Back catalogue: All genres

Review: As of now, Kiasmos - the duo of Olafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen - are superstars on the international progressive electronica circuit. It crept up on us that they've only released one other album to date, with the bulk of their output having been limited so far to EPs and singles. II is the follow-up to its apt nominal counterpart, Kiasmos (I), and yet this time hears the pair strike out against the stark piano and electropop influences for which they were initially celebrated. Another key difference is that while the first Kiasmos record was made in the space of two weeks - getting at the sense of effortlessness that might accompany the initial burst of inspiration felt by artists when they start a new alias - II was made over the course of ten years and charts a remarkably different approach to music production.

Review: Ma?h is based in Berlin but makes occult techno inspired by Tikal, which is the ruin of an ancient Mayan city in Guatemala. He creates a sense of ancient ritual, tribalism, primaeval drums and otherworldly atmosphere across five fantastically evocative and escapist cuts here. They all go deep, with rubbery rhythms marbled with wordless vocals, chanting, eerie FX and absorbing mysticism that is all expertly done and hugely authentic. 'Acat' is a standout with its lolloping bass and tom-peppered beats, while 'Exorcismo' is more intense and heady. 'Caiman Ritual' is a humid and intense dub techno bumper, and it rounds out one of the most original EPs we've heard in ages.

Review: RECOMMENDED
The DJ Kicks series has managed to outlast the vast majority of other DJ mixes we can think of - the good, the bad, the populist, and the plain cash cow. Even the mighty fabric compilations have rebranded and rethought, bringing the original legacy, FABRICLIVE included, to a respectful end at 200 outings. Strange, then, to think, that !K7's mighty offering to the world of "What should we listen to at the afters?" has arguably managed to become more relevant as the years have flown by.

There was a time when the series existed at the lighter end of club fare, with some examples barely even matching that description. These days, though, there's often a dance floor heaviness central to the selections, with Jessy Lanza's broken, bass-driven set a case in point. Pointless attempts to describe the music, and lazy track list namedropping aside, this is energy-packed, heads down, futurist stuff packed with infectious percussion.

Review: Maelstrom returns to Central Processing Unit for his fourth outing, and this time he's dropping his longest release yet. French electro mainstay Joan-Mael Peneau, known to many as Maelstrom, has been a fixture on the scene since the early 2000s, and he brings every ounce of that experience to his new LP, The FM Tapes. Spanning 11 tracks, this album is a masterclass in precision, confidence, and control. From the opening moments of 'Ondes Courtes', Maelstrom makes it clear that he's not here to mess around. The track offers a dark, brooding take on electro, with tight, shuffling beats and expertly layered synth work that sets the tone for what's to come. Tracks like 'Alt50ser' follow, pushing forward with mechanical rhythms and a frenetic energy that could only come from an artist with such a seasoned hand. 'La Vie Sociale Des Sons' showcases his knack for combining complex soundscapes with raw, dancefloor-ready energy, blending heavy basslines with shimmering top-end details. The album's centrepiece, 'Res 06 (feat. Fasme)', serves as a standout, bringing in an almost cinematic quality. The beats remain hard and driving, but there's a subtle elegance in the way Maelstrom weaves textures around them, creating something that feels both intense and intricate. Yet, despite all the technical wizardry, The FM Tapes never feels cold or clinical. There's a warmth to tracks like 'My Digitone', where the rhythms are precise but still leave room for playfulness and experimentation. It's this balance of meticulous craftsmanship and spontaneous energy that defines the LP and makes it feel so vital.

Review: Jeff Mills continues to gift us some utterly astounding house-tempered work from the Millsart project on this latest 12". Neo Tantric Parts draws from the deep well of Millsart archives, with 'Tear Drop Nebula' especially benefitting from a new mix as it shuffles percussion and vibraphone chimes around microtonal cascades which give the music a particularly giddy quality. 'The Phonetic World' has a punchy presence without losing that lighter style Mills adopts under this alias, while 'Neptunian Landing' heads into spookier territory with some faithful 909 hats for guidance. Watch out for 'Unidentified' though, a truly tweaked-out slice of space lounge gear for watching the walls of you mind melt after one too many solar flares.

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: 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: After 2024's 'The Stranger', a new, impressionistic techno-electronica record from Oscar Mulero betrays in the Madrid artist an honest naivete, as titular techno cosmic impressions contrast a homespun, motion-blurred front cover. Can we hear the wood for the trees? 'New Horizons' and 'Invisible Star' would certainly seem to suggest not. We're always in the thick of it, even as intergalactic wow-signal comms traverse repetitive aeons, light-year, and as we travel further and further 'Outside The Time Zone', further and 'Further Away'. A cool, armrest-clenching continuation from the Spanish fave.

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.

Review: For well over a decade, Italian producer, electronic musician and sound designer Ocralab (real name Rocco Biscione) has been serving up immersive and enveloping ambient soundscapes, most of which tend towards the meditative and subtly sun-kissed. That's the trademark sound that he explores on gorgeous new full-length Locus Impervio, a set whose gently rising and falling melodic motifs, calming soundscapes and spacey sounds recall the halcyon days of ambient music in the mid-to-late 1990s. It's a genuinely gorgeous, soul-enriching set all told - the kind of thing we might have expected Pete Namlook, Jonah Sharp, Move D and Mixmaster Morris to put out circa 1994 (albeit with subtle nods to more contemporary, sound design-driven academic ambient releases).

Review: A double CD celebrating the iconic award-winning UK electronic duo's 30th birthday, featuring reworks and remixes from the deep Orbital discography, as well as the well-known live improvisation tracks, featuring techno, acid house and electro contemporaries such as ANNA, Eli Brown and Shanti Celeste to name a few. With the actual 30th birthday delayed by the pandemic the duo concocted a physical compilation release with highlights all over the track list, especially Shanti Celeste's rendition of 'Are We Here?' and Eli Brown's update of the classic track 'Chime', lending the track more traditional house sensibilities. You can even find Professor Stephen Hawking lending vocals on CD1s hardcore techno banger 'Where is it Going?'. This compilation is a one stop shop for fans of Orbital's three-decade career, and the perfect starting point for those unfamiliar.

Review: Those renegades at Ilian Tape are back once again with another forward-thinking album of fresh and potent techno, this time from Packed Rich. His long player "depicts the journey of an individual traveling through a field of energy that connects different locations in space," we're told, and along the way, it warps space and time to leave you spellbound. Punchy broken beat drum programming, hyper-real synth lines and cosmic colours all bring this record to life. It's a psychedelic mix that sometimes sounds like an MPC jam amongst the stars, at others like you're in freefall through the cosmos and sometimes laid back, stoned as can be gazing off into the heavens. Lush.

Review: The cultured tech house auteur that is Julian Perez returns with another cultured new EP that pushes boundaries while staying rooted in the sonic ethos of Girada Unlimited. More than just a collection of tracks, these sounds explore energy, emotion and movement with Perez's evolving artistry at their core. His take on deep grooves with hypnotic textures stands him apart once more from the zippy synth kinetics of 'Pressurah' to the drum funk of 'Es Un Disparate' via two different, equally fresh versions of 'Alpha R'.

Review: Ernestas Sadau, Rapha and PRZ are the Pluto Junkies and they are now back on Pinkmanwith a new seven-track mini album that follows their 2021 debut on Minder. It's an electro excursion to the farthest reaches of our universe with swirling synths and cosmic melodies all underpinned by hefty, thumping rhythms from analogue drum machines. Some are twitchy and paranoid cuts like the unsettling 'Space Ghost', others like 'Black Eye' are full body workouts and 'Astronaut Dolphin Detective' is a deep jacker for 5 am wig outs. A muscular and robust album for serious shape shifting, then. .

Review: Milan's Radko first appeared a few years back on Enfant Terrible with the Cherno PPP / Brutalista ?(7') and finally resurfaces with this full-length for sublabel Gooiland Elektro titled The Dirt On Caligula. Described as darker, harsher and more daring, the album takes you deeper into their industrial sound. Opener 'Hip Dork' is a contorted kind of techno derivative that lunges straight for the jugular, while the paranoid and dystopian atmosphere created on 'Manfria' sets the scene in dark ambient style before unleashing a barrage of electro beats. Over on the flip, the gloomy vocal cut 'Leper Colony' takes influences from darkwave, ending with the punishing and abrasive grind of 'Volga' which is pitch black.

Review: New Interplanetary Melodies is a great name for a label and it also sums up the sounds of this new album from Sindaco. It's a beautiful mix of exploratory soundscapes, organic percussion and lush melody that unfolds in charming and captivating ways. Found sounds add more real world details to these tracks which range from lazy downbeat jaunts on a wide open savanna to more dynamic deep house trips through the cosmos. Worldly percussion, exotic melodies and unique instruments are all deployed to mark for multi-layered tracks that work equally on brain and body. It makes for a triumph of a record that is experimental yet aborsbing and packed with great detail.

Review: As one of the leading lights in Norwegian techno with guts, heart and soul, Skatebard has long skirted scene recognition to simply focus on slipping out his own strain of wayward machine matter. Given his track record with Sex Tags Mania, it's no surprise he'd trust DJ Sotofett with access to his archives, and so Spektral has come together as an exploration of long-buried recordings from the early 00s, edited by Sotofett and wrestled into a digestible form for this record. Capturing the best aspects of freeform jamming while cutting everything into shape, there's an inherent dirtiness to these recordings which instantly tells you it comes from an honest place.

Review: SND & RTN show their class here with a set of six sublime dub techno cuts that have been pressed to nice solver and heavyweight vinyl. There is nothing groundbreaking about the music here but what is done is done to an exceptionally high standard. The sound designs are faultless, from the bottomless bass to the pilot kick drums via the way in which their fizzing chords do nimble dances over the face of each tune. Some lean into the wind, some are utterly horizontal, all are great.

Review: This first album from Sons proves them adept at a range of techno soundscapes, It was written as the soundtrack to a movie that does not exists and it plays out with a great sense of narrative because of that. It tells the story of Anna and her escape from earth to a new planet, Seylanide. The record features well-received singles such as 'Identity' (ft. Sun) and 'Eternity' (ft. OCB), complete with plenty of rich layers of emotive pads, deep basslines and melodic vibes that have your mind cast adrift in a cosmic abyss.

Review: DJ Sotofett is a cult hero with a sound that is never less than eccentric. This new album Braindance on Sued is a collection of material the mercurial one has written between 2002 and 2020. All of the tracks are short but high impact in different ways and despite some of them being the best part of 20 years old and pre-dating all the famous Sex Tags projects they still bang. Thrilling breaks, icy techno, mashed up jungle and deeper, more acid laced late night grooves all feature and offer a window into the mind of one of electronica's most vital talents.

Review: Specter remains a steadfast pillar among the select artists on Theo Parrish's esteemed Sound Signature label. His latest album, Brutus, reaffirms the trust placed in him, delivering a distinct blend of house sounds. In this CD version, Specter masterfully fuses synthetic and organic elements, echoing the signature style of Parrish. Much like Parrish's own compositions, the house sounds on Brutus exhibit a harmonious blend of weathered, rustic tones and vibrant, futuristic visions. Specter injects profound meaning into his melodies, and the drums, whether subtle and elusive or bold and confrontational, consistently captivate, locking listeners into the rich tapestry of his grooves.

Review: As part of Amniote Editions' fifth birthday, the admirably experimental label has decided to release a full-length excursion from Mirror Zone founder Spekki Webu, AKA Heliobolus. The multi-disciplinary artist has decided to utilise both aliases on the album, a way of reinforcing the key conceptual idea behind it - that it is a "story of intertwined storylines" akin to "parallel universes that connect and diverge". Musically, it's an intriguing affair, with pulsating, full-throttle sci-fi techno workouts sitting side by side with darker, more intense cuts, sound design-heavy experimental techno soundscapes, and nods towards the horror end of the cinematic soundtrack spectrum. Throw in a few mutant, noise-laden post-IDM compositions and you have a genuinely impressive full-length excursion.

Review: Affin Records label head and long-time techno maker and sound designer Joachim Spieth is back with a new album project called Retrace. It is one that finds him blending dub with ambient electronics into seven "complex, aqueous soundscapes" packed with great textures and crystalised melodies. Opener 'Recall' sets a fine tone for the record then 'Shine' sinks into hazy and lo-fi static-laced tundras, 'Longing' is delicious dub techno from the bottom of the ocean and 'Drain' follows suit but with a little more propulsion. Many more such tracks follow on what is an intriguing album full of evocative narratives and heady pads.

Review: Stiroll's Sofia marks the Ukrainian artist's return to Greyscale Records with his first full-length album, painting a sonic portrait of a day in the life of a suburban area. The album invites listeners to experience the subtle intricacies and layered sounds of a community awakening, bustling, and finally resting as night falls. The journey begins with 'Intro - Dusk,' a brisk and atmospheric opener that evokes the early morning stillness before a city stirs to life. The full chord remnants and distant echoes set the stage for the day ahead, capturing the anticipation of the morning. 'Standbye' follows, offering a more airy and purposeful vibe, moving away from minimalism to suggest the first signs of activity, as if the world is slowly beginning to wake. 'Foundamental' continues this progression, riding along with gentle sounds punctuated by flares of static, hinting at the humidity and energy building in the air. The track flows effortlessly, mirroring the natural rhythm of a day gaining momentum. As the day matures, 'Sequence To None' introduces more serious, conflicting chords, perhaps reflecting the push and pull of daily routines and interactions. The crisp production and deep bassline ground the track, offering a sense of structure and direction. Midday arrives with 'Vidlunnia,' a sparse, downtempo piece that feels like basking in the warmth of the sun. The chords wash over the listener like rays, creating a relaxing, chill-out atmosphere with a broken rhythm that invites reflection. The pace slows with 'Interlude - Fall Moon,' where a churning, almost mechanical heartbeat drives the track forward, building tension as the day begins to wane. The ominous mood that emerges in the second half hints at the challenges that often accompany the close of a day. 'Nulle Part' shifts the mood with a more pronounced beat, offering a straightforward yet catchy rhythm that feels both harmonious and conflicted. The hypnotic quality draws you in as it moves toward a positive, yet complex resolution. 'Fall Control' then soothes with heavily processed sounds, offering a brief moment of respite before the album's closing tracks. 'Hope' stands out as the most original dub track on the album, blending strings with a lofty melody that soars before plunging into deeper, more uncertain territory. The track feels otherworldly, capturing the complexities and contradictions of hope itselfia fitting theme as the day begins to wind down. Finally, 'Outro - Dawn' signals the end of the day and the album, with ambient washes that gently alert like a clock, leaving the listener with a sense that it is time to close. Sofia is a meticulously crafted album that encapsulates the ebb and flow of daily life in a suburb, bringing together the sounds of different people and languages into a unified, sonic narrative.

Review: SUED co-pilot SW offers up a six track MyDefinition of techno on Kalahari Oyster Cult that is utterly fresh. He starts with dubbed out rhythms and percolating percussion before getting tripped out and break-y on 'Moonnewso On', with its alien effects and squelchy bass. 'Goiossee' is another slow motion braindance the 'Massless' recalls the early work of Two Loneswordsmen. There are hectic rhythms and wild detuned chords tumbling all over the place on 'J JustMUST4y' before closing salvo 'VFXpeaksTWIN' is an ambient piece pairing church chords with breaking waves. Weird and wonderful.