Review: Since at least 2024, by our estimation, shells have been enjoying something of an "it moment" in electronic music. Don't ask us why. Perhaps the icky palps of nautiluses, or the helical segmentation of various fossils, would seem to predict the naturalisation of mechanical reproductions expressed in techno. Birmingham keystone Surgeon (Anthony Child) swoops in on the fervour, repurposing larked sonic opercula into filter-fed 4x4 Borg-anisms. But despite the implied theme, Child uses limited equipment - "For me, it's an interesting experience returning to old techniques again after 30 years" - and refashions a classic live-show-style approach here. All eight tracks were done in a single take, and only 'Dying' upends beats, delivering a moribund, mantric sound piece.
Review: Barker's latest release is a masterclass in fluid experimentation, embracing unpredictability with a delicate balance of harmony and controlled chaos. Following his acclaimed previous work, this new collection of tracks finds him refining his craft while allowing for spontaneity to take the lead. Opening with 'Force of Habit', the project immediately sets a tone of shifting momentum, while Reframingithe serotonin-laced lead singleispirals through shimmering arpeggios, evoking echoes of classic trance before drifting into uncharted territory. Tracks like 'Difference' and 'Repetition' and 'The Remembering Self' showcase Barker's intricate layering, weaving together mechanical precision with an organic sense of movement. A deep dive into mechanical instrumentation lies at the heart of this work, with Barker exploring the possibilities of automation not as a replacement for human touch, but as a tool for new forms of expression. The result is a body of work that mirrors the uncertainty of its time, embracing change rather than resisting it. As the final moments of this LP fade out, Barker leaves us with a feeling of transformationimusic that adapts to the moment in which it exists.
Review: Detroit dub techno don Luke Hess says that this is his "most eclectic and techno-driven album to date" and that it blends together his signature subterranean sounds with his indelible Motor City touch. It again works well on cultured dance floors but is also a deeply spiritual album that will have your mind wandering to some lovely places. From the opening moments of 'Dokimion' you're sunk into widescreen soundscapes that pair painterly synths with immersive low ends. Cuts like 'Stoicheo' bring serene melodies and closer 'Hiketeria' is a misty, foggy cut that oozes late-night intimacy.
Review: In line with the timely reappraisal of all things R&S related, the resurgent Apollo have seen the opportunity to bring one of their most celebrated records back for another round. Aphex Twin's ambient recordings mature magnificently with age, sounding ever richer and more emotive as the rest of electronic music continues to play catch up all around. From the gentle breakbeats of "Xtal" to the aquatic techno lure of "Tha", the airy rave of "Pulsewidth" to the heartwrenching composition of "Ageispolis", every track is a perennial example of how far ambient techno could reach even back then. It's just that no-one quite had the arm-span of Richard D. James.
Review: Dutchman Danny Wolfers aka Legowelt is one of the most prolific artists in the game. He has several aliases which all explore ambient, synth, house and techno, but this is his most well-known. Synths Below Sea Level is another singular long player packed with his signature machine-made sounds and vintage synth textures. There are intergalactic acid odysseys like 'A1200 The Valley Energy', brilliantly lo-fi deep house mediations like 'Maybe You See Them Fly' with melodies so meaningful they bring a tear to your eye and forward-thinking cosmic techno bangers like 'MKS100 CZ Reference Pod 9' which bend space and time. Another gem with artwork by the man himself.
Review: In a smooth flying saucered descent, Solara Melfera continues the WSNWG: Back to Zero journey, adding a new dimension to the label's evolving sound. This compilation unites eight carefully selected tracks curated by German producer and DJ Rodhad, fusing nighttime prowler moods and subtle celestials. With a cover artwork bathed in golden, sunlit tones, the music has an eclipsing mood, juggling strong shades of light and dark. Kicking off with Ignez' 'Passion Overdrive', we're met with a brooding techno number with overdubbed lyrics by the artist, recounting the artist's rather libidinally charged dream from the previous night.
Engage Now To Surface (Luke Slater Reassembly) (6:56)
Desert Races (Luke Slater Reassembly 2025) (6:24)
Rip The Keys (Luke Slater Reassembly) (6:13)
Review: With Planetary Assault Systems, one imagines weaponry of celestial scale, designed to zap spatial anomalies, planet-eating worms and other eldritch horrors into oblivion. 'Reassembled' hears Mote Evolver boss Luke Slater follow up last year's fifth volume on the 'Deep Heat' series, and does well to mastermind the evocation of such numb horror, such gargantuan warfare. Made up of a throng of "reassemblies" by Oscar Mulero and Len Faki, as well as Slater himself, this one makes up part of a series also involving Chlar and Rene Wise. The alien sound design here is highly believable, with the new versions of 'Engage Now To Surface' and 'Surface Noise' bringing mucusy blends and membraneous bells.
Review: Per Hammar and Berlin-based label Sushitech are a match made in heaven as both have long since proven their credential in the world of dub techno. As the label turns 20, it kicks off its year with an album that has been two years in the making and features a top-quality array of dub techno sounds. Malin Genie features on two of the more kicking and propulsive cuts, while Jannik Jivung adds an organic touch to two more. In between those sounds are percolating slow-mo jams like 'Representant Dubb' and more kinetic sounds like 'TX Files' with its fresh kicks and rolling bass.
Review: Aftere their unexpected reformation - apparently after key member Karl O'Connor was persuaded by none other than grunge king Mark Lanegan to end their decade-long hiartus - comes an even less expected new album from the cult Birmingham (or Black Country, to be more precise) techno gods. The album is a tribute to the late Juan Mendez, a key member of Sandwell District who passed away in early 2024. Mendez's unfinished artwork, originally intended for the album cover, serves as a poignant memorial to his contribution to their legacy. It's anything but functional techno, thouhg, with plenty of skittering, sidewinding beats and pared back rather than utterly banging rhythms. See the cinematic techno and dancefloor energy that blends Drexciya's innovative approach for reference, but also Autechre and more esoteric electro across the eight cuts. Plenty of sonic rebellion and meticulously crafted rhythm with a dark energy, not to mention edgy atmopsheres that will leave a lasting mark.
Review: Despite their name, we find that the music of retro technicians Paranoid London offers us a rest from the paranoid mental state that the Great Wen often instils. Now out on a tenth anniversary edition, the duo's raw acid techno debut, released in 2015, heard two Londoners take temporary flight to Chicago, re-imbuing urban smoky techno with a long-lost sense of looseness and grit. Working in relative anonymity, the duo drew praise for their sparse use of original Bernard Sumner vocal lines, affording the record an esteem-by-proxy as well as a sense of turning full circle, as PL's Quinn Whalley actually spent many a pre-teen afternoon in Factory production wizard MArtin Hannet' studio. But it's the record's own minimalism that keeps it satisfyingly repetitive yet never complaisant. PL go their own way, swirling the old school round a ringer road of outer-city grit.
Review: DDS has tapped up the mysterious and enigmatic Japanese dub techno stylist Shinichi Atobe for another album. Discipline is his seventh for the label and each of those has been as faultless as the next - happily, this keeps up that impeccable run which started with a debut on the Chain Reaction label in 2001. The eight cuts on the record offer up delay-laden steppers, swaggering 909 rhythms, plenty of evocative pads and subtle backlit synths that bring a future feel to the soulful, authentic grooves.
Review: Psychonauts, brace yourselves... A reissue of the classic track by artist Spacetime Continuum and ethnobotanist Terrence McKenna is upon us. The six-track EP 'Alien Dreamtime' was first released on Astralwerks in 1993, and came as the first ever release by Jonah Sharp, who played an instrumental hand in pioneering the sample-use of spiritually-enhancing spoken word segments as preludes to magnanimous, ambient electronica tracks. McKenna himself is credited as a collaborator; this EP documents the moment Sharp teamed up with the entheogenic pundit, alongside fellow didgeridoo player Stephen Kent, for an hour-long spoken word rave live in the psycho-breaks capital, San Francisco. "For your edification", McKenna intones and then continues, "the psilocybin mushroom is the catalyst of human evolution and language..." as the wildest possible atmospheric forms of take shape on the highlight dance-scapes 'Transient Generator' and McKenna's glossolalic 'Speaking In Tongues'.
Review: Monolake's defining third LP Gravity was the second album to be released through the artist's own Imbalance Computer Music, as well as the first to feature Robert Henke predominately, as his former partner Gerhard Behles became increasingly consumed by the foundations of what become the Abelton Live empire. Tense, percussive digital minimal techno ensues, setting steady beats against rattling, materially modelled sound design - the record's resonant overtones sound like sprockets undergoing tidal to-and-fros of suspension and release - this record sought thematic refuge in a universal force of natural law: gravity itself. After a recent reissue of Monolake's first album Hongkong, this turn-of-the-century affair - appearing on vinyl for the very first time - offers a shattered, breathy brand of minimalism, perfect for shrunken heads and demanding DJs alike.
Review: If you like your techno slung at you in emotive waves, look no further than Alarico's latest LP. Releasers Primal Instinct speak as if to restore to techno its very essence by describing an asymptote of techno, one that must be held fast to or lost: "complex and groovy patterns generated by advanced, yet organic sound design, unifying the two antipodes that create the essence of techno: primitivism and innovation." Alarico's record is an exemplary egg of this principle, hatched from within the PI hutch: over the span of two years, many of these tunes come culled from the Milanese producer's live performances, and prefer reams of wavy emotion amid hard pummellings. Unlike many of his peers, Alarico is unafraid of varying the tonal centre, interceding stark and heavy drum design with moving progressions, yet not indulging overt tranciness, as on the drowned world of 'Mezcal & Sangre' or the opening vibe-promulgator 'Iruka'.
Review: Music From Memory totally recall and compile this next instalment in their popular multi-artist compilation series, Virtual Dreams. This time centring on Ambient Explorations In The House And Techno Age, Japan 1993-1999, this second edition in the series follows on from the first released in 2020, and continues to shine a light on the house and techno-adjacent music that helped redefine the definition of ambient music during the 1990s. While the first focused on Europe, we venture far further East here, primarily riffing on the many ambient flows and sequential somnaumblisms eminent from the J-shaped isle from the time, including the trans-missive floater, 'Phoenix At Desert' by Akio and the pulse-tidal electro phaseout, Web's 'The Cycle Of Seasons'.
Review: You still won't find a more perfect electro album than Kraftwerk's Computer World, and it was the album that pretty much invented the style. That much is clear from this fresh 2020 reissue, which presents the iconic 1981 set on translucent yellow vinyl, accompanied by a slick booklet of fitting Kraftwerkian imagery. While 'Computer World', 'Pocket Calculator' and 'Computer Love' are near perfect electro-pop songs, it's the sheer heaviness and funkiness of the B-boy friendly beats on 'Home Computer', 'It's More Fun To Compute' and, most famously, 'Numbers' that make it such an essential. Put simply, Computer World still sounds like the future.
Falling Down (feat Totally Enormous Estinct Dinosaurs & A-Trak) (3:49)
Y Don't U (8:11)
Alive (feat Bloom Twins) (3:31)
R U Dreaming? (feat Mathew Jonson) (7:44)
So Low (feat Zoe Kypri) (5:56)
La Hija De Juan Simon (feat Mestiza) (7:02)
Warrior Dance (feat Jojo Abot) (9:53)
Sunrise Generation (feat Fink) (7:27)
Force (feat Jojo Abot) (4:29)
Review: Damian Lazarus's fifth studio album is another left-of-centre exploration of house and tech, often with a spiritual twist and hints of voodoo magic. It is heavy on collaborations and finds the Crosstown Rebels boss hooking up with the likes of Hem Cooke for the spine-tingling downtempo opener 'Searchin' while 'R U Dreaming? (feat Mathew Jonson)' is a more deep and bubbly late-night tech sound. 'La Hija De Juan Simon (feat Mestiza)' is laden with percussion and warped bass, and 'Sunrise Generation (feat Fink)' is a deft and progressive melodic roller that is sure to be huge this summer and beyond.
Review: Seven years on from launching his Superluminal label, Matthias cements the journey so far with his very own debut album. Named after the term coined by astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn - used to describe the apparently faster-than-light movement of the ejecta (celestial flotsam) of the nova (exploding star) GK Persei - Superluminal has always drawn on the natural, parallel obsession that unifies the cosmos and dance music. The new record is expansive as such, with 'Underwater Maze' and 'Golem' colliding potent, anodic, reverberative sound design, and 'Fearless Voyager' and 'Sky Nomad' providing a chirpier ambi-acid techno front face.
Review: When this superb double-pack was first released in 1996, Bandulu had already spent four years finely tuning their trademark sound - decidedly spacey and subtly percussive take on techno that offered nods aplenty to Motor City minimalism and the dub-fired end of the Berlin techno spectrum. As a result, the eight-track set became the North London trio's standout release - an album in all but name that remains the purest and most finely crafted expression of their distinctive take on techno. Now reissued on vinyl for the first time since (and in remastered form to boot), its many highlights including the pounding deep space techno of 'Serial Operations', the dub techno masterclass 'Episode 7', the Regis-esque hedonism of 'Paranormal Channels' and the restless, delay-laden riffs of 'Advirus'.
Review: Originally released in 1995, Metaphor is Detroit second wave icon Kenny Larkin's sophomore full length under his own name. This is a truly timeless release which really captures the zeitgeist of the most seminal period in techno's recent history. For those that know, we know we're preaching to the choir, but to those who don't - get familiar! From the classic hi-tech soul of the title track, to the moody future funk of 'Nocturnal' and the driving Motor City energy of 'Catatonic (First State)' and more - Metaphor has certainly held its own 26 years later. Essential.
Review: Peter Kersten, better known as Lawrence, is the veteran deep house producer and gallerist who many of you may know as chief of Hamburg's Dial Records and who made external outings previously on Japan's Mule Musiq where he released several lauded long-players. His latest one comes courtesy of Berlin's Sushitech entitled Earthshine, a 3XLP featuring 12 tracks written and produced by Kersten over the last five years. All in all it's a diverse selection put together by one of the scene's most highly regarded artists.
Review: Berlin-based artist Pavel Milyakov collaborates with Yana Pavlova, Martyna Basta, Richie Culver and Torus on Enthropic Vision, an album-length collection of tracks spanning diverse genres. The A-side starts with the melancholic ambience of 'Moon Chant', featuring the ethereal vocals of Krakow experimental music scene veteran Martyna Basta, before 'Tesco' brings bleak trancey loops blended with British contemporary artist Richie Culver's spoken word poetry. 'Eternal Break', with Netherlands-based artist Torus, is all low subs, ecstatic pads and abrasive breaks, then the B-side kicks in with 'Gabba 17' - not a 170bpm gabba anthem, but rather a ghostly techno workout with an admittedly urgent 4/4 kick - and continues with another tune featuring Richie Culver's spoken word fused with breaks. The album closes with the grim beauty of 'The Thrill', recorded in collaboration with Ukrainian singer Yana Pavlova and transports more wised up listeners back to the hypnagogic universe of the duo's 2021 Blue LP.
Review: Early 1990s classic The Green Album features iconic Orbital tracks like their breakthrough single 'Chime' and the legendary comedown tune 'Belfast.' After the success of 'Chime,' Pete Tong signed Orbital to London/FFRR Records and granted them the creative freedom to craft an album beyond the typical rave formula. Influenced by Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire, the Hartnoll brothers came through and then some as they aimed to create a fully immersive and innovative album full of ambition which helped the duo become pioneers in electronic music, influencing artists from Bjork to Bicep and collaborating with figures like Madonna and Kraftwerk. Their second self-titled album solidified their visionary status, while their groundbreaking live performances are also by now the stuff of legend.
Review: Ellen Allien is about as properly Berlin as it gets. She was there at the first Love Parade and she is still there now, as a dancer and also a discerning DJ, producer and label head at Bpitch. This New Year it starts off on a solid footing with We Are Not Alone Part 7 taking a deep dive into the many artistic talents associated with the imprint. As well as tunes from Ellen herself, there are fine collars between Ayako Mori and Raul Alvarez, solo cuts from Rhys Fulber, Andree Bohlin and Under Black Helmet and much more besides, all of which explore the outing edge of dark, moody techno.
Review: Now resident artists on Point Of Departure, the techno collective Sandwell District present their latest blooping contradiction in transparent blue vinyl form. Drawing on the well-defined Birmingham techno idiom that made them, the elusive revolving-door trio also here welcome temporary stopovers from fellow floor functionaries Function, Regis, Monic and Rivet on each track, treading roads 'Less Travelled' with a 'Restless' intent. From the synaptic promo forerunner 'Hidden' to the tartly corrosive 'Citrinitas Acid', an unsurprising variety of new techno hurlers follows 2023's Feed Forward reissue, augmenting the free-partisan's immune system by hooking it up to a kind of patchwork electric lattice. Controlled chaos ensues.
Review: Los Hermanos' On Another Level, originally released on Submerge in 2005, gets a well-deserved remaster and re-press, reaffirming its status as a Detroit techno classic. This album stands as one of the most soulful and spiritual collections to emerge from the Motor City, blending techno with rich, emotive depth that few records can match. The new tracklisting is the real highlight, now including long-sought-after anthems like 'Birth of 3000', 'Quetzal', and 'Resurrection'. These tracks, which previously only appeared on a deleted 12", are finally available again, giving fans the full experience of Los Hermanos' finest work. However, one notable omission from this re-release is 'Lines Of Nazca', arguably the strongest track from the original pressingia loss that might sting for die-hard collectors. Still, On Another Level remains a vital piece of the Detroit techno canon. It's a testament to the staying power of the genre and its capacity for emotional resonance, even within its most mechanical frameworks. This remaster brings a renewed clarity to the album's sound, making it feel as fresh and impactful as ever. For anyone with a love for Detroit's deep, soulful techno, this reissue is not to be missed.
Review: The next level beat maker and sound designer that is Skee Mask returns to long-time home label Ilian Tape with another bold and brilliant album, Resort. It's an album that expands on the artist's usual sound with fusions of celestial ambient, IDM sound design and lithe, rhythmic techno drums. There are breakbeats on 'Reminiscrmx' backlit by heavenly pads, 'Schneiders Paradox' is marbled with zippy pads and raw drum hits, 'BB Care' glistens with a futuristic glow and 'Holzl Was A Dancer' slips into a shuffling, UKG tinged dub house pumper. It's a wild, wonderful ride that reaches all new levels for this already accomplished producer.
Review: This is the third full-length album by veteran Swedish producer Ola Obergman who has been producing since the turn of the millennium on respected imprints such as Skam, Borft and Futhur Electronix. A heavy collection of 808-based fusion in classic Pariter style, Mirror Counterpart is a cohesive effort featuring some truly impressive productions; from the early proto-house sound of the title track, to the Detroit influenced hi-tech soul cuts on the second disc - 'Indeterminacy' and 'Stellar Triangulation' respectively - going into 4/4 robot funk on the second disc with 'Alice Matter' and 'Uncertiny Principle' being the highlights. Superb.
There Will Come A Time (feat Prof Brian Cox) (7:13)
Review: Having set aside their musical differences following a period of reflection, the Hartnoll brothers return with their tenth studio album. The break seems to have done them some good, because "Monsters Exist" contains some material that's every bit as beguiling and impressive as their most celebrated work. Certainly, there are hints of classic Orbital in the spellbinding electronics and enveloping gloominess of "Buried Deep Within", the intergalactic ambient symphony of "There Will Come a Time" (listen out for a guest spoken word vocal by rave's favourite scientist, Professor Brian Cox), and the title track's rapidly expanding paranoia. There are a few dancefloor-centric blasts from the past, too ("Hoo Hoo Ha Ha" and the festival-friendly bounce of "PHUK"), suggesting that the veteran twosome could be ready for a late-career revival.
Review: Italian producer Enrico Sangiuliano may have been serving up dark and intoxicating techno twelves for the best part of a decade, but never before has he turned his hand to the full-length format. Biomorph is not just any old debut album, either, but rather a concept album described by Drumcode as "a journey of evolution". In practice, that means an album that ebbs and flows throughout, opening with a dash of spacey ambient, before charging off on a trip marked out by pulsating techno rhythms (crafted from both straight 4/4 beats and breakbeats), spiraling electronic motifs, booming, elongated basslines, experimental electronic interludes and more future big room techno anthems than the contents of Adam Beyer's USB stick. In other words, if you love Drumcode's particular brand of bombastic techno, you'll love Biomorph.
Review: Paul Dickow is the man behind the Strategy project and this album was first released by Khaliphonic in 2018 and now reissued on wax. The artist has long been thought of as a musical polymath who has spent his life immersed in hardware and crafting unique sounds across the dub spectrum. This record proves that and then some with a mix of dub techno, digi-dub and everything in between. The rhythms are deep and involving, the synths often icy and the percussion is just enough to elevate each tune next to sci-fi signifiers and cosmic motifs.
Review: Geir Jensson's debut album under the now familiar Biosphere alias, Microgravity, has long been considered something of a classic of the early '90s ambient boom. First released in 1991, it offered an icy but suitably atmospheric mix of chilly ambience, British-style "intelligent techno" and crystalline IDM. To celebrate 25 years since it was recorded (it was released a year later, in 1991), Geir Jensson has re-mastered it and, with the help of a successful crowd-funding campaign, pressed it onto a double CD minus the cross-fades and sound effects featured on the original pressing. Happily, Microgravity has lost none of its allure.
Review: The second part of Omar S' You For Letting Me Be Myself album in vinyl form sees another 8 tracks across four sides of wax; aside from the '80s inflected sounds of the album's title track, the 303 workout of "Ready My Black Asz" finds itself with the dubbed out loops of "Messier Sixty Eight". As a bonus for those who already have the album, this part contains two vinyl exclusive tracks; the soothing deepness of "She's Sah Hero Nik" and the delayed organ weirdness of "Broken Bamalance Horn" - both more than worth the price of admission alone.
Review: For those who value digging deep into the folds of original UK tech house, Mark Ambrose has been a cult favourite for a long time. Now, as the sound continues to enjoy favourable conditions amongst those who like to play long and winding sets stretching out into infinity, Repeat are doing the right thing and combing through Ambrose's considerable back catalogue from the late 90s to piece together some of the most sought after gems. Sharks be damned, now we can get our hands on some of these prized items, like the wall-shaking, dubby as hell 'Zulu Groove' and sumptuously groovy sunriser 'Free Your Mind'. No matter how much tech house gets made these days, they don't make it like they used to.
Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song) (feat The Mediaeval Baebes) (4:13)
Day One (feat Dina Ipavic) (5:15)
Are You Alive? (feat Penelope Isles) (7:34)
You Are The Frequency (feat The Little Pest) (4:37)
The New Abnormal (5:08)
Home (feat Anna B Savage) (4:13)
Orbital & Sleaford Mods - "Dirty Rat" (5:16)
Requiem For The Pre Apocalypse (7:42)
What A Surprise (feat The Little Pest) (4:37)
Moon Princess (feat Coppe) (5:04)
Review: After the 30 Something retrospective that landed during 2022, comes a new Orbital album proper, Optical Delusion, set to be accompanied by a busy summer of gig and festival dates by the looks of it. The album's taster single 'Dirty Rat' was a corker, too, full of post-Brexit/Boris bile and a biting vocal from Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson, not to mention some striking Orbital musical trademarks. It could well point the way forward for more interesting collaborations - perhaps taking a leaf out of Leftfield's book - on the album, though only time will tell. Either way, a serious portion of new material from one of the dance world's most enduring and best loved acts will be feverishly anticipated.
Review: Portugal's powerhouse Hayes welcomes back Norbak for more low-end work that comes with plenty of intricate designs, exquisite synth work and rhythms that veer from club-ready to sound system-suited. 'Rosna' sets the tone with shimmering percussive loops and twisted electronics that ride a nice wooden, swinging groove. 'Capital (with Quelza)' is intense and pent-up techno funk, 'Grego' is a lovely broken beat workout and 'Sobreposto' is a minimal hypnotiser with a mystic atmosphere. Superbly designed stuff.
Lord Of The Isles - "Meet Me At The Portal" (3:04)
Review: This new one on Secrets of Sound has a rather grandiose title but the music is suitably accomplished to live up to it. Johnny Jewel gets things underway with a lavish and jazzy ambient scape turned gentle broken beat bliss-out. Elsewhere RAMZi's singular grasp of rhythms shines through with the rickety drums and cosmic moods of 'Existenz' and synth magician Legowelt cooks up a curious and whimsical sound on the escapist 'Nebia Vera Pelliccia'. Elsewhere, Lord Of The Isles slows things right down to late-night contemplation with 'Meet Me At The Portal.' A tasteful collection indeed.
Review: This archival release on Organic Analogue digs back into the prolific '90s period of Swedish techno maverick Jean-Louis Huhta, aka Dungeon Acid. These days he releases on iDEAL, Fit Sound, Borft and Klasse Wrecks, but he cut his techno teeth on labels like Hybrid, Svek and H. Productions. Clad in artwork details by Swedish graffiti legend Nug, Wormhole Of Time comprises unreleased cuts and long out-of-print jams spanning many of Huhta's aliases. The release also comes with a zine featuring photographs and an interview reflecting on Huhta's multifarious life in music.
Review: To our ears, 1975's Radioactivity is Kraftwerk's most ghostly and otherworldly album. It was famously their first set made entirely with electronic instruments - some home-made - and now sounds like a bridge between the more krautrock-style hypnotism of the earlier Autobahn and the slicker, more tuneful albums that followed it. In other words, it's as weird, alien and otherworldly as it is ground-breaking and pop-leaning. This 2020 reissue is well worth picking up, not least because it comes pressed on translucent yellow vinyl and comes accompanied by a glossy, 16-page booklet full of iconic Kraftwerk images.
Review: Given the hype that surrounded the release of the first Moderat set back in 2009, we can surely expect more of the same for this second outing from Apparat and Modeselektor. Those familiar with the first album's woozy blend of IDM, Thom Yorke indebted vocal dreaminess, porchlight techno and post-dubstep rhythms will immediately feel right at home. Online reviews have focused largely on II's atmospheric warmth, and the way in which the Berlin-based trio seems to have refined their sound. Both are valid critiques; certainly, there's a maturity and musical complexity to the album that betters much of their previous works. It's not much of a dancefloor set, but that's entirely the point; this is locked-in headphone listening for the wide-eyed generation.
Review: Ehua treads into new territory with her debut full-length, Panta Rei, arriving via 3024 after an extended period of experimentation and self-reflection. Over 18 months, the London producer and DJ - originally from Italy - fused deep bass mutations with live percussion, acoustic textures, and, for the first time, her own voice. The result is a humanistic record, with glassy sonic abstractions, vocal reversions and rhythmic interruptions serving plenty space for intimacy and contrast. Ahead of a launch party scheduled in South London on April 24th, hosted by 3024 and Planet Wax, the likes of 'White', 'Bumju' and 'Albicocca' are propulsive, driving integrators of brain and body, perfect for imminent deployment in the divey New Cross establishment.
Review: Underworld's latest album, Strawberry Hotel maps a distinct sonic landscape where minimalistic techno pulses meet textured and scratchy guitar tones, creating an uncanny blend of precision and spontaneity. Each track occupies its own atmosphere-from tracks built around tight, rhythmic kicks and monotone voices, to others steeped in lush melodic swells. Highlight tracks 'and the colour red' and 'denver luna' showcase their talent for boundary-pushing compositions, while 'black poppies' stands as a tribute to dancefloor euphoria and pure vitality, all without a single beat.
Review: The now 20-year-strong Sushitech have been working on this one for two years and finally it drops - a new album from cultured dub techno don Per Hammar. This is a seriously deep journey into his signature sound that melds the genre's most classic side with a fresh modern twist. Cuts like 'Generation Drive' have a nice crisp sense of motion as well as lovely warped pads, while 'Juvial' brings a sense of curiousness with its undulating drums and bass. 'Defender' leans into sleek techno styles and will have you cruising in no time. An instant classic album, for sure.
Review: Colombian producer and singer Ela Minus expands her sound on this new album, which is a bold follow-up to her 2020 debut Acts of Rebellion. While her first long player felt like an intimate late-night club reverie, this sophomore effort is introspective yet vast while revealing more of Ela as both an artist and person. It's an album about becoming and exploring self-discovery, resilience and the path forward after breaking. Across ten terrific tracks that have been mixed by Marta Salogni and mastered by Heba Kadry, Ela blends pop accessibility with experimental finesse while weaving radiant choruses into imaginative, intricate sonics. A great work that shows evolution while not abandoning her signature sounds.
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