DJS: MOST CHARTED - TECHNO - MOST CHARTED IN SEPTEMBER 2016

Review: Having spent the last couple of years concentrating on his collaborative Zenker Brothers project with brother Dario, Marco Zenker has decided the time is right to deliver a new solo 12". Predictably, he hits the mark from the off, successfully blending starburst chords and loose, clattering drum machine rhythms on the tech-jazz influenced "Amb-01". Those looking for a more metronomic, 4/4 club techno roller should check the bounding kick drums and restless hi-hats of "Isolated". B1 cut "First Feeling" sounds like a Motor City techno take on The Orb's 1989 classic "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain", while closer "Motion" is little less than a sparkling, sunburst tribute to classic, hardcore-era breakbeat techno.

Review: There's been much online chatter about Levon Vincent's latest 12". Sadly, it's not been about A-side "Birds" - a thrillingly ragged, aggressive and powerful acid thumper that's up there with the producer's most potent work - but rather what's lurking on the flip. As the title suggests, "Tubular Bells" is a cover of Mike Oldfield's most famous work, whose twinkling melody remains one of the most famous and well known in popular music. Vincent retains that melody line, looping it up and tweaking it out over a typically rubbery and fuzzy 4/4 house groove. Some will love it, others won't; either way, A-side "Birds" is superb, making Vincent's latest Novel Sound 12" an essential purchase.

Review: The latest release on Jayda G and DJ Fett Burger's Freakout Cult label comes from LNS, AKA Vancouver producer and DJ Laura Sparrow. Those who copped her recent debut album for 1080p, Malinge Range, will instantly feel at home, as much of Heliacal Rising explores similar sonic ground. That means deep, dreamy and melodious blends of headphone-friendly electro, immersive house, spacey, downtempo beats, and tactile, head-in-the-clouds techno. Of the six tracks on offer, we're particularly enjoying the Larry Heard-goes-deep electro flex of "Matariki", the up-tempo drowsiness of "R'Iyeh (E-gzr Mix)", and the sparkling, new age deep house fluidity of "Herer".

Review: A year on from the release of Sensation, Daniel Avery has decided to get the track - and its' original B-side, "Clear" - remixed. Sandwell District and Eaux eccentric Rrose is the artist given the task of transforming "Sensation". She does that well, re-casting Avery's upbeat original as a clanging, clandestine chunk of trippy, feverish, late night techno full of infected electronics, creepy pads, and soft-focus rhythms. Fellow experimentalist Abdulla Rashim picks up the baton on the flip, delivering a version of "Clear" built around dense, pulsating percussion, ghostly electronics, and occasionally confused offbeat kick-drums. It's far bolder and more obviously club-ready than the A-side, but a little less intriguing.

Review: As Until My Heart Stops turns 10, we head back across the Atlantic , this time to Boston and a stunning ep from the still hugely under rated DeViere.DeViere is a music producer and radio disc jockey (Progressive Black, 90.3 FM WZBC Newton) based in Boston, Massachusetts. He first came to our attention with the Transcendental Numbers ep on Jamal Moss' Mathematics label in 2012 and we've waited on each release ever since, including last year's huge Future Shock Disco ep (a collaboration with Jamal himself). Here DeViere presents 3 beautiful examples of his deep, soulful craft and a fitting way for UMHS to hit double figures.

Review: Melbourne's Butter Sessions are back, this time with local upstart Cale Sexton with the new East Link EP. Starting out with "E-Tagging" which has the early nineties deep house sound going on, featuring some lush analogue pads and an e-sax which was a nice touch particularly. Label head honchos Sleep D get on board to lend a helping hand on the pumping electro disco odyssey "Peninsula Link" while "Unsure Everything" featuring Samuel Davidson gets ultra deep, bittersweet and emotive like classic Mr Fingers.

Review: It would be fair to say that Oscar Mulero is a techno purist. Over the last 16 years, he's built a solid reputation via 12" singles and albums that rarely stray from techno's hypnotic, heavyweight roots. Hyperbolic Paths, his first EP for Token since 2008, continues on this path. Its' four cuts are built around bombastic, full-throttle rhythm tracks, unsettling chords and undeniably trippy, looped melody lines. The standout track is arguably "Suborbital Trajecteries", which combines spacey, rising and falling synthesizer motifs with beefed-up, tropical-influenced techno drums and sweaty, constantly building percussion fills. The deeper and dub influenced closing track, "Eccentricity", is also quietly impressive.

Review: Super Rhythm Trax / Don't man Jerome Hill steps up to deliver the first blow from freshly-minted label Sword, which comes as a heavy duty four-track 12" of no-nonsense techno. Starting as he means to go on, "The Creeper" sees the J man lead all and sundry down a wormhole of FM synthesis and unrelenting drums. This is not warm up material. On the B-side, "Drum War" fairly lives up to its title; if you felt Plastikman classic "Spastik" could do with a bit more of a monolithic edge, this should satisfy that urge. The accompanying "Drumapella" is a DJ tool for those who need to add some snare dynamism into the mix. Finally, Hill unleashes the original mix of "Plastic Jam" which previously featured in 'Stripped Mix' form on a split 12" for Milo Smee's Power Vacuum last year.

Review: Contort Yourself boss Murray CY recently broke out with a fine LP of re-edits based on lesser-known '80s industrial, EBM and minimal wave jams for the Knekelhuis label. Here, he takes inspiration from those sounds into his debut production EP for Ron Morelli's Long Island Electrical Systems. There's something more than a little unsettling about the throbbing bass, loose-but-sweaty drum machine hits and psychedelic electronics of the ironically named "Conformist", and you'll struggle to find anything quite as dark and dusty as "Stab In The Neck". Flip for the bouncy, hip-hop influenced, midtempo acid workout "Slow Spasm", and the schizophrenic, distortion-clad experimental techno workout "Into Amnesia".

Review: Bologna's Nas1 is up next on Robert Crash's New Boy Shit Trax white label imprint run out of South Salento, Italy. Starting out with the dope beats of the chill opener "Luce Verde (Cut A Ree)" he then gets stuck into some fierce, stripped greyscale techno on "Robodance" and "Sei Venuta A Qui" with the latter crossing into deep house territory courtesy of those seductive Rhodes keys. Speaking of which, the deepness continues on the flip with the dusty emotions on display on "Bottazzi Antalena" and the stomping closer "Ksclub" sounding like one of TM404's deconstructed acid experiments.

Review: Scottish label Craigie Knowes are back with Knowes Universal Broadcast: Seg 1. Considering the likes of local heroes Vince Watson and Stephen Brown; we know the Scots have knack for hi-tech soul and this release does not disappoint. Starting out with "Baltra" then the epic acid odyssey "Fade Away", we then get treated to the soulful and emotive electro of Highfield Casual's "Highfield Daze" which will appeal to fans of Gerald Hanson or Gerald Donald without a doubt. On the flip Natureboy Gold (what a name!) serves up "Prozac Test" which is reminiscent of Laurent Garneier's acid epics of the mid noughties; you can't beat that for a compliment can you? Finally "Qaua" by Stephen Simpson closes the release out in sublime and dubby deep house territory; loving' it! Tip!

Review: Some years back, Aleksi Perala joined forces with Rephlex co-founder Grant Wilson-Claridge to invent a custom musical scale, The Colundi Sequence, which boasts 128 frequencies "chosen via experimentation and philosophy". Perala has been using this as the basis of his attractive electronic work for some time, self-releasing 15 EPs of tracks since 2014. This epic, triple-vinyl album gathers together highlights from the previously download-only series - all with deliberately obtuse titles, made up of letters and numbers - and accurately showcases the depth and diversity of Perala's work. Clone is calling it "spiritual techno", and that's an excellent catch-all description for a set that variously touches on Motor City futurism, IDM, electro, dub techno, ambient and Rephlex-esque "braindance".

Review: Speak to anyone on the Bristol scene, and they'll happily tell you that Jacob Martin AKA Hodge is willing to open his studio doors to almost any like-minded soul. His latest collaborator is the similarly productive Randomer, fresh from inspired outings on Clone Basement Series and Dekmantel UFO Series. There's a real energy about A-side "Second Freeze", which slowly builds on waves of punchy, polyrhythmic percussion and creepy noises, before bringing in a similarly bold and speaker-hugging bassline. The talented duo goes ever further in this African-influenced direction of thrillingly percussive flipside "Simple As", where additional drum hits pepper a dense, polyrhythmic groove. It's one of the best drum records we've heard this year, and that's saying something.

Review: After the success of his release on Versatile and a string of top productions on his own Ruff Draft label, Ferox is proud to welcome Cottam to the roster with this two tracker. 180g vinyl only release.

Review: DK's 45 ACP moniker has been a staple of the Russian Torrent Versions household since the label's inception and, along with an impressive run for parent label LIES, the producer has become one of our most recommended artists. This new EP contains a mixture of pure dance bullets and some more left of field grooves, but 45 ACP always manages to retain his singular take on techno. "Safe Action" is all about rhythm and percussion, a heavy club warmer with a rugged edge to its beats, while "Stage Clear" is a gentler, more tropical abstraction infused with warm waves of synths. "Second Strike" is another militant driver of beats, but its soothing pads render it playful and mystical, leaving "Digital Content" to sign this EP off with a more experimental touch. Another bomb from RTV!

Review: On the second part of his simultaneously released Something To Show You EP series, Nick Lapien moves further towards late night techno territory. This is evident from the very start, with opener "Searching" delivering the perfect blend of layered, undulating rhythms, spacey riffs, and hypnotic, early morning atmospherics. It's there, too, on the cascading deep house synths and freshly baked grooves of "Moon", and "Wild For The Night", whose bold analogue bassline and yearning vocal samples propel the tracks forwards. Lapien heads for deeper territory on the flipside, with the sinewy pianos and locked-in rhythm of soul-flecked closer "It Ain't The Same" providing the headline attraction.

Review: Liverpool-based producer John Heckle is remarkably prolific, but still manages to maintain an impressively high quality threshold. On Tributes To A Sun God, he's in a remarkably melodious mood. While opener "Alexandria" comes blessed with his usual tough analogue beats - not to mention the hissing cymbals of Detroit techno - its' most endearing features are the drowsy pads and undulating melody lines. A similar approach can be found on the more acid-centric "Mesopatamia", which pops and spits with dancefloor intent. A fine package is completed by handclap-heavy drum workout "Track 4", and the Ambient House era electronics and sparse drum hits of "Track 2".

Review: Ferox label boss Russ Gabriel and Freerotation's Steevio share the honours on this two track EP of live and improvised techno. 180g vinyl only.

Review: Bang, boom, biff! New label alert from contemporary house maestros Soulphiction and Mike Dehnert, a collaboration which has caught us by surprise and left us trailing by the wayside. Masterful. Hands & Tief is the name of the home to this punchy two-tracker that sees both artists put on their techno mask and offer something a little moodier than their usual output, respectively. "Sky So High" is Soulphiction going for a distorted, industrial approach and it works like a charm; the tune's percussion is raw and mashable in any mix, the bassline ominous and intriguing, and the groove powerful and body-moving. Mike Dehnert's "Zumwald" is more in line with his usual bags of tricks, except that here the lower frequencies are more aligned to the electro dynasty than a classic 'Berlin' approach. Both sleek, effective dance floor bangers recommended for pretty much any DJ wanting to lay down some heat!

Review: Bergen label Club No No emerged in the Sex Tags/SUED/Acido constellation some two years ago and looked to be a platform for founder Snorre Magnar Solberg to experiment with like-minded souls such as SVN and Fett Burger. This fourth Club No No 12" continues the collaborative bent, with lead track "No No 4" a sublime lo-tech soul production with fellow homeboy Kristoffer Drevdal. On the flip, the deep hardware jams continue on DJ Fett Burger's version of "No No 4" which is an amazing 15-minute journey you'll wish never ended. This 808 State tribute (of sorts) has all the bird calls, rusty drum patterns and emotive pads you could wish for!