Juno Recommends Electro: Best of 2022

Review: As you can probably work out form the title, Wavejumpers is an electro project that is related to the work of James Stinson and Gerald Donald's Drexciya outfit. It features former Aquanauts man Tyree Stinson and plenty of aqueous synth lines and watery motifs that take you deep into an oceanic world. Accompanying text says "Oaths were made, plans and maps drawn up. The Spawn has escaped. Wavejumpers spotted off the coast of Scotland. Can you decode The Sound that lurks in the fog?" which adds to the mystery, while the beats themselves are as good as electro gets.

Review: A genuine slab of history here, as Earth Leakage Trip's 1991 debut single - officially the first ever release on legendary hardcore and jungle label Moving Shadow - finally gets the reissue treatment. The three-tracker is one of the finest (not to mention heaviest) examples of the 'bleep & breaks' sound that combined the weighty bass and bleeps of turn-of-the-90s Yorkshire techno with the crunchy breakbeats associated with early London breakbeat hardcore. This edition changes the running order, opening with the hallucinatory heaviness, bubbly acid motifs and pulsing bleeps of 'Psychotronic', before dropping sub-heavy shuffler 'Over 92' and finally the ludicrously weighty, alien-sounding electro-bleep creepiness of 'No Idea'. In a word: essential.

Review: The second chapter of Umek's alternative career as electro hero Zeta Reticula, which began when he relaunched the early 2000s project seven years ago, continues to deliver a mixture of high-grade electro and pleasing plot twists. His latest sci-fi inspired EP is another action-packed, high-quality affair. Our pick of a very strong bunch is 'Danger', a bustling electro roller in which shimmering but faintly foreboding chords ride punchy drums and a stabbing analogue bassline, though some may prefer the tougher, arguably more club-ready bustle of 'Place of Synthesis' or the deliciously retro-futurist throb of 'Goldilocks Zone', where trippy, TB-303-driven electronic motifs, bleeping lead lines and moody chords rise above a viciously unsettling backing track.

Review: French electro botherer Kafkactrl came up over the past couple of years with releases on Vortex Traks, and now they've been snapped up by Kluentah's Zement label which means rubbing shoulders with the likes of LTF and Chupacabras. Fine company indeed, and this promising newcomer more than steps up to the plate with assured, moody and brooding electro gear produced with flair and precision in equal measure. Across the six tracks you get a lot of ground covered, from 'Interzone's edgy dystopian machine funk to the lurid robo-nightmares of 'Gradient Descent' and the Drexciyan body pop of 'Checksum Zero'.

Review: Ralph Lawson's Leeds based 20/20 Vision label has made a distinctive shift into electro territory over the last couple years. It is a sound the boss has said has long been in his heart despite him being best known as a house head and longtime resident at Back to Basics, and the quality of the tunes he unearths to put out more than backs that up. The Exaltics & Paris The Black Fu kick off with a shiny, bright, visceral metallic electro workout then three further cuts take in dark wave drum machine rhythms and acid-laced bangers.

Review: The Maltese machine funk specialist himself Keith Farrugia is back once more with yet more of his impeccable electro business as Sound Synthesis. This time the prolific producer is shoring up on Burnski's Infiltrate label with four cool and deadly cuts which build on his previous drops for 20:20 Vision, Furthur Electronix, Orbital Mechanics and more besides. From the nervy sci-fi flex of 'Motor Space Maps' to the playful fun n' games of 'Back In Time', Farrugia knows exactly what he's doing within the electro blueprint, and his tracks are reliably punchy warm - a true master at work.

Review: Hessdalen is jam-packed with bustling, floor-friendly electro inspired by deep space and produced in Reykjavik. The title track races along at quite a lick thanks to bustling beatbox drums, rumbling 808 bass and bleeping melodies, while "We'll Be Alright" sees the publicity-shy producer reach for the TB-303 on a deep, woozy and intergalactic IDM shuffler. You'll find spacey dub influences bubbling to the surface on EP highlight "Time Travel", before closer "Alien People" sees Volruptus celebrate the "braindance"-era Rephlex catalogue with the assistance of ragged acid lines, dreamy chords and high-octane machine drums.

Review: Sturdy electro thumpery from Konery TMI, served up in five portions across what will surely prove a highly delectable EP for fans of the genre. Opening track 'Nauhuri' and 'Automaa' are both full of grace and gorgeous, effortless glide, while 'Lumivyory' alters the mood somewhat to get down and dirty with some thoroughly filthy acid squelch filth. 'Polaaritahti' takes its cue from the more minimal 80s sounds of Egyptian Lover or Hashim, before we draw to a close with the more serene and soothing 'Mustikka'.

Review: Slamming release from Aberdeen's Source Material here, originally released a couple of years back and receiving a much needed repress this week. Barcelona-based, Argentinian producer DJ Frankie's Suppress The Darkness is the real deal for those that like their beats on the more dystopian side of things. Featuring the slamming futuristic warfare of 'Waiting', and the complex computer funk of 'The Suppressor' on side A , followed by the punishing 'Death Or Death' which nearly ventures into industrial techno territory. It then receives a hyper aware booty-bass style rework by Assembler Code up next.

Review: Lloyd Stellar was not really a man gifted an extraordinary name when he was born. Rather, it is the chosen alias for Dutch dude Erik Griffoen, but he's surely made the name his own with a rapid rise in the number of releases of his music so far this year. Now Stellar gets has mitts on 20/20 Vision alongside The Droid, aka Ben Evans. In line with the label's exploration of electro over the past few years, this is hi-tech machine funk through and through, with twitchy synth lines and brittle, crisp drum machine patterns programmed within an inch of their lives. Maintaining a steely, dystopian mood throughout, this is serious electro for the heads, executed with precision and flair.

Review: Carl Finlow has produced an astonishing catalogue of music over a career spanning three decades, with his discography including hundreds of releases and remixes under a variety of monikers. 'Desequence' is the latest edition to Finlow's expansive productions and a masterclass in electronic music.

'Desequence' kicks off the record with a heavy dose of integalactic funk with interstellar beats rockin' over squelchy bass lines and razor sharp glitches. While 'Downstream' delivers a warped groove wrapped up in Finlow's intricate programming.

'Guttural' is an overwhelming assault of rapid fire elements, forming complex off kilter breaks littered with robotic licks and served over deep, low end bass. 'Wavefront' closes yet another impeccable addition to Finlow's highly accomplished works, with an off planet adventure through extraterrestrial soundscapes.

Review: LA-based Ole Mic Odd makes a return to Source Material for second dose of booty acid beauty. after featuring on numerous labels worldwide in recent years. As its title suggests, the four tracks here have heaps of gnarly acid attitude and speed-wise are set to maximum twerk. All highly likely to keep your 3AM crowd rooted to the spot and away from any thoughts of heading off for the night bus or taxi rank, sure, but there's another layer to this release beyond such functionalities. Ole Mic Odd has clearly mastered the art of light and shade, because he barely needs a note or two to switch up the mood of 'Bunsen Burner' or the heavily electro-weighted 'LA Gear', meaning all four have depth as well as impact.

Review: The sixth album by Emile Facey under the Plant43 moniker and the seventh release on his Plant43 Recordings imprint since its inception in 2020, Sublunar Tides is his most expressive and stylistically wide ranging to date. Over 52 minutes and nine tracks the album whisks the listener effortlessly from fast-paced dancefloor electro through the slowmotion cloud-soaring of Concrete Breakers, the intricate experimental synths of Perfect Ruin to the lilting, songlike tones of the emotional album closer 'Tides Align'.

A co-founder of London's Bleep43 crew, Facey has been promoting underground electro and techno since the 90's. As a producer he's been releasing records since 2005 with a string of releases on respected scene favourites such as Central Processing Unit, Frustrated Funk, Semantica, Shipwrec and Cultivated Electronics. He has played live alongside DJ Stingray, ERP/Convextion, Sync 24, Surgeon, Legowelt, Urban Tribe, Svreca, Datassette among many others.

Review: Gerald Donald's Dopplereffekt is by all measures one of the most influential electro groups of all time. A bunch of their music is being reissued at the moment including the long overdue debut album.But now comes a new one, Neurotelepathy, their second album and fifth overall release on on Leisure System. The duo of Rudolf Klorzeiger and To-Nhan had a special live magic that always informed the music that made it onto record and that is the case here. The album has a real precision of groove, with wiggling basslines and modulated synth sounds that find them at their very best across these tunes.

Review: As part of Drexciya's latest reissue campaign with Tresor, their most defining album 'Neptune's Lair' here gets a rerelease with brand new cover art from Detroit contemporary artist Matthew Angelo Harrison, not to mention a fresh remaster. Perfectly representing the DIY flair of their original deep-sea electro sound - with rough analogue electronics submerged in lo-fi, as though they're being drowned a Drexciyan merman - we're more than happy to have 'Andreaen Sand Dunes', 'Universal Evement' and 'Surface Terrestrial Colonization' grace our ears again.

Review: Originally released digitally two years ago and here finally available on wax, Krafwerk's Remixes pairs a swathe of vintage reworks (mostly from the '90s and early-to-mid-2000s) with a handful of surprise 2018 reworks from the legendary German band. In this latter category you'll find a fantastic, slowed-down take on 'Musique Non-Stop' and two versions of 'The Robots' based on their 21st century live versions. Other highlights include Orbital's weighty, club-ready revision of 'Expo 2000', an early '90s Francois K extension of The Mix remake of 'Radioactivity', superb Motor City techno takes on 'Expo 2000' from DJ Rolando and Underground Resistance, and two storming Hot Chip remixes of cuts from the Tour De France LP.

Review: Marking over 16 years as an artist, Robert James unveils his debut album Battle of The Planets. A milestone in any musician's career, the LP illustrates the breadth of Rob's tastes and influences, exploring the rugged terrain of planet electronica. Ranging from breaks and electro to house and techno, Battle of The Planets was made during lockdown, a period of creativity and isolation for many artists around the world. Across 10 skillfully produced cuts Rob takes us on an intrepid adventure into the cosmos, where mysterious atmospheres and uplifting melodies sit side by side with captivating dance floor rhythms. Many shades of his personality come through on this album, all tied together by his unique sonic identity; informed by his years spent on the dance floor, behind the decks and in the studio. On Battle of The Planets Robert James presents a distillation of his extensive knowledge and experience into one succinct, highly engaging body of work.

Review: As one of the iconic partnerships from the electroclash era, Miss Kittin & The Hacker helped define seedy synth tackle at the turn of the century. Given the prevalence of minimal wave in this day and age, it feels like the perfect time for them to come back with a new album. Teetering between pop nous and the darkest of deviant nighttime dreams, this is everything you would want from a return of the Grenoble greats. Listening to 'Purist' and they could easily be taking on the charts, while a trip into 'La Cave' is like donning your finest leathers and sliding into the dungeon.

Review: The spirit of ghetto tech looms large over this full length offering from duo Hi Tech, surfacing on Omar S' FXHE label. That said, the usual straight forward pumped up booty bouncing beats that the genre flaunts are left well behind by an eclectic and well constructed trip across the rhythmic spectrum. 'Milf Milo' is one of the more regular sounding jams, riding a relatively conventional house/garage production, but elsewhere elements of trap, hip-hop, techno, footwork and electro all influence the genuinely innovative and original frameworks. Even better, the cleverness of the arrangements doesn't lessen the alarmingly thuggish timestretched and over-autotuned vocals, giving us the best of both worlds.

Review: Originally released in 2012, DJ Stingray 313's first and only album gets a complete and utter do-over, with a new album cover and label to boot. For an album released nearly 10 years ago, this bit is remarkably ahead of its time, and arguably better than what most heads agree electro should sound like in 2022. Soft, sinister and scratchy, 'F.T.N.W.O.' emerges and slowly outwards from conspiratorial talk of a "new world order" on the first track. All this comes before 'Dark Arts', 'Denial Of Service' and 'Image Search' prove to be the best examples Stingray's watery, smoked-out approach, working in electro's faster trajectories. One of the best dance albums of the 2010s, this is electro as malleable, with Stingray hinting at dark futures, vast conspiracies, and lost minds throughout.

Review: Electro lovers will be foaming at the mouth over this one - it is a super luxe reissue of some seminal UK electro from the late 90s. It channels plenty of Drexcyia vibes with its cinematic sound and sci-fi overtones and sounds as good now as it ever has. All of the tunes on it have been remastered from DAT tapes and included along the way is 'Original Flow' which wasn't on the album before and has never been released. It was only recently unearthed having been written in 2000.

Review: If you needed any more evidence that Central Processing Unit are fine purveyors of highly engineered electro, then here it is in the form of an immaculate LP by the one and only Carl Finlow under his Silicon Scally moniker. Across the nine tracks featured on the Field Lines album, you have typically precise sci-fi beats ('Receptors'), imaginary future soundtracks ('Empty Hallways'), Toulon-Detroit connections ('Inhibitor') as well as the sounds of outer space transmissions ('Submerged') and the sounds of alien intergalactic warfare on the epic 'Static Fire'.

Review: Astonishingly, GRIT is Luke Vibert's 18th album under his given name (he's released many more as under other aliases such as Wagon Christ, Kerrier District and Amen Andrews), though his first for a couple of years. It's a predictably fun, TB-303 heavy affair, with the prolific Cornishman giddily sprinting through rubbery acid-electro ('Surrounded By Neighbours'), deep acid wooziness ('Decay Hole'), thrillingly wayward machine funk ('Partron'), subdued, bass-heavy swingers (the vaguely Wagon Christ-ish 'Gas Legs'), surging jack tracks (the breathless title track), jaunty house retro-futurism ('Swingeing Cuts'), Kerrier District-goes-acid insanity ('Disco Derriere'), hard-to-pigeonhole madness ('Screwfix Typeface'), and much more besides. A must-check for lovers of trippy acid lines and sweaty, loose-limbed beats.