Review: Italian collective CREA debuts with "Crea Legacy 001," the inaugural release on its new record label. This compilation showcases the diverse talents of the party's resident artists across music and digital art. Featuring tracks from no.name, Alarico, and Endrew, with each one bringing their unique sonic identity to the collection along with a 3D sculpture by 4C. Kicking off with Alarico's energetic 'Sleeping Dog,' the compilation progresses to no.name's sleek 'Tag' and Endrew's intricate 'Rescue Of Airon' before concluding with no.name's hypnotic 'District.'
Review: The only known diplomatic dance musical dialogue between Leeds and Barcelona can be found in the cross-national collective MASS, whose principal aim is to connect the two cities as identified hubs of the next-gen dance musical underground. Here the personae grata in question are a crack team of trusted delegates, known by the respective codenames AS Groove, Driahn, Monile and Nikon; each artist-negotiator delivers their own firebrand sonic missive in quick, electrific unison, appeasing the collective ear through a four-point transmissive treaty. Either breaks-laden or bleep-laden sound is stipulated depending on which fine-print line you read and/or which finely-etched groove you play; only track four, 'Seismic', trigger the break(beats) clause.
Review: Batu and Nick Leon united for this surprise release late last year and it now arrives on lovely vinyl where it sounds sublime. The four-track EP blends Latin and UK club influences with a psychedelic twist on Batu's label, A Long Strange Dream which, since its 2023 launch, has gained recognition for pushing experimental club sounds of the highest order. 'Rezz' kicks off with shuffling tight percussive rhythms and 'Yiu' is more intense in its high-fidelity loops. 'Tuvan' is a minimal broken beat stepper and 'Palo' closes with some snappy Latin rhythmic invention.
Review: Blue Hour have dropped a couple of essential new 12"s this month and here is one of them. It's another of their famous various artist's collections, all with a focus on the deeper end of the techno spectrum. The eponymous Blue Hour kicks off with 'Afterglow' which has wispy neon synth trail and soft, rubbery drum and bass blends that take you into a cosmic sky. Dold's 'Warning' is more textural and raw with its percussion and synth energy and Steffi's 'Volley 5' is driving, dynamic, dubby techno for intimate basements. Newa's 'Seduction' is a psychedelic wonder to close.
Review: Curious, various-artistic lo-fi techno from the OCFD crew, celebrating the label's tenth release in total. Striving to showcase timeless music that they feel to be appreciable as much now as in the future, here they focus on the sweats of producer Nikol, and his new duo collaboration with Vrsion for the alias known as Body Copy. Emergent from the fecund grounds of Leeds and bringing an OG's ear to the mix - both artists have been at it since at least the early 2000s - the likes of 'Pictures', 'Context' and 'The Approach' bring a subtle but motivating force to the dance.
Review: The Spanish Hypnotic Collective label attempts to capture its take on the Detroit Legacy with what looks like a new series of various artists' EP. There is plenty of Motor City soul in the gorgeous synths of Cignol's muted acid and deep house opener 'Distance' which is a soothing and reverential groove, but then its pure party from Barce, Alex Martin offers up 313 style tech and three further tunes on the flip explore blistering electro with high-speed funk and cosmic intent. Mission accomplished and we're already looking forward to the next one.
Review: The Distorsion camp offers up its first sampler as a way of teasing you with the sort of quality sounds and artists it has on its roster. First up is a three-way collab between Citybox, Hankook & Orebeat whose 'Dangerous Changes' is an intense breakbeat workout for the peak time. Orebeat & Alex Clubbers keep the energy levels high and inject early 00s video-game style synths, Orebeat & Citybox keep it dark and raw with 'Gangsta' and Orebeat & JottaFrank laced up their thrilling breaks with acid lines and sleazy vocals on "Noche De Paris.' This is potent stuff for strobe-lit floors.
AudioChain - "Back To The Time" (Tm Shuffle Myotatuuli dub remix)
Celestial Sphere Aka Hirotaka - "Concept Depth"
Review: Swiss label Introspection Audio Limited hist 12" number five with some exceptional techno workouts from producers based in Switzerland, Finland and Japan. Each track delivers a distinct atmosphere and emotion, perfectly crafted for the dance floor. Alessandro Crimi's 'Always' keeps it deep, dubby and minimalist, Needless layers up delightfully smooth drums and dub chords and a Tm Shuffle Myotatuuli dub remix is frosted with icy static and chilly winds. Celestial Sphere Aka Hirotaka shuts down with a more textured and snappy dub tech vibe.
Review: Budapest's Dalmata Daniel rewire the electro efforts of Timothy K. Fairplay for their ninth 12", which also includes a B-side icing by none other than fellow producer Norwell. These four retrofuturist cosmopolitan jams are heard divided between the two artists, and do well to flaunt the specific valences of their production styles, which, while doing well to stick to the cosmic aesthetic, cannot help but betray unconscious stylistic hallmarks. Fairplay's is as tweezy and kick-phat as ever, with 'Caliber 9' being the obvious choice as the sonic equivalent of a 70s infographic on telecoms gone haywire. Norwell's take on the vibe is breaksier and more muted, with closing number 'Natives' being the cut of choice, burbling in a vat of liquid acid and emotive smoke.
Review: Last year's superb Pura Lempuyang album has been pulled apart and served up on a couple of separate 12"s and this is the second one. It comes on limited turquoise vinyl and offers four cuts of stylish deep dub and techno. Fletcher's 'It's A Virtue' goes first with taught, twanging bass and grubby basslines then Mike Schommer's 'Kingmaker' offers liquid dub funk with watery pads and hissing static. Nicolas Barnes picks it up a little with a darker but still warm dub techno roller in 'Sonic Dial' and Redrop's 'Genesis' is the more driving of the lot but again exists right on the ocean floor.
Review: A label's first release is always a big one which hints at what to expect in the long term and for that reason Introspective debuts with this new five track compilation. They say that "Instinctive Senses is a compilation focusing on precise and cutting sonorities." We say it is a fresh techno offering with plenty of interesting details. Grafin drops 'Vespers' which is tightly looped and quick as hell then SDB & B2 get more dark, heavy and gritty on the twisted 'Reunite.' The flip side kick off with more rough and ready hard edged techno from Specific Objects, sleek tribal loops from Versus on 'Those Things' and Nano Rinnegato gets paranoid and revs up the sirens on 'Ghetto K.'
Beyond The Nebula (Holiday In Beta Centauri) (6:06)
Review: "Way back in the 1990s, Mark Hand, Neil Iceton & Jez Nicholl channelled their love of sci-fi-fired Motor City techno into a string of inspired releases under the alias Cubic Space Collective.
After reuniting for a memorable machine jam at Freerotation festival in 2016, Hand & Iceton headed back into the studio for a one-off session and recorded 'Holiday in Beta Centauri', a musical love letter to Mad Mike and the rest of Detroit's most militant futurist techno crew.
Sending us surging skywards via 'Binary System', where lilting lead lines, fizzing electronics and enveloping chords dance atop a snappy, cymbal-heavy drum machine rhythm, before 'Arps in Hyperspace' sees them step things up a notch via layered waves of synths, sparkling melodies and a driving, hyper-speed groove.
The North-East-based twosome then attempt to warm us to the core in the shape of 'Rigil': restless organ stabs, undulating Michigan bass, alien electronics, psychedelic acid lines and Galaxy 2 Galaxy style chords catching the ear. Bringing us gently back down to earth, they complete their deep space mission with 'Beyond The Nebula (Holiday in Beta Centauri)', a bustling electro number full of stabbing analogue bass, star-burst electronics, meditative ambient chords that shimmer full of night-sky melodies.
A fine return to action for this Teesside UR-loving techno twosome... 3,167 miles away in Detroit, their achievement will be noted."
Review: NECHTO launches its first vinyl compilation with a blend of fresh and familiar global talent from Italy, Croatia, Mexico, India, the USA, and Ukraine. The record includes six dynamic tracks that have already been tested by label head Nastia, such as Namhar's powerful track 'Run Baby Run,' and JNKS with the debut track 'Refill.' New faces include Italian producer Fabrizio Di Santis with '90128,' Croatian techno sensation Insolate with 'Go With U,' and Ukrainian talent Kichi Kazuko with 'Serpents.' Jay York rounds out the compilation with 'Go Back,' which marks his entry into the minimal techno scene with aplomb.
Lewis Fautzi & Norbak - "Code Of Deception" (5:17)
Oscar Mulero - "Zw System" (5:20)
Temudo - "Niiv" (6:29)
Kessell - "Time Domain" (5:11)
Review: Faut Section's Perception Series is back with a second sizzling installment of freshly made techno. Lewis Fautzi & Norbak pair off to open up with 'Code Of Deception', a barreling cut with icy hi hats and taught bass twangs full of dusty factory floor menace. Oscar Mulero offers one of his signature loop-techno rollers in 'Zw System' Temudo then rattles walls with the mysterious bass rumbles of 'Niiv'. Completing what is an EP that is as varied as it is vital is Kessell with the dubby broken techno beats of 'Time Domain' which has fizzing synths cracking like static on a 90s TV screen.
Review: Welcome back to Planet Rhythm where the techno is serious and the grooves compelling. Nachtwaker is behind this one and opens up with the deep and mind-melting 'Post' with its feeling of factory floor automation licking you in. 'Shiver' is another linear and dynamic deep techno cut with synth details peeling off the grooves and static electricity adding some edge. 'Withhold' (Arkvs remix) is more dark and edgy but still stripped back and economical and design and the original rounds out the EP with some nice dubby currents and textural percussion.
Review: Munir Nadir has been breaking through in the past few years with essential releases on 4Plae, Nuts On Board and Outcast Planet. Now he's minting a new label called Odd One Tape out of Italy, and bringing his playful, synth-rich sound with him. There's a nod to Italo and 80s electro in the sampling and throbbing, analogue groove of 'Rhythmistic', while 'Bass Jam' tips more towards the early 00s electro house boom a la Tiefschwarz and Tomas Andersson. 'Urban Whispers' has a more jackin' flavour with some low down sub freakiness thrown in for good measure, and 'Binary Technologies' brings the heat on the B2 with a powerful arpeggio and hard-slapping drums.
Review: Mental health charity label Serenity keeps it sophisticated with its sixth outing and once again donates all proceeds to charity this time Young Minds. It is underground house mainstay and DiY Discs legend Nail who steps up first with a much more breezy and balmy sound than you would expect but it sure is lush. 'Pad On' slips into his more usual and driving house sound but with swirling pads up top for summery refinement. Trixie, Connor Male & Thoma Bulwer then get deep and late night with their punchy 'Impromptune' while Trixie's solo cut 'restless sculptures' is a jacked-up and percussive number that leans into techno.
Review: By their standards, Berlin twosome Nap92 have been positively prolific this year. Having previously confined their output to a sole EP a year, this 12" marks their second of 2024. It is, of course, rather good, with the pair once again offering a collection of retro-futurist workouts that blend early 90s house sounds and late 90s tech-house tropes with plenty of ear-catching samples and agreeable melodic motifs. You'll find plenty of fine fare amongst the five tracks on show, from breakbeat house style opener 'Most Perfect' (where a squelchy bassline, floatation tank synths and eyes-closed vocal snippets catch the ear) and Clav-sporting garage-house shuffler 'Track 3', to the organ-rich MK goes tech-house flex of 'Laurent' and the fiendishly sub-heavy 'Body Body'.
Review: Silias Records welcomes Marko Nastic, a venerated DJ and producer from Serbia who could rightly claim to be one of his country's biggest underground electronic music exports. He brings peak time renegers here with tracks rooted in techno and tech such as 'Sour Pie' with its mechanical drum loops and rickety rhythms run through with blasts of electricity. 'Circuits' is smoother, deeper, more rounded in design and jazzy in melody. 'Que Rico Enrigo' is packed with well-designed sounds and a hint of Latin flair in the vocal sample and 'Clockworksx' shuts down with a thudding, persuasive and chunky tech sound with clattering percussion adding some texture.
Review: Following up releases by the likes of Mark Seven, Florist and Cygnus, Ari Goldman's Washington D.C-based World Building returns with this awesome varioust artist compilation. Neighborhood Watch Volume One features a wide selection of moods and grooves: NativeSun vs JamesBangura get stuck into some dark dubstep on 'Demon Mode' much like The Khan does later on the deeply meditative 'Part Of Me (Ode To DC), while Sami gets their swing on with the classic house of 'Marty & Jack', Juana's tunneling 'It's Low' gives you a dose of heroin house and over on the flip Max D gets deep down and dirty on 'No Snare'.
Review: Barcelona's 22Recordings mark a curveball with Nativo's new release, moving away from their trademark darkness and ever further into playful and melodic, if still diatonic, sounds. Patently led by the drum machine and the step sequencer, the rising producer Nativo flexes their chops across five tracks of varying speed and tenacity, all of which cross between an intuitive pastiche of dark Italo on one spectral end, and pure outsider house music on the other. The mood is gruff but clownish; it's as if your local fairground had been overtaken by vampire bats and bloodthirsty goths. Closer 'Onivia' is the only moment of respite, bringing an impressive substrate of arpeggios to an overall final-shebang feel.
Review: Vessel Recordings Group is a US label operated by Ira James and next up is Natural Rhythm aka the duo of Thomas White and Pete Williams. They have been working since the 90s on their own brand of house and as this EP shows it is stylish, rooted in tradition but full of contemporary designs. 'Jillybean' is raw, stripped back and perfect for backrooms. 'The Chase' is a slamming cut that pushes on with classic vocal samples twisted into something new, and great swing. 'Son Of Orange' is another lo-fi, high-class house sound with real weight and machine soul and 'Pocket Ops' closes out with dubby techno energy. A fantastic, no-frills EP to get this label underway.
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