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.
Rodriguez Jr - "Alraegadir" (Spencer Brown Rethink)
Aubrey Fry - "Begone" (Nick Stoynoff remix)
Weska - "Hawkins" (Soel remix)
Oniris - "Isla" (Satoshi Fmi remix)
John Digweed & Mick Muir - "Futurascent" (Loz Goddard mix)
Madban - "That Ending Track" (Paul Roux remix)
Review: Back in the autumn of 2023, Bedrock co-founder John Digweed delivered Futuro, a four-disc mix made up entirely of new and unreleased music. On this two-disc sequel, 20 of those tunes get the remix treatment, with Digweed presenting them via a pair of typically smooth, evolving journey style DJ mixes. It's typical Digweed/Bedrock fare all told - think deep, immersive and gently melodic blends of 21st century progressive house, tech-house, deep house and (whisper it quietly) colourful neo-trance. There are some surprises though, such as the dub-flecked, tops-off techno hyonotism of Digweed and Nick Muir's rework of David Morales' 'Diridim', Spencer Brown's gorgeous and tactile revision of 'Alraegadir' by Rodriguez Jr, and Loz Goddard's progressive breaks re-build of Digweed and Muir's 'Futurascent'.
Review: If you like acid, and you like it deep, then keep reading. Dircsen has put together an album of just that for Gated across four sublime sides of wax. Helical Structures operates at the intersection of those sounds and more, with a range of different tempos explored from the unhurried 'Fragments' which spits out random hits and has a nice lo-fi edge to the more high pressure acid of 'Helical Structures' with its undertone of bass lead menace. 'Jack In The Head' is a more classic acid cut with nods to the Chicago pioneers and 'Synthetic Rhythm' (Know Where mix) is perfect for both body and head.
Review: Although instalments are few and far between (the last one dropped eight years ago), Terrence Parker's From The Far Future album series contains some of the Detroit veteran's finest work. The latest volume - Part 3, fact fans - continues this trend, mixing weightless, deep space ambient with a wealth of Afro-futurist techno and tech-house works that make great use of impeccably programmed, loose-limbed rhythms, twisted synth lines, and aural textures that are genuinely cinematic in sound and vision. The plentiful highlights include warehouse-ready club cuts 'Unconditional Love', 'Spectrum of Light' and 'Out of Darkness', and the ambient sprawl of 'Remarkable Wanderer'. Sci-fi techno at its finest.
Review: DJ Bone is a Detroit titan. He plays on the decks with high energy and next-level skill that few can match - which is why they call him the Terminator. He pulls no punches in the studio either, crafting all killer no-filler club weaponry as exemplified here by his new album Further. This is top-level techno on his own Subject Detroit label with lashings of machine soul, futuristic ideals and evocative atmospheres. Some cuts sink into deep inner grooves and take you on a mindful trip and some are more wildly expressive, but all of them bang in the club.
Review: To mark 15 years since its original release, DJ Hell's landmark Teufelswerk long player returns as a very collectable limited edition triple vinyl set that also includes a poster of the original cover and a special hype sticker. When it was released in 2009, Teufelswerk made an immediate impact and over time has remained a pivotal work thanks to its brash and inventive collision of techno, ambient and experimental sounds. It features collaborations with artists like Bryan Ferry and explores the contrast between Day and Night so looks to, and does, balance euphoric dancefloor highs with immersive, cinematic atmospheres that make a longer-lasting impression. It's proven to be a timeless, genre-defying classic.
Review: DJ Sotofett is one of those producers who operates on his own plane. His sounds are like no other, his ideas are weird and wonderful and his execution is always exceptional. He is a producer who does things in his own playful way and that bears out on this new 12-track album. It's couched in electro with 80s Nintendo console vibes and a fusion of analogue and digital synthesis that makes for a jubilant celebration. Along the way, things shift from acid-infected beats and catchy electronic pop to avant-garde electro cuts. Vital stuff.
Review: J Trystero's Cantor's Paradis on Fergus Jones' FELT label is a 45-minute drift through ambient dub terrain that leaves you mesmerised. It draws on the spacious design of artists like Huerco S. and Civilistjavel!, and unfolds in a dreamlike haze of blurred melodies, submerged textures and subtle, ever-shifting rhythms. Trystero filters the DNA of '90s dub techno into soft, iridescent tones here to craft soundscapes that feel both ancient and futuristic. Tracks like 'Untitled 6' briefly emerge with dubby definition but the album thrives in ambiguity. It's a deeply immersive record that's hypnotic, calming and subtly emotive so perfect for late-night solitude or introspective mental wandering.
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: Dark Entries welcome back the inimitable Doc Sleep aka Melissa Maristuen for a superb new album of ghostly and ethereal house and techno. This is a welcome follow-up to last year's ambient and IDM exploration, Birds, and shows another side that draws on Maristuen's years of queer clubbing. It fuses aspects of New York house, Berlin techno and West-coast breakbeats and is "a love letter to the West Coast's magnificent natural landscape, the light of the Pacific sunrise." That is reflected in the sublime synths and silky rhythms which manage to both move your body but also captivate your mind. It's another cracking album from the Doc.
Review: Having previously mined Drexciya's back catalogue for four superb compilations (the Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller series), Clone has decided to reissue the Detroit electro legends' final studio album, 2002's Grava 4. It remains a superb set, moving between deep space explorations (the superbly atmospheric ambience of "Cascading Celestial Giants"), rolling, intergalactic electro ("Drexcyen Star Chamber"), intense dancefloor work outs ("Drexcyen R.E.S.T Principle"), glistening IDM ("Hightech Nomads"), and fusions of Sheffield bleep aesthetics and Cybotron style rhythms ("Gravity Waves"). In other words, you'll struggle to find a better electro album. If you don't own an original copy, you should grab this reissue sharpish.
Review: E-bony's Digital Dawn album is about "defining his identity as an artist" and it comes through INDUSTRIAS MEKANIKAS. This 12-tracker welds together electro and techno with plenty of personal sound perspective and dark textures that keep it decidedly underground. Collaborating with Noamm on four tracks, their creative synergy adds depth and elevates the record's complexity with the likes of 'Matrix Kod' getting gritty and eerie, 'Aurora Noir' bringing snappy kicks and coruscated acid lines and 'Data Delight' fizzing with pixelated synth sugariness.
Review: Seven arresting, original new exercises from E-Saggila aka Canadian producer Rita Mikhael. She wears her love of dub on her sleeve - see the slow motion skank of 'Amnesiac' aming others - but not in the usual reassuring, bubbling echoes of dub techno, aiming for something much more angular and alarming. "Breaks remain staccato hammers," says the blurb, with maximum accuracy, "and kicks are cast to negate cardiac systems," while the rhythms veer from off kilter to nailed down and the sonics vary from the lush to the caustic. This territory to the left(field) of electronica is over saturated with identikit productions, but Mikhael does it like you've never quite heard before.
Review: Jakarta-based Ecilo returns to Voyager Recordings with a new album that taps into a familiar style - sci-fi atmospheres with dancefloor-ready techno - but he does it with rare skill. He's been honing this style since 2008 on labels like AXIS, ARTS and Planet Rhythm and these latest tunes have had early plays from dons such as Luke Slater, Ben Sims and Svreca. 'Taken' sets the seen and launches you into deep space, and the rest of the EP powers on with the singing circuit boards of 'Fractal Mesh' quick to mesmerise, the purposeful low end throb of 'Something We Don't Understand' impossible to escape from and 'Ready The Armada' channeling archetype Jee Mills style comic techno minimalism.
These Weeds - The Ones That Do The Impossible (7:06)
The Same Is Different Every Day (3:44)
Saturated Memory Of A Rooftop (6:01)
M Net 103's Impossible Turn (13:37)
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: French musician Julienne Dessagne is behind Fantastic Twins and here presents a new album inspired by the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Adapted from her composition for the dance piece Meandres, the record is a textural world of leftfield techno, kosmische influences and cinematic soundscapes across five tracks. Along the way, we're told the artist explores mythology and symbolism while drawing from opera, film scores and literary works. Her set up included modular synthesis and layered vocals which lend things a rather psychedelic edge next to the strikingly atmospheric synths and subtle sense of unpredictability.
Review: Berlin's Felix K has always made an art form of techno. His take on the genre is about space, weight and sound design as much as anything. He shows that on the Nullpunkt label with a double pack of expertly realised cuts. 'Sudbaism' is a dubby and cavernous opener with plenty of atmosphere to it then 'Noism' darts about the stereo field with jerking rhythms and snatched vocal yells underpinned by vast bass. Elsewhere there is plenty of moody menace to the empty underground caverns of 'Loss' while 'Life' is like being trapped in the middle of a factory production line in full flow. An evocative work, for sure.
Review: Filmmaker is a multidimensional producer known for genre-bending creations rooted in film culture. With acclaimed releases like The Love Market and Fictional Portrayals already under his belt, he reaches new heights with his latest offering, Hollywood Cult. Across 13 tracks, he crafts a haunting journey that blends synth-driven races, infectious body music, and slow-burning nostalgia. Tracks like 'Secrecy,' 'Western Malice,' and 'Shocking Therapy' evoke cinematic tension and energy and as the album progresses, 'Vessels Wine,' 'Peacekeeper Ripper,' and 'Criminal Rite' delve into intense emotions, while 'Elite Dungeons' and 'Hanging Finale' bring a lo-fi, trance-inducing finale. Hollywood Cult, then, serves as a dark, captivating soundtrack for a new world, inviting repeated listens and immersive exploration.
Review: The excellent Type Records continue their reissue programme with a much needed re-appraisal of Vibrant Forms, a collection of tracks from Greek producer Konstantinos Soublis, aka Fluxion, originally released back in 1999. Issued by the iconic Chain Reaction on CD, Vibrant Forms collated and expanded on two Fluxion 12"s released on the label and the collection helped to define the late 90s Dub Techno lexicon. Largely unavailable since then, Type have enlisted the supreme talents of award winner Mat Colton of Alchemy to work his re-mastering magic on all eight tracks to make them sound perfect for this double vinyl pressing. Hazy and distant, there was still more than enough dancefloor push Vibrant Forms forward and ensure it's one of the very rare techno albums that works from beginning to end.
Review: Ryan James Ford returns to Clone with an album that was written in his new home of Berlin, but that is inspired by his life growing up in Canada. It is full of the sot of rave sounds he heard back then and distil some of the atmospheres of the places he visited and experiences he had, from swimming in cold rivers to exploring supposedly haunting areas and of course being lost int he rave. It is a visceral 14 track affair that combines electors techno, IDM and ambient in complex and rewarding fashion.
Review: F.M. (Francois Marche) and Fa_Fane (Stephane Bodin) say they "perform live with an acid-tinged electro-dub set, a danceable balance between the organic and the digital, the hot and the cold." When it comes to the studio, the fine line they tread between machine and human, accessible and experimental is equally evident, making them sure fire winners in the world of movie soundtracks. Not least when the film is on the avant garde side of things, as Fotogenico is. Directed by Marcia Romano and Benoit Sabatier, the movie is a visually arresting, high tempo collage of a chase-mystery in which a father attempts to piece his dead daughter's story together using only the music she recorded. Glitchy, digi-dub and synthesised post punk ensues, among other stuff.
Review: It's very much a case of expecting the unexpected when it comes to Omar S' FXHE label and this latest effort is no exception. In the US the gap between hip-hop and dance music culture is even wider than it is here in the UK, only not in Detroit and its unique export, namely ghetto tech. FULL BODY DU RAG whips up an idiosyncratic but thoroughly addictive combination of ghetto, house and garage, hip-hop and jazz across eight tracks here, the borders between the genres being fluid at all times. Omar himself makes an appearance on 'Juice', a speedy but classy dancefloor workout, half tech and half house, that along with the hilarious but irresistible 'Trillionaire' boasts a skippy garage swing to the beats to boot. At the other end of the BPM spectrum we get 'Pussy On The Map" (feat NLGHTND) with its r&b strains, only nicely warped and sonically corrupted. Probably best of all is 'FBD X CERT', almost a moody grime exercise until a four to the floor rides roughshod through such conventional plans. Raw, racy - and utterly essential.
Review: Multiple Angle Distortions (M.A.D) is the second of two EPs previewing The Future Sound of London's upcoming 2025 album. It dives into darker, more percussive terrain than before and blends acidic 303 textures with brooding orchestral layers as the cult FSOL continue to expand their sonic palette. Grammy-nominated Daniel Pemberton guests on the striking 'Improvisations,' which is a live recording from a London fashion show, while closing track 'Northern Point' showcases FSOL's own custom-built synths. The result is a heady fusion of house, electronica and techno with an experimental edge that is both cerebral and immersive. M.A.D affirms this outfit's legacy while still pushing boundaries decades into their career.
Review: There is a great selection of reissues of Future Sound of London's back catalogue going on right now. It goes all the way back to 1988 when they first started chaining the game with their forward facing electronics and mix of rave, breaks, hardcore and ambient into something utterly fresh. It still resonates today, hence these reissues, and this one is a 25th Anniversary edition of Accelerator. This one was, at the time, seen as the group's most "commercially-minded" album but that takes nothing way from its visionary sonics and immersive sonic landscapes.
Review: Before they became ambient titans with a penchant for doing gigs from their studio via ISDN line, the Future Sound of London had already established themselves as a well-regarded house and techno act - albeit one whose love of wavy chords, drifting vocal samples and hallucinatory acid lines put them at the psychedelic end of the rave spectrum. The album that established their reputation, Accelerator, is now 30 years old, which is as good an excuse as any for this reissue. Now stretched across two slabs of wax rather than one for a louder cut, the set still sparkles, thanks in part to the duo's ability to mix and match elements of turbn-of-the-90s ambient house, breakbeat hardcore, bleep techno, deep house and what would then have been called "jungle techno".
Review: Future Electronics label head Gojnea76 is back with more of his avant-garde sounds in the form of this new double vinyl album. It is packed with dance floor potency and eight cuts of techno and acid dynamite starting with the sleek 'Mass Music'. 'Party Time' then brings some bumping house sounds with raw, slamming drums, 'Get Control' has well-swung kicks that punch like Mike Tyson under some woozy chords and acid stabs and 'Baby Pn' is another muscular mix of rock solid kicks, coarse percussive patterns and deft synths.
Review: Former Factory Floor flummoxer and drummer Gabe Gurnsey grabs us by the groin on this gargantuan groveller of an LP, 'Diablo', his new album. Blending influences from Detroit techno, minimal post-punk and krautrock, it's an impressive follow-up to Physical, his debut solo album for Erol Alkan's Phantasy Sound. It hotly heats our hearing with high-octane hygge, and develops nicely out of his former one-off EPs and singles.
Review: Inventive acid-ambient from Guy Contact here, who returns to Butter Sessions for a round total of 10 new tracks. Following up 2019's 'Liminal Space', 'Drinking From The Mirage' hears the Perth pusher's penchant for plinky chord plucks, not to mention a subtly heavenly sound design that sounds somewhat informed by '90s trip-hop. The self-titled track, featuring fellow artist and singer Nori, is a prime example, while other tracks chart increasingly bangerized feels. 'Spirit Level' might just be our highlight; a phased-out, downtempo breakbeat bit that recalls peacefully free-running in Mirror's Edge, or cruising a future vision London in a self-driivng sustainable drop-top. Make sure to cop this one before the pain of missing out on its neural, brainwaltzing fruits fries your brain.
Review: Brussels-based DJ Hadone serves up his most ambitious musical statement to date with What I Was Running From., which also serves as a glimpse at what his immersive label project Things We Never Did' is all about. All nine tracks blend contemporary techno with various parts from subgenres and make for richly emotive soundscapes that are more than just functional DJ fodder. On 'Sonar' he joins up with Asking for a thrilling and dread fuelled minimal jungle stepper while 'Nobodies Oscillation' is pure euro-dance madness. Other highlights include the irresistibly emotional 'A Key To The Shadow'.
Review: Detroit house hero Kyle Hall returns with his biggest project in some time in the form of Transmissions, a new double album on his own well-regarded Forget The Clock. All six tracks have enigmatic, functional titles and the music is as idiosyncratic as ever. Each one veers more towards techno than is Hall's usual style, with pulsating synth lines and tight, dusty drum tracks making for stripped-to-the-bones grooves. Later on, things grow ever more abstract with twisted acid lines screwing their way through the increasingly ragged and roughshod drums. These are perfectly imperfect jams from a master of the form.
Review: Per Hammar and Berlin-based label Sushitech are a match made in heaven as both have long since proven their credential in the world of dub techno. As the label turns 20, it kicks off its year with an album that has been two years in the making and features a top-quality array of dub techno sounds. Malin Genie features on two of the more kicking and propulsive cuts, while Jannik Jivung adds an organic touch to two more. In between those sounds are percolating slow-mo jams like 'Representant Dubb' and more kinetic sounds like 'TX Files' with its fresh kicks and rolling bass.
Review: The now 20-year-strong Sushitech have been working on this one for two years and finally it drops - a new album from cultured dub techno don Per Hammar. This is a seriously deep journey into his signature sound that melds the genre's most classic side with a fresh modern twist. Cuts like 'Generation Drive' have a nice crisp sense of motion as well as lovely warped pads, while 'Juvial' brings a sense of curiousness with its undulating drums and bass. 'Defender' leans into sleek techno styles and will have you cruising in no time. An instant classic album, for sure.
Review: Having built plenty of hype over previous outings, Hardacre finally drops this long-awaited debut on Alien Communications. It's a standout long player with acid, house, electro and techno all jumbled up into effective, 'floor-facing sounds that are high on power. There are lithe, metallic twitchers like the Kraftwerkian 'Transmission' as well as more future-facing and acid-laced bumpers such as 'Alien Intelligence' with plenty of cinematic and atmospheric bits like 'Radio Command' in between. A classy take on a classic sound.
Mike Parker - "Shakuhachi Two" (Hardspace mix) (4:50)
Review: Released on lovely transparent blue vinyl, the fourth volume of Figure's Hardspace series offers six fresh reinterpretations of Len Faki's favourite tracks under his staunchly underground Hardspace alias. Josh Wink's 'Sixth Sense' gets a powerful low-end rework while Aoki Takamasa's minimalist dub transforms into a high-energy and peak-time slammer. DJ Yoav B's iconic 'Energize' reaches new rave heights with its relentless groove and Huxley's dark take on 'Weapon 3' comes on with explosive force. Tuttle's 'Function' ups the intensity with Faki's signature claps and sirens while Mike Parker's '90s classic 'Shakuhachi Two' gains extra drive with Hardspace's propulsive percussion for a dynamic techno workout.
Andrei Morant - "Simple Addition" (Hardspace mix) (4:55)
Russian Roulette - "I Believe" (Hardspace mix) (6:51)
DJ Rush - "Don't You Love Me" (Hardspace mix) (6:43)
Damon Wild - "Gearbox" (Hardspace mix) (4:36)
Review: Hardspace is an alias of Len Faki, the renowned techno player and longtime Berghain associate. During Covid he reconnected with his studio and really got to grips with it on all new levels and that shows in the work he has put out since. This project is about adding his own spin to his favourite tunes, tweaking them for his own DJ sets and making older cuts sound right and function well on modern dancefloors. From the loop, thudding house of his take on Sound Stream to stripped back 90s techno sounds from Andrei Morant via the brain frying synth texture and unrelenting grooves of DJ Rush's 'Don't You Love Me,' this is a fine collection for any DJ.
Review: Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being is one of the most fearless experimentalists in house and techno. He confronts dancefloor disillusionment head-on with Dance Music 4 Bad People, his raw, uncompromising debut for Smalltown Supersound. A veteran of Chicago's club scene, Moss channels four decades of history, highs, lows and trauma into an album that defies escapism. These are not crowd-pleasers but cathartic confrontations dense with abrasive synths, molten drum loops and uneasy textures which all crash together in chaotic, transcendent layers. There's no clean resolution anywhere, instead just tension, dissonance and moments of stark beauty. Far from a nostalgic Windy City love-in, Moss' music reflects a dance culture in crisis and provides a place to rage against it.
There Is No Acid In This House (Just Emotions Rmx) (6:24)
Dogs Don't Wear Pants (4:45)
Review: Chicago extraordinaire Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being's third solo album is titled There Is No Acid In This House, and sees him return to Soul Jazz Records. Using his idiosyncratic electronic sound, Moss takes influence from the experimental minds of fellow Windy City innovators such as The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Sun Ra, through to icons of his hometown's house music scene like Ron Hardy, Marshall Jefferson, Lil Louis and others who have defined Chicago's musical universe over the last half a century.
No Matter How Far We Are, We Can Always Share The Moon & Stars
Purple Skies With Cotton Candy
An Eternal Star Beyond The Firmament
Helium Three
Mawu
Review: The inimitable Jamal Moss comes forth with his second offering for Madrid's Apnea records. 'The Moon Dance' unfurls over 11 tracks- in turns pensive, elegiac, and slammin'. Between the sedate expanse of opener 'When The Earths Shadow Falls On The Moon' and the final cymbal strokes of gauche, machine funk closer 'Mawu', Moss lifts us on yet another Afrofuturist space flight of fancy, passing through superclusters of deep house, tactile techno and stroboscopic piano jams along the way.
Standout moments include the smoove-as-u-like-it intergalactic lounge jazz diversion 'The Moondance Moon Walk Version'; its steezy stride-piano vamp seamlessly intertwining with Moss' signature babbling acid intrusions, the irresistibly groovy bump of 'Tethered 2 The Divinely Spaces With In' and the hypnotic sway of 'Celestial Poems Of The Lady With 10000 Names', which opens up from Terrence Dixon-esque introspection into broad windy city string washes and synapse-tickling bleeps. With this collection, Moss pens yet another crucial chapter in the seemingly bottomless hieroglyphic being scroll. While 'The Moon Dance' is one of his most accessible and harmonious works to date, it doesn't lose an ounce of the rawness and immediacy of his previous work. Essential listening!
Review: It's been seven years since Holden's debut album The Idiots Are Winning was released on his own Border Community imprint, and in that time new material has been scarce to say the least. Thankfully, The Inheritors was well worth the wait; produced with a combination of Holden's extensive analogue modular system and his own self-coded software, the album takes in influences as wide as The KLF, Elgar, ceilidh music, pentatonic folk scales and ancient pagan rituals, with each track recorded in one take with no overdubs. Border Community cohort Luke Abbott's Holkham Drones album would be the closest comparison, but even that superb record doesn't come close to the sprawling marvel that is The Inheritors, with highlights like the jazz sax of "The Caterpillar's Intervention" and twisting analogue techno of "Gone Feral" coming thick and fast.
Review: We have been digging in the warehouse and have found some copies of one of the faultless EPs that Detroit house royalty Mike Huckaby put out in his lifetime. It features three tracks that are all steeped in deepness and dubby goodness and are unlikely to ever age. 'Wavetable No. 9' is spaced out and rather menacing in a subtle, sparse way. 'Fantasy' is a more airy and light cut with meandering melodic leads and thinking keys that bring a cosmic feel. 'Jupiter' closes out with nimble bass and splashy hi hats joined by conversational synth leads that glow with a late-night warmth. Included in this is a CD featuring plenty of the samples used in the making of the tunes using the Waldorf synth.
Review: Much missed Detroit techno legend Mike Huckaby created The Down Under Kit for the Australian leg of the Red Bull Music Academy's world tour and it's so much more than a simple sample pack, as Huckaby gives a narrated tutorial on creating templates and generating ideas, a fascinating glimpse into his philosophy and techniques. Obviously, there are lots of thumping kicks, distinctively trademark pianos and pads and more to load up, but this pack not only gives you the means of production, it also gives you a guide to how to put it to its most effective use.
Review: Canadian-born, German-based producer Ash Luk is best known for his work in Minimal Violence, a band that used electronics to create raucous, vivid punk-rock style live experiences, as well as his role as one half of 'doom electronic' duo S.A.T.I.N. alongside Ireen Amnes. Under the Infinity Division moniker he's created more impressively dystopian sonic adventures that channel a suitably wide array of extreme music styles, from isolationist ambience at the start of 'No Reason' - which then twists into industrial junglist madness - to breakbeaty Sisters of Mercy-style coldwave on 'Weather Prophets'. Fans of Alec Empire's notorious Digital Hardcore Recordings label and its output should find this entertainingly terrifying and twisted up musical vision very much up their street.
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.
Clinomania (feat Joy Tyson & Nathan Tugg Curran) (4:25)
My City's On Fire (3:06)
Der Aufstand (3:27)
Too Far (4:45)
Macarena (4:31)
Shakin' (feat Nathan Daisy, Dave Aju & Aquarius Heaven) (3:06)
Read (3:44)
Nothing But My Story (2:36)
Burning (7:33)
Review: Multi-instrumentalist Jimi Jules got plenty of acclaim, and rightly so, for this 2022 album, which now sees a reissue on coloured vinyl. Executively produced by Innervisison label head Dixon, the album includes some of the most hammered tracks of the year it was released in - see 'My City's On Fire,' the superb 'Der Aufstand,' the dancefloor hit 'Burning' and 'Clinomania,' featuring Joy Tyson and renowned drummer Nathan Curran who has worked with the likes of Lily Allen and even Elton John. It's a melodically rich album that works at home as well as in the club and the album's artwork is designed by none other than the legendary Trevor 'Underdog' Jackson.
Review: Since delivering his debut album on PNN a decade ago, Matt Kent AKA Matt Karmil has proved adept at adapting the club-focused sound of his EPs to the long-playing format - as his inspired and wonderfully atmospheric sets for Idle Hands and Smalltown Supersound prove. He continues this notable run of form on this Studio Barnhus released set, crowding ultra-deep, dusty grooves in opaque chords, cut-up sample snippets, lo-fi crackle, hazy ambient textures and nods towards a myriad of ear-pleasing electronic styles and sounds. Highlights are plentiful, with our picks being the dubby, mind-altering late-night hypnotism of 'Still Something There' and the becalmed, meditative ambient deepness of superb closing cut '15 Mins' (which, confusingly, is just 13 minutes long).
Review: Legendary video game soundtrack-er Motorhiro Kawashima is best known for his efforts on the iconic Streets of Rage 2 and 3 titles. The latter is remembered as one of the hardest to define scores of all time, certainly in terms of a playable titles, and even 30 years on still amazes and baffles anyone who encounters it. Less well known are the artist's solo and standalone efforts, which came much later. Acrobatizm and Prepared Wave were the first two of those records, and emerged in the pre-pandemic late-noughties. Both draw heavily on the glitch and leftfield experimental techno worlds, which were in rude health at the time, doubling down on staccato rhythms and mind-blowing arpeggiation, with the punchiness and jerky vibes more than nod to the glory days of 8-bit gaming.
Review: Layer is the new label from Berlin techno favourite Berghain for the music released by its residents. Ben Klock is one of the most celebrated of those and here he links up with Fadi Mohem for an album that eschews his famous techno sounds in favour of a new blend of IDM, ambient and experimental sounds. 'Layer One' comes on double vinyl and opens with 'Ultimate (feat Coby Set)' which is an atmospheric opener with icy synths and sparse landscapes, then 'Escape Valley' explores kinetic rhythms and glitchy synths, 'The Vanishing' is another exploration of a distant corner of the cosmos and 'The Machine' brings more cinematic and evocative electronic designs.
Review: Berghain young gun Max Kobosil gives us his debut album. We Grow They Decline is surprisingly more restrained than you'd expect from Kobosil given his reputation as a DJ and of course those pretty fierce EPs he released previously on MDR and Unterton. Most tracks on here are slower, deeper and reflective takes on the techno sound and show a sense of maturity in this emerging talent's studio prowess. Highlights include the sombre and vertigo inducing slow-groove of "Reflection", the avant garde tribalism of "The Exploring Mountain" and the throbbing EBM crossover of "The Living Ritual".
Review: You might say the clue is in the name, but as well as bearing a nice selection of differently cut beat action, this double album from French/Syrian producer Ahmad Qatrami aka Konalgad on New York's Dance Data label, is also a nicely cerebral affair jammed with celestial adventures for mind as well as feet. It refuses to get stuck in any stylistic rut, from the cloud-like ambience of 'REM' to the brooding bass and dubby stepping of 'Subzero Experiment' and the simmering shimmer of 'Dots To Dots', half digi-dub thump and half subtly filtered junglist trimmings, it keeps on giving something new right to the end. Konalgad apparently translates as "the universe of tomorrow" in Arabic, and this artist definitely has a bright future to match his already quite impressive track record.
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