Back catalogue: Techno

Review: Roy Of The Ravers may be best known for his lysergic rave pelters, but there's always been a hint of grandiose melancholy in his synth work that suggested there was more to the machine botherer than tear-out acid beats. Emotional Response worked with the artist in trawling through a vast archive of material recorded between 1997 and 2017, rescued from hard drives once thought lost, and now gathered as a compelling ambient release with the full fat hardware veneer of Roy's work to date, but coming from a more reflective angle. From cathedral-quaking drones to deeply submerged aquatic excursions, this album has plenty to draw you into the inner world of an acid hero.

Review: A taster for Robert Hood's second Floorplan album, this EP puts a spotlight on the radical nature of his musical transformation. On "Music", the visceral rhythms of techno minimalism are gone; in their place is a rolling, tracky groove that boasts a repetitive vocal loop and which has shades of classic Relief /Derrick Carter. "Tell You No Lie" is even more impressive. It sees Hood use a gospel vocal over a stomping, funk guitar-sampling disco house workout. There is an audibly religious dimension to "Tell You No Lie," but Hood's knack for writing a great tune means that it sounds celebratory rather than self-indulgent or preachy.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: Gravity Graffiti has been doing great things with its series of split 12"s already, but now the Italian label goes one better for its tenth release with this mighty double pack of heavy hitters. First up is the ever-untouchable Yoshinori Hayashi, who gets as straight up as he possibly could with the freaky house burner "Dissociative." Telephones is feeling particularly dubbed out and groovy on "Kalimbalimbo", while DB.Source and Riccardo Schiro take things strung out and textural on "Montevago". Dynamo Dreesen is in rave mode for the pepped up and delightfully weird "Reactivate", leaving the final side to Oyvind Morken & Kaman Leung's chugging "Tunnel Visjon" and the rubbery side swipes of Acidboychair's "The End (At Any Speed)".

Review: Probably for good reason, techno deviant Rrose isn't as active as he was a few years back. However, we see this as a winning strategy - building and maintain momentum up until the very moment the bombs drop. Back on his own EAUX label, we have three new, blurry technoid structures made for the more finessed ears. "The Smallest Footprints" dazzles and confuses with its constantly shape-shifting groove, guided and supported by an ocean of deep-water sonics and atmospheric harmonies, whereas "The Ends Of Weather" itself sounds like the beginning of the perfect storm, gliding with tenebrous might across its six minutes and 42 seconds of instability and beatless sway. On the B-side, "Nest Of Queens" manages to do very much with very little, launching a minimalistic percussion flex that evolves at its own pace, twisting and convulsing more and more with each new bang of the beat. What a stunner. Be quick, these will go!

Review: Newcomer Region takes no time to get his credentials across, and this debut EP is all you could possibly ask for from an artist making their way up the food chain. Coming though on the young Jaunt label, Region dishes out some seriously magnificent dub techno lashings here, with the opener "Subline" being something of rough gem; the remix comes from LIES-associate Voiski, and the Frenchman strips the whole thing down to a deeper, murkier tone that we've come to associate him to. "Borders", on the B-side, is a supremely deep and meditative house track with a touch of the 'Shed' in it, and main man Basic Soul Unit drops his version of the tune, a broken beat assemblage with that same dubwise feel that wraps the groove of the original cut.

Review: As part of Oscar Mulero's Unknown Landscapes mix CD his label Pole Group has done the right thing and released the first of several various artist samplers. This first body of music is opened by the rusty pings of DVS1's "Strobe", while up and coming Spanish techno producer, Kwartz, earns his Pole Group stripes with a deep and blipping "Hate". Long-time label cohort Reeko provides the elongated mind trip that is "Enlightenment Process", and the last spot is of course reserved for industrial demigod Adam X who doesn't falter with the voltage charged "Meridien Arc".

Review: Pampa offshoot Hart & Tief launched earlier in the year, via a split 12" featuring tracks by Soulphiction and Mike Denhert. This time round, fellow German producers DJ Koze and Robag Wruhme are at the controls. Koze kicks things off with "Driven", a clanking, booty-shaking fusion of metallic percussion hits, resonating electronics, dub techno motifs, and minimalist textures. It feels a little like a contemporary Berlin take on early '90s Sheffield "clonk" (think Sweet Exorcist's Clonk's Coming album on Warp), which is no bad thing in our book. Wruhme's "X-mop 198" is a much more straightforward, early morning techno bubbler, albeit with similarly clanking percussion hits amongst the thumping kick drums and restless, one-note riffs.

Review: Well Street Records present their second release of 2022 and third in the Various Artists series. Enjoy 4 broken beat gems from emerging talents First Epoque, Practitioner, Planete and label head Robert Fleck. Limited pressing!

Review: On his previous Exo Recordings Intl outings, the impressively named Ludwig A.F. Rohrscheid has offered up a slew of psychedelic dancefloor workouts shot through with subtle - and, to be honest, not-so-subtle - references to various styles of 1990s electronic music. He's at it again here, too, romping his way through acid/trance/early progressive house fusion ("Reality"), clanking, sub-heavy UK techno (the spacey "Winx"), intergalactic ambient techno/IDM heaviness (EP highlight "Leaves"), and bombastic, out-of-this world, Rephlex style "braindance" (the mid-to-late '90s Aphex Twin goodness of "Between Worlds"). It's a good collection of tracks, with enough variety and inventiveness to avoid the pitfalls of hollow stylistic pastiche.

Review: You can always rely on Dublin's Lunar Disko Records to provide the heat; this time it's in the form of some heavyweight electro vibes by the industry's best and brightest. But this is no surprise given the imprint's invariable doses of quality. First up is Dutch maestro DJ Overdose with "Arecibo", a comparatively more pensive and introspective electro appearance than his usual work, but TR One's "Escape From Enceladus" takes this pensive sway of synths and crystal-like sonics to an even deeper level. Raiders Of The Lost Arp kick off the flip side with the smooth and suave flow of "Equinox", this one belonging more to the house end of the spectrum, whereas Automatic Tasty comes through with a quirky little digi number with the aptly odd name of "I Can't Find My Own Manual (How Therefore Am I To Restore My Factory Settings?)". A tidy little blast of synth-filled goods.

Review: Having previously operated on labels renowned for pushing a more underground or left-of-centre take on techno (think Kompakt Extra and Ellum Audio, for starters), Raxon has finally been given a chance to shine on techno's most commercially successful imprint, Drumcode. As you'd expect given the label's trademark big room sound, opener "Connection" is a little bolder than some of the Ehyptian's previous work, with foreboding, undulating bass, robotic bleeps and raw, rushing, intergalactic stabs helping to create a genuine sense of rapid forward movement. Flipside "Orbit" is equally as twisted in its own way, with wonky noises and thumping beats being contrasted by a fluttering, tech-house style lead line.

Review: Erell Ranson confidently displays his renowned character of finely textured Electronics with old school aesthetics on Propersound 007. Electro, Deep Techno, and Downtempo are the styles traversed to you from the machines with emotive class, and ambient pads across 4 lovely tracks.

Review: It's a big week for Berlin-based imprint Amatori, with two long awaited releases coming out of their HQ this week. In addition to some blunted and contemplative beats by Stefano Stereo, there's the addition of this one by a co-founder of the collective. Ruder takes you on a journey deep into the esoteric on the Rerajahan EP, which features the trance-inducing eastern polyrhythms of 'Antaboga', the pitched down hypnotic techno journey 'Antaboga' and the majestic beat rituals of 'Tari Barong Dan Keris' being just some of the highlights - tip!

Review: Richard Fearless returns to his Drone imprint with a hand stamped, white label album sampler leading up to his forthcoming album "Deep Rave Memory". Feel the power of "Atlas Of Insanity" on the A with its noir-ish, metal edged intensity that's equally as brutal as it is elegant. On the flip, "New Perspective" is a deeper and more hypnotic affair with its mesmerising chime melody and ethereal layers of pads supported by a broken beat which keeps you on the edge. All material from the forthcoming album was recorded at the Death In Vegas main man's Metal Box, overlooking the Thames where he drew from the studio's industrial environment for inspiration.

Review: Rise Black is Maxim Gkikaev, a producer based in southern Spain who also goes under the aliases Mitjun or Ocitin, and is part of the duo Psevdonym. He has released for Fil-Lex, Moustache and locals Another Perspective in recent years, but It is indeed a case of Bad Robot on this new one for Adjacent Possible. From the snarling acid electro bite of opener 'Alania', to the minimal EBM muscle of the title track and the truly dystopian bass dynamics of 'Laser Gun' - Gkikaev is not messing around here. Over on the flip, there are some mighty fine remixes which are equally as worthy of your attention. Benvol's electro-industrial sounding rework of 'Alania' retains that sick 303 squelch throughout, while PX's re-rub of 'Bad Robot' has an utterly majestic style of sonic futurism in the vein of legend Carl Finlow.

Review: 2020 marks the 30th birthday of Network Records, a label that did arguably more than any other in the early 90s to champion both US and UK techno. As part of their celebrations they'll be reissuing some key singles and albums from their catalogue, starting with this 1991 compilation of key Derrick May productions. Now stretched across two slabs of wax rather than one to guarantee a louder cut, "Innovator" contains a wealth of vital early Motor City techno classics, from the acid-powered insanity of "Nude Photo" and the rushing, piano-heavy rush of "Strings of Life", to the thrilling sci-fi futurism of "Wiggin" and the deep techno warmth of "Hand Over Hand".

Review:  Mental Groove offshoot Music Pour La Danse knows a thing or two about tieless techno. And they don't come much more vital than the self titled 1994 debut album from Jonah Sharp (aka Spacetime Continuum) and David Moufang (aka Move D). It never quite got the props it deserved back then and has been an underrated gem ever since but this reissue should put paid to that. It is a holy meeting of lush ambient design, cavernous dub spaces, hints of glistening IDM melody and deeper than deep techno drums that leave you feeling cleansed inside and out.

Review: We are honored to release 'A Boy Alone', a double LP set from Manchester electronic music pioneer Eric Random. Best known for his early recordings for New Hormones and Les Disques du Crepuscule and collaborations with Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks), Cabaret Voltaire and Nico. As an original member of The Tiller Boys with Shelley, Random injected a healthy dose of Krautrock into the dour Manchester post-punk scene in 1978/79 before going solo the following year. Random's first 7" "Subliminal"/"23 Skidoo" was released in 1981 via Les Disques du Crepuscule and explored ominous sonic surrounds. That same year also saw the release of a second 7" single on New Hormones, "Dow Chemical Company"/ "Skin Deep". Both tracks offered bubbling, rhythmic sound patterns, and were the first to feature other musicians that would become know as The Bedlamites. Consisting of Lynn Walton on vocals, Ian Runacres and Andy Diagram of Dislocation Dance, and bassist Wayne Worm, aka Wayne Sedgeman. Their debut 12" single "Subliminal Seduction"/"Bedlam-a-Go-Go" was released in 1982 through Plurex, mixing arid funk textures and sparse melodies. That same year the group contributed proto chill-out track "6.55" to Plurex compilation 'Hours' and the highly filmic track "In Cassette Conference" to the Touch cassette package 'Feature Mist'. In 1983, Random spent several months in the Himalayas with a group of musicians from the Kulu Valley and studied non-Western instruments such as tabla. On returning to Manchester, Random convened a new group of Belamites including Walton, Sedgeman and drummer Graham Dowdall aka Dids of Ludus. They released the 12" single "Mad As Mankind"/"Dream Web Of Maya" in 1984 on Cabaret Voltaire's Doublevision, embracing electronic, industrial and dub styles. In 1985 they contributed the soothing "Pure Power" to Food Records' "Imminent Episode One" compilation. Our reissue also includes 4 unreleased bonus tracks from Eric's archives recorded between 1981-1984. The whole set adds up to 115 minutes of sinister, somnambulant Random music. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. Each copy is housed in a gatefold jacket designed by Eloise Leigh featuring a spread of ephemera, photos with liner notes by James Nice of LTM.