Review: Basel-based experimental labels Amenthia Recordings and A Walking Contradiction join forces for their first collaborative release here in the form of the Flash Crash/Hack Crash EP. Both labels are known for pushing boundaries within their close-knit creative circles and this one features Agonis' heavy stepper and Konduku's whirlpool of low frequencies on the Amenthia side, while Lemont continues the low-end, tripped-out vibe. Varuna represents A Walking Contradiction and delivers swampy, slow-motion sounds in their signature style. This release embodies both labels' commitment to daring, unconventional electronic sounds.
Review: Van Boom shows a talent for blending dark, atmospheric tones with experimental soundscapes here while working with artists like whiterose, Safety Trance and Evita Manji on an album that explores themes of emotional vulnerability and transformation. The opening track 'Nuborne' sets the tone with its haunting, immersive sound, followed by 'Untethered' with the ethereal vocals of whiterose. 'Polished Wounds' and 'Object Mapping' delve deeper into intricate textures and layered compositions. It sounds great and looks good too on limited edition smokey clear vinyl.
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: Originally hailing from The Isle of Wight but now based in West Norwood, South London, Vertical Cat has been releasing tunes since 2001 on imprints like Smallfish, Vice and his own rather wonderfully named Achingly Responsive, but now finds himself delivering seven varied creations for Chicago's Kimochi Sound to issue via the kind of hand-numbered, limited edition run that's sure to get trainspotters salivating like Pavlov's dogs. From the jazz-inflected phrasing, subtle phasing and jiggly sub-bass of 'Go Willy-nilly' to the Mills-esque thumpfunk of 'Oh You Mucky Bugger!', there's a bit of everything here, but every last moment is delivered with quality and clearly perceptible personality. You've also got to love outro track 'I'm Leaving', which soundtracks an awkward call to HR with some nicely cheeky, perky exotica.
Review: Nick Viola's new record marks a shift from his previous powernoise and industrial work with Fractured Transmission to a more techno-focused sound. in all there are seven tracks including remixes which bring field recordings, machinery sounds and personal travels to create a dystopian, uneasy atmosphere. The opening track 'A Ghost in Your World' sets a haunting tone followed by the pulsating 'It's Still Real.' Remixes from Kenny Campbell and Substencia add dynamic layers, while 'Negative Nancy' delivers an aggressive industrial techno assault. The album oscillates between discomfort and release and reflects a dystopian sonic journey fitting for today's uncertain world.
Jean-Michel Jarre X Martin Gore - "Brutalism" (take 2)
Jean-Michel Jarre X Brian Eno - "Epica Extension"
Jean-Michel Jarre X Deathpact - "Brutalism" (reprise)
Jean-Michel Jarre X French79 - "Epica" (take 2)
Jean-Michel Jarre X Adiescar Chase - "Synthy Sisters" (take 2)
Jean-Michel Jarre X Armin Van Buuren - "Epica Maxima"
Jean-Michel Jarre X Nina Kraviz - "Sex In The Machine" (take 2)
Jean-Michel Jarre X NSDOS - "Zeitgeist" (take 2)
Jean-Michel Jarre X Irene Dresel - "Zeitgeist Botanica"
Review: Second time around for Jean-Michel Jarre's 2022 album Oxymore, a loving tribute to French composer and 'music concrete' pioneer Pierre Henry. As the title suggests, this version features new remixes of album tracks (all of which feature sounds originally created by Henry) by a disparate group of musical talents. That makes for an interesting mix of interpretations, with armin Van Buuren's sizable trance translation of 'Epica' rubbing shoulders with a trippy, off-kilter electro take on 'Sex In The Machine' by Nina Kraviz, a moody Martin Gore interpretation of 'Brutalism', Irene Dresel's raw techno revision of 'Zeitgeist Botanica', and ambient pioneer Brian Eno putting his spin on 'Epica'.
Jean-Michel Jarre X Armin Van Buuren - "Epica Maxima" (5:16)
Jean-Michel Jarre X Nina Kraviz - "Sex In The Machine" (take 2) (5:04)
Jean-Michel Jarre X NSDOS - "Zeitgeist" (take 2) (5:08)
Jean-Michel Jarre X Irene Dresel - "Zeitgeist Botanica" (5:45)
Review: He might be in the autumn of his career but Jean Michel Jarre remains an innovator in the field of electronic music. His last album in 2022, Oxymore, was another pioneering exploration of rhythm and sound that has now been reworked alongside a series of collaborators all picked by the man himself. The nine-track selection brings wholly new perspectives to the originals which he calls "a vibrant collection of musical dialogues." An immediate standout for us is the track with Nina Kraviz which is crunchy, distorted minimal techno, while 'Epica Extension' with Brian Eno is laced up with otherworldly melodies. A great work from a mix of great artists.
Review: Never one to sit still, Sasha used the change in mindset that came with the lockdown to inspire his approach to music. LUZoSCURA (which means light and dark) is the new compilation that has resulted having evolved from the playlist of the same name. It's packed with new music from the man himself as well as newer names and more established artists. There are floaty, synth heavy ambient pieces like the 'Yin/Yang' opener, lush melodic electronic grooves from QRTR, symphonic garage cuts from MJ Cole and crunchy old breakbeats with more than a hint of Renaissance from Because Of Art.
Review: Troekurovo Recordings is a production team made up of Toki Fuko, Vadim Basov and Evgeny Vorontsov and they have been hidden away deep in some enchanted Russian forests recording music. Now they are putting out the results on this superb double pack. This project started back in 2016 as a live experimental jam and is now an annual tradition made on loads of analogue gear on the banks of a canyon that was formed many years ago by a melting glacier. The locale provides inspiration - from the fresh country air to the meteor showers often visible overhead - for the music making which is strictly "no preparation, no pre-programming - hardware, friends and live improvisation only."
Review: Albert Van Abbe impresses with his new full-length Olodumare Who Is which is an exploration of deep, hypnotic techno with profound spiritual undertones. Drawing inspiration from his diverse cultural background and the Yoruba religion, the album blends dark, atmospheric soundscapes with intricate rhythms and deep basslines while Van Abbe's meticulous approach to production makes for a mysterious journey where each track weaves together minimalist percussion, tribal influences and eerie melodies. The result is an immersive sonic experience that evokes a sense of both tension and release while fusing ancient traditions with modern techno.
Review: Belgian techno mainstay Peter Van Hoesen - currently based in Ho Chi Minh City - has always been a master of many things - tone, timbre, texture, tempo. He has crafted some of techno's finest long players as well as most destructive club tracks over the last 20 odd years and now he returns with Towards the Center of Time and Surrounded by Spirits on Vlek. It is his first long player in over a decade and is a superbly contemporary work of techno that leads up to the magnificent avant-garde finale, 'Twilight Static Dilemma'.
Review: Originally released in 2013 on Periferin, former Mayhem man Varg's debut album, Skaeliptom is a ride and a half. A ride to where is the question. It's dark and mechanical, but at the same time freed of Earthly constraints - the ambient techno equivalent of becoming uncoupled from the mothership during a space walk and calmly residing yourself to enjoying floating away into the eternal darkness. Even if there's a sense nobody comes back. It's not that there's a sinister vibe here, more of an unknown quantity. It's sparse and strangely quiet, patient yet edgy and always moving us onto new, previously unexplored soundscapes. Vast and somehow also very personal, Skaeliptom is a curious experiment in electronics that gives us perspective on just how much there might be out there waiting for us to find.
Review: Warp's 'Artificial Intelligence' compilation, a ground-breaking and wildly popular collection of "home listening music" that helped introduce the world to ambient techno and IDM, turns 30 this year. As this remastered anniversary reissue proves, the release has lost none of its charm in the three decades that have passed since it first appeared in stores. Highlights appear thick and fast throughout, from the immersive ambient techno creepiness of The Dice Man's 'Polygon Window' (an early Richard D James production) and deep space electro shuffle of Autechre's 'Crystel', to the bleeping bliss of Speedy J's gorgeous 'De Orbit', the acid-flecked Detroit-isms of 'Spiritual High' by Up (a barely used alias of Richie Hawtin) and the horizontal headiness of Dr Alex Paterson's 'Loving You Live', an alternative pass on the Orb's ambient house masterpiece 'A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain'.
Questionmarc - "Waterbender (Homage To Stolen Ancestors)" (4:35)
Ryan James Ford - "Snake Bitter" (1999 mix) (5:52)
Isabella - "Impresia" (8:52)
Le Dom - "Dodge" (4:24)
Fakethias - "Snute" (5:51)
Rhys Jelson - "The Birds Sang But She Just Spoke" (7:54)
Jardin & Certain Smith - "5th Generation" (2:54)
Review: Mama Told Ya is French DJ & producer Anetha's own record label, where for its fifth release she presents the creme de la creme of global talent. Indeed, L'eau Repousse Les Feux Agressifs covers the many shades of contemporary techno: from austere and strobe-lit warehouse bangers like that of label staple UFO95's 'Naturbath' or MDR alumnus Ryan James Ford's 'Snake Bitter' (1999 mix). X-Coast and Isabella channel the early '90s heyday of rave, on the breaks-driven energy of 'Mutation' and 'Impresia' respectively. Elsewhere, the more experimental fringes of the genre are covered as well, courtesy of Varg2TM who collaborates with Posh Isolation's Croation Amor on the sonic contortions of 'Bully', while EMMA DJ veers off into hyperware territory on 'Extremely Urgent'.
Review: Always hot on the steel-hard plates and murky subterranean atmospheres, Public System turns in a haunted double package from the crypt. Spanning hi-octane indus bullets, half-baked mutant salvos and shadow-clad juicers from a host of reputed names and rabid underdogs, this new comp collates ruff’n’tuff joints from gritty techno don Container, genre-unbound explorer E-Saggila, Berlin’s electro arsonist Privacy, acid-spitting hydra DJ Loser x Penelopes Fiance, basement guerillero Yabboq Penuel alias Le Syndicat Electronique, neo-punk beat thrasher Crave, Yves Tumor collaborator and sine-wave crusher Anthem, expert circuit dissector Beau Wanzer, Liquid G as remixed by Mick Wills, Night Gaunt’s Lower Tar, occult machine funk preacher Maenad Veyl, DJ Chupacabras under new guise 110, soundwaves cross-pollinator DJ Richard, vibrant mood-scapist Gavilán Rayna Russom, as well as label boss Myn going ubiquitous with studio fellows Kluentah as Myntha, and R Gamble as Fade Accompli. A much desirable feast of raw, unhinged, all-round spine-tingling jams for the club and not.
Diane's Hunting Club 5 Year Anniversary Compilation(heavyweight vinyl 2xLP in screen-printed sleeve limited to 150 copies (comes in different coloured sleeves, we cannot guarantee which colour you will receive))
Conoley Ospovat - "Communicating With Space" (8:11)
Sug - "Palm Pilot" (6:46)
Lokua - "Unicorn Origami" (9:21)
Area - "Getting Out" (5:36)
Mukqs - "Touchheads" (4:42)
K Rad - "Poof" (part 2) (10:24)
Review: This compilation features music from artists who perform regularly at the Diane's Hunting Club annual gatherings. Heavily inspired by and indebted to the influence of the natural world and open spaces, this is music for motivation, movement, and meditation. Conoley Ospovat (Kimochi Sound) begins with a breezy slow-house theme, followed by some similarly slow but a much more tangled webs by sug (Hausu Mountain). Lokua contributes a melodic deep-space techno roller, Area (Kimochi Sound) offers gentle ambient rhythms, Mukqs (Hausu Mountain) produces a shimmering sunshine beat, and K-rAd closes out with an vast dub house journey. Enter the zone.
Review: This latest Semantica compilation sees the cultured Spanish label continue to shine a light on the familiar sonic paths explored by Svreca's label, all while maintaining its signature refusal to be confined by any one specific sound. But of course, despite this resistance to labels, there is still a recognisable core that defines the label's sound and that is deep, heady techno. Iridescent builds on this heritage as he smoothly transitions from ambient and electronic textures to more driving techno. This release really stands out amongst this label's already fine array of quality EPs and LPs.
Black Rain & Collin Gorman Weiland - "Just Before Oakdale" (6:13)
Boris Barksdale - "Fractal Haze" (7:04)
Champagne Mirrors - "All Faces On" (5:19)
Collin Gorman Weiland - "I Can't Memorize One More Thing" (1:30)
Halv Drom - "111" (3:45)
Crepuscular - "Second" (3:54)
Cube - "Tenet Version" (3:42)
Skuury - "No Compass" (4:27)
Bead - "Noxiozone" (4:42)
Review: Since setting their stall out in 2017, the experimentalists behind Minnesota's Eyemyth label have offered up a range of releases from artists whose music challenges as much as it entertains. "Delicacy Spectrum" - the label's first compilation -takes a similar sonic approach. Flitting between abstract, dystopian soundscapes, growling post-EBM club cuts, lo-fi industrial workouts, ear-bleeding noise compositions and dark, otherworldly sonic explorations, the set bleeds distorted, in-your-face excellence from start to finish. Highlights include - but are in no way limited to - the dubbed-out hypnotism of Bead's "Noxiozone", the pulsating trip that is Cube's "Tenet Version", the wild and apocalyptic horror of Crepuscular's "Second" and the muscular aggression of "Fractal Haze" by Boris Barksdale.
Review: 80s Techno Tracks is an essential compilation series for those looking to complete their collections of retro classics. The third vinyl edition of this series of ZYX is another doozy that contains 12 carefully selected gems from the earliest days of techno and despite the fact these are around 40 years old they still do damage on the dancefloor. The likes of Bigod 20, Song, Robotiko Rejekto, Scarecrow, technic and Aircrash Bureau all feature with authentic old-school tracks that wear their hardware aesthetics on their sleeves and cannot fail to make a mark.
Review: Emotional Response returns with a second volume of its All Trades compilation which is named after its own NTS show. It is just as vast both in terms of style but also the eras it spans with a mix of dub, new wave, slow motion electronics and plenty in between. Tolouse Low Trax kicks off with the filthy dirty and seriously heavy dub glitch of 'Ossia' to provide an early highlight before the likes of Al Wootton get percussive and tribal with 'Altai' and HLM38 channels some African Head Charge on another devastating dub cut. Later on, London's Good Block brings a little more light and sunshine with their lovely 'Strong Relax.'
General Electrik meets Andy Rantzen - "Leather Lover" (5:50)
Jandy Rainbow & Adrenalentil - "I Will Go" (7:19)
Sobriquet - "Is This Your First Time?" (Artificial remix) (4:03)
Blimp - "Yellowgold" (4:33)
Inner Harmony - "Da Lub Club" (3:03)
Maroochy Barambah - "Mongungi" (dance mix) (6:39)
Third Eye - "Behold The Angel Of Frequency" (5:08)
Tetrphnm - "Track 11" (3:59)
Screensaver - "Eliminated" (3:55)
Review: Efficient Space's latest essential release sees Andras and Instant Peterson take a trawl through the darker, lesser-visited corners of Australian electronic music. According to the label, the pair lifted material from "local 12" singles, CD-Rs and the archives of community radio station 3RRR FM". Highlights come thick and fast throughout, from the acid-flecked, "Nude Photo" style Detroit fun of FSOM's "Resist The Beat" and chiming, trumpet-laden bliss of Ian Eccles-Smith's "The Slaughtering Eye", to the jaunty, mid-90s New York style bounce of Blimp's "Yellowgold" and the ultra-deep ambient techno pulse of Tetrphnm's "Track 11". Check, too, the enveloping dreaminess of Screensaver's drifting ambient closer, and the jazzy dancefloor depth of Inner Harmomy's "Da Lub Club".
Review: Wow. When you're writing about music releases it's often tempting to present difficult to describe tunes as unique. That's not always factually accurate, though, as is clear when you come across something like this seven-way bag of the wonderfully bizarre. Half the stuff on here, at least, really does defy categorisation, although we can probably lump it all together as experimental, industrial-leaning electronic music with avant-garde tendencies. And a libido. What that describes varies wildly. Nuke Watch's 'NWPJS Perc' interprets the term as a kind of slow build, low BPM workout made up of what could well be the noise of various tools, pipes and taps being struck. Umfang delivers a dark and menacing hip hop-electro instrumental, packed with atmosphere and pent up energy. Ana Fosca goes for shrill refrains and drones. Egg Meat serves a dominatrix of off-time weirdo-techno tones with mind melting percussive cacophonies.
Review: We're told that inspiration for this bumper new double album of super fresh techno from the young New Palm label came in 2023 when the artists met up on the LA River armed with "a couple of generators, a Klipsch system, turntables, and a modular rig, for a day into night of music centred around various forms of dub." The results are superb, with Charles Edward opening up with the sparse, laid-back dub of 'Bogus August', Lena Deen keeping it deft with the ambient soundscapes of 'Either Ore' and Berndt's 'Solstice' exploring widescreen minimalism dub, with plenty more to love in between.
Review: Limbic Resonance go big with this bumper double 12" compilation of absorbing ambient sounds from a range of popular names. Terence Fixmer goes first with booming bass rumbles and sparks of static electricity on 'Threetwoone' then the scratchy textures and mystic moods of 'Cardioid Resonance' set a bittersweet tone from 'Kujo'. Elsewhere Alessandro Adriani's 'Snakeskin' is a suspenseful layering of synths and drums and Ezuri RSOT's 'Blasphemous Bath' is sounds like a communication from a distant planet. Vatican Shadow, Ancient Methods, Zoviet France and more all contribute further excellent to this cinematic album.
Review: Franck Vigroux may be a nightmare for journalists - he rarely talks about his music, preferring to keep his aims, influences and inspirations to himself - but he's amassed an impressive catalogue of experimental-minded releases over the last two decades. While that was initially abstract jazz/electronica fusion, in recent times his releases have explored full-throttle, synths-and-drum-machine driven industrial music, albeit with plenty of dark, paranoid ambience - and his trademark fuzzy guitar textures - thrown in. It's that hybrid sound that he explores on Grand Bal, flitting between horror movie soundscapes (the John Carpenter-esuqe '68'), 'cold wave' workouts ('Vice', the ghostly 'La Live'), fractured ambient ('Lightnin') and intense, noisy and insanely weighty industrial slammers ('Loic').
8AM On The Train To Work You Ask Me To Send You Something That Makes Me Happy (For Maarten) (5:23)
Review: "Decay and loneliness can serve a purpose. Depression can teach you things. To feel deep sadness also means the ability to feel profound emotions," says Stefan Vincent. The Dutch artist has a point, and based on the appropriately titled Post Melancholy, certainly knows how to make it with strange, beguiling, slightly manic but overwhelmingly captivating music. Drawing on some of the cornerstones of rave culture - breaks, electro, IDM - the record is a true journey through an emotional spectrum, often conjuring the reflective 6AM moods that we can't quite put our finger on, but associate with those warehouse moments, but then filtering this out into something more joyful, or at least lighter. Overall, it plays out like the very reason you fell in love with electronic music in the first place.
Review: 'Speaking with machines' is not only what all electronic artists try to do, but it is also the translated title of this album from the pioneering Wolfgang Voigt. It features 33 abstract sounds all rafted using electronic arpeggiators way back in 1995. This is the first time they have ever been pressed up to vinyl and, we're told, it will also be the last. They are mind-bending sketches that shapeshifter before your very ears from supple rhythms to twisted acid cuts. Some are busy and trippy some are more serene and subtly impactful, and all of them are way ahead of their time.
Mike Ink & The Chain Of Brotherhood - "Lovely Ugly Brutal World 1" (5:04)
Love Inc - "The Universe" (6:30)
Love Inc - "Gymnopedie" (3:44)
Mike Ink - "My Principle" (5:24)
Vinyl Countdown - "Animal Republic" (8:30)
Mike Ink - "Mirage" (4:27)
Mike Ink - "5 Years On Acid" (6:04)
Mike Ink - "150 BTM" (4:17)
Mike Ink - "Jingle Bells" (5:56)
Mike Ink - "Trump Tower" (6:00)
Review: This Earquake 1993 double album is a fitting soundtrack to celebrate Kompakt's March 1st 1993 birthday. It is packed with rare, long-out-of-print classics from that era and highlights include Love Inc.'s iconic 'Monoculture EP' and the acid opera 'Animal Republic' by Vinyl Countdown. Also featured are the unforgettable gabber hit 'Lovely Ugly Brutal World' by Mike Ink & Chain Of Brotherhood and the deep, pop-infused anthem 'Trump Tower' by Mike Ink. These tunes very much capture the spirit of legendary label Kompakt's early days by blending new, genre-busting sounds with timeless electronica.
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