Musique Pour La Danse Holland Vinyl & CDs

Review: 25 years on from its original 1996 release, Neil Ollivierra's debut album as the Detroit Escalator Company gets a reissue. Emerging like a phoenix from Detroit's early dance music scene, 'Soundtrack [313]' deals in the rawer end of atmospheric, arpreggiated techno, each track taking on a different facet of the same shapeshifting platonic form. Enthusiastic panning and crystalline plucks adorn each mix here, re-evoking the same refractive, ascendant image we had of this album in 1996.

Review: Belgian artist and producer DJ Athome has put together this compilation for Musique Pour La Danse with the intention of highlighting the niche UK fesitval scene between 1986 and 1996. It was a time when psychedelic dub, space rock, and early electronica were all in collision with each other as people took ever more mind altering drugs and partied in spiritual locations like Stonehenge. Listening to the sounds takes you there in an instant with weird and wonderful bongos, didgeridoos, new age melodies, world music and non-Western influences all feeding into the tracks. As much as this is a reminder of the good time for those who were there, it's also a brilliant collection for newcomers with an interest in musical history.

Review: Here's a genuine slice of history: a rare recording of a live jam from ambient techno explorers The Irresistible Force (AKA legendary chill-out room DJ and shiny space suit enthusiast Mixmaster Morris) and Ramjac Corporation (AKA Paul Chivers), which took place at gallery, shop and intimate acid house venue The Brain in Soho, way back in September 1990. It's a brilliant time capsule of a time when the template of ambient techno was yet to be fully fleshed out and sees the two performers take it in turns to combine immersive ambient synth sounds and hallucinatory electronics with oddball samples and, more significantly, basslines and drum machine rhythms inspired by the Chicago House and UK mutations of Detroit techno. An important and entertaining musical time capsule.

Review:  Mental Groove offshoot Music Pour La Danse knows a thing or two about tieless techno. And they don't come much more vital than the self titled 1994 debut album from Jonah Sharp (aka Spacetime Continuum) and David Moufang (aka Move D). It never quite got the props it deserved back then and has been an underrated gem ever since but this reissue should put paid to that. It is a holy meeting of lush ambient design, cavernous dub spaces, hints of glistening IDM melody and deeper than deep techno drums that leave you feeling cleansed inside and out.

Review: Back in 2007, three years before he passed away, Throbbing Gristle co-founder and long-serving Coil member Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson recorded a sole album as The Threshhold HouseBoys Choir. It initially came out on a CD (with accompanying DVD of typically trippy imagery), making this reissue the first time it has appeared on wax. The album's five lengthy tracks draw on Thai musical culture -Christopherson was based in Thailand at the time -with computer manipulated indigenous vocals weaving in and out of gorgeously sunny, bubbly and intoxicating electronic soundscapes. Such sonic positivity guarantees entertainment and every listen, with the set arguably being one of Christopherson's most accessible and colourful albums.

Review: Dutch label Musique Pour La Danse present a major new retrospective that selects the best in early 90s bleeps, breaks and bass, exploring the origins of bleep techno and breakbeat rave. Terra Incognita, Tek 9, Boneshakers, Ubik, Break The Limits, Techno Excursion, Trak 1, Three Sons and KLF line up on the tracklisting on this rare and expertly curated collection which promises to save a few otherwise Discogs-directed pennies.

Review: Returning to the turn of the 90s, when British dance music gave birth to two interconnected styles that put heavy sub-bass front and centre: bleep techno and breakbeat hardcore. Exploring these origins, as well as their countless mutations and imitations, Dutch label Musique Pour La Danse present a major new retrospective, cherry picking the cream of the crop of 90s bleeps, breaks and bass. Featuring tracks from Terra Incognita, Tek 9, Boneshakers, Ubik, Break The Limits, Techno Excursion, Trak 1, Three Sons, and KLF, this rare and expertly curated selection of tracks is available in CD form as well as in vinyl format.

Review: Given the length of Orlando Voorn's career - not to mention the rather large number of aliases he's employed over the years - it's perhaps unsurprising that Mental Groove offshoot Musique Pour La Danse has decided to put together a series that rounds up some of his lesser-known productions. Collected EP 2 begins with two cuts from Voorn's early '90s Frequency alias: the Jimi Hendrix-sampling, Belgian style hardcore of "Kiss The Sky", and the bleep-influenced, hip-house roller "Where Is Your Evidence". On the flip you'll find two suitably angry smashers from Voorn's Nighttripper project. There's the aggressive riffs, bleep melodies and relentless techno drums of "The Phuture", and the swinging, acid-driven stomp of "The Trip", both of which originally dropped in 1991.