New releases last eight weeks: Techno (All)

Review: A2L were active between 1988 and 1990 and released two albums and several EPs on labels like 1st Bass, Big One and Force Inc. Their sound blended British psychedelic house with elements of new beat, industrial, EBM and early acid house and in doing so captured the raw energy of the UK rave scene. Notably different from typical acid house acts of the time, A2L's music took in machine funk, samplers and turntable techniques to create trippy, infectious grooves. This collection compiles rare underground gems from them from 1989 and features standout tracks like 'Even Though It's Make Believe' and 'Come On.' It's a great look back to the experimental spirit of the late 80s.

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: 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: DJ Sotofett returns with a double 12" packed with eight hard-hitting, underground techno tracks. Featuring frequent collaborators LNS, L.A. 2000, Ronny Nyheim, and Zarate_Fix, this release is a direct nod to the no-nonsense techno nights at Berlin's iconic Tresor club, where Sotofett holds residency. Each track is crafted with pure dancefloor energy in mind, moving through dub-driven techno, acidic overtones, and percussive basslines, all delivered with a raw, uncompromising edge. WANIA mk1 is a masterclass in DJ-ready versatility, perfect for those who love their techno stripped back and potent. Standout cuts include the bombastic, percussion-heavy Preparation and the 909-vocoder-fuelled My Spirit Is In Techno Music, both of which exemplify the release's dedication to the underground essence of the genre. With alternative mixes from WANIA mk2 making an appearance, the album offers both continuity and innovation, keeping true techno fans hooked from start to finish. Sotofett's attention to detail in programming, mixing, and mastering is evident throughout, making this a must-have for DJs and clubbers who live and breathe the core of real, unfiltered techno music. WANIA mk1 isn't just an album; it's a statement for those who value authenticity in their club experience.

Review: Djrum (Felix Manuel) presents his latest full album in six years, in what has been described as a "literal creative rebirth". Beginning in earnest in the 2020 COVID lockdown, this a record whose creation treads a path of almost archetypal infamy: all the best electronica albums, in our view, are born of hard-drive losses. And Djrum's hard-drive meltdown, of course, seemed to correspond to a literal collapse and renewal; such ostensible catastrophes are painful at first, but they tend to breed re-incarnal transformations. Reflecting in the shaking disaster-piece stutters of 'Three Foxes Chasing Each Other' to the ambi-spatially adept 'A Tune For Us', the record spans prodigious instrumentality and electronica abstractions, verging on speedcore, jazz and techno-halftime in places. From vinyl DJ to reckoner of hardcore musicianship.

Review: Fluxion returns with a stunning full-length album that showcases his mastery of dub techno and chilled soundscapes. Opening with 'Life Motif', Haze begins with ambient textures that set a tranquil, atmospheric tone. 'Magenta' follows, delivering a hazy dub experience that channels island vibes, with deep, gentle chords that immerse the listener. 'Reflections' brings in deeper techno elements, with piano melodies riding over the rhythm to create a sophisticated, mature take on dub techno. 'Footsteps (Fluxion Rework)' is a poignant track, blending orchestral elements and church chimes, invoking a melancholic yet still, uplifting mood. 'Berlin' takes a turn into more traditional dub techno territory, featuring a deep bassline and club-ready vibe that remains true to Fluxion's roots. The album closes with 'Open Moves', a beautiful, emotional piece that blends classical influences with dub-influenced ambiance, leaving listeners with a sense of introspection and calm.Haze is a masterful exploration of dub techno's emotive potential, balancing deep rhythms, lush atmospheres and moving melodies. Fluxion proves once again why he remains a leading figure in the genre, seamlessly fusing elements of dub, techno and ambient like only he can.

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: 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: Stockholm sound architect Cari Lekebusch stops over on Lady Tazz's Mind Medizin with a four-sided EP of sleek, dark metallic, carbon-plated techno. Lekebusch's early outings on Drumcode and Planet Rhythm make for some of the best possible CV boosts you could add to such a document, and now 'XYZ' forms as the three-character update. Best among the tracks on this soon to be episodic EP series are 'Freakout' and 'Heritage', which are the two most abrasive onslaughts. Strategic sorties of sound, the tunes are placed in impeccable contrast to the relatively moving quellers 'Ninguno Es Uno' and 'Mind And Matter'.

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: 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: 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: Rivet's newest album for Editions Mego blends optimism and negation, emerging sanguinely from a period of personal tragedy and disillusionment undergone by the artist. Mika Hallback, a key figure in the Swedish underground, first gained attention with industrial techno as Grovskopa before shifting to experimental work, including On Feather and Wire (2020). After the loss of fellow musician Peter Rehberg and his dog Lilo, Hallback created the somber L+P-2 (2023), and now Peck Glamour marks his return, coming reinfused with hope and exploration. Drawing on punk, industrial, techno, and trauma, the album combines synthetic and organic elements, with 'Orbiting Empty Cocoon', with its tugging, metal ballistic sound-rooms sounding like an Au-technic, cybernetic ritual, a dance anthem 'Patitur Butcher' and 'We Left Before We Came' concluding on comparatively layered zoonotic notes; posthuman synthesis backed by birdsong.

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: 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: With A Real Piece Of Work, Stillhead helps Brightest Dark Place reach into the "hazy, blurred overlap between techno and ambient", throwing a suspension chord between two bluffs over a vast sonic chasm, and letting terse rhythms monkey-swing across it, letting reverb bellow from below. This is an equally dynamic but intense listening experience, proving that vast, chasmic sound design need not chafe against dynamic buoyancy: the two can coexist. Keeping to about 170BPM, the Edinburgh DJ marks his sixth release here, and it is an impressive logical extension from 2022's comparable mission statement Restraint And Reverb: 'The Red Ball' suspends a sampled 'Funky Drummer' over an atoll of sub compulsions, while 'A Light Thump On The Head' stretches a classic future garage rhythm over a telegraphic void, with dispersive, long-decaying results.

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: Sonic Groove Records marks a full three decades of boundary-pushing electronic music with an uncompromising compilation of unreleased tracks from an array of techno and industrial legends. Since 1995, the New York label has stood for fearless innovation and this anniversary release is no exception as it delivers a front-to-back barrage of expertly crafted, high-impact cuts. Each artist contributes fresh material that feels vital and honed, capturing the label's ethos of dark energy, sonic precision and underground credibility. From Frankie Bones's clunking loops of acid-laced menace on 'Clip On' to Adam X's pending analogue barrage 'Change Of Gameplan' via Outlander's strangely slow and strobe-lit synth weapon 'Presence Of Absence', this is a fitting tribute to Sonic Groove's storied past.

Review: 10 years of Amsterdam's Vault Records is celebrated on this latest edition of their Vault Sessions techno compilation. While many a label can lay claim to ownership of and control over a "vault" of music, how many of them can submit to surrender 20 such golden sonic ingots when faced with a ransom to release music, *and* still keep enough in the strongroom to keep the books balanced? While we've now the keys to many a high-profile private client's dirtiest collateral deposits - Jpsrv35's twinkling blood garnet 'Soulsearch', Quelza's illegal software 'Automated Assistance Program', Grace Dahl's precious heirloom 'The Green Room' , Stef Mendesidis' diplomatically immune 'License To Fly' - we suspect that many more such greats lay hidden behind astringent locks, impervious to the next heist. All tunes leave us Vaulting!

Review: To celebrate a decade of electronic excellence, Rotterdam label On Board Music has assembled this fine compilation featuring plenty of great tunes from its nearest and dearest. It spans an impressively diverse range of sounds, from Altinbas' atmospheric' Submersion' to Polygonia's intricate, rhythmic 'Broken Temptation'. There is also GiGi FM's ethereal dub-techno piece 'Maova' and Dorisburg's Nordic-techno exploration 'Sensorik'. Lenty of these cuts balance introspective atmospheres with dancefloor energy, which means the double vinyl is suitable in a range of different settings, all of which capture the essence of On Board Music-atmospheric, trippy, dubby, ambient and techno.