Griffe France Vinyl & CDs

Review: Griffe's next release is a flanged freakout from producer Booh, its namesake being the essential Star Wars villain, Darth Vader: while these tracks may or may not mark the Sith lord's nefarious adventures, we do know that they are stonking stuff. Sidestepping his own BOOOoo recordings for a moment, this meticulously produced pranger includes the freewheeling 'Briscard Sound' and the rubbery, jouncy 'Save The Date', marking some abstract future moment in techno to be anticipated. 'Dog Eat Dog' and the title are much more sinister, yet all tracks mark consistent use of adept modular synths.

Review: Cruz returns to Griffe with the new EP 'La Pasion Paga', delivering a wicked set of five elements in the form of neon-drenched electro and wearable wetware Italo. The title track throws us into an extrasensory fervour, serving visions of streaklit motorbikes burning phosphenic light trails onto our retinas, be this due to the various LED filter-cutoff stabs, flash-photo gated snares or two-tone melodic glow discharges heard thereupon. 'Music Addicted' furthers this sense of lubricious but psychotic drive, as we're continually bewitched and bedazzled by murderous murmurations and piquant flicks and guttural saws, glued by the clever working of police sirens into the mix's distance. B-sider 'Always My Illusion' finds a moment of brief respite, deploying a detuned synth xerogel that glues each otherwise sparse, janky electro element into a well-soldered prosthetic. 'Los Atajos Del Delirio' builds on similar themes of futural disillusion, yet ramps things up to yet another accelerative exponent, ending on a juddering but bittersweet note of finality.

Review: Griffe launches its own new split series here with Mama and Torrent kicking things off. Mama goes first with a pair of potent techno cuts. 'Electric Pjack' opens up with some acidic lines spraying about a tightly assembled groove with sliding hi-hats and well-syncopated beats. 'Cyber Pjack' then gets a little darker with a more menacing low end and snappy drums keeping the beats upright. Torrent's two cuts keep the future feels alive with the mechanical grooves and malfunctioning sounds of 'Stay In The Loop' and 'Ex Machina' shuts down with some frazzled synths adding texture to the metallic drum sounds.

Review: Georgian electro-techno artist Toke Nikolaishvilli has cemented his name on the international dance circuit, laying down a yearly sprinkling of EPs for the likes of Pluto's Plan, Dawn State and Griffe. This latest EP hears him take on the melodic, product-of-its-time vogue of aquatic techno. Silly saw leads take charge of 'Sia', with long-released Fruity Loops style snares and a womping finesse making the track sound nicely retrofuturistic. Another cut of choice is the industrial breaks banger 'Avalon', not holding back for a second with its pulsating acid basses and 'phwoar' transitions.