ADAM BEYER Vinyl & CDs

Review: Adam Beyer seems to be in a superb run of late and this is his second vinyl outing in as many months. Desert Queen is pure Beyer, and pure Drumocde - drum-led techno for the main room with sweeping synths and grand vocals that are designed to impact crowds of thousands. The A-side actually brings a touch of trance energy and hard techno funk with its slamming, flat-footed drums, coarse synths and brightly lit arrangements. 'Soulful' then flips the script with a more funky groove that rocks back and forth and has funky basslines and a pitched up r&b vocal that works strangely well in the unusual context.

Review: You have to respect Adam Beyer for still being a real techno overlord these days. He has been on the scene almost since day one, as has his trusty Drumcode label, and they are both still winning over new generations of fans with their direct to dancefloor style. This latest missive is another monster starting with the hard and heavy drums of 'Robotic Arms' which comes with just enough detail from the sic-fi vocals and synths to get you locked, then the anthemic 'No Hate' is sure to become a big one for Beyer with its rolling drum funk and repeatable vocals. A Trippy Mix is a more wild and frankly better version.

Review: Drumcode's main brain Adam Beyer hardly needs any introduction, but newcomers to the label might be surprised that his outfit has its sights set on putting out single-sided releases at the minute. 'Legend' is Beyer's kick-off for 2023, following up the completion of his own home studio with an inspired production run. An ascendant fast-build to sublime ecstasy, the track characteristically locks into a deep arpeggiated saw line at its drop; an example of Beyer flaunting his ability to juxtapose massive pre-drop space with post-drop minimality.

Review: Drumcode titan Adam Beyer is back in business with some of that monolithic sound he's made such a prominent force in global techno. 'Dirty Lagoon' is a slamming monster of a track with daggering rave stabs and hefty kicks to fill any stadium you care to think of. 'Code Is The Code' has a slightly deeper tint, but it's no slouch on the full-fat production all the same. 'Dub Embassy' takes things towards a trancey kind of sound, all swirling synth lines and pinging sound FX, but never too far from that core Drumcode sound we all love so dearly.

Review: For his first outing of 2019, Adam Beyer has turned over the parts to his 2014 single "Teach Me" to Belgium's first lady of banging, acid-fuelled techno, Amelie Lens. She subsequently serves up two throbbing, peak-time ready revisions, with the A-side "Main Mix" offering a near perfect blend of booming, kick-drum driven beats, military snare fills, cut-up late night vocal samples and distorted, mind-altering riffs. As the title suggests, the flipside "Acid Remix" sees Lens indulge her love of mind-altering TB-303 acid lines, brilliantly wrapping them around a springier drum track, EBM-influenced melodic motifs and more pulsating, manipulated vocal loops.

Review: Two right legends of techno unite here for the latest release on Drumcode. Label chief Adam Beyer presents 'Restore My Soul' featuring Chicago hard techno veteran DJ Rush, their relationship stretching back nearly three decades from when they both started out in the' 90s. The title track is aimed squarely at the main room dancefloor; a seething, mental groove featuring Rush's stern vocal delivery atop, before taking the energy levels into the peak time on the adrenalised thrasher 'Control'. Over on the flip, you are treated to a rework of the title track by DJ Rush himself in his typically stomping and orotund style.

Review: Here's a big old belter on that biggest of techno fortresses, Drumcode. On this two-track slammer, Adam Beyer and Bart Skils' monster track 'Your Mind' gets revisited by New York up and comer Charles D. After releases on Say What? and Pryda, D is able to show off his skills twice over, on the A-side living up to the billing of the 'Epic mix' of 'Your Mind' by bringing in the big, swelling pads that can fill a stadium and get hands raised aloft. On the flip, the 'Acid Line' version unsurprisingly brings a little 303 action into the mix, and makes sure the undercarriage is a thunderous juggernaut of supersized techno.

Review: Some serious peak time weapons for the main room on offer here, from the ever reliable Swedish label Drumcode. Usual heroes of the label such as Luigi Madonna, Sam Paganini and Joseph Capriati step aside for some other equally reliable staples. On the A, side label boss Adam Beyer teams up with Enrico Sangiuliano on the evocative and life affirming "Preset Heaven" which takes its cues from early trance with its amazing chord progression. It is something more typical of the label next, on the pummelling warehouse stomp of "Muzik" by Bulgaria's Timmo. On the flip, there's more trance nostalgia on offer again - this time from legends Pig & Dan on the hypnotic/melodic bliss of "La Bruja" which we could imagine melting the minds of festival crowds well into the new year. Finally they save the best for last with French peak time specialist Julian Jeweil, serving up the furious, tunneling and strobe-lit ultraviolence of "Nasa" which will have your adrenaline going from the first beat. It has been a stellar year for the powerhouse label, with great releases by Moby, Dubfire and newcomer Layton Giordani.

Review: Techno team-ups don't come bigger than this, as Drumcode's overlord of all things mega-tech Adam Beyer links up with Chicago's agent provocateur Green Velvet to give you your next stadium shaking anthem. This isn't the first time Beyer and Velvet have worked together - you could find them on the 2018 track 'Space Date' for one thing - but there's a sense 'Simulator' will become their calling card as a formidable double act. It's simply huge, catchy as hell and full of all the fireworks you could wish for from a super-sized techno workout, all guided by Velvet's unmistakable voice ducking and diving around the expertly engineered mix.