Juno Recommends Techno: March 2022

Review: The Sushitech 15th anniversary celebrations have been a long and winding trip back through the imperious tech house label's dub-soaked back catalogue, and it finally comes to rest on this gem from 2017. Marco Rhauderwiek's sound is pure Sushitech, all billowing dub techno blooms and heads-down, late night beats, but the presence of Paul St. Hilaire takes the music to another level entirely. The legendary veteran of Rhythm & Sound and so much more dub-techno crossover business since, the man like Tikiman has a voice synonymous with this style, and he sits beautifully in Rhauder's elegant groove sculptures. Highly prized since its original release, it's a show-stopping release which beautifully draws a line under Sushitech's moment of reflection.

Review: The Butter Sessions bad boys Sleep D are back on the case with some limber rump shakers for the CockTail D'Amore crew. On this 12" the Melbourne-based duo lead in with the low-blowing breaks-y workout 'Phantom', before the chunky, boxed-out house pressure of 'Airbags' takes hold. On the flip, there's a diversion towards more ambient techno territory on 'Screw Driver' and 'Young Street' ditches the beats altogether for a lurid, unnerving kind of closer with molasses thick pads and distorted voices to unnerve the chill-out room posse. With a grainy finish to the production and attitude to spare, the Sleep D lads know exactly how to make their tracks land with a necessary panache - a cut above the rest and no doubt about it.

Review: Well Street continue to offer up some of the most inventive gear on techno's multi-faceted outer limits, this time welcoming South London's Kincaid to the table. There's certainly a vaguely defined style around the label now, and Kincaid fits right in with a dexterous line in rhythmic programming and hi-def sound design, but like all the other artists he's got plenty of individual personality as well. 'OOO' quivers and surges with a braindance demeanour, while 'Nothing Is' deals in a swampy, dislocated kind of soundsystem music. This is dense, brilliantly rendered club music for those who require the freshest of the fresh ideas.

Review: More from mystery artist Surrogate, reportedly a veteran Detroit-based techno producer operating under a new alias for the first time in 20 years. As with the publicity-shy artist's recent debut on Misstress Recordings, the four cuts showcased on this EP combine crunchy, distorted and sometimes extremely lo-fi techno and electro beats with dubbed-out electronics, deep space motifs and subtle nods towards vintage rave culture. There's much to admire throughout, from the soul-flecked deep techno crunchiness of 'Poison' and hypnotic, early morning brilliance of 'LX', to the fractured techno minimalism of closing cut 'Moderno'.

Review: Some six years after debuting via a deliciously angular and energetic EP from Jaquarius and Mono-Enzyme 307, the Acid Avengers imprint notches up release number 20. Like most of the label's EPs, it's a multi-artist affair. Sometime Balkan Vinyl and Bass Assault artist Acidulant handles side A, bouncing between rushing, piano-sporting 1992 hardcore revivalism ('Super Rave'), sub-heavy deep electro haziness ('Save The Last Rave') and throbbing, arpeggio driven trance/breakbeat techno fusion ('Hauz Trax'). Voiron, who last graced the label back in 2016, takes over on the flip. The Paris-based producer first fuses glistening, spacey melodies, twisted acid lines, post-electro beats and dirty bass on 'Bon Kick Voiron', before opting for deep acid house on 'Digital Voiron Workstation' and atmospheric, Orbital-meets-'90s tech-house on 'Sugar Voiron'.

Review: Livity Sound kick-starts its second decade with a seriously significant release: the Bristol-based broken techno imprint's 50th twelve-inch. Fittingly, it comes from two label regulars: French techno revolutionary Simo Cell and Bristol ever-present Hodge. As the title makes clear, percussion is at the heart of the EP, with all four tracks combining punishing polyrhythmic drums with gargantuan basslines, trippy vocal samples and unsettling electronic textures. Such is the quality on show that selecting highlights is tough, though our current favourites include the ethereal synth lines, stabbing bass and loose-limbed beats of 'You Think Too Much', the low-slung late-night paranoia of 'Medusa' and the punishing percussive intensity of 'Drums From The West'.

Review: Midway through 2021, Sven Vath delivered his first single in well over five years, the squelchy, warming and melodious goodness of 'Feiern'. Here he begins 2022 in style via a two-track missive that's every bit as rushing whilst opting for a more abrasive, angular and foreboding sound. 'Mystic Voices' is particularly potent, with its combination of panicked TB-303 acid motifs, throbbing electronics and emotive chords recalling the majesty of Orbital circa the Brown Album. Flipside 'Butoh', meanwhile, is a much more hushed affair, with long, atmospheric ambient build ups dropping into dark techno grooves, pots and pans percussions and more high-register, Orbital style electronic flourishes.

Review: Veteran producer Dubfire certainly requires no introduction, nor does the mighty Drumcode who the American producer appears for here in collaboration with Argentina's Flug (REKIDS/Suara) on these two serious tracks. The A side cut 'Rampart' is fierce tribal techno banger reminiscent of Detroit legend Gary Martin, a workout that's geared for those proper heads-down moments on the dancefloor. Equally as austere on the B-side we have the locomotive stomp of "Algorithm" loaded directly off the factory floor with its dubby and greyscale execution.

Review: Low Tape is Gennadiy Mazhos, and you might well have caught him rolling out refined machine soul on labels like Echovolt, Zyntax Motorcity and Furthur Electronix. Here he is returning to Eudemonia, also home to PRZ and Plant43, with a classy four-tracker which expands on his established remit in classically-informed deep techno. 'Escape From Road Valley' is a lush but punchy strain of electro-tech, while 'Euphoretic Energy' brims with bubbling acid lines and dreamy pads. 'Life After Acid' is a sprightly slice of club gear with the finest slithers of breakbeat sprinkled in the mix and 'She Is Sleeping' rounds things off with a mellow trip through bleepy synth lines and pattering drum machines.

Review: We've not been able to get to the bottom of who Kenny Burns is (or at least this one - there was a famous Nottingham Forest footballer of the same name in the dim and distant past), and 89: Ghost main man Neil Tolliday is keeping tight-lipped. Either way, this label debut from the man of mystery includes some genuinely impressive moments. Picturesque closer 'Crease', where dreamy chords and kaleidoscopic synth sounds rise and fall atop an unfussy dancefloor beat, reminded us of Nail's own 1993 cut 'Cassiopeia', while 'Crank' is a thrusting slab of early morning techno peppered with squelchy acid motifs, chiming electronics and loopy, mind-mangling riffs. Elsewhere, 'Croak' is an angular slab of warped techno intensity, and opener 'Creak' is a hypnotic neo-trance number.

Review: Border One returns to Token with 4 tracks of no nonsense, body focused music. This collection of tracks, meant to deliver uncompromising groove, affirms Border One's sonic identity through his use of evolving yet persistent tension brewing above hypnotic elements. This signature storm adds a dimension to Cyclone that guides the listener between club and mind by adding this constant yet recognizable anticipation.

Review: The revival of Aussie Tim Jackiw's career is in full swing, with a new release this week seeing him return to Amsterdam's Deeptrax titled Amnesia. On the A side, we have the deeply celestial techno of "Lucid" with its hypnotic acid gliding throughout. Over on the flip, there's more of the same on "Pillars Of Creation" with its chunky Juno bassline playing centre stange and underpinned by a rich tapestry of spacey atmospherics. The final track "Gravity Loss" is one more journey further into the rainforest incorporating lush droning pads and broken beats.

Review: D. Tiffany's Planet Euphorique are absolute leaders in the field of squishy, trance-licked neo-rave gear. Now here's a tidy VA drop to give you some intel on who's doing good work in the scene right now. Space Cadets leads the way with the gleaming and squirming 'Warp Drive', a warm and playful thumper for everyone to get fuzzy to. Rudolf C pops up for a remix of the track which streamlines some of the ingredients, only to spice things up once more with cheeky bleeps and more trip-fuel besides. Lisene gets into a twitchier state of mind on 'Moral Panic', keeping the tempo up and the mood nervy without losing that trancey undercurrent. Adam Pits completes the set with the stomping 'Mineral Mine', a peak time pearler with all the elements in place for a moment of pure enlightenment on the dancefloor.

Review: The mighty Drumcode label sure knows how to serve up the supersized, massively heavyweight techno rollers. And a master of that particular form is Patrick Berg. He is afforded the luxury of serving up just one tune to this new, one sided, etched 12". 'Living The Lie' is as bulky as they come - the glitchy clasp peel of the rumbling bass, subtle trance stabs bring that rising sense of euphoria and the mounters kick just hammer the whole thing home. It is an epic tune for epic party moments, especially once the diva vocal rings out.

Review: Main room techno hero Marco Faraone has become a key artist on Rekids in recent times, and label chief Matt Edwards has deemed the Italian worthy of remixing a couple of his greatest anthems from the Radio Slave back catalogue. On the A side, 2015's 'Don't Stop No Sleep' receives a typically steely and austere rework by Faraone, with the restrained, heads down groove of the original now totally pummeling you into submission. Next up on side B, the now legendary 2009 track 'Grindhouse' featuring Danton EEPROM is reimagined as a strobed out warehouse banger, yet with the Hellraiser aesthetic still intact.

Review: Fresh off the acclaimed reissue of his Feuerfalter LP in both parts on Harthouse last year, the legendary Frankfurt label presents another reissue of a classic LP by hi-tech minimalism engineer Boris Brejcha. Die Maschinen Kontrollieren Uns ("The Machines Are Controlling Us"). was the Frankenthal native's second album released in 2007, where the masked crusader presented a whopping sixteen tracks. A true zeitgeist of a golden era in minimal techno, tracks like 'Brainstopper' with its atonal assortment of blips and bleeps underpinned by clipped rhythms will really take you back to the old says, as will the glitchy micro-funk of "Die Maschinen sind Gestrandet" (Second Edition) or the deep tech house of "Wellenreiter (2.0)" could have been played aboard a Sunday boat party along the River Main circa 2008.

Review: Barnt returns for a weighty, new wavey three-tracker on Kompakt, not quite straying from his trademark minimal tech style, but nevertheless working in novel elements. 'This Is For The Decor Only' is a glistening ambient trance cut, working in detuned leads and melodic 'woahs' (woah indeed), while 'You Know What's Gone' recalls everything from mid-80s body music, new romantic dance, and medieval music. 'Fan' is the ambient closer, revealing the producer's musical talents far beyond that of mere dance music. As Barnt says, he wanted to touch on a "ceremonial, emotional, grand spirit", and he's achieved just that.

Review: RECOMMENDED
The DJ Kicks series has managed to outlast the vast majority of other DJ mixes we can think of - the good, the bad, the populist, and the plain cash cow. Even the mighty fabric compilations have rebranded and rethought, bringing the original legacy, FABRICLIVE included, to a respectful end at 200 outings. Strange, then, to think, that !K7's mighty offering to the world of "What should we listen to at the afters?" has arguably managed to become more relevant as the years have flown by.

There was a time when the series existed at the lighter end of club fare, with some examples barely even matching that description. These days, though, there's often a dance floor heaviness central to the selections, with Jessy Lanza's broken, bass-driven set a case in point. Pointless attempts to describe the music, and lazy track list namedropping aside, this is energy-packed, heads down, futurist stuff packed with infectious percussion.

Review: While Dutch DJ/producer Oliver Heldens may be more well known for his future house exploits, he has been cultivating a love of techno separate from his mainstage persona as HI-LO, with releases on Octopus and Filth on Acid. His latest comes courtesy of the ever reliable Drumcode in the form of the Hypnos EP on which he gets serious on two absolutely massive tracks. On the Al first side you have the brooding rave drama of 'Hypnos' that's absolutely geared for peaking out under the strobe light, it's quite reminiscent of Kevin Saunderson's brand of Tronik House, as is B side offering 'Hera' which takes a much more euphoric turn with its epic chord progression sure to get the hands in the air.