Juno Recommends Electro: June 2024

Review: Veteran electrohead and former artist on the Rephlex Records roseter DMX Krew's Ed DMX takes the well-known story by Jorge Luis Borges of The Library of Babel, said to contain all the different languages of the earth. Some deep philosophical thought has gone into the album's concept, but we'll leave that to Ed to explain. Instead, we'll tell you that from beginning to end there's plenty of the kind of trademark 80s synth playfulness in evidence, with a generally more mellow and soundtrack-related rather than frenetic and dancefloor-filling vibe in evidence, even on faster tracks like 'The Combed Thunderclap'. Still, Ed knows what he's doing when it comes to this kind of leftfield electro gear, and it's a rewarding, never boring listen.

Review: Four dreamy exoplanetary electro cuts from Nullptr. With a melancholic orbit, the mood of this EP is wistful and lachrymose, as if the sonar-HUD on our spaceship's cockpit is over-bleeping at rapidfire; we've flown too close to the celestial object we sought, and have nothing left to do but bask in the bittersweet antagonism of space-faring victory and revelatory disappointment. 'Exolon' portrays some leftover remnant of trekkers' curiosity, suggesting we're still driven - motivated - on our quest to grasp said strange attractor. Yet 'Sytasol' moves sadder, locking in a grooved stasis through a mixture of fidgeting melodic acid and clappage. 'Alpha Grid' and 'Gekko7' hear spirits revive for a no less dreamy revolution about the sun.

Review: Hypnotone's iconic self titled mini album reissued and released just in time for this Summer Solstice. Originally released by Creation Records in 1991 - long out of print and now reissued - this one comes now meticulously remastered and pressed onto pristine white vinyl, aesthetically bolstering its pure, ascendant sound to match. The Hypnotone moniker was formed out of the bemused miasma that came after the wake of the infamous Hacienda nightclub in Manchester; made up of another related but no less legendary Tony (Martin, not Wilson) and yet another Martin (Mittler) (don't get confused, now), their eponymous debut came after an inspirational spell of digital sampler experiments and intentional Balearic hitmaking.

Review: Versalife is one of the many aliases of prolific Dutch producer Versalife. It is where he explores electro in meticulous detail and this new Technofeudalism 12" is as good as it gets. 'Cataclysm' kicks off with a deft and broken beat rhythm, celestial chords and eerie little melodic details that keep you on your toes. 'Intrusion' is darker and more direct with a menacing bassline. 'Syndicate War' ups the ante once more with more energetic rhythms and jagged synths flashing across the face of the tune while 'Axon Terminal' is a moody closer with bittersweet melancholic in the pads.

Review: Tom Carruthers is a genuine prodigy - a prolific producer of undeniably excellent techno, electro and house music whose expertly authentic nods to dance music's shared part belie his youthfulness. He's released on L.I.E.S in the past but has mostly put out music on his own Non-Stop Rhythm label. Here he makes his bow on the reliable Craigie Knowes imprint with a predictably good four-tracker. Predictably he's delivered the goods, first joining the dots between Joey Beltram, Chiago jack and LFO on 'Rhythm Control (XTC Mix)', before layering mind-mangling analogue electronics atop a heavy TR-909 techno beat on 'Zeta Wave'. 'Revenge' is moody, rolling and hypnotic, while 'Psyche' sees him once again pay tribute to his favourite genre of all, turn-of-the-90s bleep & bass.

Review: Whatever an 'acidulant' is, we daren't try to convey it directly in words, since we think the associations conjured up by their latest record 'Sonic Expansion' should be more than enough. The artist also known as Neil Hales lays down four unusually broken offcut janks for Gated here. The tracks play back like greyscale, jagged chindogu, relying less on pure floor-filling utility and more in the excesses of inventive effort - of mind-body unity - that it might require to make out their danceability. 'FunKT10n' brings apocalyptic Reeses to make-do, evoking the sound of a madcap space-navvy going ham on the toolbox and working themself to death in the process; 'Sonic Expansion' marks a stark contrast to this, bringing sixteenthy new beat / Italo stylings to a melodic yet mechanistically hollow backbeat.

Review: Drew Lustman's longstanding FaltyDL moniker makes a welcome return with a debut full length record for the eminent Central Processing Unit label. In The Wake Of Wolves deconstructs Lustman's usual rough dance sound for a less predictable album-length breakdown, retaining his usual arid textures while playing up the more sound-designed and maximalist ends of his craft. In the pithy words of CPU: "This could pass for Four Tet or even Hannah Diamond at points, the steady build of pulsing synths and looped vocals recalling a more mysterious version of the PC Music sound." Whether you totally agree, you'd have to agree FaltyDL has at least taken on something of their contemporary future-pop/digisonic aesthetic and incorporated it into his own; this is most evident on the glassy pirouettes and gladiate complexities of 'Minds Protection', or the tenebrous post-punk descensions of 'New Friends', or many maximized IDM trap-doors and toolroom hard-clips of 'Workout'.

Review: The one and only DMX Krew is back once again with yet another superb release, this time on the emerging and already exciting No Static/Automatic label. This time out he blends electro with bass, acid and techno and opens up with the squelchy 303s and prickly beats of 'Mutated Brain Process' before 'Electric Mutant' layers up whirring machines and jerking drum patterns. 'Non-Euclidean Coordinates' is a high-speed and physical workout with low end menace and the superb closer 'Depressed Mutant' might just be the best of the lot with its withering sci-fi motifs and alien sounds, kinetic electro beats and otherwordly vibes.

Review: **REPRESS** Another album from the amazing mind of Heinrich Mueller (aka Gerald Donald). Originally released on DJ Hell's Gigolo label and apparently only licensed after Gerald crashed Hell's BMW and had to come up with a means of paying him back. All the tracks first appeared on the very obscure Dataphysix imprint from Detroit, with some releases only reaching the 500 copy mark. Now brought back to life for 2007, "Gesamtkunstwerk" could be one of the best electro albums ever made. Yes that's right, I said it...the best ever! This is almost as important for the techno generation as Kraftwerk's "Computerworld" and "Autobahn" were for many in the 80s. The tracks are all pretty simple, made up of only two or three analogue instruments each, but they seem to hold these timeless melodies that you can never tire of. Other moments are eerie, menacing and downright strange, but still pure genius. You know how a lot of the time when you buy a new record it becomes your favourite for a while, and then it starts to lose a little life? (Of course it's still good, but just not as fresh as the first couple of weeks when you listened to it on repeat). Well guess what? That doesn't happen with this record. I must have listened to some of the tracks on here over a 1000 times and they still send shivers down my spine. It's one of those special albums that just don't seem to age.

Review: Funk On kicks off its journey with an electro workout from Atree. This is raw, percussive, rugged electro rather than silky cinematic tackle and it is therefore sure to punch through on the dance floor. 'Spirit Of The Hawk' gets things underway with wispy pads and diffuse chords next to clipped vocal samples. 'Still Positive' then rides on crisp drums with soothing backlit pads and 'You Make Me Feel' layers up wonky synth lines with retro-future bass. 'Smart Lock' is a twitchy, kinetic closer that rounds out a fine first outing.

Review: Fresh French label Attention Spin! flaunts the talents of the Parisian underground in its freshest incarnation. Currently turning their focus towards cosmic house music with hints of Italo and new beat, as well as aiming to prioritize dance music that uses vocals as an instrument, their first release here is a four-track EP from rising star DJ Dawidu. The likes of 'Une Nuit A Paris' and 'Mad Game' detail the wilder, undergrounder ends of after-hours nightlife in the Capitale de la Mode. 'Half On A Room', meanwhile, spans dub- and hip-house, while 'Lil'Drama' is the most vocal and catwalk-worthy of the bunch.

Review: This is some serious electro that really packs a punch. It is both physical and cerebral, with as much to keep the old noggin entertained as there is for the feet and body. The EP marks a fine return to Gunfinger Food for Obzerv who offers up his first solo vinyl release with tracks taken from some of his previous live set performances. They make for pure machine funk, with tough and robotic bass and lithe synth designs from the future. This is a one-time-only press on wax, so do not sleep.

Review: What is retrofuturism, and why is it so important to electro artists? Perhaps it has something to do with the imposition of the past onto the future and vice versa, with the aim of producing an implicit social commentary: either suggesting that certain given visions of the future are retrograde, or that our view of the past is shaped by what we imagine the future will be like. Whatever the case, producer Zobol aims to demonstrate, not tell, their answer to the question, with four neat new electro ones. All coming in the form of functional, floor-ready cascady flappers and snappers, Zobol's choice of titles for the remainders - 'Hyperfocus', 'Inter-City Travel', 'Fight Or Flight' and 'Dread' - seem to get at both the technological joys and biopsychic anxieties of the oncoming future, and/or over-fixating on it for want of the present. 'Fight Or Flight' is particularly impressive with its fabric-tearing transitional sounds and candid, apocalyptically sweeping Reeses, which do indeed activate the parasympathetic nervous system.

Review: Frankfurt-Am-Main artist Not Even Noticed keeps the legacy of their city alive in the throbbing, trancey acid tones which come coursing through 'Acid Illusion' - the title track from their new EP. If that track sounds like a Harthouse classic given a shot of electro in the drum lines, 'Rodinia' comes on with melancholy trance leads that could easily have emerged on Eye Q back in the day. For all the past references, there's plenty of freshness in the production to make this record stand up and stand out, not least when we diverge to the reflective electro-acid of 'Xenograft'.

Review: It was only a matter of time until a pun so ingenious as 'Cyberphunk' would be coined. Mixing the literary term cyberpunk with the drum & bass microgenre term, neurofunk, lends this EP title an unlikely treble entendre: 'neuro' also shares a close affinity with cyberpunk, the aesthetic movement - William Gibson's Neuromancer, a pioneering novel in the noir cyberpunk genre, springing to mind as the obvious case in point. Whilst producer Galagad 13 may or may not have consciously held these influences in mind as he set about making this latest EP, they certainly do persist in the collective psyche of which they form a part. Seemingly as ever of music with the word 'neuro' referenced in the title, the likes of 'Blast Off', 'Loud Enough' and 'Chaos' bring a distinctly crisp, hi-tech sound design approach to the table, with many VIPs - variations in production - of prior works also heard throughout. The most unnerving moment is the many voices, both robotic and human, heard on 'Time Runs Out', which brings a rapid, velocitous hollowness to a rapidfire set of megaraucous basses and leads.

Review: Elements Electric is a brand new label out of Dublin that kicks off with revered local talent Peter Sweeney who has also worked as Rustal on labels such as 393 Records and Diffuse Reality. His delightful electro, techno and house fusion sound brings plenty of key Detroit references with it and opener 'Celestial Flame' features pitch-bent acid streaks over kinetic drums. 'Love Not Lost' is another one laced with the sound of the 303 and has glistening celestial melodic details over deep drums. 'Motor City Man' is a classic Mid-Western cut with turbocharged drums and future synth soul while 'Aurora Lake' shows a more melodic side with nostalgic synths intertwining with each other over jacked up beats.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


The man best known as Convextion assumes his ERP aka Event Related Potential alias for four more next level cuts that find him pushing his electro electronics ever more into the future. 'V/Eight' opens with a melancholic bassline under busy drum programming to get things going. 'Equiponderance' is more complex with squirming electronics, more hefty bass notes and serene background pads adding a third dimension. 'Engine Vibration' is a more gritty mix of busy analogue machinery and star-gazing chords then 'Enfield' closes with optimistic sonics and propulsive bouncy bass to end this cosmic cruise on a high.

Review: Viikatory and Manao's Alt Frequency EP showcases a captivating blend of styles, with two dreamy electro tracks on the A-side and two dynamic percussive techno tracks on the B-side. 'LQS' opens up with rising arps and percolating drum funk, while 'Target' has reverberating dub chords and a floating broken beat. 'XOXO' (Viika cut) ups the ante with thumping rhythmic intensity and some warped acid lines while the 'Manao cut' is a more lithe broken beat sound. Additionally, a fifth track is included as a digital download exclusive and each record is hand-stamped and comes with stickered artwork on the sleeve.