Back catalogue: Techno (All)

Review: Karl Hyde and Rick Smith continue to offer-up remastered CD reissues of gems from Underworld's vast back catalogue. Here they return to 1996's Second Toughest In The Infants, a set - co-produced with then third member Darren Emerson - which cemented their growing status as one of British electronic music's true headline attractions. While not as admired as its predecessor, it remains a fantastic full-length excursion - an inventive and frequently inspired collection of peak-time-ready epics that borrow liberally from progressive house, techno and spacey drum & bass (see 'Banstyle/Sappy's Curry'). It also contains a number of genuine stunners, not least the bustling 'Confusion The Waitress', the acid-fired insanity of 'Rawla', and the trance-inducing early morning hypnotism of 'Air Towel'.

Review: Recorded and released after the crossover success of 'Born Slippy [Nuxx]', Beaucoup Fish remains Underworld's most commercially successful album. The third and final set to be recorded with then third member Darren Emerson, it has fewer rough edges and in-your-face grooves than its predecessors whilst still retaining the band's rave-igniting sound of the 1990s. Now remastered and reissued on CD for the first time since 2017, it's a set that has aged well. For proof, check the woozy slipped deep house of 'Cups', the breakbeat-powered, acid-fired peak-time insanity of 'Shudder/King of Snake', the rushing release of 'Push Upstairs', the heady ambient bliss of 'Skym' and the drum & bass-influenced warmth of 'Something Like Mama'.

Review: User.Exp's first release on Greyscale Recordings provides a thoughtful sonic exploration, made up of field recordings, contact and hydrophone mic sessions and shortwave transmissions (either generated from scratch or really recorded). Artist and label are met with serendipity and ease here; though many releases have hit the Greyscale stocks - all working well within their trademark sonic and visual monochrome - User.Exp's latest is an especially congruent record, bringing crackly burrs and earthen movements to an album that feels large in scope and difficult to pigeonhole, yet intuitively felt. As if to describe a set of 12 different microbiomes - all besieged by a black-and-white, ecosystemic blight - the likes of 'Pollution', 'Erosion' and 'Wind' provide indications enough as to the set of ideas going in here. A deeply calming release, full of textural intricacies and yet not without a creeping sense of unbalance too.