance I)', the hypnotic, spoken word-sporting deep dub techno of 'Huey Lewis Voters Dub (Negotiation)', the skittish headiness of 'Tough Love (Anger I)', and the polyrhythmic, Livity Sound-esque 'The Double Bong Cloud (Denial I)'.
Review: Dettinger's Oasis, originally released in 2000, is an ethereal symphony of ambient textures and minimal techno. Its unique blend of orchestral elements, effects, and occasional beats creates a captivating and strangely peaceful sonic landscape. Each track offers a hypnotic journey. 'Oasis #2' pulsates with a gentle rhythm, while 'Oasis #3' transforms Balearic melodies into grainy memories. 'Oasis #4' showcases Dettinger's experimental side, merging techno with abstract soundscapes, while 'Oasis 6' infuses dub influences, adding a touch of warmth and groove. The album's appeal lies in his ability to fuse the organic and the electronic. Orchestral swells soar above pulsating synths, creating a sense of drama and allure. The result is a sonic oasis that transports listeners to a realm of serenity and wonder. Fans of Wolfgang's Voigt's Gas project or labels like Mille Plateaux, Staubold, RasterNoton and others may already know this masterpiece, but if you don't, then do not miss this.
Review: Die Sexual exist in the world of Adult, of Gary Numan on a night out at Kit Kat Club, Cabaret hedonism, phallic and yonic electronic beats, rhythms and other noises. Elektro Body Musique, the title a play on electronic body music, or EBM to the cool kids, takes the bull by the horn with savage, hyper-lascivious futurist club music that makes you feel like the voyeur and objectifier in equal measure. 11 tracks owe as much to dystopian cold wave as electroclash and synth pop, basslines warbling and bouncing beneath blunt instrument kick drums and savage key stabs, all topped with the kind of energy-inducing snares we often worry were left in the glory days of these sounds. Immediately dark, alluring, and suggestive, it's a strong case for giving in to temptation.
Morfogenesis Incluye Yachay & Monada Y Pleuroma (11:13)
Vegetal (6:41)
Invierno Mesmerizing Incluye Nocturnalia Y Session De Espiritismo (6:57)
Cuesta E Magia ! La Vita Reale Se Atende (8:38)
Ultratom Vrs La Momia (8:21)
Menguante Creciente (7:03)
A La Puerta Del Tempio Sin Vocal (8:24)
Bello Como Tabula Parlante Incluye E Sigilo Y Escala (7:29)
Review: Digregorius is back on the My Own Jupiter label with an adventurous double album that features plenty of rather epic electro workouts. Many of them even have adventurous track titles such as opener 'Morfogenesis Incluye Yachay & Monada Y Pleuroma', which is a dark and broody scene setter that drops you deep into outer space. 'Vegetal' has intriguing melodies and busy rhythms flecked with Latin percussive flair and soundtrack motifs. 'Invierno Mesmerizing Incluye Nocturnalia Y Session De Espiritismo' is a mind warping mix of talk box vocals, chattery drums, busted kick and wonky synths. The hard to define madness continues across a land more wild and wonderful electro experiments.
Review: Drivecom's latest release, a 2xLP album, feature new tracks meticulously reworked from 2022-23. This collection is a sonic homage to past works like La Hora de las Maquinas and The Source by Boris Divider, yet it features a modern production twist. The album kicks off with 'The Way You Feel Me,' blending electro and synthwave with moog bass and arpeggios reminiscent of Arpanet. Following this, 'Letters From A Sleeper' evokes a postnuclear future with its prominent synthline. 'Distante' introduces slower BPMs, combining J. Carpenter-inspired synths with vintage digital rhythms. On Side-2 'You Know What I Know' recalls the signature sound of La Hora de las Maquinas with its sequential prophet's arpeggio. 'Sin Mirar Atras' stands out as a deeply introspective piece rich with vintage synths and reverb. 'Your Light' reappears as a future electro classic. 'Recursos Infinitos' offers a Tangerine Dream-esque instrumental interlude before the dark, dystopian 'Cenital' channels Vangelis' Blade Runner. The title track, 'Memories From The Dust,' merges 80s digital keyboard sounds with the album's overarching themes. The closing track, 'Out of Sync,' features intentionally misaligned synthlines recorded in one take.
Review: DJ Cypher pops up on our radar for the first time here and the indelible mark he makes too. This new album is visceral and coruscated electro funk with dark low ends and ripping acid lines all making it a high-impact assault on your senses. 'Freetwo' in particular is devilishly potent and textured. 'Second Voice' is a barrage of kinetic drum programming and throbbing bass and 'Freeone' is a silky, lithe workout with slamming hits and alien bass energy. Brilliant stuff.
Review: Veteran electrohead and former artist on the Rephlex Records roseter DMX Krew's Ed DMX takes the well-known story by Jorge Luis Borges of The Library of Babel, said to contain all the different languages of the earth. Some deep philosophical thought has gone into the album's concept, but we'll leave that to Ed to explain. Instead, we'll tell you that from beginning to end there's plenty of the kind of trademark 80s synth playfulness in evidence, with a generally more mellow and soundtrack-related rather than frenetic and dancefloor-filling vibe in evidence, even on faster tracks like 'The Combed Thunderclap'. Still, Ed knows what he's doing when it comes to this kind of leftfield electro gear, and it's a rewarding, never boring listen.
Review: This eight-track release plunges listeners into a world of sci-fi techno, where melodic interludes meet deep, atmospheric edges. Side-1 opens with 'Fukaeri', a track defined by its broken deep beats and ambient drift, evoking a sense of floating through a distant galaxy. 'The Increasing Past' follows with gentle IDM beats, rich colo, and masterful productioniperfect for deep, immersive listening.'Tela' delivers a serene ambient experience, holding the quiet beauty of a rising sun with its delicate textures and evolving warmth. 'Gyeon' shifts into a slow breakbeat with a gentler, deeper approach that feels both introspective and expansive. 'We Are Not Alone' closes the side with cloud-like ambient soundscapes, hazy and airy, as rising vocal arcs add to its otherworldly aura. Lush, cosmic soundscapes and intricate beats create a masterful blend of ambient and techno elements, perfect for those seeking both depth and escapism.
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