Juno Recommends Electro: Best of 2023

Review: Yes! Gerard Hanson returns to Frustrated Funk for more worthy Event Related Potential output! The celebrated rooftop alligator wrestler from Texas operates under numerous aliases - Convexation, Syne Language and Time Light Curve among them - but ERP is our favourite at Juno HQ, more so when it arrives via the superb Frustrated Funk label. Renowned for his emotive strings, Hanson brandishes them in abundance on Pith with lead track "Luctu" all about his compositional skills, as he orchestrates various melodic arrangements without losing sight of the funk. On the flip "Tuga" plays out like a charming ode to electro's classicisms as rasping 808s combine sublimely with the deviant analogue bass as Hanson works his string laden magic. It's left to the final title track for Hanson to adopt a pensive, more contemplative tone which contrasts nicely with the music that preceded it.

Review: Cybotron are best known as the early purveyors of electro as we know it, responsible for the genre's more mechanised incarnations from as early as the mid-1980s. Now, though, they "re-emerge in our contemporary cybercultural age when artifactual futures begin a transition into a new era of "Meta'", with two new tracks on Tresor, 'Maintain' and 'The Golden Ratio'. While this sentence might take some decoding, we're fain to speculate that it has something to do with the current mass-mediated zeitgeist centring on virtual reality and its implications for metaphysics, both of which right up Cybotron's street as concepts go. Something about the perturbed spirit of 2023 has awoken Juan Atkins and Laurens von Oswald from their decades-long slumber to produce this vocoded, deep-waving, technocult opus. We must figure out what!

Review: Following a string of inspired releases on Craigie Knowes and Casa Voyager, Driss Bennis brings his OCB project to Juan Atkins' Metroplex label for the first time. He sets his stall out with the up-tempo, Rhodes-laden electro-funk wonder of 'The Sequel', before dousing gorgeous synthesiser melodies and ambient textures in atmospheric field recordings on sunset-ready delight 'Global Warming'. He puts Kraftwerk through the sub-heavy Detroit techno Ringer on the freakishly addictive 'Syntax Error', while 'B2' is an Atkins-esque, acid-flecked sci-fi techno workout. Rounding off a genuinely brilliant EP is 'Built In Time', a wonderfully emotive, jazzy and tactile chunk of downtempo electro lusciousness.

Review: For those too young to remember the days of glitch-house and electro-house at the turn of the noughties (think Herve, Switch, Claude Vonstroke etc), Fake Blood was one of the true masters of the style. He released a swathe of big records for Cheap Thrills and others, with the two tracks collected here - both of which date from 2009 - being the biggest. A-side 'I Think I Like It' is a superb example of the style, with the producer expertly cutting up a pleasingly silly and over-the-top disco-pop number and turning it into sweat-soaked, hands-aloft gold. 'Mars', meanwhile, gains its dancefloor power from a frankly filthy, mind-altering bassline-turned-lead-line, around which crispy drums, breakbeats and Mylo-esque synth stabs make their presence felt.

Review: Zement welcome back Ole Mic Odd and Alonzo for another punch of high impact tunes aimed squarely at the floor. There is plenty of cosmic urgency to the electro-tech of 'B-A-D' and all its withering sci-fi aesthetics. 'Automate Your Mind' bristles eve more with brilliantly tight drums and hits and mystic pads up above. 'Body Rocking' gets busy with pixelated melodic arps and vocoder vocals with punchy kicks and 'Smoke Break' is a more mindful and slower jam for thoughtful reflection.

Review: Released back in 1996, Test Pilot Vol 1 has remained a highlight of the Viewlexx label ever since and has been one of those records that command regular calls for a repress. Kudos to I-F then for finally heeding these shouts and presenting a remastered edition for the masses. For the uninitiated, this 12" features classic Hague cuts from I-F and Jungian Archetype, another alias of the Viewlexx boss, with all four perfect for introducing a sense of bedlam to the dancehall. "Who Are You...?! (Theme From Paranoid Stranger)" in particular will bend many an unprepared mind. If you don't own an original edition, grip this remastered version and hold tight for a brand new second volume of Test Pilot featuring Gesloten Cirkel and Roberto Auser!

Review: Swedish producer Ola Obergman has been at the top of his game for over 20 years now, dropping superb electro on the finest labels. Last year he dropped a fantastic full-length album on Pariter, but now steps up to Infiltrate with a direct dance floor offering. 'Norma Cluster' pairs busy drums and bass with more atmospheric leads before 'Invariant Hyperbola' has a perfectly crisp boom-bap that is run through with synth sequences that get your head amongst the stars. 'Sterile Neutrino' is more raw and ragged with another irresistible rhythm and 'Dragonfly44' closes in a thoughtful fashion.

Review: Paul Byrne aka Apiento follows up releases on Music For Dreams, World Unknown and World Building with six tracks that go deep for the collaborative Love International & Test Pressing label LIXTP, covering esoteric electronica through to transcendental dance. Beginning with the mesmerising and celestial electro beats of 'Beau6', leading into second A-0side track 'Axis' an evocative one which has you covered for sunrise breaks. There's also more retro vibes aplenty over on the flip with 'Escape Light' which is an intelligent and contemplative IDM cut, while 'The Us Frequency' channels the high tech soul of first wave Detroit.

Review: DJ Plant Texture aka Bari's Donato Basile makes a Return to Disorder with four blistering cuts of jungle, electro, techno and acid. He is a versatile producer who takes no prisoners and considers no sounds off-limits. This one kicks off with the brutalist beats and casuistic synths of 'The Other World' before funky, acid-laced techno bouncer 'Preserve The Rave' takes you to the next level. 'The Man Of The Street' (feat Mike Tansella Jr) is then a deeper, more cosmic cut with thinking synths but still plenty of powerful rhythms and last of all are the dark jungle breaks of 'Hasta La Vista, Baby.' These are highly charged and guaranteed dance floor destroyers from this ever-on-point wizard.

Review: The irrepressible Plant43 spent a bunch of time over the winter of 2022 and 2023 writing some red hot new music. This is the first drop of what we're told is going to be a limited edition series showcasing what he made and it comes on lovely orange vinyl. 'Fierce Machines' races out of the blocks with edgy hits and celestial chords over a dynamic electro rhyth. 'Silent Core' then dials things back to a more empty and atmospheric sound with zippy leads and rueful chord work. 'Dark Veneer' is a busy mix of tightly sequenced melodic patterns over a jittery groove and 'Life In The Pod' is a clean, crisp, shiny metallic trip.

Review: Raw Takes offers up exactly that - perfectly imperfect electro jams direct from his machines. We last heard from him here at Juno back in 2020 on a VA via the Sample Delivery label but here he takes charge of all six cuts on this new Zement EP. '901 Area' opens with wobbly sheet metal synths and zippy pads that eventually coalesce around a nice snappy electro breakbeat. 'Sxx' pairs ambient pads with machine gun laser fire and 'JMS' then brings a more deep and reverential viber. The rich variation continues on the flip so that there is everything from tripped-out acid to hard-hitting and ear-drum-shattering electro-tech.

Review: Ultradyne has been called a 'fundamentalist' techno artist, and while this is a term we've hardly come across to describe much techno before, we think we get the gist with this new release, Nativist. The five-tracks on this banger-filled 12" tend towards the novelty moods of early electro, with 'Native Serenade' emitting all manner of window-wiping, slippery acid sounds, and the bleepific 'What We Must Do For Chaos' creeping into superfast hardcore. Themes of nationhood and 'protecting the realm' are present, speaking to techno's ironic appropriation of militaristic defence themes.

Review: Is there a more vital label in all of underground electronic music than FXHE? It never ceases to amaze us how Omar S manages to put out so much music of such high quality, mostly of his own making, but also from plenty of satellite producers he lures under his wing. This time we're treated to a rare full-length from someone other than the boss as the Motor City's Hi Tech duo step up with a raw ghettotech workout. These are sleazy tracks with raw production, bumping basslines, high-speed rhythms and plenty of rapped vocals packed with juke and footwork attitude.

Review: Kirk Degiorgio's As One project continues to be a beacon of inspiration within the annals of deep, melodic UK techno. As a true pioneer of the sound from the earliest days, it's impressive to see his inspiration maintain, and there's no better home for his work than De:tuned, a label dedicated to preserving the rich expression and invention of that foundational sound. On AsOne2 we're treated to an extended excursion into widescreen machine soul of the highest calibre, where melancholic chord progressions collide with restlessly original drum programming. It's quite simply exquisite, produced with an impeccable ear and loaded with sincere human feeling. This limited pressing of the album comes on red marbled wax too - highly recommended for the collectors out there.

Review: Poggio and Gabriel Belabbas' cheeky Positive Future label is back once again to bring some playful mischief to the contemporary electro-techno scene. This split release showcases some of the artists orbiting the label, kicking off in spooky style with Aline Umber's 'Hypnotized', which features a pitched down vocal from Poggio no less. Juaan's 'Talt' is equally steeped in B-movie freakery and tongue-in-cheek samples, while Ramez takes things deeper on bass-toting dirtbag joint 'Devil Selectro'. Plazeg finishes the record off with the scattershot bleep feast 'German Physicist', which has a whale of a time plying its own line in gleefully macabre club music.

Review: Exit Planet Earth continues its exploration of the world of electro universe with an expansive, extended six track EP, featuring The Advent x Zein Ferreira, DeFeKT, London Modular Alliance, Konertymi and Zobol. The Advent, whose weekly Gardening Club residency in the mid-90s helped to drag electro out of the realms of the retro and back into the future, team up with Zein Ferreira for a Kraftwerk-on-speed extended mix of 'CarpeDiem', before London Modular Alliance's more moderately paced but still squiggle and bleep laced 'Lump of Coal' plus a 'beats' breakdown for the DJs. The B-side brings us the acid-powered 'Pulssi' by Konerytmi, the bouncy, breakdance-friendly 'Radar' by DeFeKT, and the relatively pure, optimistic sonics of Zobol's 'Data Wars'. Thumbs up all round.

Review: A dystopian barrage of mechanoid electro soundscapes comes courtesy of Silicon Scally, a new, scathing alias alias of rather legendary UK music producer Carl Finlow, best known as 20:20 Vision. Inspired by the oncoming anxiety of a technological hell (trust us, we all feel it, Carl), it's either join the AI death cult or die, as a straight 60+ minutes of generative electro stabbery and post-neural warpings make the entire project sound like a supernatural server processing vast numeric quantities of infectious bytes.

Review: Mechatronica are a Berlin-based promoter, label and collective, whose main screed is enthusiasm for the joining of man and machine. Driven by a passion for the connection between humans, mechanics and electronics, their parties center on such cultural centres as Sameheads and Griessmuhle. DL-MS is their latest nonhuman addition to the roster; a dystopian electro soundscape in which not even the minutest cluster of organic life can escape its artificially intelligent clutches.

Review: There's a veritable buzz building around this new release on Clone West Coast Series, and it's not hard to hear why. With past releases on Housewax, Eudemonia and his own Chateau Royal, Gal Perez has earned his stripes as an electro-techno master craftsman, but even by his own standards this record ramps the heat up a notch. Of course, electro-techno fusions are nothing new but Perez really makes his synths sing, wringing all kinds of squelchy nastiness and addictive rave energy out of his chosen tools. There are fluttering arps which soar skywards on 'Synthetic Man' and the dirtiest monophonic b-lines creeping around 'Double Data', and that's not the half of it. Guaranteed firebombs for the dancers that can handle it.

Review: Scanone is a producer who has proven his versatility and so it's no wonder he's been tapped up for some killer tunes by the Reposition label. This blistering electro EP features three originals that mix up industrial textures with caustic drums and star-gazing synth work. 'Vivre' is an eye-watering opener with sheet metal sounds and frosty pads, 'Kraft' is then a slower more pensive electro soundscape and 'Vertabre' has a truly brutal groove that will rattle the walls of any club space, as well as dislodge brain cells. Sync 24 rounds things out with a remix of the same cut that becomes a sonic blizzard.

Review: The Kontakt label welcomes Morphology for a new collection of subversive and stylish dub electro tracks designed to melt your mind. 'Needleleaf' kicks off with lashing snares and crispy electro beats all submerged in oodles of echo and reverb for a lush cosmic trip. 'Understory' then slows things down with a prickly beat and percolating bass, slitting synths and a moody atmosphere. Last of all is the icy 'Lakeland', a minimal stepper with rich sound designs and hefty bass tumbles. This is a tasteful trio of fresh fusion sounds.

Review: For the latest release on his rebooted Oblong Records imprint - initially a Plank Records offshoot specialising in turn-of-the-millennium tech-house - Bushwacka has grabbed a collaborative cut from San Francisco scene legend Doc Martin and long-time friend in music Mark 'Blakkat' Bell. The pair first worked together in the studio back in the '90s, and 'Amberrox' is an undeniably nostalgic affair - a hybrid electro/breaks/acid workout of the sort that would have gone down well at Bay Area parties back in 1990. Bushwacka provides two takes - a punchy electro re-fix and a druggy-sounding, early 2000s tech-house tweak before Joeski lays down a bubbly, electronic house roller tailor-made for the wee small hours.

Review: The Electro Music Coalition continues to battle onward in its quest to serve up the freshest electro from the farthest edges of the cosmos. Fobos Hailey indeed sounds like some distance star cluster and takes us there right from the off with 'Broken Mind', a high speed and punchy electro groove with fizzing synth energy. 'Keep It Real' is more dystopian, with machines in meltdown and neck-snapping hits. 'Shedance' brings b-boy breaks other fore and douses them is filtered vocal fragments and skewed synth tension. 'Young 2006' rounds out with another caustic mix of frosted synth textures and twisted leads over tight as you like electro drum funk.

Review: Tresor home in on the happy musical 'accidents' of acclaimed techno duo Transparent Sound for this eponymous new triple retrospective album. Containing such neat audio-tools like the drill bit 'Slang City' and the spanner 'Windows To Your Sole', the originals heard here nail that sense of original, minimal, space-invadery, and melodic electro charm that many artists try to emulate, but few can properly muster up. Perhaps it can only really come from having made that kind of music at the time of its origination, which Transparent Sound luckily did.

Review: Four more lively, lovely electro offerings from Plant 43, the second in a limited edition series of EPs focussed on tracks written over the course of the winter of 2022/23. Opener 'Submolecular Shifting' is bright and bubbly, joining the dots between Kraftwerk and Model 500, while 'Eccentric Elliptical Orbit' follows on slower and more grandiose, echoing early New Order's icy cool synth sounds. 'Encased' has a more otherworldly Aphex-like feel, although the juddering, on-off bass keeps it plugged into the dancefloor. 'The Forgotten Storm' closes proceedings, more low key again and graced with ethereal, adding angelic choirs. Energised enough and streamlined enough to be good dancefloor gear, but expertly executed and, as ever, brimming with enough personality to be a decent home listen as well.

Review: Trident is dropping a couple of top EPs this month. One is from Derrek Carr, and one is this double white 12" that finds Deltamaxx and O En One join forces. They take us on a storytelling trip through cosmic techno that varies in mood and tempo. 'Conexxion' rides a nice rubbery, bumpy groove with incidental and wispy synth sounds, then 'Delta Pavonis' seems to soundtrack a beach party up amongst the stars. There are darker, more heady cuts like 'Donnager' and icy electro cinematics on 'Isonoe' to make for a worthy collection of sounds that work on the dancefloor and beyond.

Review: Back in 2001, short lived Tresor Berlin sublabel Supremat released Mind Over Positive & Negative Dimensional Matter by Drexciya co-founder James Stinson under his Transllusion moniker. This much needed reissue features all three original tracks. There's the murky electro funk of 'Disrupted Neural Gateway', the minimalist beat dystopia of 'Do You Want To Get Down?' and more ghosts in the machine conjured up on B-side offering 'Power Of The 3rd Brain'. 2022 marked the 20th anniversary of Stinson's untimely passing.

Review: Of all the many Drexciya-related projects, Transllusion is surely one of the finest. Coming in the twilight years of James Stinson's life, there's a bittersweet quality to Opening Of The Cerebral Gate but it doesn't hold the force of the music back. From 'Transmission Of Life's searing arps to the nasty machine funk of 'Negative Flash', this is Stinson running at full clip, speaking that innate Drexciyan language through the machines in a manner which has been oft imitated but never even remotely matched. Reissued by Tresor in 2014 with a bonus 12", now it's presented with a fresh sleeve design which evokes the cyberpunk mood of the music in fine style.