XDB Vinyl & CDs

Review: Various Shades is right! Zagreb label Forbidden Dance bring together the talents of Patrice Scott, Aleqs Total, XDB and Gary Superfly for a fine gradient of hex-perimental dance music, fully exciting our many aural rods and cones. An earful of minimal moods are conveyed on Scott's 'Be Yourself', with its fidgeting stereo bass sound design especially impressing, while Aleqs Total's 'People Round Town' lets a seedier sonic underbelly of aspic acid spill out onto main street. 'Odican' by XDB is the most unsettling number, with a repetitive vocal hallucination resounding in and out of a tenebrous centre mix, while Superfly's 'Free Fall' marks a recovery from the A1's relative panic attack, through intravenous hi-hats and concordant chords.

Review: Goettingen's long standing dub techno servant XDB takes us to Chicago At Midnight with this new 12" on Pariter. 'Fenders' is one and is a deliciously elastic rhythm with rolling kick drums setting a hypnotic groove as the bubbly synths rise up through the mix. 'Cagomi', more edgy and amped up with gritty hits and swaying bass, gets a new lease of life after first surfacing on XDB's Metrolux Music back in 2009. The same cut gets a remix from Delano Smith that's more rooted to the floor in the Detroit man's usual textbook style. A classy outing from all, then.

Review: Great deep techno with two respected artists bringing their favourite cuts on this collaborative split release. Goettingen's finest Kosta Athanassiadis aka XDB delves into the sublime sound of resonance on the hypnotising dub techno cut 'C.O.N.' on the A-side. Over on the flip, you've got Dresden's Stephan Schindler - better known as Kryptic Universe - with 'Cloud Riders' an emotive deep cut for the late night. Limited copies on blue wax.