OPERATOR Vinyl & CDs

Review: For this new 2xLP mini-record for Mord, British music producer Rich Jones aka. Operator slips off the surgical gloves and wriggles his way into a set of special occasional, crusaders' gauntlets. Only a pilgrim or knight's hand could wrangle this much grit and hate from the techno production process. As we listen, we digest the accompanying, deathly mysterious poem - "the transmutation of the shadow, an ingress of novelty, under austere skies, the spirits of the city awaken" - and we're left to wonder just what collective spirit Jones may be getting at. 'Running From The Man', 'Evasions', 'Bottom Of The List'... it's almost as if the combo of technocracy, urbanism and austerity is too much for the average person to handle, and that there's a latent rebellion in us all somewhere! But despite the prophetic theme and title, Jones prefers to fight fire with fire: his sound design is barky, scientific and at times trancey ('Watashi No Gyangu' has a particularly amazing drone undercurrent to it), suggesting urban denizens must harness, not run from, the means of its own oppression.

Review: San Francisco, Bay Area and Seattle-based label From 0-1 shows us that those regions are about more than hip hop, Dirtybird-house and grunge with this new various artists collection. Operator kicks off with the dubby techno rhythms of 'Enceladus Outpost' which has freaky synths squirming about in its midst. Sone's 'Accretion' is just as heavy and stripped back, with synths peeling off the bulky drums and A Thousand Details's 'Treyarch Sentient' bring some Detroit-style synth orchestrations. It's all out intergalactic industrial warfare on U SRD's 'Not Everything You See Is Real' to shut down with a bang.