STONEM Vinyl & CDs

Review: The correctly titled All Killer No Filler series from the Memphis/Monevideo label is back with a second instalment to back up the fine first outing. This effective various artists release kicks off with Elias Sternin's 'Loop Hole' which is a warm, fleshy techno kicker backed up by Stonem's more lithe and broken beat workout, 'Festichola', which brings some retro 90s synth sounds and plenty of colour. Alfalfa's 'Rising Down' is the flipside opener and is a turbocharged retro-future tech sound with cyborg energy. Last of all is a deeper, slower, heavier sound from Two Phase U with the pensive 'You Are'.

Review: Z@P and Stonem, both hailing from Uruguay, team up for a fresh and futuristic of the sonic character of their local acid techno scene. As functional and utilitarian as the robotized music heard therein is the name 'Split #1', which indeed shows that this is an EP flaunting two tracks by each artist; Z@P's tracks are groovier, funkier and more alkaline, opting for the sounding like the inner bloopings of a robotic mechsuit. Stonem's tracks deeper and more expansive by contrast, working in more arpeggiations and dramatic accompaniments, as if to suggest our protagonist has exited the mechsuit and confronted the dystopia of their now wartorn world.