Techno Recommendations August 2010

Review: The gorgeous Aesthetic Audio had quite a year, releasing those timeless Keith Worthy joints along with one of Steven Tang's most epic moments! "Aerial" kicks things off in true Chicago style, where a bouncy, rave-filtered bass line hops to and fro amid raw snares; and "Verged" introduces a truly awesome beatdown and some killer Tang-stamped pads! "Glimmer" opens the B-side, and what can we say, it's just another hypnotic house moment, flowing smoothly into the deeper waters of "Rocket Deep", Tang's most elusive moment on the EP and further proof of his overflowing talent.

Review: We here at Juno long ago gave up speculating as to who is behind the mysterious Frozen Border imprint - we found it much healthier to just sit back and listen. The sixth edition kicks off where 05 left off - almost unfeasibly cavernous chords melting against a slow but unrelenting assault from a syncopated drum pattern. What sounds like a tortured, scuffled horn comes in to float over the top of it all for a slab of music that is so powerful it makes your stomach tingle. The equally menacing "Track 2", not merely content to live in the shadow of the A-Side, crafts its own after hours groove through shuffling snares and a rock solid kick drum, which sound as if they were produced by leaving a tape recorder in a metalworks factory. For a label famed for its stripped back techno, this is probably the toughest release yet. Highly recommended. .

Review: Frozen Border sub-label Horizontal Ground has never lived in the shadow of its older brother, hitting the ground running with some superb no-nonsense techno on Horizontal Ground 01. Since then there has been a steady procession of killer 12"s, all packaged in spartan style (no artwork, no artist credits), which makes them so damn irresistible to techno fetishists. The fifth release kicks off with a relatively slow burner, which is built around a catchy little groove before the background scrapes work their way forward with sinister intentions. Flip over for "Track 2", a tough exploration of crackly broken beat rhythms. It's a real grumbler, with looped compressed synths washing over a 4x4 beat and treated chords. Fans of Regis, Marcel Dettmann and Levon Vincent will go mad for this.

Review: Italian Sasha Carassi serves up three original, rolling techno fiends on the German Weave imprint. "Rowbells" is the highlight, combining quick, funky percussion with a thumping beat and a host of FX. "Velvet Mushroom" lulls you into a false sense of security before exploding into ferocious techno whereas "Magnetique" spends more time bubbling away under the surface.