Tags: Experimental Techno

Review: For fans of off-kilter, minimalistic dance music, there is little more exciting than seeing the words "Ricardo Villalobos remix" printed on to the label of a brand-new record. For all his faults, Villalobos rarely delivers a duff rework, and he's once again hot gold with these revisions of experimental art-rock ensemble Low Island. He first tackles 'Feel Low Again', reinventing the indie-rock cut as a low-slung chunk of woozy minimal techno full of drifting vocals, bubbly electro bass, distant cymbals and snare-heavy beats. On the flip Villalobos reworks 'Don't Let The Light In', offering a slightly less dense and undeniably energetic take full of oddly-tuned electro bass, glitchy sounds, hazy chords and layered vocal samples.

Review: This is the thirrd release by the amazing Italian producer Ivan Iacobucci for the Perlon label. The previous two were so well received, this next one was destined to come out sooner than later. Perlon fans know what to expect from their label of choice and Ivan delivers the goods. Those addictively quirky and fonky jackin' minimal techno jams. The title track is that and then some! We especially like the sexy jam 'Waiting For My Love'. Expect the unexpected when you flip over the record as 'Close the Door' is a full-on acid banger that combines high energy techno into what sounds like a video game soundtrack theme song! Closing things out is the wild sounding 'Fear & Madness in the Desert'. We are smiling at the thought of someone playing out these corkers to audience. Expect to see WTF typefaces everywhere!

Review: Contemporary tastemakers Geilgling return with a set of remixes of material from Leafar Legov's recent album, Mirror. First up it is German minimal maestro Isolee who flips 'Fade' into some of his signature sounds - smeared synths and abstract designs all weave together over a minimal beat to make for something seductive and late night. Polish loop master Jan Jelinek then flips 'Fade' into a slow motion shuffle with bright, celestial shards of melodic light and downbeat, melancholic vocals over a chugging beat. Last of all is a mix of 'Jing' that is all broken loops, chopped vocal fragments and hallucinogenic synths.

Review: After a break of two long years, tech-house scene stalwart Sascha Funke has finally delivered a new EP of typically atmospheric, on-point music. It's his first outing for Running Back after years spent flitting between BPitch Control, Multi-Culti and Endless Flight. Interestingly, what's on offer is more retro-futurist in tone than much of his work, with audible nods to vintage electronic disco, early 2000s nu-disco (think Morgan Geist) and tactile '90s deep house. Our picks of a very strong bunch are rubbery, morse code-sporting nu-disco-goes-bleep house number 'QAM', moody analogue deep house treat 'SEZ', whose creepy chords and spacey sonics are undeniably alluring, and ultra-melodious, Italo-disco-influenced opener 'FEZ'.

Review: Frost and Einzelkind's Pressure Traxx captures the evolution of minimal tech house over the past ten years, as the rigour of functional 4/4 gave way to different rhythms and motifs from the wider dance music lexicon. It was a smart move which helped reinvigorate the scene, and while they didn't do it on their own they absolutely fuelled the fire. Ten years in, their label is certainly due a retrospective which stretches out over eight sides of next-level workouts for long blends and marathon sets. The cast of characters hardly needs explaining - from Tobias and Villalobos to Edward and John Dimas, the quality never lets up and in one smartly arranged box set you're going to be gifted with the finest minimal in recent circulation.

Review: Inimeg Records label boss and general underground don Joey Anderson has always operated on the fringes of the deepest house and techno sounds. The New Jersey mainstay returns now with the Vanish EP on Obia Records while owner Wendel Sield also pops up with one tune. Anderson's trio ranges from the dusty, smoky basement dub of 'Vanish' to the ticking and glitchy minimal menace of 'Masked Ones' via the intense synth dystopia of 'Escape'. Sield's 'Cultivate' is a smeared, spacious cut with meandering pads and prickly percussion that zones you out for days.

Review: With Yoyaku's record shop staff handling A&R, the YYK No Label imprint has become impressively unpredictable. Recently, they've served up 21st century progressive house from Varhat, a killer collaboration between Chez Damier and Ben Vedren and an experimental synth-pop album from People People. Here they turn to Swizz jazz drummer Samuel Rohrer, an artist with extensive experience of delivering hybrid acoustic-electronic tech-house and minimal techno excursions. That's what's on offer here, with Rohrer blending vintage electronics and his own drums and percussion with synthesiser sequences, machine beats and intoxicating aural textures. This approach is best exemplified by the Tangerine Dream-goes-tech-house flex of 'Rewired Paradise' and the sludgy, pitched-down 'Memory Reset', though ambient jazz number 'Into The Void Where Things Go (Part II)' is also brilliant.

Review: Following fresh from her most recent single 'Tarde', the world's best-kept techno titan Nina Kraviz has gone on to enlist an all-star cast of remixers for a decalogue of versions of the track, notably topped off by a pystrance remix. But on this 12", Kraviz shortens the full ten tracks to four, streamlining the selection for the system-respecting DJ. "Tarde" meaning "late" in Spanish, Kraviz' original track is a brooding slow murmur, textured by earthen Reese-esque basses, ambirhythmic rumbles, and amorous lyrics in Spanish sung by Kraviz herself. Though the mood is climactic, Kraviz' subject matter is one of dubiety and anticlimax, standing tiptoed on the fence between giving love and deeming it too late. The remixes are uniformly weird, not eschewing the needs of the club-goer yet not shying from the dare of challenging them either. Of the remixes chosen here, dubstep OG Mala crops up for a surprise dash of steppers' quality; U.R.Trax continues the charge with a tricky but efflorescent minimal version; and Vladimir Dubyshkin opens the floodgates for a wacky big-roomed hard trance floater.

Review: Daniela La Luz is no stranger to Rawax's stable of labels - she's previously released on most of them at different points over the last decade- though Global Transformation marks the first time she's appeared on any of them as Vanilla. The Berlin-based artist sets her stall out with the raw, punchy and occasionally sparkling title track - all woozy keyboard riffs, weighty electro-meets-house beats, tipsy chords and heavy bass - before opting for a deep, druggy, acid-fired and percussively propulsive vibe on 'The Last Window of Time'. Elsewhere, 'Animal Queendom' sees her wrap echoing, dubbed-out and reverb-laden synth riffs around a tough and locked-in beat, while 'All Together' is built around the twin attractions of sturdy, slightly off-kilter machine drums and jazzy electric piano motifs.

Review: The Digital Finesse label was founded as an outlet for two artists, Jimmy Batt and Blinkdus Dischetto. This release is the latter's first on the imprint and it's a biggie: a debut album that does a terrific job in showcasing his hybrid style. That naturally comes to the fore on opener 'Oulala', a chunky blend of synth-heavy nu-disco, French touch funkiness and the more picturesque early deep house works of Pepe Bradock. Squelchy acid bass, cut-up vocal snippets and sun-bright melodies mark out 'Allez Ouste', while 'Corsica Express/Nuit Squanche De Solid State (Tascam Dub)' cannily combines ambient and acid house. Elsewhere, he beefs up the beats ('Le Dernier Des Cristaux'), displays his mastery of 1990s style IDM ( 'Alain Des Cloches') and successfully whips out his MPC (the boogie-tastic 'Breuil Voisinage').

Review: Seekers' 'The Man And A Sample' implies that all one needs to craft such tuneful incendiaries is a human body and a phono lead. Bringing three jams laid to tape in Barcelona in 2023, in turn laid to 12" vinyl in 2024, 'Telepathic Soul', 'Isotopic' and 'Parkour Jam' are three psychotropic, street-level soundshifters from the artist and label only known pluralistically as Seekers. All the tracks weigh in on a sound complementary of breakdance and MPC-core, though the added lasery, tropical and psychic sounds lend the whole thing an impressive, colourful abstraction, in good keeping with the highly exploratory Seekers brand. This Seeker saves the best till last with 'Parkour Jam', a somersaulting next-funk jam replete with effected vocal "hups", and the sounds of ancient alien landing gear repurposed into riser and faller SFX.