Back catalogue: All genres

Review: With a career reaching back some 20 years, Bart Skils has remained committed to the art of the techno 12", with not a single album to his name. Instead, his focus has been on a staggering hit list of legendary labels from Pure Plastic to 100% Pure, Break New Soil, and since 2012, primarily Drumcode. As part of Adam Beyer's core contingent he's played a major part in shaping the sound of the label, and so he continues on this exemplary two-tracker. 'Roll The Dice' is a muscular yet lean workout for the bigger kinds of spaces, playing around with some monotonal vocal threads and laying down the b-line throb you expect from a Drumcode A side. The flip offers something a little different as 'Into The Clouds' takes some looped guitar licks as a vessel for transcendence, atop a steady trucking techno undercarriage, of course.

Review: The Dutch techno veteran Bart Skils is back with another impressive release on the mighty Drumcode. 'Horsepower' is a relentless peak-time techno track that is sure to captivate dance floors and have the crowd moving with its chugging energy. It builds steadily, leading to an epic breakdown before unleashing the full power of its steely groove, making it perfect for those heads-down moments in the main room. On the B-side, 'Sunshine In The Dust' takes a more straightforward and functional approach with its variety of female vocal parts, catchy bongo drums, and a sexy horn sound. It's a groove-driven track that is both sultry and infectious.

Review: Bart Skills is a veteran techno producer and Drumcode is a veteran techno label, but neither shows any signs of age here with Weska also joining in for a pair of highly potent and weaponised new cuts. They take up one side each and first is 'Something More' with its sweeping blasts of white noise, factory floor sound effects and unrelenting drums that will demolish any dancefloor. 'Palm Strings' then carries on the party with a more stripped-back sound initially, but eventually, the rising synths take over as the gritty drum loops pound away below. A pair of big room monsters for sure.

Review: For his first outing of 2019, Adam Beyer has turned over the parts to his 2014 single "Teach Me" to Belgium's first lady of banging, acid-fuelled techno, Amelie Lens. She subsequently serves up two throbbing, peak-time ready revisions, with the A-side "Main Mix" offering a near perfect blend of booming, kick-drum driven beats, military snare fills, cut-up late night vocal samples and distorted, mind-altering riffs. As the title suggests, the flipside "Acid Remix" sees Lens indulge her love of mind-altering TB-303 acid lines, brilliantly wrapping them around a springier drum track, EBM-influenced melodic motifs and more pulsating, manipulated vocal loops.

Review: Drumcode's main brain Adam Beyer hardly needs any introduction, but newcomers to the label might be surprised that his outfit has its sights set on putting out single-sided releases at the minute. 'Legend' is Beyer's kick-off for 2023, following up the completion of his own home studio with an inspired production run. An ascendant fast-build to sublime ecstasy, the track characteristically locks into a deep arpeggiated saw line at its drop; an example of Beyer flaunting his ability to juxtapose massive pre-drop space with post-drop minimality.

Review: You have to respect Adam Beyer for still being a real techno overlord these days. He has been on the scene almost since day one, as has his trusty Drumcode label, and they are both still winning over new generations of fans with their direct to dancefloor style. This latest missive is another monster starting with the hard and heavy drums of 'Robotic Arms' which comes with just enough detail from the sic-fi vocals and synths to get you locked, then the anthemic 'No Hate' is sure to become a big one for Beyer with its rolling drum funk and repeatable vocals. A Trippy Mix is a more wild and frankly better version.

Review: Adam Beyer seems to be in a superb run of late and this is his second vinyl outing in as many months. Desert Queen is pure Beyer, and pure Drumocde - drum-led techno for the main room with sweeping synths and grand vocals that are designed to impact crowds of thousands. The A-side actually brings a touch of trance energy and hard techno funk with its slamming, flat-footed drums, coarse synths and brightly lit arrangements. 'Soulful' then flips the script with a more funky groove that rocks back and forth and has funky basslines and a pitched up r&b vocal that works strangely well in the unusual context.

Review: Two right legends of techno unite here for the latest release on Drumcode. Label chief Adam Beyer presents 'Restore My Soul' featuring Chicago hard techno veteran DJ Rush, their relationship stretching back nearly three decades from when they both started out in the' 90s. The title track is aimed squarely at the main room dancefloor; a seething, mental groove featuring Rush's stern vocal delivery atop, before taking the energy levels into the peak time on the adrenalised thrasher 'Control'. Over on the flip, you are treated to a rework of the title track by DJ Rush himself in his typically stomping and orotund style.

Review: Here's a big old belter on that biggest of techno fortresses, Drumcode. On this two-track slammer, Adam Beyer and Bart Skils' monster track 'Your Mind' gets revisited by New York up and comer Charles D. After releases on Say What? and Pryda, D is able to show off his skills twice over, on the A-side living up to the billing of the 'Epic mix' of 'Your Mind' by bringing in the big, swelling pads that can fill a stadium and get hands raised aloft. On the flip, the 'Acid Line' version unsurprisingly brings a little 303 action into the mix, and makes sure the undercarriage is a thunderous juggernaut of supersized techno.

Review: Next up from the leading label in the world of so-called Business Techno are a couple of contemporary remixes of some Adam Beyer classics. His Restore My Soul EP was written with DJ Rush and now gets reworked by modern day greats ANNA and HI-LO. The latter, a regular on the likes of Filth on Acid, goes first and flips the title track into a bruising and panel beaten techno roller with coarse drums and peak time intent. Brazilian talent ANNA then offers a more subversive and slow boring take on 'Control' that has twitchy synths and firmly rooted techno drums.

Review: Some serious peak time weapons for the main room on offer here, from the ever reliable Swedish label Drumcode. Usual heroes of the label such as Luigi Madonna, Sam Paganini and Joseph Capriati step aside for some other equally reliable staples. On the A, side label boss Adam Beyer teams up with Enrico Sangiuliano on the evocative and life affirming "Preset Heaven" which takes its cues from early trance with its amazing chord progression. It is something more typical of the label next, on the pummelling warehouse stomp of "Muzik" by Bulgaria's Timmo. On the flip, there's more trance nostalgia on offer again - this time from legends Pig & Dan on the hypnotic/melodic bliss of "La Bruja" which we could imagine melting the minds of festival crowds well into the new year. Finally they save the best for last with French peak time specialist Julian Jeweil, serving up the furious, tunneling and strobe-lit ultraviolence of "Nasa" which will have your adrenaline going from the first beat. It has been a stellar year for the powerhouse label, with great releases by Moby, Dubfire and newcomer Layton Giordani.

Review: Techno team-ups don't come bigger than this, as Drumcode's overlord of all things mega-tech Adam Beyer links up with Chicago's agent provocateur Green Velvet to give you your next stadium shaking anthem. This isn't the first time Beyer and Velvet have worked together - you could find them on the 2018 track 'Space Date' for one thing - but there's a sense 'Simulator' will become their calling card as a formidable double act. It's simply huge, catchy as hell and full of all the fireworks you could wish for from a super-sized techno workout, all guided by Velvet's unmistakable voice ducking and diving around the expertly engineered mix.

Review: The big room techno don that is Adam Beyer is back with more potent techno weaponry on his own Drumcode label, this time with part two of the 12th volume of his A-Sides series. His 'Take Me There' is first up in remix form and Carl Cox flips it into a surging peak time roller. Matt Guy's 'Give Me What I Want' is an emotive banger with big synth energy and reverberating vocals while ADHS's '2STEP' hits hard with its flaming drums and trance-y synths. Kaiserdisco then brings dark, stomping warehouse energy to their raved-ready 'Get On The Dancefloor.'

Review: Gavin Harris, otherwise known as Eli Brown, has been on the fast track to the premier league, big-budget stadium tech over the past five years, snapped up by Skream on Of Unsound Mind, Toolroom Records, Moon Harbour, Alan Fitzpatrick's We Are The Brave, Lee Foss' Repopulate Mars - the list goes on. After delivering a four-track EP to techno industrial mega complex Drumcode last year, he's back with a not-so-subtle reinterpretation of LFO's iconic bleep techno 'Freak', originally released in 2003 on Warp. If you're craving a smoothed out, reliably rolling version of Mark Bell's masterful, mind-twisting original, look no further.

Review: Here comes Eli Brown, a Bristol-based techno and tech house producer who knows how to make his tracks sound absolutely massive. He's dropped on Toolroom, Of Unsound Mind, Moon Harbour, Relief and Repopulate Mars amongst many others, and now he's hit the big one, Drumcode. Brown's more than ready for Adam Beyer's label, bringing the high-pressure goods on the likes of 'Deep Down' and 'Nazareth', using that essential low-end boom and plenty of nervy acid up top, keeping the drums piling on hard and teasing the drama in his gargantuan productions. If you like it big, which you should do if you're checking Drumcode, then this EP has everything you need.

Review: Adam Beyer's notable techno label Drumcode seems to be as busy as ever of late. The label here rolls out a fourth part of its ongoing A Sides series, which is now up to volume 12. Though the Swede himself doesn't feature, some of his trusty sidemen do starting with Chris Avantgarde who brings big room, hard techno energy to 'The Last Time'. Bry Ortega keeps it just as intense with the machine-gun like synth fire of 'Discover 9', Massano brings some brighter synth loops to the stomping 'Betraya' and Spektre shut down with a mix of hardcore, trance and techno potency on 'Too Far Gone.' Some great DJ weaponry here, for sure.

Review: Drumcode's Elevate series hits a third instalment here and this time it is a three tracker with solo cuts from three big names. Tini Gessler kicks off with 'Nothing Expected' which is a teeth-gritting and white knuckle techno roller. Marie Vaunt serves up monstrously large and slamming kicks on 'Technology' and then runs them through with brutal synth lines that spray about with their own dark energy. It's a truly edgy cut before BEC's 'Humanoid' layers up hard tech drums that slam down firmly with a warped lead which leads you late into the night. A trio of high impact weapons, for sure.

Review: Strap in for another rollercoaster ride through the Drumcode tech-scape as we get an authoritative workout from four essential new talents. First up is Mha Iri, whose 'Bel' centres around a catchy vocal hook and darkly seductive synth snarls, before Marco Faraone nods back to some classic Wildchild and locks it to a steely pulse. Balthazar & JackRock offer up something epic on the B-side with the towering electro house synth touches of 'Andromeda', and LO'99 links up with Ray Foxx to round the record out with the playful vocal hiccups and undulating big room groove of 'Skydance'.

Review: First cropping up in 2012, the mammoth A-Sides series from the titanic Swedish techno label Drumcode charges ahead into its 11th installment (can you believe it?) while also managing to split said installment alone across seven slices of vinyl. This is the fourth record of seven in part eleven. Only gigantic-room techno could justify this waxen audacity; the music is braggadocious to boot, with contributions from Nicolas Taboada, BEC, Avision and Cosmic Boys. The tracks here are as dreamy as they are goosebump-inducing, easily seguing between massive transitions and drops to cathartic reesebound trances.