Review: The young but already impressive Headset label is back with a third outing and it is a various artists affair with a distinctly futuristic edge. Kami O's 'Blutak' rides on lurching rhythms that sway up and down with great force as percussion percussion and wiry electronics bring it to life. smiff's 'Blinker' is a broken beat with thudding kick and hits and clanging metallic sounds while Sweet Philly's 'Acid Siren Tool' is a raved-up jam ready to blow up the dance floor. Dubmonger & 9 Tails Fox tap into an old school,. high energy judge sound with darting rhythms and drilling sub bass nailing you to the floor on 'No Profit.'
Review: The No Agenda label takes its bow here with a new EP that features a first appearance from the US's Bridget Barkan. Kimono is behind the beats and they are couched in house. 'Waiting' opens with rattling chords that bring steely determination next to the time-keeping hi-hats and echoing vocal swirls that speak of a patient wait. The Aubrey rework is super fresh with daubs of dancing synth and sci-fi details over a barely-there rhythm. Shuffling deep house sound 'Forgiveness' closes out with more slight sound designs, dusty drums and plenty of suggestion rather than in-your-face maximalism.
Review: French techno DJ and producer Klint properly branched into the vinyl game after a series of digitals released before 2022, and now in 2025 he keeps the wax drip feed pumping with 'The K9 Doggo', in titular reference to the classic canine Doctor Who companion (who, as ardent fans of the fictional time lord will remember, had a laser gun in lieu of an organic snout). 'K9', 'Doggo', 'Cowboy' and 'The Mess' each wag a mechaniacal tail, the A-side ribbing us with its various organ-fidget stabs, and the B minimising the palette to reveal the genius simplicity of this robot dog's microprocessor. Another knockout from the prolific artist.
Review: Koenig Cylinders always kept it hella real with their techno. The pair of John Selway and Oliver Chesler were pioneers of the hard stuff first time around and now that it is back en vogue, why not reissue this classic? 'Untitled' opens with a freaky vocal and eerie synth sound before '99.9' brings a wall of white noise and slamming drum patterns. 'Carousel' is an urgent wall-rattler with cantering drums and rave sires that light up the 'floor and 'Choreomania' shuts down with razor-sharp synths and acid flashes that tickle your brain. Arresting tackle of the highest order.
Review: Kop-Z reveals that he first encountered the term 'A Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamic System' in a book costing L2 in a Manchester junk shop. It is a term to describe humans as systems constantly battling entropy and the world's challenges to survive. "But we're also systems that work together, creating art and music," he reflects, appreciating the contrast between opposites like day and night, love and hate. His work merges autobiographical field recordings, looped vinyl and childhood video games with kinetic programming systems that are all influenced by jungle, footwork, noise, rave, post-punk and reggae. The result is a rich fabric of sound that blends human experience with machine chaos.
Review: Wiesbaden, Germany-born Florian Kupfer has spent the last decade exploring around the edges of the dancefloor with hugely evocative sounds that are always much more than mere tools. This latest mad-limited 12" is another doozy that opens with the menacing and mechanical rhythms of 'Sidelined' topped with eerie spoken word loops. 'Integrating The Shadow' is a more rugged electro rhythm with hissing hi-hats sweeping through the mix and downbeat chords adding a touch of melancholy. 'Unmasked' gets dark, dirty and messed up for those 5am wig-outs and 'Severed Lines Of Communication' is a hypnotic roller alive with static electricity.
Review: Revolt proudly presents 'Night Warrior', its latest four-track EP release by the fast-rising Athenian producer Liou. Fitting the nocturnal theme comes twinkly sound design and calculating murmurs on opener 'Night Warrior', whilst the A2 'Dark Matter' adds bursty snarework and synthetic diphthongs to a murky electro pot. B-sider 'Atom' reintroduces 4x4 kicks to a haunted vista-scape made up of burbling FM design and whistling backup pads, whilst 'Equinox' brings a solstitial, peak winter climax of no less gloomy sheen to the fore. A backstair release, yet not one for those shy about moonlit dancing either.
Review: Reality Hacked Part 2 collects three more heavyweight remixes of key tracks from Lost Souls Of Saturn’s most recent album Reality. Among such jewels are the serene vocal lilts and trembling percs of UNKLE’s ‘Click’ remix, on which Lvv Gvn soars across the track in awestruck wonderment, and the playful wibbles and stark rhythms of Hessle Audio’s Pangaea on his version of the same. This second 12” in the Reality Hacked series rounds off on a heavy-set dubby take on ‘Scram City’ by Echologist.
Review: Low Order returns with his sixth EP in five years and in doing so continues his exploration of relentless industrial body music. Things open with immersive noise textures building into the driving bass pressure of 'See The Land' which is reminiscent of Portion Reform's classic sound. Tracks like 'Angel Cycle,' 'Stand Still' and the title track showcase his unstoppable momentum and explain why he and his sound are dominating European clubs. The closing track envelops with dreamlike drones, feedback and distorted vocals embodying a haunting, gritty realisation. Though rooted in extreme styles, this EP keeps its focus on the dancefloor.
Review: Deep techno twosome Lucid Void have only put out a handful of releases since making their debut in 2017, but their productions are not only assured and atmospheric, but also genuinely good. It feels like they need a breakthrough and this mini-album for Turkish imprint Benthic (a belated sequel to their 2021 outing on the imprint) could provide it. There's certainly plenty to set the pulse racing and synapses snapping, from the pulsing rhythm, immersive aural textures and hypnotising vibes of 'Escalate' and 'Transporter', to the yearning dancefloor soundscape 'Quasar' and the ghostly spookiness of 'Inner'. 'Signal' brilliantly blends raw, analogue electronics, locked-in beats and bittersweet chords, while closing cut 'Rhythm' is as pleasingly dreamy and heady as it is throbbing and off-kilter.
Review: Brenda's debut for Rupture LDN is a love letter to the dancefloor in all its phases, from early anticipation to late-night transcendence. Hailing from the UK and embedded in the country's long rave lineage, she draws on 4x4 jungle techno, deep d&b and spoken word to map out a personal and emotional arc. 'Come Undone' captures the energy of the night in full swingirushing breaks, euphoric pressure, the kind of track that commands the room. Elsewhere, 'Benda Brenda' and 'Total Danger' are raw-edged and jungle-rooted, while 'Rolling With Fabio' is deeper and more rolling. It all closes on 'A Deep Shade of Rave (Outro)', a poem dedicated to her long-running Ferry to the Underworld sessions at Corsica Studios. Spiritually full, physically rinsedithis EP nails what it means to live for the rave.
Alexander Wirth - "Another Round" (feat Mantsche) (8:03)
Review: Leap hit double figures and over the nine previous releases has managed to establish a signature sound that has found favour with cultured techno heads. The Foundation EP is a various artists affair that opens up with a mix from Dutch deep smith Reshape. His usual dusty and grainy aesthetic colours the mid-tempo dub drums and eerie synth work. 'Creation Dub' is a little lighter and brighter with rippling chords and undulating low ends. Anton Kubikov then lets in yet more light with his lush synth smears and subtly funk house drums on 'Power Under Your Skin.' It's pure heads-down tackle from Alexander Wirth who closes out with 'Another Round' (feat Mantsche).
Review: Roberto Cagnoli began his musical journey in Florence in 1995 and since then has been contributing to the region's rich scene under various different aliases. He has produced for labels like Disturbance and featured in Gigi D'Agostino's Progressiva compilation and now Evasione Digitale has partnered with Cagnoli to reissue his 2000 project 'Megaton - Essence.' It was originally released on Stefano Noferini's experimental techno label, Plate Records and is a superbly hypnotic, percussion-driven sound that perfectly captures the essence of Cagnoli's innovative approach. Highlights include the dizzying leads of 'Bloody Ears' and the more deep and mind-bending sounds of 'Essence.'
Review: Three new deep-sea drivers from Innervisions' Mulya with the 'Silvio' EP, releasing in a three-track format highly characteristic of the 12"s and digitals label. Mulya channels a highly specific sound, one unafraid of reverb, big-hitter sound design or grandiosity, and yet which brings with it a specially raw and stuttery effect, as if to say the artist has never forgotten his operative genre's roots, despite it being 2024. 'Silvio' solicits more than a cackle with its call-and-response calls and squeezy synth lead, though it's the paraparactic vocal sample come label namedrop 'Aus Music', with its rapid chord shifts and homeostatic drop, that really does the trick for us. 'Mulher Gato' returns to something of the vibe of the A-side, though it adds an extra tribal, yelled, slow-built bang.
Review: Owen Ni invites us on a sonic exploration with this ten-track release, a journey through the realms of ambient electronica and deep listening techno music. 'Beyond Flyhigh' sets the tone, its expansive soundscapes and hypnotic rhythms drawing the listener into a world of introspection and wonder. The Raytek remix injects a pulsating energy, transforming the original into a dancefloor-ready odyssey. Elsewhere, tracks like 'Mover' and 'Arqs2600' delve deeper into hypnotic textures and intricate sound design, creating a sonic experience that's both arrestting and thought-provoking. 'We Are Here' and 'S7lverbox' offer moments of quiet contemplation, their delicate melodies and atmospheric soundscapes inviting a sense of peace and reflection. The release closes with 'Epilog', a fitting conclusion to this immersive journey through sound and emotion, leaving the listener with a lingering sense of wonder and possibility.
Marjan - "Desert Of Heart" (Ramtin Niazi rework) (4:35)
Artoush - "The Curse" (Ramtin Niazi rework) (4:22)
Review: Today's Youth is a collection of Ramtin Niazi's reworkings of some of Iran's best loved songs. Here the Iranian artist - and key component part of such storied Persian rave music groups as Ben & Jerry, Kahkli Cru and 1000PA - breathes fresh, shape-cut life into the music of Googoosh, Kourosh Yaghmaei, Marjan and Artoush, refitting them for the abandoned warehouse rave. This is a real eclectic record, taking after well-established dance styles like speed garage, jungle, and dembow, but each track is nonetheless arranged with a gauche left hand, so gauche as to abstract each one from its stylistic reference point enough to sound lytic: unmoored from any total obligation to their origins, be they Iranian or Western European.
Imaginary Time (Gesloten Cirkel Keep Playing remix) (6:30)
Imaginary Time '99 (Revolutionary Industrial Trance mix) (14:48)
Review: Acoustic instruments played by Charlotte Bill, "disarranged" by Nigel Ayers, Nocturnal Emissions' Imaginary Time is as much of a landmark as it is a total obscurity. The album title itself references a theory prevalent in some approaches to special relativity and quantum mechanics, a representation of time also used in certain cosmological theories. It's not made up, or unreal, but expressed via imaginary numbers. We can understand where Nocturnal Emissions were coming from with this record back in 1997, then. A strange, beguiling percussive experiment that's at once linear and yet pretty obscure. Here presented with two incredible remixes - Gesloten Cirkel's pounding but fun techno take on things, and the misleadingly-titled 'Revolutionary Industrial Trance mix', a slow building amalgamation of drums and vibe - this is strange yet totally accessible business.
Review: Ever reticent contemporary ambient techno artist Nthng shares 'Two People', their latest EP to hit the shelves. Building on their always wordless sound - one native to a certain "mysterious" corner of the techno world, one that implies that words are insufficient in capturing both breadth and depth of sound - 'Two People' is a minimally stirring EP, one that relies on the bare associations of just two visual indicators of theme: snow, unity. Imprinted on the planar white surface shown on the front cover is a lowercase trace of the title track, which, in sound, hears a vocal recollective of a baby's gurgle, and a lonesome pad lilt that only ever so much as teases a movement, ghosted by the absence of (and so haunted by the promise of) a beat. When beats do interpellate the scape, they do with the textural quality of stalactites, breaking and dropping to the floor in step on both 'Echo Trak' and 'In Statik'. Nthng's filtrated percussion and long-release tails serve to dust the surface snow off many ambered, glaciered memories, preserved in the unspelunked caves of an antarctic psyche. Closer 'Don't Be Scared' plods forth, steppers style, with the stridency of an epiphanic polar walkabout, its swells contrasting to the many radiophonic FX peppering the mix: they give the sense of the odd "do you read me?", grounding the far-yonder miracle pads in telecommunicated reassurances from the outpost.
Review: A cornerstone of early 90s electronic music, Orbital's Lush resurfaces with renewed energy through the Orbital LEDs reissue campaign. Originally released in 1993, the EP is a masterclass in melodic techno, featuring the iconic 'Lush 3-1' and 'Lush 3-2', two seamlessly interwoven tracks that exemplify the Hartnoll brothers' knack for crafting emotionally resonant, rhythmically complex soundscapes. Reissued on 12" with striking new artwork by Intro, this edition includes heavyweight remixes by Underworld and CJ Bolland, whose reworks push the tracks deeper into the club stratosphere. Underworld brings a dense, propulsive momentum, while Bolland injects a sleek, hard-edged urgency. Yet it's Orbital's originals that remain the centerpiece. Those epic gliding arpeggios, layered synths and rolling percussion conjure both introspection and euphoria. A vital part of their Brown Album, Lush helped define the progressive techno movement, influencing generations of producers. Three decades on, the tracks still pulse with a timeless vibrancy.
Review: UK rave pioneers Orbital are revisiting their early 'Brown Album' EPs with the launch of a new and ongoing Orbital LEDs ('Limited Edition Drops') series. These 12"s are being re-issued with newly commissioned artwork by Intro. This one was originally released in September 1992 and is one of the group's most famous because it contains their most iconic track 'Halcyon' which blurs ethereal vocals with hypnotic breaks that define 90s dance music and still get huge reactions to this day. The EP also includes 'The Naked and the Dead' which is a darker techno track, plus 'Sunday' and the previously unreleased dub version of 'The Naked and The Dub.' Essential.
Review: UK electronic innovators Orbital have been revisiting their early roots with Orbital LEDs, a limited-edition series remastering their old greats. Now fully remastered and paired with striking new artwork by Julian House, the latest drop highlights the duo's groundbreaking early sound when tracks like 'Midnight' innovated with a blend of hypnotic house rhythms and minimalist influences from Philip Glass and Wim Mertens. Also included here is 'Choice' which stands out for its anarcho-punk edge and bold vocal sampling. Paul Hartnoll has often said he aimed to inject house music with a sense of rebellion and social commentary and these reissues reaffirm Orbital's ability to do that while pushing boundaries from the start.
Review: In March 2024, Oriental Magnetic Yellow, the legendary techno unit formed by Namco game music composers, celebrated their 30th anniversary by re-releasing six albums. As part of this celebration, their popular track 'RYZEEN' is now available for the first time on 7-inch doughnut vinyl. The release includes the original version and a special B-side recording used as BGM for 'Super Locomotive' on Sega's 2022 reissued Mega Drive Mini 2 console. With members Hiroto Sasaki, Nobuyoshi Sano, Shinji Hosoe and Takayuki Aihara, Oriental Magnetic Yellow pays homage to Yellow Magic Orchestra with a humorous twist. 'RYZEEN' evokes the fun, nostalgic, early video game music and a cover sound of YMO of course. this release is a delightful blend of retro charm and playful innovation, perfect for techno and game music fan alike.
Review: US-born, Germany-based Oshana's solo debut on Altered Circuits is a notable one for peak time party people with high-impact jams that also bring plenty of subtle detail. The tunes are rooted in the vibe of her live sets and fuse classic and contemporary club sounds with razor-sharp studio precision. From the tense, acid-laced drive of 'Above We Soar' to the cavernous, Chicago-flavoured bounce of 'Space And Time Dimensions,' Oshana balances groove with atmosphere perfectly. 'Girls In The Front' is another gem and hypnotic, bass-heavy workout with anthem potential, while closer 'Origins' explores trance-tinged territory before diving back into genre ambiguity. It's a refined, energetic statement from an artist in her element.
Review: Olli-Petteri Pietila has skirted around the underground for a long time under his own name and as Transistor, but he's found a new outlet for his Detroit-informed vintage techno sound on Yore under the P0lyrhythm alias. Andy Vaz's label is a natural home for such vibes and he continues to place his influence front and centre with the utterly dreamy 'Lake Michigan Breeze'. He even takes on Vaz's own 'Detroit In Me', serving up a remix which takes the track far out on a blissful combo of wistful pads and rolling percussion. If you like your techno classic, look no further.
Review: Simone de Kunovich and Pancratio join forces on the 'Memory Card EP,' a captivating three-track release that marries retro video game nostalgia with cutting-edge electronic music. Inspired by early PlayStation 1 adventures, the duo masterfully weaves samples from obscure games into their compositions, crafting a sound that is both minimalist and evocative of 32-bit textures. Whether it's setting the mood in the mellow early hours or energising a peak-time crowd, this EP equips DJs with versatile tracks that promise to electrify any dancefloor. With its unique blend of exuberance and nostalgia, the 'Memory Card EP' is a must-have for enthusiasts looking to add both depth and dynamism to their sets.
Review: Fear-E's Posh End Music celebrates its tenth release with an EP of ceiling-shakers by musical wizard Ben Pest. 'Worst Behaviour' is a restless splurge of overdriven but still tasteful energy, moving through five ultimate wompers of a kind of electrified techno we rarely hear. Ben Pest's style, honed since 2009, is entirely his own. First there's the VIP version of 'Strict Saws' and the follow-up 'Beta T', both of which reserve ample mix space for an overwompy kick drum, Pest's trademark stinger. The former track especially clips the zero level, hearing said kicks bleed out the sound around it, flooding it into a fully crunch-steeped stupor. 'Withoutta Moa' and '1996' follow similarly pressurific principles, the latter of which commands a special sort of apnea, resembling a strangled French house. Then 'Weight For It' closes on notes of maximised squelch and crossrythmic evac alarm sounds, as we're dragged into successive states of terrifying suspense.
Review: The all-star team of the instrumental world, Polyplus, release a cover of 'Hi-Tech Jazz', a classic electronic jazz track and representative work of the project Galaxy 2 Galaxy, first put forth by Mad Mike's Underground Resistance. As for the choice of cover, the Tokyo jazzdance quartet have chosen well; while they've only gone and done it - reinterpreted Mike's timeless club masterpiece with a full band sound - they refuse to sacrifice any danceability or DJ mixability, doing full justice to the term "hi-tech" despite the freehanded naturalism. Also coming backed by the original B-sider 'Wake Me Up', 'Hi-Tech Jazz' heralds Polyplus' upcoming tenth anniversary album, Cosmic, as well as a jet-setting tour spanning Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka.
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