Back catalogue: Techno (All)

Review: Left Coast electronic music producer Dave Aju and The Invisible Art Trio have joined forces once again to deliver Glossolalia, a powerful seven-song album that defies conventional genres and transcends cultural differences. Recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic at the legendary G-Son studios in Atwater Village LA, Glossolalia is a timely and uplifting call-to-action that reflects the turbulent times we live in. With its twisted grooves and every song's lyrics in complete gibberish, Glossolalia takes listeners on a complex and nuanced sonic journey that leaves us with as many questions as answers. It is a testament to the power of collaborative music-making and a reminder that, despite our differences, we are united by our love of music and our shared human experiences.

Review: Released on lovely transparent blue vinyl, the fourth volume of Figure's Hardspace series offers six fresh reinterpretations of Len Faki's favourite tracks under his staunchly underground Hardspace alias. Josh Wink's 'Sixth Sense' gets a powerful low-end rework while Aoki Takamasa's minimalist dub transforms into a high-energy and peak-time slammer. DJ Yoav B's iconic 'Energize' reaches new rave heights with its relentless groove and Huxley's dark take on 'Weapon 3' comes on with explosive force. Tuttle's 'Function' ups the intensity with Faki's signature claps and sirens while Mike Parker's '90s classic 'Shakuhachi Two' gains extra drive with Hardspace's propulsive percussion for a dynamic techno workout.

Review: Legendary German experimental label Mille Plateaux is back this week, with a fascinating album by Melody Tomb which is a collaboration between Tokyo artist Teruyuki Kurihara and London drone pop band The Leaf Library. Story has it that back in March 2020, The Leaf Library sent Kurihara some material to play with, in the hope that a collaboration would be born. He was indeed receptive, resulting firstly in the track 'Kite Beach' which was featured on the band's Objects Forever compilation in 2021, with the rest of the album slowly appearing over the next year that takes in drone, soundscapes, minimal techno and industrial noise throughout its eight tracks. The artists hope to continue the collaboration with another album in the near future.

Review: As one of the iconic partnerships from the electroclash era, Miss Kittin & The Hacker helped define seedy synth tackle at the turn of the century. Given the prevalence of minimal wave in this day and age, it feels like the perfect time for them to come back with a new album. Teetering between pop nous and the darkest of deviant nighttime dreams, this is everything you would want from a return of the Grenoble greats. Listening to 'Purist' and they could easily be taking on the charts, while a trip into 'La Cave' is like donning your finest leathers and sliding into the dungeon.

Review: Born and raised in Bern, Switzerland, Michael Antener spent most of the 1980s concerned with interpreting the subconsciously and overtly apocalyptic discourse of that time through the medium of industrial-edged, dark feeling music. "I found a niche where I could express myself, along with other people who were not afraid of dark themes," he's quoted as saying in retrospect, before going on to explain that singing about love would have been more difficult than using "cries of pain taken from horror movies". This triple vinyl collector's item celebrates that fertile, if angry and dystopian period in Antener's life. Bringing together work from two of his formative projects, The Stranger of the Swamp and Bande Berne Crematoire, what's here is captivating. Electroclash with groove, distressed collages of noise, a certain sense of sonic expressionism - all brooding shadows, menacing arrangements and deeply unsettling moods.

Review: Following a couple of decent but arguably overlooked 12" singles, Tecwaa has decided the time is right to drop his debut album. The Swedish artist proceeds to languidly shuffle through evocative, occasionally icy tracks that variously draw influence from deep house, 1980s wave music, spiritual jazz, leftfield synth-pop, trippy electronica and chugging psychedelic disco. It's an interesting and entertaining set, with each success delay-laden track delivering a new twist on his hard-to-pigeonhole late night/early morning sound. By the time the bubbly, acid flecked "Those Cosmic Plains" rounds the album off, you'll be ready to listen to it all over again.

Review: Global Underground is one of the longest-running DJ mix series and it has always been one of the best. Plenty of big-names over the years have made their mark, often more than once, and now it is the turn of the famously long-playing New York titan Danny Tenaglia to show us what he's made of. He brings his signature grooves and a hint of Latin flavour to proceedings on this, a third and final installment of his trilogy for the series. It is mostly contemporary names serving up new school sounds but all delivered with Danny's cultured and old school DJ mentality.

Review:  Immortal Ventures is a magnificently well-rounded new album from Torn on the mighty Samurai Music. All 13 of the cuts are fantastically well crafted and mix up a range of moods from broody and mediative to deep and hypnotic. 'Knowledge' kicks off with dark and unsettling ambience and 'Reckless' then melts the mind with deft percussive loops over groaning sounds of a depraved underworld. There is more cinematic atmosphere to 'Invisible Turmoil' with its creepy sense of open space and 'Inner Battle' is a kinetic jungle cut with thunderous energy and dystopian eeriness. This is the sort of music that works as well away from the club as it does in it.

Review: After an incredible inauguration by legend Robert Armani, the second release on Techno Parade Vinyl comes from rising Chinese techno producer TPMP. The Chengdu-based arranger, mixer, mastering engineer and Eurorack modular designer presents eight original tracks on his debut vinyl album, with an extensive selection of remixes by some of the scene's biggest names such as the aforementioned Armani, Samuel L. Session and Waffensupermarkt. Style wise, TPMP goes for that greyscale dub techno sound, counting the likes of Basic Channel and Echospace as influences. Whether it's the locomotive minimalism of 'White Point', the cavernous and glacial body bash of "Gray Point" or the deconstructed EBM of "White Line" - Hardester High Frequency proves that TPMP is one to watch!

Review: Frankfurt's Gregor Tresher returns with his first album in eight years. The 16-track LP offers up his famously dynamic techno sound and rich synth designs with element of dance floor clout underpinning each tune. From his beginnings in Frankfurt's 90s techno scene to collaborations with icons like Depeche Mode, Moby and Extrawelt, Tresher's career has been marked by critically acclaimed releases and False Gods is one of his most ambitious projects yet. It's an accomplished and introspective journey through modern electronic music enriched by collaborations with some notable friends.

Review: Troekurovo Recordings is a production team made up of Toki Fuko, Vadim Basov and Evgeny Vorontsov and they have been hidden away deep in some enchanted Russian forests recording music. Now they are putting out the results on this superb double pack. This project started back in 2016 as a live experimental jam and is now an annual tradition made on loads of analogue gear on the banks of a canyon that was formed many years ago by a melting glacier. The locale provides inspiration - from the fresh country air to the meteor showers often visible overhead - for the music making which is strictly "no preparation, no pre-programming - hardware, friends and live improvisation only."