Back in stock: Techno (All)

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged, record slightly warped***


Primal percussions mix with burring, masc voices and telecom synths on Luke Alessi's 'After Five', a wonderful debut 12" by the Melbourne native. Going in, we're asked by the artist to picture a riotous cocktail party gone a little roguer than polite society usually may ordain, and while, of course, Barry White sultrily hoarsens in hushed baritones down below. In fact, the opener of this record samples Love Unlimited Orchestra's 'After Five', a star track from the side project which White led. Much like White's symbolic identification with sensual, smooth lovin' in the West, 'After Five' follows white's tip that 5AM is the threshold between day and night, and that, after having crossed it, any given raver should expect no less from their fellow revellers than behavioural alterity. Two remixes from Pablo Bozzi and Aldonna go on to "en-trance" the first track, implying baggy-eyed comedowns, while the wild A2 hears us emerge on the sands of a tropical atoll, where coconut castanets and foreshore marimba await to greet us.

Review: There's a delightfully celebratory feel about this debut volume of Cititrax Tracks, a new 12" series from Minimal Wave offshoot Cititrax. As beautifully presented as we've come to expect, Tracks Volume 1 boasts a quartet of dancefloor-ready smashers from a blend of new faces and label stalwarts. Amato (aka The Hacker) kicks things off with the glistening EBM funk of "Physique" - all restless synth refrains and pounding bottom end - before LIES affiliate Tsuzing go all dark, psychedelic and twisted on the thrillingly intense, acid-flecked "King of System". An-I go all DAF (with a touch of Front 242) on the fuzzy and dystopian stomper "Mutter", before Cititrax regulars Broken English Club delivers a storming chunk of industrial-tinged analogue funk ("Glass"). Bravo!

Review: Earlier this year Minimal Wave offshoot provided one of this year's most visceral dancefloor weapons in Kino-I, the debut from Doug Lee's new An-I project. Taking inspiration from techno, jack, industrial and punk, An-I successfully drew a line under some of the Berlin-based artist's previous disco-flavoured endeavours. And then some! If you like the Kino-I 12" you will love the new triplet of An-I productions housed on this appropriately titled Gutz 12". The title track alone should come with a health warning; such is the furious onslaught of machine funk it contains, whilst the unnerving "Rut" is the most schizophrenic production you will hear this year. Best of all id closing track "Save Us" sounds like a cross between in Aeternam Vale and Silent Servant. Pressed on a rather thick and dashing slab of magenta orange vinyl!

Review: It's been a delight to see Oliver Ho's Broken English Club project develop artistically over recent times, with some fine records for Jealous God and Veronica Vasicka's Cititrax label along the way. Suburban Hunting sees Ho deliver his debut Broken English Club album, featuring some 11 tracks of primitive electronics and cinematic pseudo techno cuts. Tunes like "Vacant", "Derelict", or "Scum" all share a loose techno framework, but the real aesthetic is much vaster than that, verging on remnants of post-punk, industrial and all that goodness and hybrid class that came out of the late 1980's. It's another fine addition to the sublime Cititrax discography, and we recommended it just as much as the previous numbers.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


On Rave On Time, her third EP of 2020, Charlotte De Witte giddily pays tribute to the throbbing, warehouse-ready techno sound of her home city of Ghent - and particularly the intense, mind-bending brand particularly associated with R&S Records in the early 1990s. De Witte sets the tone via the razor-sharp and insanely heavy title track, where ragged acid lines and spiky synth stabs leap above a stomping techno groove, before opting for drums, drums and more drums on the restless 'There's No One Left To Trust'. Acid techno is the order of the day on 'The World Inside' and 'Common Era', while triple-time closing cut 'Wahr Ist Sie Dann' is an odd, alien-sounding treat.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Record slightly warped***


Dynamic Forces are indeed on show in this slamming new slab from Arts. There is a real sense of control to the opener 'Lyra' despite its forward motion and punchy kicks, while 'Vaulting' gets much wilder and looser with its manic synth lead and raw onset of percussive pressure. Switching up things once more, 'Parallel' is a dubby techno tool and 'Shimmer' reverts to the careful tweaking of a deft lead synth over incendiary beats. 'Radiant' and 'Meraki' bring more raved-up and bouncy peak-time techno fun. This is a very useful and varied 12".

Review: Thanks to the eternally revered Minimal Wave imprint, out of NYC, Mark Phillips and Robert Lawrence's Five Times Of Dust project is going through a bit of a revival. The duo had first released some post-punk cassettes back in the 80s, and they clearly have not been forgotten. On this new remix EP, "Computer Bank" is given a makeover in the form of a The Floor remix, who proceeds to add all sorts of quirkiness over the tune's tough, heavy bass and driving rhythm; "Armoured Car" breaks the 4/4 in favour of something much closer to the band's original drum machine style. Once again, on the flip, we have a remix of "Like I Am, Comme Je Suis" by The Floor, who throws up a gnarly electro bass onto shady, neo-romantic vocals, and the whole things is finished off by "Imponative" from Unovodual and Tara Cross, who produce a slow, heady industrial groove for the dancefloor.

Review: Fans of mechanical techno-not-techno sounds will be all over Minimal Wave's latest transmission from 80s French underground heroes In Aeternam Vale. Having reissued several essential lost works from the outfit last year, most notably the proto-Sandwell sound of "Highway Dark Veins", Veronica Vasicka delivers another two tracks from the vault. Stylistically mirroring that previous two track release the title track is an equally brilliant synth-techno beast which could easily pass for a Function track today, while B-side "Calling Somewhere" sounds like a cold wave version of proto-halfstep. Needless to say, the fact that these tracks are 22 years old literally left us speechless.

Review: This mysterious, limited-edition techno release strips everything back to pure sound, delivering four futuristic tracks that span electro, techno, house and acid. Side-A kicks off with 'U Like It Raw (Red Hot)', a deep, rolling techno cut infused with raw energy and a hypnotic house vocal that keeps the groove locked in. 'Red Eye Drive' follows, channeling old-school acid techno with minimal, atmospheric production. Dubby and stripped-down, it's a heady, late-night journey through misty soundscapes. On Side-B, 'Wannado' embraces electro and acid, with a futuristic, spacey feel that twists and turns through intricate layers of sound. Closing out the release, 'Headz Vol 3' drifts into floaty, ambient-acid territoryialien, ethereal and deeply immersive. With its varied but cohesive vision, this record is a great example of the depth and range in underground electronic music. A true gem for those who seek something beyond the ordinary.

Review: Sa Pa's mastery of dense, immersive sound design takes on fresh forms here, with four extended cuts that unravel in their own time, drawing deep from the wells of dub, ambient techno, and minimal groove. Opener 'Captigon' rolls out like a slow-motion mirage, its submerged rhythms and cavernous textures shifting like sand underfoot. 'So Simple' strips things back even further, a delicate interplay of drifting chords and weightless percussion that feels like it could dissolve at any moment. On the flip, 'Boredom Memory (Extended Mix)' lets a steady pulse guide its shimmering layers, balancing restraint with a quiet insistence, while 'Gausian Ecstacy' brings things full circleihushed, intricate, and hypnotic in equal measure. Designed for deep listening, whether warming up, winding down, or staying in, these tracks reward patience, letting their submerged details rise to the surface at their own pace.

Review: All that we know about the enigmatically named SaPa is they are affiliated with Weimar crew Giegling, emerging earlier this year with the Fuubutsushi album on the Forum sublabel that garnered comparisons with Prince Of Denmark. Sa Pa's penchant for subaqueous techno now lands the producer a 12" debut on Marcel Dettmann Recordings. Lead track "We Can Be Friends" is so dubbed-out and murky that it could almost run as a background percussive piece in your mix - that's not to say that we don't think it's absolutely killer, because it is! "Morocco" is completely in a world of its own, crackly feedback and sparse sonics abound, while "Fast Jam" is a heady techno stomper with a punchy low-end and sublime percussion, a track that is followed by another murky load of swamped atmospherics in the form of "Untitled 11". If we have to be completely honest, this has been our favourite MDR 12" in a long time, and it comes with a heartfelt recommendation. Killer.

Review: Into the fifth dimension flies UK producer Smev with a wicked cosmic acid journey of an EP. Billed as a bridge across the void into an alternate reality, we begin at the 'Tip Of The Iceberg' before plunging down below, concluding on a state of ending up happily 'Lost In The Realm'. Echoic squelch-synths abound, generously doused in reverb as we skirt and skip across atmospheric dusts of half-recalled affirmations - "destruction... believe in yourself..." - on 'Sweet Destruction', where the EP takes a darker turn. More energised, by comparison, is 'Rest Easy', which leaves us paradoxically, affectively unable to do anything but.

Review: Aksel Schaufler has undertaken an ambitious effort this year with his Golden Ravedays concept, where over each month throughout 2017 he has released another respective edition. We are almost at the end - but as sad as it is, we do have the music to celebrate which is the main thing, right? Golden Ravedays 10 features another couple of long and epic cuts. The A side features the slo-mo rock 'n' roll swagger of "Rock 'N' Roll Baby" featuring Schaufler's creepy vocals over a hypnotic and at times esoteric sounding arrangement. On the flip, we have something entirely different in the form of "Shining" an early '90s IDM sounding journey which we must admit was our pick on this release - it reminds us of the glory days of Peacefrog and Planet E way back when: when electronic music had soul! Volume 10 does not at all disappoint and for those of you who've not been paying attention thus far: we'd highly recommend you catch up on previous editions: you won't regret it!

Notes: ***B-STOCK: Bag opened, product unused & in perfect condition***


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