Back catalogue: Techno (すべて)

Review: EBB hails from New Zealand and has been popping up on our radar since around 2019. He has a broad and stylish take on bass music that looks to all corners for its inspiration. Opener 'Fallen' is an unrelenting steamroller with hits peeling off the fleshy, bubbly, heavy groove. 'Lazer Riddim' gets more twitchy with blasts of bass and shooting synths and then 'Time Warp Tonic' gets well rave-up with its cantering drums and visceral synth patterns. Last of all is the double time tech head-wrecker that is 'Blue Energy Drink (feat JD Loom).'

Review: Mystical dreamweaver Edward has previously brought out some of his classiest club-tooled gear for Trelik, with 2018's Rumours EP being a particular highlight in his glittering career in minimal. Breaking a protracted silence for Baby Ford's label, this new three-tracker once more takes us into the unique atmospheric zone Edward occupies with his productions. 'The Giver' has an unnerving, desolate quality but it's also rock-solid in the rhythm department, with subtle threads of warmth to balance out the eeriness. 'Memory Motions' is a spicier cut with a pronounced house jack to propel a tense set of sonic motifs, with a special mention to the wobbly organ-like chord line. 'Tuned' is the most upfront of all the tracks, using some processed piano hooks and a full compliment of nagging, funkified ingredients to make a certified, if left-of-centre, party starter.

Review: Yu Asaeda's been putting out a whole range of quality, bass-centric sounds under the name ENA since the late 2000s, but these have come out on a rather sporadic basis. Appearances for the infamous 7even Recordings was followed by material on Samurai Horo, the excellent Hidden Hawaii and, more recently, the Samurai label's offshoot, Horo. Divided: Body is so much more than a mere 'bass' EP, and it actually manages to veer off into some pretty strange and imperceptible sounds that remind us of the material emanating from the PAN consortium. For instance, the opening "11th Divided" manages to create a raw, loose groove out of fractured synth sounds, which is followed up nicely by the swarming drones operating in the higher ends of "12th Divided". Over on the flip, "13th Divided" launches a subtle yet hefty groove made up of what sound like bass pops made from a monophonic synth, which leaves "14th Divided" to linger in its dreary pool of fuzzy drones and washed-up sonics. A massive, merited TIP!

Review: Greek techno producer Endlec has graced the catalogues of Mord, Analogue and Children Of Tomorrow, but here they come to Renegade Methodz for an uppercutting five-tracker in the mode of hard techno bordering on schranz. Rave elements abound on this nitty-loving opus, with the likes of 'Only Users Left Inside' and 'Unleash The Beast' seeming to liken the interior of the rave to a forbidden corner of hell.

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Review: Parallel Universe is a label into its second release here, following up a terrific debut with contributions from some of the scene's most ascendant names. On its second missive, they've tapped Antwerp's Nathan Boost who contributes the trippy, boompty, minimal house groove of 'Cloning Sequence', while Irishman Dylan Forbes serves up a throwback to early '90s rave on the breakbeat-infused euphoria of 'Ephemeral Ecstasy'. Elsewhere, Luke Mazzeri aka ModEx takes you to a higher state of consciousness on the early techno sound of 'Standardised Retro Augmentation' and finally E00's 'Birdwatching' is a mish-mash of tropes from classic house, IDM and trance.

Review: Woody McBride's Sounds label continues to dive back in the archives and revive some absolute gold standard techno for modern diggers. This collab effort between McBride (in his DJ ESP guise) and DJ Skull originally came out in 1995, and it still sounds fierce to this day. 'The Drive' is a stripped down tool with all the right chops to tweak out a locked-in raver, but 'G-Rated' is the real gem on the record. In a blistering hailstorm of 303 squelch you get a definitive example of acid techno at its finest. 'The Power' might well find relevance in the present day trance-techno scene thanks to its unsettling leads and relentless forwards thrust.

Review: Charitable acts carry more significance than ever right now, and Needs are on hand with another instalment in their brilliantly curated series to give something to those in need while also presenting some wonderful, exclusive music. This one leads in with a truly uplifting blast of sunshine from Telephones before dropping into the edgy, swinging tech-funk of Ciel's "Faye Wong Plays The Strings". Al Wootton is on point with another of his fresh and dynamic twists on the soundsystem blueprint, with a dubby, percussive vibe that should appeal to those who miss proper dubstep. Eliphino completes the set with a squashed and feverish garage thumper that sounds like it has an iconic vocalist chopped up somewhere in the signal chain.