New releases last four weeks: Techno (すべて)

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: 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.

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: 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: 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: 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.

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: 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: 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: Ma?h is based in Berlin but makes occult techno inspired by Tikal, which is the ruin of an ancient Mayan city in Guatemala. He creates a sense of ancient ritual, tribalism, primaeval drums and otherworldly atmosphere across five fantastically evocative and escapist cuts here. They all go deep, with rubbery rhythms marbled with wordless vocals, chanting, eerie FX and absorbing mysticism that is all expertly done and hugely authentic. 'Acat' is a standout with its lolloping bass and tom-peppered beats, while 'Exorcismo' is more intense and heady. 'Caiman Ritual' is a humid and intense dub techno bumper, and it rounds out one of the most original EPs we've heard in ages.

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: After years of silence, Colombia's Insurgentes, which is run by DJ Lomalinda and Verraco, is back for one final transmission, and we're here for it: la ultima vez is a superb swan song that comes in the form of Fiera, a powerful long player from Argentine producer Seph that was written between 2022 and 2023. It's his most daring work yet and takes the form of eight restless, shape-shifting tracks that dodge predictability and blaze through techno, 90s IDM, dub and ambient with finesse. Limited to 300 vinyl copies, Fiera pays tribute to Insurgentes' decade-long legacy of sonic rebellion and though it's a bittersweet ending, without Insurgentes, there would be no TraTraTrax and no roots for the future we're now living.

Review: Shed's Towards East was originally made for Berlin's Dussmann store back in 2022. It's a very personal project that now gets reissued by The Final Experiment and it sounds superb. The Polish producer weaves in plenty of foggy and lo-fi ambient pads into these tracks, whether they are beatless vignettes or more low-end driven soundscapes such as 'Absolute.' On 'In Between (Fur Geli), yearning strings and a lonely motif amongst walls of melancholic synth done and 'September 5th' is another hazy memory with nostalgic overtones and loads of frayed edges and buried melodic wisps. It's techno, but not as we know it.

Review: Norm Talley has put together a second volume of his Unity series on his own label Upstairs Asylum. It features his nearest and dearest from Chicago and Detroit, all of whom of course serve up perfectly smoky and stripped back deep house and techno grooves to make you move. Delano Smith's characteristic loops lock you in from the off on 'Big City Nights,' Norm himself pairs dub techno chords with suggestive techno stabs that keep you on edge and Brian Kage's 'Poly-Phonic Phonk' is heady, dreamy, richly melodic house bets listened to in a cosy back room at 4am.

Review: Techno is a misunderstood thing. Big stages and even bigger drums pounding out relentless and often unthoughtful loops really isn't where the genre is as a whole. One of the most varied sounds in the dance spectrum, defining the canon has always been pretty hard and zeitgeist counts for more than strict rules of arrangement, tempo and composition. Sixty is just the reassurance heads will need then. While some might argue we're closer to electro than anything, for the most part anyway, perhaps no more so than in the detailed and glitchy warmth of 'Micfrk' by Gherat, let's not get pedantic. Largely broken and off-centre beats of the deep, emotive and patient kind from innovators like Patricia and Fasme, frenetic and intense staccato snares via Oh Mr Jones, rave-y, hardcore infused emotive bombs via Novel 23 and James Shinra.

Review: In January 2025, Al Wootton visited Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio, which is home to a rare archive of vintage drum machines. Once there, he recorded the unique rhythms and quirks of these machines and captured their raw character. Back in the UK, he transformed those recordings through processing and layering to create this new EP, Rhythm Archives. The result is a stripped-back but impactful exploration of rhythm that draws from industrial, dub, post-punk and proto-techno influences. The record stands as both a creative tribute to the iconic machines and their makers and a nod to MESS's mission of preserving electronic music heritage and making it accessible through public engagement and education.

Review: Adam Winchester and Laurie Osborne (probably still best known as Appleblim) are Wrecked Lightship and they have an inventive approach to dub, breaks and bass. Their work creates an immersive world full of rich, atmospheric textures and the latest example of that is Drained Strands, a new album for Peak Oil full of fragmented, genre-blurring sounds. The six-tracker is full of experimentation and new ideas from the off. 'Delinquent Spirits' for example is a jumble of jungle breaks and vast basslines with minimal percussion, 'Reeling Mist' is warm, blissed out dub and 'Somnium Sands' is an eerie and evocative world of synth designs and industrial decay.