Back catalogue: Uplifting Trance

Review: In celebration of their tenth birthday, Selador marks the occasion in style with a four-track collaborative EP, featuring tracks from 3D, Robert Owens, Olivier Giacomotto, Quivver, Dave Seaman, Hernan Cattaneo, Argia, and Jepe. The opening track, 'Known Love', is a deep, pulasting house tune that feels like an instant classic, perhaps thanks to the soulful, pop-tinged vocals - think LCD soundsystem meets Four Tet. 'Snailblazer', the second track on the EP, takes a much darker turn, with a chugging, EBM-esque feel. Full-bodied and complete with obscured vocals, this is the kind of track to pull out your bag when it's time to really get stuck in. On the B-side, 'Napkin Knowledge' draws on the glistening synths of eurodance, yet still securing the melodies to a grounded bassline and rhythm section. 'Salitre' is the perfect closing track, rising up in a gleaming, ecstatic melody, before delicately returning to ground level. A varied yet firmly cohesive collaborative release - the perfect way for Selador to kick off their 2023 catalogue.

Review: Armed with analogue and modular synthesisers, Southern Italian producers Marco Cassanelli and Deckard take you on an emotive journey inspired by geometry and symmetry for T.A. Rock Records - a small indie label out of sunny Trani, Puglia established 2010. The Splitted EP starts out with the desolate dub techno textures of 'Abandoned Town' while the spaced-out cut 'Triangle' and the hypnotising 'Rectangle' (part 1) make for more experimentally minded tracks.

Review: Following up the inaugural release by Braintalk, Zurich-based label Human Sense Technology returns for its second edition here, this time from hometown hero Dan Piu. He rebooted his career after a 16 year hiatus a few years ago and has been more prolific than ever, with releases on Childhood Electronix, Cartulis, and Hizou Deep Rooted Music. The Modern Utopia Thoughts EP is dedicated to his youth and influenced by future visions of creation, featuring early '90s UK techno sounds that are very much in fashion at the moment ('Dysfunctional / 'Libertarian On A Mission') deep subterranean 303 acid journeys Modern (the title track) and classic Chicago house tropes as heard on 'The NATA Liaison'.

Review: Venetian self-described "avant garde conservative" Simone De Kunovich is back to quickly follow up his last outing in March with a new electro EP on Public Possession. He also ended last year on a high with the final part of his Mondo Nuovo series and seems to be in full creative flow again here. 'Flow My Tears' is an old school throwback with sugary 80s synths sounds and lush cosmic arps, then 'Super Mana Drain' local into a chugging Italo disco vibe that will get hands in the air as it travels to the stars. 'Warp World' is a more heavy thumper but still one defined by its bright and colourful synth work.

Review: A deliberate exercise in Y2K aesthetics and cyberpunk electrance comes in the creative output of DJ Natural Nate - his latest EP for Hoodwink Recordings, 'Notes To Jiggabot' - which consists of four tracks eulogizing his cybernetic partner-in-crime, Jiggabot (several releases from this pair have come out since mid 2018) and seemingly the object of his fantasmic affections. Whether the likes of new numbers 'Chasing The Rhythm', 'I Will Shine For You' or 'Far Away' originate from some angelic conceptual otherworld or this banal material one, it's hard not to love the signifiers poured into the EP: US freestyle jaunts, pure femme vocals doused in reverb-reverbs and melismatic hums; hyper-compressed, lightsabre-sculpted beats and visual cues reminiscent of childhoods spent lost in postmodern futuristic fantasies, such as those of Deus Ex or Blade Runner.

Review: Habitat Recordings is an art platform from Mind Against which seeks to explore a variety of formats and modes of expression, but here they're focusing on the good old techno 12" with the finely curated pairing of Dyzen, Syderal and Recondite. First up on the A-side is Dyzen and Syderal with their catchy, chunky anthem 'Dialogue'. Then Dyzen goes it alone with a vinyl pressing for his digital single 'Radiant', which takes cosmic disco influences in the direction of big room techno. Finally, Recondite remixes 'Dialogue' and smooths out some of the edges for a straight-trucking version that keeps the original vibe very much intact.

Review: The brand new Hyperdrive label kicks off with a mix of the old and the new - some tracks made recently, some that date back to the 90s, all of them top quality. Liquid Earth opens up with the spaced-out synths and electronic house sounds of '1_HP_D' then Art Of The State gets a little more tranced out and cosmic on '2_HP_D'. Dan Piu's '3_HP_D' is a tech house exploration with wispy sci-fi leads and a playful rhythm then Luis Malon & Seb G combine for the turbo-charged tech of '4_HP_D.' The legendary Freddy Fresh closes down with a high-speed sound on '5_HP_D.' Says the label, "Hyperdrive is dedicated to preserving the rich history of electronic music," and on this evidence, it will do so expertly.

Review: By the time they released Raumgleiter in 1998, Der Dritte Raum were already legends of the German techno-trance scene. This all-time classic album from the breakthrough years of the sound also saw the project move to a major label - Virgin - but now it's being brought back home to Harthouse, the iconic Frankfurt imprint which first nurtured the sound. The scope of the album is wide and playful, teasing ear catching synth lines which keep the mood fun and freaky, not least on the likes of 'Bedruck', while there's an epic tone to standout trance monster 'Hale Bopp' thanks to the cascading arps and relentless forwards thrust. Of its time but wholly relevant in the current zeitgeist, this is the kind of 90s techno reissue that makes perfect sense.