Back catalogue: Techno (すべて)

Review: Joey Beltram has always released great techno songs, but this album has all his great classic songs on (hence the name). From 'Mentasm' to 'Sub Bass Experience' this album is pumping with superb techno from Joey Beltram.

Review: Germany's Travel By Goods label has put together a rather special looking double EP by some of the most influential minds in electronic music with contributions from Demdike Stare man Miles Whittaker, Ralph 'Some Truths' Cumbers, Mark Fell and enigmatic NTS host and musician Joane Skyler. Each of the four artists is granted a side of a heavyweight 12" to do their thing and the results are as cutting edge as you'd expect. Drones, glitchiness and samples are the basis for sonic exploration here with Skyler, Whittaker and Some Truths all largely opting for the otherworldly approach. Fell meanwhile injects some of his expertly cultivated off kilter approach by chucking in a barrel of tumbling kicks and percussion shots. Class.

Review: One of the most essential minimal techno album ever for the first time on vinyl. New release of the classic "Metri" (Sahko 006) which was released on CD in 1993 and is now available on limited double vinyl. Written and produced by Mika Vainio except Muuntaja by Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen (better known as Pan Sonic). All tracks are studio recordings played with analogical equipment to DA-tape during summer and autumn 1993. Minimal baas bleeps and tings! Only for the headstrong. Tip!

Review: The third album from Dutchman Dave Huismans under his 2562 pseudonym is a musical tour de force from start to finish. Ostensibly a record made from the disco records a young Huismans listened to - the front artwork is a beautiful illustration of this - but were this fact not publicised when the album was announced no-one would have picked it. The overwhelming sonic aesthetic of Fever instead inhabits the murky world between techno and dubstep. The stuttering rhythm of "Winamp Melodrama" is coupled with the tough drum hits, whirring effects and neatly muffled vocal loops of "Cheaters" on the first slab of vinyl, by which stage it's already apparent this album is going to be something a little bit special. Elsewhere the gloopy bass and odd yelps of "Wasteland" and strangely evocative shuffle of the album's title track are among Fever's other high points. It's fascinating to chart the progress Huismans since his 2009 album Unbalance, and, before that, Aerial.

Review: Tresor is celebrating 30 years in the game with a series of special reissue projects. This one really goes way back to almost the start, when Juan Atkins was already defining the early techno sound. For this one he linked up with Moritz von Oswald and Thomas Fehlmann in 1992 for a second iteration of the 3 Men in Berlin project. The monumental results join the dots between Detroit and Berlin across a collection of timeless cuts that meld bassline funk, hypnotic minimalism and soulful machine sounds into propulsive, emotive dance floor joy. The unbridled energy and cosmic elegance of 'Jazz Is The Teacher' might just be the highlight.

Review: For those that don't know, Ex:El was the third LP by British electronic pioneers 808 State released in 1991. The album features guest vocalists such as New Order's Bernard Sumner on "Spanish Heart' and Bjork on "Qmart" and "Ooops" which would result in the Icelandic singer having a continued working relationship with Graham Massey over the years. Their teaming up with figures of the alternative music scene of the time started a trend that many other electronic music groups would become to follow. Perceived by many to be one of their finest albums, this one will be a welcome edition to any 808 State fans collection on vinyl.

Review: Earlier this year, A Guy Called Gerald (Gerald Simpson) made his Laboratory Instinct debut with a "Drop-Tech Infusion" mix of Dell & Flügel's "Superstructure" that appeared on the duo's "Study For A Skyscraper" EP. Now the British acid house pioneer and drum'n'bass legend issues his own superb full-length on the German imprint, the appropriately-titled "Proto Acid - The Berlin Sessions". Having literally influenced generations of music-makers with an incredible discography that's grown incrementally deeper since the 80s, the Manchester UK native and now Berlin resident executes the infectious 71-minute jam with a masterful meticulousness. Drenching Detroit-styled techno in sparkling electro, the set, recorded live in one session using two laptops and a DJ mixer at Gerald's Diehold Studio on February 11th, 2006, flows with a relaxed ease. With one exception ("Auto Rebuild," the third track, is a remake of 1990's "Automannik"), the album's 24 raw, club-oriented tracks are all new and were created over the last year in Berlin. The collection departs from the style of his last full-length, "To All Things What They Need", in many ways, the most obvious being the absence of singing. Asked why he decided to make "Proto Acid - The Berlin Sessions" wholly instrumental, Simpson doesn't mince words. "On my last two albums, I felt pressured to include vocals," he replies. "Nowadays, I feel singers should be put on a bale of hay with a piece of straw hanging out of their mouths while playing acoustic guitar-keeping it real, if you know what I mean. I want to make music for clubs and sometimes you just have to get down and dirty into the machines and, to take it there, you can't hold anyone's hand. Some things just don't need a vocal. What I'm trying to do is keep myself entertained as well as give the punters something new." Asked to describe the album's sound, Simpson says, "To me it's proto acid; it's how I feel house/techno music would have sounded if the whole rave thing hadn't happened in England. When I was younger, I would go to soul and funk clubs and you could easily mix a techno/house track into your set without spoiling the environment. Could you imagine playing a techno track at an r'n'b club today? Things have splintered and fragmented and floated so far apart that funk seems to have dropped through the cracks. I'm one of those preserved creatures that basically loves to use genres as a palette. So when I say proto acid I'm saying this stuff has direct lineage to Chicago and Detroit in the mid-to-late 80s." Don't think that, for Simpson, acid's definition is limited to something as obvious as the 303 either. "I find it really interesting how the TB303 has come to be fetishised as an acid machine," he says. "For me, acid was all about the tweaking of synths and riding a groove, you know what I mean? Like, before the masses thought the Transistor Bass machine was a special tool for doing acid house music, I was already bored with it and had moved on to tweaking envelopes on other Roland machinery, so I never really possessed that value for the 303 like everybody else did. I feel like I followed my own path and was inspired by what was going on in Detroit and Chicago but always did my own thing. To me, the new album is acid and acid's a part of everything I do." On the disc itself, Simpson doesn't waste a moment but immediately invigorates the set with the pumping tribal groove of "Marching Powder" before moving on to the steely funk-throb of "The Strip." The mix's strutting electro strain makes its first appearance in "Auto Rebuild" and dominates thereafter, though its presence is subtly modulated from one cut to the next, at one moment oozing a house vibe and the next techno. While differences distinguish one track from the next (though Simpson avows that his influences are more machines than particular artists, a seeming Drexciya influence emerges in "Droid" and the dark synth-driven "Feel the Heat" while dub rears its head in "Xray" and "Bass-o-train", there's clearly a unified feel to the album. "Skitzoid" casts a mechano spell, "Night Flight" breezily rocks, and the jacking cut "Voltar" broils feverishly for almost eight minutes. Bringing the mix to a chilled close, "Sweet You" floats in a billowing haze of jazzy pianos and locomotive drum brushes before vaporizing in a cloud of cymbal accents. At this stage in his career, one might assume that Simpson has covered every base imaginable, but apparently that's not so. Referring to the new release, he says, "It's the culmination of a dream I've had since I started making music, and that's to take the studio into the club; this album is snapshot of those possibilities."

Review: The recent resurgence in interest in mid 1990s ambient techno has been one of the most positive trends of recent times, primarily because it has resulted in reissues of some long-forgotten and genuinely overlooked gems. A Positive Life's sophomore album Synaethetic, which was originally released by Beyond Records in 1994, falls into that category. Offering a suitably intergalactic, heady blend of undulating, psychedelic acid lines, ambient sound washes, bubbly beats, far-sighted sounds and stretched-out epics, it's an album that's as close to the original ambient techno blueprint as you're likely to find. If you love that style, it's a genuine must-have.

Review: A Rocket In Dub is just one of Stefan Schwander's many aliases. The Dusseldorf-based producer has recorded ample works as Harmonious Thelonious, Repeat Orchestra Antonelli Electr and in groups like The Durian Brothers. With a sound naturally aligned to the fabled Salon Des Amateurs, he's returning focus to his A Rocket In Dub project, which previously did the rounds some 20 years ago and now comes back to life via Krachladen Dub. His approach is absolutely informed by true roots dub music, but Schwander's particular minimalist palette becomes the defining factor in this wonderful collection of leftfield, digi-dub miniatures.

Review: There's something pleasingly old-fashioned about the work of mysterious producer A Sagittariun. To date, the enigmatic artist has delivered a string of strong 12" singles that sit somewhere between classic Detroit techno, mid-'90s electronica (think Pete Namlook with a dancefloor pulse, or stargazing ambient house) and early U.S deep house. Dream Ritual, his first full-length, continues in a similar vein, offering the kind of stargazing melodies, wide-eyed atmospherics and tactile, synth-heavy rhythms that bristle with cosmic intent. There are some startling diversions from the formula, too, not least the rubbery slap bass, paranoid vocal samples and vintage drum machine hits of "The Age of Sin".

Review: Aside from a few one-off appearances for imprints such as Secretsundaze or Hype_LTD, Bristol house and techno mystic A Sagittariun has released all of his music through his own Elastic Dream label, and that makes the perfect home to his jagged, diverse, and improvisational approach. He's back with a new LP this time around, a sweet and seductive mash-up of dance hybrids held tougher under the name of Elasticity. In a sense, this LP perfectly embodies everything that is singular about A Sagittariun's music, and much like the term 'elasticity', it feels like his music is always in a state of beta; never gliding too close to any one genre, the Bristolian eccentric paints a glorious picture with the help of placid nu-disco, pseudo Balearic house, and quirky techno-not-techno. It's both a great listening experience, and a glorious dance-starter.

Review: A2L were active between 1988 and 1990 and released two albums and several EPs on labels like 1st Bass, Big One and Force Inc. Their sound blended British psychedelic house with elements of new beat, industrial, EBM and early acid house and in doing so captured the raw energy of the UK rave scene. Notably different from typical acid house acts of the time, A2L's music took in machine funk, samplers and turntable techniques to create trippy, infectious grooves. This collection compiles rare underground gems from them from 1989 and features standout tracks like 'Even Though It's Make Believe' and 'Come On.' It's a great look back to the experimental spirit of the late 80s.

Review: After the well received Cult Copy album, which was released on CD/DVD earlier this year, it was decided to release a limited press of 1000 copies on vinyl, as a lot of requests were received for this format. Most of the Cult Copy related vinyl is deleted or currently out of stock, so this album makes all tracks available on vinyl again. It will be released as a gatefold 2xLP of which 500 units come with the DVD which is also available with the CD. This DVD contains a 25 minute video by video artist Michael Butink which compliments the music perfectly.

Review: The Pig Returns! Perma-shades rocking Dutch producer Mike 'Aardvarck' Kivits is something of a figurehead among the Dutch underground, happily flitting between styles across countless albums and 12" releases over a two-decade period. Since nestling in the picturesque climes of Indonesian paradise province Bali, Kivits has developed a bond with Swedish techno outpost Skudge Records which began with his humongous remix of Skudge cut "Convolution" back in 2010. After a couple of Skudge Presents 12"s, a new Aardvarck album lands in the shape of Co In Ci brandishing eight prime Kivits productions. This is the Pig in effervescent, rolling techno mood and a fine addition to a glorious discography.

Review: Modular synthesizer fetishist Luke Abbott apparently got the inspiration for this sophomore set during time spent as the "musician in residence" at the Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire back in 2012. Named after a piece of woodland close by, it sees Abbott using live analogue electronics to try and create a "natural life cycle" over the album's nine tracks. Interestingly, it differs from his impressive debut album in a number of ways; while Holkham Drones touched on krautrock, drone and intense ambience, Wysing Forest doffs a cap to spiritual jazz, Terry Riley and ambient explorer Pete Namlook. It's a beguiling set, all told, and one that constantly veers between crunchy bursts of intense IDM and becalmed, breathtaking ambience.

Review: Sama' Abdulhadi is a DJ who very proudly represents her Palestinian roots and is the first artist from her homeland to break out onto the international stage. She has a passion for sound design and has famously been arrested and jailed for eight days for desecrating a religious site when she played a set, with permission, at Nabi Musa. Her entry into the legendary fabric series is a doozy with emotive techno and cavernous deep house from the likes of Michael Klein, Carbon & Peter Groskreutz and Acid Arab as well as her own cut 'Well Fee' (feat Walaa Sbait).

Review: UK artist David Duncan recorded only one EP as Ability II and it recently got reissued and soon snapped up. Now, much to the delight of fans of the man behind the classic tune 'Pressure Dub' he is back. This album features an exclusive collection of tunes he made back in his heyday in the 90s, none of which were released at the time, and none of which you will have ever heard before anywhere. They feature his signature sound designs across seven cuts that sound as futuristic now as they ever could as they combine jacked-up house, techno and tech into scintillating and dub-weighted sounds for the club.

Review: The Abstract Eye often works live and crafts tunes in one take, and that MO is the idea behind this new collection. It features plenty of hard-to-define sounds from over the last ten years, many of them with a cosmic synth outlook and raw analogue drums. 'Skyfather' is a real eye opener with its sense of mystic cosmic wonder, 'Real Myths' fizzes bring as burning phosphorus and 'A Yearning Feeling' is more paired back and introspective with jittery drums and electro rhythms all soothed by the melancholic synth work.

Review: As the artist alias kind of suggests, Abyssy takes a deep dive into the unknown depths of the human spirit. It finds the artist returning to Simona Faraone's label after several years and finds him exploring electronic sounds of the 70s and 80s, blending Berlin school minimalism with Detroit techno's soul and funk. It is a record that ranges in mood and tempo as it heads into oceanic depths where wispy pads and chattery percussive patterns collide in unusual ways. It's a largely abstract album of unusual sound designs and genuine electronic discovery that often has you wondering just how certain abounds have been made.

Review: The Cornish boy wonder Luke Vibert has spread his wings so brightly during the last decade as Kerrier District, Yoseph, Amen Andrews, Spac Hand Luke, Plug and of course Wagon Christ, you'd be forgiven for thinking that he's covered all the ground. Demented filthy disco, killer aquatic blue ambience, drill n' bass, breaking funk, library music, instrumental hip-hop and lethal acid styles. With only a rare promo 12" issued five years ago, the name Ace Of Clubs will probably mean nothing to the even the most obsessive Vibert geeks. Now the next chapter is here in the form of "Benefist".

Review: The Achterbahn D'Amour pairing of Johannes "Iron Curtis" Paluka and Jurgen "Jool" Albert (formerly Edit Piafra) return to the Acid Test series with a debut album Odd Movements. Since the project first emerged on Absurd's dedicated acid offshoot in 2011, Achterbahn D'Amour have become mainstays of the series and encapsulated the experimental ethos of the series and displayed a true reverence for the classic 303 and 606 Roland machines. After a relatively low key 2013 with just the two Acid Test releases from regular contributor Tin Man and famed Frenchman Pepe Bradock, Odd Movements is a statement of intent and sits nicely alongside the other Acid Test long players from Recondite and Tin Man whilst demonstrating the format suits Albert and Pakula well.

Review: Electronic music is guilty of so many injustices it's hard to know where to begin. Among the least talked about historically is the lack of space made for South Asian and South Asian-heritage artists, who, despite the written pantheons doing their best not to emphasise it, have contributed an incredible amount to the canon's many genres. Things are improving in terms of representation and visibility, but there is still a very, very long way to go.

Even without the urgent need for more equal coverage, it was always going to be hugely exciting to get a copy of an Acid Arab album. And Trois does not disappoint. The Paris-based production duo invite us into ever-deeper corners of their sound, from the tense prog chug of 'Ya Mahla' and the stripped techno build of 'Rachid Trip', to the slick and sexy, writhing broken gem 'Gouloulou', it's as varied as the influences involved.

Review: While the artist has branched out onto several different labels dealing in cold, mechanical techno, Acronym's main output has come through Sweden's excellent Northern Electronics imprint. That in itself is already plenty of reason to consider this producer. It's no coincidence that he's been called up by Spain's Semantica label to deliver a new LP, and we couldn't ask for anything better. Entangled In Vines is an intricate collection of tracks that span across the entire techno realm, from slow-burning hypnotics to high-tech warehouse blasters. "Enter" is the perfect example of this man's style, a largely beatless tune that still drags plenty of movement across the groove, and "Getting Closer" quickly ups the tempo with a fine layer of bass and kicks. "Escape" transports us across a deep techno wormhole, and "Wrapped" delivers Acronym's inimitable swarm of hollow tones in the same vein as artists like Donato Dozzy. There is just so much quality on this LP that we think it merits album of the week - highly recommended!

Review: Shadowy Swedish producer Acronym delivers another exceptional release on Abdulla Rashim's Northern Electronics albeit this time in a full length outing which demonstrates why he is regarded as one of the finest producers of the moment. June is another fine addition to the ever impressive Northern Electronics, a sonically sequenced journey through soundscapes cold and warm that evolve from the free and beatless to the syncopated and rhythmic. The lush, haunting ambience of "Isolated in the Land" and "In The Swamp" give way to the droning atmospheric Techno he's renowned for on "No Exit" and "Humid Zone" with their swirling pads and Sci-Fi atmospheres.

Review: The man, the legend, Darren Cunningham finally comes through with his third full-length album, after two splendid efforts for London's Honest Jon's. This time he resides at Ninja Tune and his own Werkdiscs in a veritable fight to the death, with what has been hinted as potentially being his last album under the Actress pseudonym. The tone is sparser and the feel is more textural compared to his earlier work, amalgamating dissonant flurries of noise together with shuffle-proof beats and that inimitable Actress deviance. Presented as a sequel to Hazyville, this rather stush looking boxset includes that album on vinyl for the very first time so you can assess how the two fare yourself.

Review: Always one to charge into more interesting corners of the techno world, Adam X is in fine fettle as he drops his latest album for Sonic Groove, the first on his own label since 1998's Audiobiography. The tone is very much stout and stern, from the industrial-tinged drum hits to the cold and eerie synth content, but of course it's in the rhythmic department where X really shines. At every turn there are intriguing grooves to latch onto, from the drunken lope of the title track with its anthemic hip hop vocal rip, to the opening broken techno drama of "Interchanges". There are more stripped down moments such as the restrained cycles of "Catenary", and some piston pumping bangers like "On The Verge Of Decimation", making this an engaging listen as well as a great collection of techno tracks.

Review: New York City techno veteran Adam X returns to Long Island Electrical Systems under the ADMX71 alias, where he once again explores the outer fringes of experimental electronics on his latest LP The Aging Process, existing at the intersection of industrial, EBM and techno. Beginning with the contorted noise soundscape of 'Speaking Via Telepathy' he soon unleashes the seething brain bash of 'Sensor-Tised' followed by the strobing tunnel vision of 'Walking Through Walls'. Elsewhere, there's more dystopian themes aplenty as heard on the static TBM pulse of 'They've Instilled Fear In Us', or the pitch black war funk of 'Leading The Way' and the muscular slow burner 'Leading The Way'.

Review: Attack Decay Sustain Release (ADSR) originated as Todd Nickolas and Dominic Paterson's synthesiser project during high school and was conducted in the serene surroundings of Todd's family farm in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Amidst the pastoral setting, natural sounds intertwined with the hum of machinery. Inspired by CBC Radio's Brave New Waves program, they soaked up diverse musical influences from ELO's futuristic rock to Skinny Puppy's electronic body music. Now, unearthed cassette recordings from this era offer a nostalgic glimpse into their fearless exploration. Curated by Todd and Linus Booth, this collection embodies their spirit of discovery and experimentation back between the years of 1987 and 1991.

Review: Aeox got all kinds of stuff for you: Good old Rock 'n Roll, Hip Hooop, acid, techno, ballads, punk, hardcore - all in one show!! Super TIP!!

Review: Barely six weeks after dropping her debut single on River Rapid, Henrietta Smith-Rolla pops up on Skam with a surprise debut album. As first full length excursions go, "Break Before Make" is undeniably impressive. Beginning with the spooky, minor key electronics and angular IDM rhythms of "Day Turner", the 14 track set sees Smith-Rolla successfully turn her hand to bittersweet synth-wave ("And!"), dystopian pitched-down electronica ("Guess What"), spacey electro ("Work It", "Wtfwtfwtf"), clandestine electronic soundscapes (the panicked shuffle of "Blanket Ban") and grandiose sci-fi soundtrack fare ("The Middle Middle"). Throughout, the Manchester-based producer consistently delivers otherworldly musical melancholia with a panache not associated with a producer of her relative inexperience.

Review: The Visitor sees Matias Aguayo return with his third album, and first in four years with such an absence understandable when you consider how busy running Comeme and touring commitments must keep him. Arriving through said Comeme as opposed to Kompakt who released Aguayo's previous long players, this eleven track album feels right at home on a label that jettisons proto-house, new wave, techno and other indigenous body music with a rate beyond prolific. There's a notably more psychedelic tone to this album and Aguayo remains the captivating force he is throughout The Visitor despite contributions from fellow label artists Philipp Gorbachev, Ana Helder, Daniel Maloso and Alejandro Paz.

Review: Thus far, Anunnaki Cartel have only been releasing EP's, most of which have been collaborative efforts by Amir Alexander, Joey Anderson and Chris Mitchell, among others. This is their first LP and it's by Alexander himself, a man who is no mood to beat around the bush and gets his sound across right from the start of "Tight Situations". However, it's the album's slower and stranger pieces such as "A Virtuous Woman", "Love & Fear" or "A Child Is Born" which caught our attention! We'd never heard Alexander making more experimental pieces so it's refreshing to hear an artist so capable of making both hard-hitting floor music but also more docile and abstract sounds.

Review: Given the style's love of sci-fi themes and stargazing, it's perhaps not surprising that electro artists love recording concept albums. Edinburgh outfit Alien Communications triple-vinyl debut album, Synthetic Memory Systems Volume 1, is one such set. It reportedly tells the story (in sound) of "E-8190" and her attempts to use "SMS technology to transcend dream states and visit realms beyond what we now know as reality". Regardless of the supposed narrative, it's a terrific album whose sparkling, emotive and undeniably intergalactic tracks are not only packed with numerous variations on the electro blueprint, but also excursions into swirling ambient techno, revivalist bleep, acid and IDM. If you dig high-quality, melody-rich electro, you'll love it.

Review: Alien D is the NYC-based producer Daniel Creahan, and he's back with a debut on Theory Therapy that taps into widescreen worlds of techno immersion. Departing from the ambient abstraction of his previous work, this album as a subtle kinetic pulse with tracks like 'Soil Dub' and 'Sleepy's Gambit' propel listeners forward with dubwise rhythms crafted for deep dancefloors. The album builds on an infectious, steady groove with repeating phrases and subtle shifts that keep the music in constant motion. Conceived in the first days after the COVID lockdown, these sounds exude a hopeful quality and capture the transcendent moments of early-morning parties when the moment is full of unbridled hope for what might come.

Review: Erol Alkan's 2005 Bugged Out mix was a gateway release for many, soundtracking the entrance into club land, yet also introducing these virgin ears to more esoteric strains of music via the accompanying Bugged In Selection. Some seven years on, Alkan and the evergreen club brand have revisited the concept with a second edition, and like the inaugural release, the Phantasy Sound boss's ever lasting love for the vinyl format has seen a selection of tracks make the translation to this double vinyl release. Six tracks from the Bugged Out mix appear, with the Italo disco of Amin Peck brushing shoulders with Model 500 and an Obi Blanche edit of the Ron Hardy classic "Sensation", while the Bugged In Selection sees some psyche-folk fare from Buffalo Springfield and Space Lady among other gems.

Review: Underlying Form boss Darren Allen is obsessive about sound and it shows in this sublime new album for his own label. It comes alongside TX Heaven and features deep explorations of a wide array of sounds from techno to house to IDM to electro to breakbeat. It is hi-fidelity stuff with clean lines and well-defined drums layered up next to detuned pianos and skipping UK club rhythms one moment, then driving Detroit grooves the next. It all plays out like a well-sequenced journey, too, as well as being packed with individual tunes that DJs will love to weave into their sets.

Review: He calls it Electronica Afro-Cubano, we call it soulful electro. Taking the genre's classic sci-fi synthetic aesthetics and coding them with his own Cuban musical heritage, there's a real funk and spirit in Armando's machines. The carnivalian drum frenzy of "Afriba", the tipped humanized elements of "Shake", the hypnotic house headnods of "Black Mermaid" the roomy reverberations and lean make-up of "Whale Memory" and plenty more comprise a unique melting pot that references all points past and future.

Review: Klang Elektronik is happy to re-release Alter Ego's second album "Decoding The Hacker Myth" ten years after its original release. The album was responsible for Roman Flügel and Jörn Elling Wuttke's worldwide breakthrough. The album's title was a hint at the widespread view back then that electronic music/techno was computer music without any soul. Alter Ego disproved this by producing an absolute counter draft to the dominating hard trance and progressive house sound which it dominated.

Review: UK rave icons Altern 8, the duo of Mark Archer and Chris Peat originally released their seminal hardcore album Full-On Mask Hysteria LP back in 1992 which receives a much welcomed reissue courtesy of Bleech. This limited edition, deluxe reissue has been remastered and includes the original 11 tracks plus some new remixes by the likes of KiNK, Luke Vibert, 2 Bad Mice and Shadow Dancer in addition to classics such as "Infiltrate 202", the breakbeat zeitgeist that is "Give It To Baby" and rave anthems like "E-Vapor-8". Following up Infrastructure New York's re-issue of Archer's equally seminal Trackman material last year, we're happy to see renewed interest in this true UK legend. Respect!

Review: Back in 2008, noted experimentalist Alva Noto began a sporadic series of albums that were far more focused on dancefloor-inspired rhythms than his usual eccentric and inspiring fare. Unieqav is the third and, we're told, final part of the series. The album is apparently meant to be a sonic representation of an underwater dive, a conceptual theme which manifests itself through the storied producer's use of deep and atmospheric chords, fluid and occasionally glistening electronics, and rhythms that evoke images of ever-deeper dives into the dark, cold depths. Rhytmically, there are nods to electro, IDM, dub techno and Autechre, though the mood remains laidback and intoxicated throughout.

Review: Innovative Dutch label Nous Klaer Audio bring two innovative artists together for their first ever collaborative work, and what work it is. Their unique techno universes come together across two sides of wax in sumptuous fashion. Amandra is on drums and Mattheis is on synths throughout, and the two warp and wrap around each other, with ever shifting tonal timbres, suggestive rhythms and thoughtful ambient all making this a deeply thoughtful and escapist record that is never less than captivating. The two friends have excelled here, so let's hoping there is more to come from them.

Review: Michel Amato aka Amato is a French producer more widely known as The Hacker. Alongside Miss Kittin, Amato has been a cornerstone of the European house, techno, and electro scene, dropping singles and album like bombs. Having contributed to a previous split 12" on Cititrax, Amato returns to Minimal Wave's sister label with a wondrous homage to industrial, EBM and electro in Le Desordre De La Nuit. The difference between The Hacker and Amato? The sounds of The Hacker are more constrained than this particular whirlpool of pseudo electro and gargling quasi techno. Whatever you want to call it, these four slammers are all made for the dark room dance, each one nastier than the other and all of them audibly produced by an artist with plenty of experience and effectiveness know-how.

Review: Analogue Coppers Lucretio and Marieu present Heavy Hands, a weighty eight track slalom through their singular brand of militant, raw, hardware-only house and techno. It's an approach the Berlin based pair have been fine-tuning since 2007, steadily drawing new members both highly regarded and unknown into their network of producers and comes rather swiftly after the debut LP from Third Side, the project The Analogue Cops maintain with Steffi. She features here along with the duo's Parassela cohort Blawan and veteran German producer Stanley Anscrom. From the pounding, concrete thud of opening track "Steffi's Disco Crime" this feels like a definitive statement, with some nightmarish moments along the way!

Review: This superb new record from AnD embarks on a conceptual journey inspired by the fusion of granular synthesis, innovative sound design, and rhythmic explorationd within polyphony. It delves into the cosmic phenomenon of star collisions as the artists leverage their background in engineering and explore mathematical intricacies surrounding the timing and impact of stellar collisions. Through a sonic landscape echoing the vastness of space, this record incorporates elements of white noise, fragmented breaks and minimalist synth arrangements that are said to mirror the mental experiences of the listener.

Review: As the Dekmantel brand expands to incorporate the Selectors festival in Croatia, the Amsterdam collective still remain focused on delivering quality house and techno singles and albums. Another fine year for Dekmantel ends with the welcome arrival of Invisible Switch, a second album from US techno artist Joey Anderson. His is a unique and at times alien take on the artform, crafting percussive textures and oddly intoxicating synth lines that sound unmistakably like Joey Anderson and no others. This is very much the case with Invisible Switch, with tracks like "Reset" and "Tell Us Where" instantly gripping your attention and not letting go, whilst "Amarna" is the most bludgeoningly intense production yet from Anderson. The EOY list compilers will be kicking themselves they missed out on this one.

Review: Arcane and esoteric sounds abound on New Jersey house outsider Joey Anderson's third full length opus 'Rainbow Doll', where he returns to Los Angeles via Berlin-based Avenue 66 for the first time since 2013 when he presented their inaugural release. It also happens to be the first album in four years by the Inimeg boss and his most personal work to date, where his emotional vocals can be heard atop deeply meditative jams like "Beside Me", and likewise on the woozy and knackered groove of "Ocean" accompanied by washes of live analogue synth riffs. Further hypnotism awaits on the bass-driven echo mania of "Live It" and the life-affirming elation of "Cindy" - being another fine example of Anderson's penchant for truly spiritual music. Highly recommended.

Review: Turin techno stalwart Andrea has been serving up slabs of goodness on Ilian Tape since way back in 2012, though "Ritorno" is remarkably his very first full-length excursion. The 12 track set is far more varied than his fine club-focused singles, with the Italian variously turning his hand to swelling, Global Communication style ambient techno ("Attimo"), ultra-deep breakbeat dreaminess ("SKLYN"), melodious, jungle-influenced IDM ("LS September"), bassbin rattlers ("TrackQY", the skittish brilliance of moody roller "Reinf"), dreamy soundscape techno ("LG_Amb"), angular fusions of bass music and dark Italo-techno ("Drumzzy") and picturesque ambient dub slow jams ("Twin Forests").

Review: Turin-born and raised artist Andrea has explored plenty of different genres across his wonderfully experimental sounds, but mostly they are couched in techno with hints of 90s breakbeat and IDM. "Living Room is his third album and finds him tapping into an introspective sound with reflective melodies and a cosmic sense of travel. Right from the off, you're cast adrift in a world of shimmering melody and plucked strings, cascading arps and widescreen synthscapes and it is there you stay for the whole absorbing duration, though sometimes lithe rhythms bring more propulsion. A magnificently accomplished and detailed work.