DEEPCHORD Vinyl & CDs

Review: Since Deepchord helped launch Astral Industries with the sublime "Lanterns" double-album in 2014, the London label has gone on to become a reliable source of dreamy ambient techno and blissful, otherworldly ambience (for proof, check out the releases from Waveform Transmission, the Chi Factory and Heavenly Music Corporation). Predictably, Deepchord's return to the imprint is every bit as wonderful as you'd expect. While naturally underpinned by restless dub techno rhythms and wrapped in Rod Modell's usual densely layered aural textures, the two tracks that make up Immersions are far wavier and more ambient-focused than much of the Detroit producer's work. And, yes, both tracks are exceedingly immersive. You shouldn't need a second invitation to dive right in.

Review: Prolific dub techno producer Rod Modell has spent much of the last year collaborating with long-term studio buddy Stephen Hitchell under the Echospace alias. Even so, he's still somehow found time to ready another solo album for regular home Soma (his fifth in total for the esteemed Glasgow-based techno label). While the CD version is presented as one continuous audio journey, this double-vinyl edition contains each track in its entirety. There are few surprises, but plenty of highlights: after all, nobody does this kind of hypnotic, meditative, ambient-influenced dub techno quite as well as Modell.

Review: As you might think, Deepchord are thoroughly well placed for soundtrack work, able to fully indulge their dubbed out tendencies without concerns for the dancefloor. That said, throughout the Silent World soundtrack there are still 4/4 pulses to be found, chugging away underneath the languid tones of "Orbiting" or more prominently on the techno fug of "Ghost Theory". By and large though, this is Echochord in their prime, bathing in a torrent of reverb while winsome notes from forgotten sources cry harmoniously over each other, with only static for company. If you're not a fan of the most beguiling hypnagogic dub techno, turn away now.

Review: After a brilliant re-issue by Dutch cosmic legends Chi, Astral Industries have drafted in Wolfgang Voigt, who appeared for the label previously with the live recordings of his mighty Ruckverzauberung LP with Detroit dub techno legend DeepChord, who inaugurated the label with his Lanterns EP. Both highly respected figures unite to reinterpret the music of revered minimalist German composer Peter Michael Hamel. Astral Industries write: "Each expansive interpretation invites you to step outside of reality and into an alternative imagination of Hamel's future world, spiralling into the colours and slowly out of time itself."