SOMNIAC ONE Vinyl & CDs

Review: There's no stopping Possession when they get on a roll, and so their second various artists series reaches release number four with another grip of devastating techno bombs for the harder floors of the world. Randomer is up first, throwing down the hard trance-licked thumper 'Shiver' before Somniac One's subtly dreamy beast 'Midnight Intruder' comes marching into earshot. Charlie Sparks kicks off the flip with an unrelenting hard techno assault before Vizionn brings some hard house sass to bear on 'Dream'. It's a fun and feisty selection which tells you everything you need to know about the current wave of hard dance.

Review: Lithuanian hardcore techno producer Somniac One returns to her very own Somniverse imprint for a rabid new EP release, 'To All My Soggy Creatures Of The Night'. Chronicling four eldritch horrors on a goopy green vinyl record, this 12" opens on a sense of berserk immediacy with 'Poly Nightmare', its crunching hardstyle kick-tears seizing upon a restless crossrhythm that only then settles back a four-beat bed after giving us a certain fright. The EP continues as rhythmically expected from there on out, although 'Damp Dreams' is similarly prodigal and pliocene, its huge overhead string synths set against hard acid, and implied to sound as though they were the harmonic calls of a leviathan rearing its huge head above water.

Review: Perc Trax has long been excelling at caustic and industrial-tinged, white-knuckle techno excursions. Former 3 is another case in point as various artists come together to nail you to the floor of a gritty warehouse. The boss himself, Perc, appears with Million on the squealing, blistering workout that is 'Rotopod' while EAS brings wild video game soundtrack madness to his intense 'Ryu Acid.' Add in linear bangers from Somniac One with 'Junkyard Shift' and Exos's gabber-tinged, flat-footed stomper 'Warlion' and you have an absolutely monster EP of techno.