Back catalogue: Techno (All)

Review: Apoena is the alias of Henrique Casanova, a DJ and producer from Brazil who heads up Allnite Music which presents his latest effort titled Oceanos Extintos. The mesmerising dub tech house of opener 'Eu Lembro' calls to mind classic Thibideau brothers, leading in to the frozen borders of the title track which will engulf you in its cavernous sound. Over on the flip, the steely and pummelling 'Trabalho Bracal' is by far the fiercest cut on offer, and the collaboration with Zenta Skai 'Fosseis' takes a u-turn on this trippy and contemplative electro jam.

Review: A repress for four prime slices of classic Baby Ford minimal tech gear, from the rhythm-centric drum machine fest 'Very', the resonant bleepy tones of 'Test', the sparse and spacious 'Down' and the subtle acid undertones of 'Percy'. Baby Ford is finally getting his props as one the UK acid and techno scene's true innovators and pioneers, and these four very mixable tracks are four more reasons why this is only right.

Review: James Bangura steps into the ring with his new Shadow Boxing EP which is named in honour of his grandfather, Carroll Daniel Smith, who boxed for the US Army in WWII. It's a punchy take on tech house from the off, with 'Hazy Recall (Airdrop mix)''s off-grid beats swinging in from all directions with same the potency as a Mike Tyson uppercut. 'Drown It Out' has a garage swing to it as it slips and sides as fluidly as Mayweather's defence and 'Shadow Boxing' floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. Last of all is 'Analyze, Socialize' which will have you on the ropes and sweating in no time.

Review: Bezier returns to Dark Entries with Valencia, a six track rumination on memory, geography, and transmutation. Multi-instrumentalist Robert Yang's Bezier project has appeared on Dark Entries many times over the last decade, most recently with the 2018 LP Parler Musique. Says Yang, "What started as a project to investigate the love of the sound and scenery while living in San Francisco quickly developed into a passionate search for interlocking melodies and driving rhythms." On Valencia, Bezier invokes twinned places. The Valencia Street of San Francisco is channeled, which was the center of the city's vibrant new wave scene in the 1980s. But also echoed is Valencia, Spain, and La Ruta del Bakalao aka La Ruta Destroy, the Spanish clubbing scene throughout the 80s and 90s famed for its aggressive and synthetic sounds. Valencia is a darker record for Yang, exploring themes of submission and catharsis with nods to SF's gay leather bars of the 70s and 80s. The high BPM salvos of "Valencia" and "Scrupulous" capture the frantic energy of Bakalao and Valencian wave acts like Oltima Emocion. Elsewhere Yang mines the dreamy space disco and Hi-NRG sounds they're known for, like on the brooding "Past the Marshes" or the anthemic "Reservoir", which features their partner Len.Leo on vocals. Bezier deftly navigates past and present, light and dark, pain and pleasure, the stasis of memory and the flux of time. Valencia was mastered by Alex Michalski, with EQ for vinyl done by George Horn. Gwenael Rattke designed the sleeve, which features an 80's punk zine-esque geometric grid pattern mirroring San Francisco street maps. Also included is a 5x7 postcard with notes.

Review: Casino Times is a London-based project of producers Joseph Spencer & Nicholas Church; a partnership that is rooted in house & techno since 2010. The duo have released on labels like Wolf Music, Mireia and their own Casino Edits. This one's courtesy of Swdens Omena imprint, the new label run by Tooli of Local Talk fame. A Change In Motion Part 2 sees the pair enter a new phase sonically, experimenting with the more experimental side of the spectrum. There's some punchy and futuristic electro to be heard on 'Ultra Synthetic' and 'Unfold', as well as sublime downbeat offerings like 'Tides' and 'Run Mods' and some swung-off kilter beats offered up on 'Something Else' (feat DUANE).

Review: Design Default first emerged back in 2018 with a release on Fragil Musique - the vivid, finely sculpted ambient LP Dawn Chorus. Now they're back with a new album, this time on New York label Club Night Club (who put out the excellent Herron Lowflow EP. The vibe is decidedly different, dealing in punchy electronica workouts with ample sonic manipulation and high production values. 'Lyrids' has enough brute force and deft dynamics to snap your head clean off, in the club or elsewhere, while 'Quarantids' teases between lush ambience and gravelly future-tech beats. 'Geminids' ramps up the industrial strength drum hits and nudges the tempo in kind, but still the artful programming and visceral mixing prowess is on full display - something Significant Other steps up to on their remix too.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve torn & record has light surface marks/scratches, otherwise in excellent working condition***


Given his chosen moniker for this project, you'd expect the music on Robert Dietz's DJ Discipline records to be stern, aggressive and angry. This particular EP - his second under the name for Osman - is certainly tough, but it's actually far funkier, melodious and considered than you might expect. For proof, check out opener "Hysteria", where busy, bouncy beats come cloacked in starry synths and supersonic synthesizer motifs, before admiring the glacial, deep space shimmer of the analogue-rich, hybrid electro/techno number "Just Some". Dietz flips the script on "Merry Crisis", which cleverly wraps bleeping melodies reminiscent of The Age of Love's "Age of Love" around a loose-limbed electro-breaks beat, whole closing cut "Nu Leaves" is a dashing slab of retro-futurist sci-fi techno rich in chiming melodies and ear-pleasing riffs.

Review: REPRESS ALERT!: Margaret Dygas may be based in Berlin but her unique sound can't be tied down to any one city or scene, as she proves on her latest 12" across three tracks for the consistently exciting Half Baked label. Not that there's anything half done here, of course, with A-side tune 'Butterfly Effect' a prime slice of groovy. resonant techno that's understated and restrained enough to gain comparisons to Jaydee's 'Plastic Dreams' classic. 'CC Is 33' is warmer, with nicely slidy, jazzy organ chords and itchy technofunk rhythms, with the most minimal of the three tracks, the static-infused, atmospheric 'Subliminal 20A7', coming last but by no means least. A great showcase for a great, original talent.

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: Jordan GCZ is having a hell of a year. He's already delivered two sublime albums (his debut solo set and one created in collaboration with Detroit legend Terrence Dixon) and here drops another must-check EP, his first for Rawax. 'Making Me Dizzy' sees the Amsterdam-based producer add gorgeously ambient lead lines, lilting TB-303 motifs and funky bass to a classic Motor City techno groove, with the accompanying 'Dub Mix providing a heavier, sweatier and more intoxicating alternative version. 'Tongue Twister' is jazzier and even more intergalactic, sitting somewhere between blissed-out Move D deep house and melodious techno. The dub that accompanies it is pleasingly deep, out there and effects-laden, escorting us even further into deep space. Tip!

Review: This record is named after Vedanta, an ancient philosophy based on the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India. The music, originally composed and produced by Joseph S Joyce and later remixed by Sebastian Mullaert of Minilogue, was greatly inspired, after reading commentaries from Swami Rama Tirtha's biography "The Scientist & Mahatma" - Chapter 1 - Vedanta and The Secret of Success. Now, some nine years later, it gets served up as a remix EP. There's a dark El Choop Reconstruct, a gorgeous ambient version from Sebastian Mullaert, a minimal headscape from Van Bonn, Federson SF goes warm and dubby and then a crisp, tech-edged vibe from Paul 90 ends the EP in style.

Review: Keppel was last on this label with a contribution to a various artist collection but now steps up with a full solo EP of his own. His unique take on techno is exhibited from the off on 'Stanley Knife' with its scurrying synths, drunken synth loops and drums that go nowhere fast but still draw you in. '194' is awash with kinetic synth sequences and distant dub chords that bring colour and 'Life Takes Rise' rides on another inventive and alluring rhythm pattern while the warming synth work gets you lost in thought. Closer 'Diesel', meanwhile, is tough, frosty, and more techno-leaning.

Review: To date, Kim Cosmk has generally done her own thing - self-releasing a string of digital-only singles and albums which variously mix and mangle elements of electro, IDM, techno and dubstep. Here she pops up on an established label - Ralph Lawson's 2020 Vision to be exact - for the very first time. First, she whips up a frenzy courtesy of the fuzzy and aggressive riffs of techno roller 'Night Flight', complete with creepy chords and foreboding motifs. She then delivers raw, heavy, industrial-fired electro on 'Ore', whilst warped dubstep and electro are brilliantly mixed on 'Nocturnal'. To round things up nicely, 'Drifting' is a partial vocal number built around a wobbling dubstep bass with punchy electro drums and twinkling pianos.

Review: XTEP marks the first u-Ziq material from Mike Paradinas in some six years and precedes the release of a full album later from the Planet Mu boss due out this year. Having been coaxed away from his fine curation of Planet Mu over recent years with the Heterotic project done in cahoots with wife Lara Rix-Martin, Paradinas returns to his universally recognised u-Ziq project with this five track EP which seem to present a diverse and accessible snapshot of Paradinas' production palette, veering through smudged out analogue funk, gauzy piano house, pulsing electronic disco and more rhythmically diverse material. This would seem to justify Planet Mu's claim that Paradinas has abandoned "the furrow-browed quest for cutting-edge exploration, exchanging it for an altogether more carefree fun approach".

Review: Plants Army Revolver debut on Avian. The Italian live act will join Avian for a five track EP showcasing the pair's breadth as producers. Working within the bounds of a carefully refined sound palette, Marco Ragni & Birgan Valentin look to the more muted, tentatively melodic end of loop Techno, with excursions into washed out Ambient & leftfield Electronica, placing the focus on sound texture & tone.

Review: The Groove Access label kicks on to a third release here and it comes in the form of a split EP between Rob Threezy and Maddjazz. Threezy kicsk off on the a-side with 'Threezy', a panel beating techno workout with leggy drums and elastic bass that will spangled any crowd. His second cut, 'Liquid Metal' is another masterclass in bendy bass and chunky drum funk, this time with vocal stabs layered in for extra spice. Maddjazz then steps up to kick off the flipside in frantic acid laced fashion with all sorts of OG Chicago house ranges over booming techno grooves. 'TR DrumTool' is a final weapon for dance floor destruction.

Review: 
For their second installment, the Chateau Chepere crew brings on board legendary producer Stephan Laubner under his STL moniker, with four time warping pieces of music. With his distinctive and intricate sonic palette, Laubner extracts from his hardware different musical colors and shapes to produce singular atmospheres. Opening up the EP is Fly Fly, an epic 11 min minimal house trip full of tension and excitement, followed by Eargrind, an eerie, laid back Detroit leaning ballad. On the flip is Light Up, a spaced out, playful and bittersweet number that will revitalize any hazy after-hours dancefloor. Closing up the EP is Unlike Dislike, a quirky, jacking and mischievous techno workout for the packed club. This diverse ep will pull the listeners and dancers into Laubner's multifaceted, low key but captivating universe.

Review: The highly politicised Los Angeles collective Ultra Red re-released their superb A16/A17 12" last year. Both tunes were produced entirely from field recordings made during street protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington April 16 and 17, 2000 and became secret weapons of DJs like Ricardo Villalobos & Craig Richards. Now, 'A16' gets remixed by underground titans Losoul and The Mole into two club-ready groovers. Losoul goes first with a dry and minimal take that is textured and deep with plenty of absorbing atmosphere. Next up, The Mole goes for a more propulsive sound with glistening tech house drums and icy pads. Both are artful reworks that take you on a mental trip.

Review: Southern Italian DJ/producer Uncrat follows up great releases on Moral Standards, Subsist and his own Proper Line label with this riveting new effort which signals that he's really hit the big time now - it's for Ellen Allien's mighty Bpitch Control. 'Xilo' is an adventurous main room workout that sets the scene perfectly before the direct execution of 'Efien' a slamming tribal techno tool mixed with gnarly acid squelch. Over on the flip, the dystopian electro beats of 'Gemini Leaks' mix it up a bit more, and closing it out is the strobe lit frenzy of 'SIT' with its Detroit style chord progression that will have you reaching for the lasers.

Review: Some 14 years after he unleashed the original version of 'The Medium Is The Message' - an attractively deep and melancholic chunk of hypnotic, dub-tinged early morning techno hypnotism - Levon Vincent has decided to revisit and re-make the track on a surprise sequel. On the A-side 'Long Mix', his full vision for the track is materialised, with the original's familiar riffs re-played in hazier, harder form atop a raw, stabbing bassline, more subtly forthright beats and effects-laden percussive fills. It's a brilliant revision all told, which maintains some of the original's sonic poignancy whilst adding a little extra weight and energy. The flip side 'Short Mix' naturally compresses the action, emphasising his breathless percussion builds and the mind-mangling sonic stabs.