ADRIANA LOPEZ Vinyl & CDs

Review: The link between architecture and techno is long established (as is the connection between music journalism and building design) and on Portfolio One, Developer's label delivers diverse constructions from some of the finest new school techno practitioners. Eduardo de la Calle's "The Promise" features chords that move from foreboding and menacing to spacey and tranced out, all over a rolling groove. Elyas' "Adiccion" is also designed for the dance floor, but more driving and percussive, while Takaaki Itoh's "Dusker" juxtaposes breathy vocals with pounding beats. Adriana Lopez also balances the demands of the dance floor with melodic elements and her 'Acta' sees chiming bells unfold over a lithe, steely rhythm.

Review: As his Modularz series continues unabated, Developer drafts in another two friends for some diverse techno excursions. The man himself kicks things off with the creepy and cavernous "The Ring For Madness", using a menacing melodic loop to cycle over booming kicks and gaseous hits. NX1's "MZ2" is a thoroughly strict affair, with a lonesome kick running to catch up with hats whispering in the far, far distance, in a similar fashion to the equally hard boiled minimalism of Developer's "More Matter". Adriana Lopez warms things up, relatively speaking, with a melodic chord that pulses like a lighthouse through the middle of an equally reverb drenched grey and stormy techno workout.

Review: Following releases featuring Developer, NX1 and label boss Adriana Lopez, Spanish techno outpost Grey Report this time welcomes Takaaki Itoh to join the fold and share some vinyl space with the aforementioned Lopez. Itoh's tracks adorn the A side, dealing in appropriately monochromatic workouts that keep the synths icy and cold and the rhythms ever snaking forwards, dodging the pitfall of becoming sluggish while laying down an appropriate amount of weight at the same time. Lopez meanwhile has a touch more colour going on with "Between Thoughts" and "Metodo" while adhering to the demands of cyclical techno.

Review: Techno hero Adriana Lopez follows up powerful releases on Modularz and her own Grey Report with this collection of mesmerising techno journeys for the ever reliable Stroboscopic Artefacts' sixth installment in their Totem series. "Embera" sees the Colombian artist venturing down a ghostly trail previously unexplored. Enter the void on the tunnelling freefall session of the title track, trance out to the strobe-lit hypnotherapy of "Saija" before the mental overdrive of closer "Awa" takes you further down the spiral with its intoxicating and droning motions. Exactly the type of sonic tools that you could imagine her deploying during one of her acclaimed and epic DJ sets - this one is serious!

Review: Illegal Alien goes big with a four track various artists EP that kicks off with none other than Spanish techno legend Oscar Mulero. His 'Figures Of Light' is a brilliantly well lit techno trip with psychedelic synths and pads all spiralling and warping around one another to great effect. Adriana Lopez then offers the intense and linear techno thrills of 'Espacio Infinito' and Zadig's 'Crystal Boy' then gets more unhinged with some unsettling synths and broken beats that are in freewill through space. Ricardo Garduno's 'Trust In Dirt' is a deep, dark and heady closer on this most fresh of techno EPs.

Review: Predictably, DVS1 has grabbed tracks from some serious techno talents for this third volume in Mistress's Special Release series. As a result, the vibe is loopy, pumping and energy-packed throughout, with standouts coming from Adriana Lopez (whose "Last Path" sounds like Surgeon making creepy EBM) and UK veteran Steve Bicknell, who brilliantly ladens a stomping beat with creepy electronics and all manner of psychedelic bleeps ("Space 13"). Elsewhere, Mike Storm brilliantly builds dancefloor intensity via relentless drum machine handclaps on "From The Human Eye To Earth", while Dustin Zahn delivers a decidedly distorted fusion of lo-fi techno and spacey Detroit futurism.