Back in stock: Techno (すべて)

Review: Acid For The Grandma's fourth release is another boundless trip into warped rhythms and surreal soundscapes with acid liquid textures that make for a psychedelic experience that sparks the imagination while pulling you into otherworldly dimensions. 'Login Beat' casts you adrift amongst circling snares over jacking beats and 'Biancone Interno' then cuts loose with freewheeling arms and sci-fi motifs that leave long neon trails. 'Strobe Transforms Thinking' taps into more taught dub tech with sinewy leads and last of all, 'Light And Illusion' places you in a colourful world of refracted rhythm and slivery tech house drums sent back from a distant planet.

Review: Italian techno heavyweight Claudio PRC's fifth album, Self Surrender, is a meditative dive into self-acceptance that comes on Amsterdam's long-running and always top-notch Delsin Records. Claudio delivers a fluid narrative across an exploration of tasteful ambient, dub, minimal house and deep techno here, and it opens with some absorbing introspection before gradually shifting into more kinetic territory. It is driven by pulsing kicks, dreamy textures, acid flourishes and ghostly strings as a refined blend of techno and house sounds all coalesce with the signature depth Claudio has honed over years of his craft. Self Surrender closes on an ethereal note, which encapsulates its core message of letting go.

Review: Brazilian Jesse "Dreams" Pimenta has been roaming around underground circles for a decade plus. He has a stylish sound that is about heady excursions into deep rhythms. 'Losing Control' opens up with a warped and flabby baseline over buoyant drums for peak time deployment. 'Dangerous When Wet' is a tightly programmed and kinetic cut with flappy drums and snares, aliens in the machines and psychedelic vocal swirls. 'XTC Messenger' then hits hard with thudding kicks and hints of 90s tribal techno. Last of all, 'Pressure Points' flips out with broke beats and dubby undercurrents.

Review: Melbourne's Tim Jackiw brings a retro future vision to this latest sweaty workout on the Physical Education label. 'Manifestation' is a full singlet on, socks up, headband in place, striding forward electro jam with nice cosmic energy and 'Multi Pass' then brings wistful Detroit synth work and sleek grooves designed for heady escape. 'House Wine' keeps the deep and driving dynamic flowing with more dusty drum programming and meaningful synth work and 'Unseen Forces' then gets more raw and percussive. Last but not least, 'Taking Measures' shuts down with some reflective moods and slower tempos.

Review: Rushing from the starting blocks as though life depended on it, Kahler opens the scoring with the perfectly balanced and fine-tuned 'Mosaic', a driving, percussive techno workout that's direct and peak time yet also minimal and patient, poised even. Grillac follows suit, keeping things ghostly with plenty of energy coming from the top ends, while using a vocal hook to add a little rave bounce. By now, it's probably clear R 0 01 is a strong collection of belters, and the remainder do nothing to quash that belief. Lorenzo Mancino and Exos arguably unleash the most fury - tracks that feel like stepping into a warehouse party in 1999 with a nose full of whizz and stomach full of pills - while BENKHLIFA keeps it more heads down and Berlin.

Review: Lenxi's debut album, Did You Get the Dream I Sent You?, is a cultured blend of IDM, indie pop and techno that is laid out across 10 deeply personal track. The London-born, Amsterdam-based producer channels a period marked by heartbreak and isolation into the music, which means the album emerges as an emotional escape shaped by paintings, sketches and synth lines all crafted in studios from London to L.A. It balances vulnerability with resilience while weaving nostalgia and hope into the mix. Ultimately, Lenxi transforms pain into empowerment here and takes you from sounds of solitude to the dancefloor with a powerful, dreamlike narrative.

Review: Detroit electro investigator MICRO4CE delivers a no-compromise double pack here across two EPs packed with nine tracks of raw electronic futurism and imaging. It is all rooted in classic Detroit electro and so-called hi-tech-funk so the sound channels early 80s influences like Nucleus and Mantronix while carving out its own cyborg-driven edge. 'Bass Situation 313' gets underway with swampy low ends and far-sighted chords then the likes of 'Borg Fightz' bring unrelenting coruscated drums and 'The Greed' is a more minimal sound with zippy synths and dehumanised vocals. This is seriously high-grade electro for heads who like gritty, futuristic and fearless sounds.

Review: Haworthia Records is a new sub-label of Luzerna that kicks off with Nomad Soul, an artist from Marseille who has been making beats for a decade. He likes to tap into dreamy 'scapes but keep the feet moving, and here he also colours his sounds with some 80s and 90s nostalgia on the 'Transpace' EP. 'Dropped' has a raw drum groove that stands you upright, 'Soul Hacker' has warped and psychedelic pads and hallucinogenic vocals, and 'Equal' is a thudding trance-techno pumper. 'Dub Spaced' shuts down with plenty of deep space eeriness, weird sounds and a throbbing, dubby low end.

Review: Relative newcomers Sicion and Kuss combine their skills on this new outing for the Molekul label with two collaborative cuts and one solo outing each. Their opener, 'Dissolve To Evolve' has a dark tribal energy to it and a sense of cinematic tension from the haunting pads and echoing effects, then they double down on the vibe with the equally muscular and chunky 'Ego Death.' Kuss's 'The Ride' is a pent-up and funky bumper with smudged vocals and psychedelic synths, then Sicion's 'Breaking Point' shuts down with all the menace of a late-night runaway train.

Review: Colombian producer JP Lopez aka Verraco delivers full-throttle techno gritted up with grime influences on his new 'Basic Maneuvers' EP for Tra Tra Trax, the label he co-founded. His offbeat, chrome-plated and heavy style has been heard on Blawan's Voam and Batu's Tiemdance before now and here Verraco blends Latin club energy with signature rhythmic invention. The title track drives with mind-melting techno and ragga-infused bass, while 'Total' fuses gqom and dubstep with holographic vocals inspired by Arca. The grime-tinged 'Sobe Sobe' features Ugandan MC Yallah over Orbital-like pads and gritty, Coki-style midrange. Verraco's genre-blurring mastery knows no bounds.

Review: Dutchman David Vunk returns to his Moustache label with the Backdoor EP, which is a powerhouse concoction of electro, EBM, acid and techno in true bunker style. The 12" features gritty, all analogue-produced cuts like the hefty 'Purple Light,' more bright and melodic stomper that is 'K2' and gurgling, swampy, depraved 'Tornado Acid'. 'Stop the Insanity' is a crackerjack of pinging toms and rickety drum machines backlit with synth warmth, all crafted in his basement studio by the harbour and mastered by the master, Alden Tyrell. These are sounds that are ready to storm speakers but do so with plenty of narrative and emotional nuance.