Techno Recommendations June 2011

Review: Long Island Electrical Systems come through with their third release - enlisting the clearly quite talented Steve Moore to provide two visions of techno futurism. You might know Moore as Lovelock, the Mindless Boogie artist who delivered a superlative Tubular Bells edit - or as Gianni Rossi, the Giallo revivalist who released an album's worth of slasher horror funk for Permanent Vacation in January. He's also part of Zombi. This, however, might be his best work to date, as "Zero Point Field" effortlessly shifts between dystopian and utopian sensations throughout the nine minutes. This is complemented by the sprawling washes of "Frigia", from which gentle chord flutters emerge to set the scene for the deftest of beats. The ease with which all elements lock to forge one gentle yet increasingly hypnotic pulse is quite brilliant!

Review: Danny Wolfers returns to his brilliant Chicago Shags alias - this time gracing the excellent Creme JAK series with some sublime analogue manoeuvres. "Irrational Excess" commences proceedings in ridiculous form, with Wolfers using all his machine funk expertise to throw down wave after wave of cascading analogue showers over unforgiving 808 rhythms. Wipe yourself down from that sweat filled joy for the more delicately melodic "Disorderly Orchard", with the rough acid and percussive edges offset by the intricate synth work. Traverse to the B Side where breathless vocal edits and gut hugging analogue basslines run through "Lost In A Blue Night" though it's the big waves of Chicago emotion that grab you. Finally the TLR Edit of "Southside Will Rise" could be the soundtrack to Snake Plisken's Escape From Chicago.

Review: Buffalo's resident techno experimentalist Mike Parker comes through with four untitled cuts of prime machine funk for his own Geophone imprint - which even features some Rorschach Test cover art from the man himself. Having disagreed whether the black daubs of paint are supposed to be a hammer or a crow, it's probably best if we focus on the music instead. Fans of Parker will be all over the exercises in dark, throbbing, beat hypnotics - the way that Parker lets the alien gurgle of machinery develop and lock into all encompassing sensory attacks is captivating. Definitely material for the dark, bass enhanced subterranean spaces!

Review: Sir Jeff returns with this sampler 12" featuring highlights from his recent album The Power, released on his own Axis Records imprint. Exploring a similar, albeit slightly denser, sonic terrain to his recent Something In The Sky releases, A Side tracks "Microbe" and "The Exchange" are imbued with tense loops and an almost overwhelming sense of intangible menace. Flip over for the stunning, hypnotic chiming melody of "Spiral Therepy" - backed by a beat so delicate and fragile you have to really listen to realise it's actually there. The beats disappear entirely on "The Diagnosis", leaving ghostly echoes and synth washes to tiptoe cautiously across the bleak sonic landscape. A supreme exploration of restraint from one of electronic music's most relentlessly forward-thinking characters.

Review: AnD first came onto the Juno radar with a release on the fledgling Black Sun imprint; it was stark, eerie techno at its finest. Here, he/she/they makes the step up to the Horizontal Ground canon, with a three track EP marking the label's ninth release. "Track 1" sees a beefy, cushioned bass drum provide the dark rhythmic backbone to echoing metallic chimes and synth gurgles that rise from cavernous depths. The two tracks on the flip take you in the direction that any good techno B-Side should: disturbing mindf*ck weirdness. "Track 2" is our favourite, as moody textures and alien melodies combine to hypnotic effect, while "Track 3" rounds off the release with crackly ambient textures.

Review: The Appointment series continues in decidedly mysterious fashion with their fourth vinyl-only offering swiftly following their killer Moodymann refixes. As with previous offerings, it's a sparse affair for fans of information - with not a track name amongst the quartet of drum machine workouts. More importantly however, the high standards of Appointment productions are totally maintained here, with the second track on the A Side a particularly potent demonstration of unhinged machine funk - as swathes of gleefully noisy 808s ricochet around an increasingly lysergic pool of industrial strength acid menace. The B Side alternates between the equal sonic dementia of the opening track and the more languid hypnosis of the final descent.

Review: The Naked Index label launched in style this year with a 12-inch shaped excursion into brooding techno by the hitherto unknown Adam Rivet. Next up is Relay, who drops three cuts that range from the moody industrial throb of the opening A-Side missive; through to the abrasive rattle of B1 and loopy Detroit style minimalism and pumping chords of B2. This is well worth checking out - more please Naked Index.