Back catalogue: Techno

Review: Lempuyang is a label you will know and respect for its high quality stream of immersive dub techno and now the man behind it, Alastair Kelly, debuts a new label with none other than revered UK techno mainstay Ibrahim Alfa Jnr. He opens up with 'Component A' which is a moody melange of slow, broken dub beats and fizzing synths. There is further experimentation on 'Untitled B2 1' which pairs a churning dub rhythm with naive and innocent melodies and lots of li-fi static. 'Entangled' ups the ante with the suggestion of a fast paced rhythm through a skeletal groove and the flip brings broken beat dub weight, meaning and percussive bass with a 2-step swagger then deep introspection on the closer. A classy EP that suggests this label is one well worth watching.

Review: Brazilian Jesse "Dreams" Pimenta has been roaming around underground circles for a decade plus. He has a stylish sound that is about heady excursions into deep rhythms. 'Losing Control' opens up with a warped and flabby baseline over buoyant drums for peak time deployment. 'Dangerous When Wet' is a tightly programmed and kinetic cut with flappy drums and snares, aliens in the machines and psychedelic vocal swirls. 'XTC Messenger' then hits hard with thudding kicks and hints of 90s tribal techno. Last of all, 'Pressure Points' flips out with broke beats and dubby undercurrents.

Review: JR Disc has already become a firm part of the Detroit new school with his two previous outings on this label. Once again here he shows off his raw but emotionally poignant style and knack for a catchy groove. 'Bust' has rusty hi-hat sounds and deep, cavernous bass with rough edge drums a la Omar S. 'Wonder Traxx 1' then picks up the pace with heavy but inviting kicks that are again all frayed and dusty while some jazzy melodies bring a cheeky and playful twist. Pure Motor City gold if you ask us.

Review: Two decades deep into his career and still pushing forward, this seasoned German DJ delivers something that feels both timeless and fresh. The original version of 'Kingston Riddim' is a smooth, sun-soaked affair. Drawing from island dub but built with a crisp, modern hand, the track is full of warm organic textures and laid-back swing. The chords are clean and expressive without feeling too polished. There's a breezy confidence to the groove that makes it feel effortless. It's the kind of track that could slip into any set and feel right at home. Sato's interpretation dives into deeper territory. The bass rolls in thick and heavy while the chords get more tangled and echo-laced. There's a submerged quality here, like the track has been dragged through deeper waters. It's moodier than the original but still carries that same rooted sense of rhythm. This is one of those rare records where both sides hit in different but equally effective ways.

Review: On his previous Millsart outing, 2024's X-Ray Zulu EP, Detroit great Jeff Mills - long since departed for Europe but still retaining Motor City's techno vibe - effortlessly joined the dots between techno, house, horror movie soundttracks and spaced-out jazz. On Space Outside Space, he once again touches on some of these musical themes, just in a more widescreen, science fiction-inspired way. For proof, check the deep, ambient-tinged electronic jazz of 'Interstellar Feelings', the percussion-rich, deep space headiness of 'Forevermore' (a pleasingly weird Afro-futurist affair), the immersive techno-goes-broken beat grandiosity of 'Vibrations From The Other Side' and the minor key miracle that is trippy closing cut 'Some Soul, Some Space'.

Review: Brazilian-born, Berlin-based ROTCIV brings decades of underground weight to this four-tracker for Element of Impact, melding EBM-flecked techno, acid-laced electro and muscular synth-funk with a sense of high-stakes control. 'Enjoy Your Trip' opens with prowling low-end and distant stabs, while 'Losing Collagen' flickers with scorched textures and hi-NRG tension. On the flip, 'Entourage' rides a sleazy, broken rhythm into machine-funk territory, and 'Ancient Machines' closes on a darker, rusted-out tip. ROTCIV's sound, honed since the 90s across both Brazilian raves and Berlin basements, hits with precision hereilean, jacking and full of intent.

Review: Alvar and S.O.N.S. team up for 'Quartz Visions', remote controlling a fairy dust storm over airspaces between Seoul and Oslo. Said to have been forged through remote viewing and guided by the energy of orbs and crystals, the artists, communing through and to each of the other's places of origin, offer a texturiser techno track each, 'The Light' losing sight of contrast through crystalline delay design, and 'Rose Garden Whispers' making supra-surreal use of Latin operatic vocals, peppered between burgeoning beats.

Review: MCMLXV might be on your radar for its quality output in the realms of dub techno. This time out though it veers more towards club tackle and is less heavy on the dub via the work of label head JS Zeiter. 'Outline' stars in a deep, pensive groove with glistening hi-hats cutting up the smooth bass. 'Taken' is another mid-tempo plodder that comes alive with nice heady synth curlicues that add some scale. 'Navigate' keeps these serene vibes flowing with more deft and wispy pads colouring the rooted beats and 'Resistance' shuts down with more swaggering bass.

Review: "Instead of escaping somewhere else, this time I want to be here." We're not 100% sure if that's Fabiano or E35 Netherlands quoted, and woe betide anyone who thinks they can interpret such cryptic (not to mention borrowed) quips without asking the person who said them what they meant. Nevertheless, Landmarks very quickly presents itself as an ambient beauty born of this planet and nowhere else. At times the sounds are challenging - heavily textured tracks rather than the lush dreamscapes we often associate with the rather reductive 'ambient' label. Sometimes things are quite eerie, like the disquiet that materialises around halfway through 'Flowers On The Hospital Grounds', and the dense static waves of 'Saturated Memory On A Rooftop'. At other moments, tones invoke the mystery of night skies over Earth, or the rhythm of a world filled with enough life to mean we're still finding new species today.

Review: On his long-awaited debut, Osaka's Takuya Matsumoto draws a clear line between the tactile futurism of 90s IDM and the emotional depth of Detroit techno, finding beauty in grit and structure in chaos. There's a cinematic quality to the sequencing, from the shimmering opener 'Drifting On The Ocean' to the gnarled syncopations of 'Dril and Acid' and the broken funk of 'Fonseca'. But what makes this record truly sing is its refusal to sit still: 'Mini' dances with jazzy irreverence, while 'Triangles' feels like a dusted-off memory from a lost Rephlex archive. Matsumoto's palette is warm, spiky, and full of movementian album built not on pastiche but on devotion to groove and experimentation in equal measure. You hear shades of Underground Resistance's urgency, Mike Paradinas' off-grid detail, and Floating Points' melodic intricacy, but none of it feels borrowed. 'Traverse' and 'Mercy on the floor' close things with a spacious melancholy that lingers beyond the final fade. This is a conversation with dance music history, spoken fluently in rhythm and mood. A richly detailed, deeply personal statement from one of Japan's most quietly consistent producers.

Review: In January 2025, Al Wootton visited Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio, which is home to a rare archive of vintage drum machines. Once there, he recorded the unique rhythms and quirks of these machines and captured their raw character. Back in the UK, he transformed those recordings through processing and layering to create this new EP, Rhythm Archives. The result is a stripped-back but impactful exploration of rhythm that draws from industrial, dub, post-punk and proto-techno influences. The record stands as both a creative tribute to the iconic machines and their makers and a nod to MESS's mission of preserving electronic music heritage and making it accessible through public engagement and education.

Review: Adam Winchester and Laurie Osborne (probably still best known as Appleblim) are Wrecked Lightship and they have an inventive approach to dub, breaks and bass. Their work creates an immersive world full of rich, atmospheric textures and the latest example of that is Drained Strands, a new album for Peak Oil full of fragmented, genre-blurring sounds. The six-tracker is full of experimentation and new ideas from the off. 'Delinquent Spirits' for example is a jumble of jungle breaks and vast basslines with minimal percussion, 'Reeling Mist' is warm, blissed out dub and 'Somnium Sands' is an eerie and evocative world of synth designs and industrial decay.