Return To Disorder Vinyl & CDs

Review: Amato brings the kind of nasty electro business that fits right in on Helena Hauff's mighty Return To Disorder stable, and you know it's serious from the opening strains of the VHS noir monster "Escape From Grenoble 2018". "Hydraulic Funk" takes things slower, coming on like a freaky Frak flipside and sounding excellent for it. "Machine Outil" takes things in a more muscular direction that sounds built for bench presses and body jerks - the consummate peak time sledgehammer. Umwelt takes this sturdy starting point and demolishes it into a hailstorm of acid malevolence that'll melt your face clean off.

Review: Captain Mustache is a new energy in the club scene who surfaced with a bang last year and has since notched up releases on Bordello A Parigi, My Favourite Robot, Bedrock and Kompakt no less. Now he's stepping forth with his biggest belters to date on Return To Disorder, kicking off with the massive 'Danger' featuring certifiable legend Paris The Black Fu on vocal duties. 'Floorwax' is also packing some club scene clout into its electro fantasy, with the mighty Foremost Poets sneaking some spooky lyrics into the mix. On the flip, 'Floorwax' gets remixed by Cardopusher and Hrdvision, who respectively jack the track up and freak it right out, widening the scope of the record without leaving the seedy ambience Return To Disorder prefers to lurk in.

Review: Tomas More's December alias has gone from strength to strength, kicking off on Blackest Ever Black, Where To Now? and In Paradisum only to hop on to Mannequin and Jealous God before landing here on Helena Hauff's Return To Disorder label. On the basis of that CV, you should know full well that this is an artist who favours dark, deviant dance music with a generous lashing of industrial, EBM and electro, and he doesn't disappoint. "64 Ways To Rob A Friend" is a freaky but utterly fun romp laced with ghoulish vocals and underpinned by a driving one-note bassline. "90 Feelings" is more malevolent, channeling the spirit of Ministry and reducing it down to a death march, while the live mix of "A Place To Live" comes on with a New Beat ferocity that's hard to resist.

Review: Helena Hauff's label is back, this time presenting a various artists 12" that heralds the start of the No Return series. The release starts on a mystical bent with the Eastern-tinged death electro of "El Carmel", sounding ripe for a Hague-friendly warm-up session. Neud Photo then take over with a dystopian trip through rich synth tones coloured in dark hues for the bleakest of robotic fantasies. Antoni Maiovvi fills the B-side with the slow grinding bombast of "The Dig", bleeding out a noirish take on coldwave for the darkest hearts to swoon to.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


Helena Hauff's label is back, this time presenting a various artists 12" that heralds the start of the No Return series. The release starts on a mystical bent with the Eastern-tinged death electro of "El Carmel", sounding ripe for a Hague-friendly warm-up session. Neud Photo then take over with a dystopian trip through rich synth tones coloured in dark hues for the bleakest of robotic fantasies. Antoni Maiovvi fills the B-side with the slow grinding bombast of "The Dig", bleeding out a noirish take on coldwave for the darkest hearts to swoon to.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


Helena Hauff's label is back, this time presenting a various artists 12" that heralds the start of the No Return series. The release starts on a mystical bent with the Eastern-tinged death electro of "El Carmel", sounding ripe for a Hague-friendly warm-up session. Neud Photo then take over with a dystopian trip through rich synth tones coloured in dark hues for the bleakest of robotic fantasies. Antoni Maiovvi fills the B-side with the slow grinding bombast of "The Dig", bleeding out a noirish take on coldwave for the darkest hearts to swoon to.

Review: French electro veteran dynaRec has always sat a little to the side of the masses in the scene, which is precisely what makes his music so damn special. Clearly, Helena Hauff agrees, and so dynaRec makes an appearance on Return To Disorder with this colourful, animated four-tracker. 'Expert Text Reader' is a party monster with broad appeal - it's actually redolent of the electroclash era thanks to its catchy arps and vocoder hooks. 'Ray Mentor' takes things tougher and freakier, while 'Messiah' turns up an unexpected 4/4 jacker with some mean swing and rowdy synth riffs to get people bumping hard. 'Twisted Helix Posture' finishes the EP off on a future-synth-pop tip that will have robot souls short circuiting all over the place.

Review: For the fifth release on her Return To Disorder label, Helena Hauff has turned to Hamburg duo Fallbeil. Known for their trippy, analogue-heavy take on techno and electro, the twosome has previously impressed via appearances on Contort Yourself and New York Haunted. Ultima Ratio is another solid selection, with Fallbeil variously exploring distorted, industrial-influenced techno (the post-apocalyptic paranoia of "Secret Codes"), mind-altering electro-acid (the Cabaret Voltaire-meets-Phuture moodiness of "Kontrolled Madness", and straight-up acid business (the hard-edged TB-303 lines and skittish TR-808 style beats of "Orontius"). All three tracks are blessed with that sparse-but-heavy feel that's quickly becoming the duo's trademark.

Review: Cult Scottish electro producer Galaxian has been lurking in the shadows for a long time, only now receiving more recognition in the wake of the electro upsurge. This signing to Helena Hauff's ever-brilliant Return To Disorder is a fine case in point, bringing the one-time Stingray collaborator to a broader audience base. It's good to see Galaxian hasn't diluted his future-shock sound one iota, leading in with the sci-fi noir cinemascope of "Paradise Engineering" before swerving into the heavily reverbed astral plane of "Mutual Arising". "Life Force" meanwhile pings into ever more psychedelic territory, where P-Funk's wildest inclinations meet with electronic futurism, with thrilling, original results. "You Don't Matter" ends this startling record on a brutal note, all snarling acid lines fired off at breakneck pace.

Review: Helena Hauff returns to her own Return To Disorder label after last year's joyously received "Qualm" album on Ninja Tune. It's the first fully solo record Hauff has released herself, and it more than lives up to expectation. "Catso" is a wonderfully expressive slice of noirish electro draped in vintage synth arps and twinkling leads as enchanting as they are spooky. "Why Look At Animals" has a more low down funk, but once again sports the richly harmonic synth hooks to make this appeal right across the board. "The Brush" ups the tempo, but keeps things sparse and moody, while "Slim Filter" gets a touch more nasty and sounds utterly fantastic with it. Compared to her rabid DJ sets, these productions represent the more measured side of Hauff, but they're no less deadly.

Review: Yet again, Helena Hauff's Return To Disorder label brings us a new talent from the world of electro production, this time in the shape of India's Investigations of a Dog. The four tracks here contain a lively, energetic feel sure to tempt the reticent onto the dancefloor, matched with a dreamy optimism that gives them an ultra pleasurable head-in-the-clouds celestial feel. 'Heliocentrism' has echoes of classic LFO's naive melodicism, '11 July' is sunny and gently bubbling in the same vein as Aphex's first 'Ambient Works' LP, and the rest is generally infectious and loveable yet employed with a touch of subtle restraint. We look forward to further Investigations

Review: Barrelling out of the Hamburg underground, it's little wonder that Helena Hauff deemed emergent producer L.F.T. of a spin on her Return To Disorder label. As rough and ready as the electro on It's Alive! is, it's also delightfully playful and upfront as well. The title track sports plenty of Motor City soul motifs to match the hard edges of the beat, while "Visitors" plays around with a primal early 90s palette that should have all bleep fanatics body popping their approval. "Bankrupt Brain" is a taut new wave strutter precision engineered for deviant dancefloors, and "Jorogumo" blows the end of the record open with a soaring, swinging emotional belter.

Review: The latest on Helena Hauff's Return To Disorder label sees Hamburg based producer and Schulverweis/Cher Fassbindermember LFT really kicking hard with four proper electro shocks from the underground. Having previously provided similarly uncompromising Zement, Mechatronica Music, Mannequin and Holland's Acid Avengers, as well as a well received 2019 outing for Return To Disorder, LFT's quality is not under question, and these four bangers only go to back that up.
'No Masters' has a seriously marauding atmosphere to it, a hoover bass sucking up the bass end and the sound of strange monsters in the background, all set to ,a machine funk backbone 'Radiosick' revolves around spiralling high frequency arpeggios, and a simpler, more electropop drums and bass arrangement. 'Nest of Bones' sees Rosaceae adding haunting, punky vocals making it evocative of a more dancefloor-slanted Chicks on Speed, then 'Hashima' completes the package with a more four-to-the-floor approach and alongside a dreadnaught bassline. Terrifically terrifying all round.

Review: Helena Hauff's mighty Return To Disorder is back with a various artists 12" packing phasers set to slay. LFT is as evil as it gets on "Flare," dropping the kind of sleazy, Bunker-ready, acid inflected electro that darkroom dreams are made of. Marc Ash has an edgier tone, maximising the distortion but also capitalising on uneasy space in the mix on grimy workout "Beirut Calling." Morah sends things in an airy direction on "Cold Water," building up layers of noise but maintaing a strange air of optimism. Hauff herself lands the B2 slot with a curious belter that channels the spirit of 90s MIDI game soundtracks amidst searing arepggios and a bloated kick.

Review: Luke Eargoggle joins forces with Dataintrang here for a seasonally appropriate ice-cold electro outing on Return to Disorder. It kick off with side-long opener 'Top Of The Pyramid' which is full of sidewinding synths and squealing analogue lines over corrugated bass. After that one comes the manic and high tempo electro-shocks of 'Not Unique' with snappy snares and darkened vocals. Last but not least is the most brutal assault of them all - '7 Days A Week', a melange of wild acid lines and liquid metal leads with turbulent bass and a general sense of intergalactic warfare.

Review: Chilean artist Magda Rot makes a head-turning debut here with some ice-cold electro rhythms on the Return To Disorder label which is now fast approaching a quarter century of releases. There is no messing with these sounds - they're built on tight, kinetic rhythms with fierce sound designs and stark futurism. 'Triads' is a mix of crisp hits and gurgling synths with dramatic background chords. 'Black Sense' is a slamming cut with a twisted bassline and hammering drum funk and 'Coincidences' brings the chilliness with its frosted lines and cold waves of synth. 'Unusual Theory' shuts down with a far sighted sense of electro-techno doom.

Review: For the second release on her Return To Disorder label, Helena Hauff taps into the dark underbelly of the Athens techno scene and presents the undoubted talents of Greek producer Morah. A resident at Athens party Phormix, Morah has clearly been crafting his productions skills in private for some time as this three track 12" is a powerful display of techno at its dankest. "Solution" sets the tone, dipping into gnarled acid electro that seems to teeter on the brink of all out chaos with fellow A-side track "Take All" similarly nasty. Morah gets a chance to show his more experimental side with "Up In Flames", a scorched exercise in freeform electronics with some particularly haunting vocals.

Review: Helena Hauff's Return To Disorder label plunges once more into the grimy underworld of electro and wave music, this time guided by dungeon dweller Morah who debuted on the label in 2015 and has since gone on to great things via Lux Rec, Berceuse Heroique, brokntoys and more. "I Saw, Strained Her Eyes Peering Into The Gloom" is a bittersweet dance with distortion as disheveled as it is catchy, while "Dance When Lights Off" pushes even further into the red with scintillating results. "Against Your Beloved" sounds positively shimmering by comparison, even if on its own it's still a truly dirty slice of jacked up electro. "One Shade The Less, One Ray The More" is a strong closing bout that draws from a similar sound bank and applies it to a more techno-minded structure.

Review: Lo-fi hardcore rave from Moscow Death Disco vs psychotic art punk electro by Le Chocolat Noir!

Review: Nite Fleit has had a barnstorming couple of years with drops on Planet Euphorique and Unknown To The Unknown, a team-up with Mall Grab on Looking For Trouble and now this rabid electro stormer on Helena Hauff's Return To Disorder label. Compared to some of the grungier, punk-inflected electro you'd expect to find on the label, this is bright, bold, big-room stuff with plenty of ravey motifs to move large masses of bodies. "Empty Nest Syndrome" is hyped up to 11 while "Naive" pivots around a hard as nails electro beat. Watch out for the mad arps on "Can't You See" and "Rebel Faction" too - they're gunning for your cerebellum and you should take heed.

Review: Veteran Lyonnais Dj/producer Umwelt unleashes 4 new swaggering slabs of Electro.

Review: Helena Hauff's Return To Disorder label is back in action with an EP from Croatian darkwave maestro Zarkoff, in conjunction with conspirators such as Ikonal and Cyborgs On Crack. He's been active on the local scene for many years and only now is creeping onto the international radar, but this record should catapult him into the consciousness of all kinds of adventurous spinners. Managing to plunge into murky waters while retaining a propulsive, danceable edge to his sound, the most noticeable quality around this record is the synth work, which unfurls in thick, globulous brushstrokes of noirish melody perfect for the darker kind of dancefloors out there.