The iconic American techno producer lands a four-track EP on Donato Dozzy and Neel’s Spazio Disponibile.
Nic Tuohey and Rose Mardit reflect on the most recent edition of the revived Berlin festival, picking out six highlights of the programme.
Function & Vatican Shadow, Boothroyd, Austin Cesear, Max D and more featured among the week’s best records.
The Geophone boss is next in line to grace Shipwrec’s techno-focused offshoot with Modulation Cave.
Mike Parker, Abdulla Rashim, Eomac, Headless Horseman and Etapp Kyle headline a serious night of techno at Corsica Studios and we have tickets to the event and a copy of Mike Parker’s Subterranean Liquid 12″ to give away.
The big guns are brought out for the fourth release on the Brothers label – preview the two-track EP here.
It’s been 12 years since Dispatches, the nominal first album from US producer Mike Parker and in the interim period a lot has changed for the art teacher from Buffalo. The gradual acceptance of more abstract forms of techno has benefited Parker, as has a return to purist, reduced sounds. Like the art that adorns the covers of releases on his Geophone label, Parker’s music embraces the principles of minimalism and forges its own path.
Mike Parker will return to Prologue in June with a new album entitled Lustrations.
A cynic could argue that Mike Parker is a one-trick pony, and some of the US producer’s DJ sets have a tendency to sound like one extended droning techno groove. On the evidence of Pulse Trader however, it is clear that Parker is really a classicist with his own signature approach. The title track is based on one of his tunneling grooves but the rhythm is grittier, harsher but also more earthy and tangible, and the tonal bleeps and blips are heavier and more oppressive. It sounds like Parker is sound-tracking a darker side to his personality, but whatever the explanation, the result is one of his most captivating tracks.
Artist: Audion and Mike Parker
Title: Document Part 2
Label: Spectral Sound
Genre: Minimal/Tech House
Format: 12″, Digital
Buy From: Juno Records, Juno Download
Another solid sampler from Spectral’s soon to drop Document compilation. Quite a departure from the twisted house of Part 1, this instalment comprises a pair of full-on techno monsters.
Audion’s “Just Me” taps a similar vein to his recent Spectral output, with another relentlessly looping exercise in twisted groove. Carefully timed percussive drops form the body of the tracks, slowly piling into the seething mass of beats and effects. The best way to describe it would be like a deeply disturbing walk through a techno jungle; animalistic growls stir beneath the sequenced undergrowth, while a demented lead calls plaintively overhead. Fun stuff.
The second track comes courtesy of new Spectral signing Mike Parker, a visual artist with a penchant for pitch black techno. “Protolanguage” lives up to its name, taking techno to its most stripped down and primitive. An acid line writhes its way between the steady kick pattern, whilst ominous atmospherics pervade the lower frequencies. Already a favourite with Marcel Dettmann (arguably, the biggest name on the techno circuit at the moment), this is an effective tool for the darkest of dark rooms.
Review: Tom Ensom
   |