Back catalogue: All genres

Review: In celebration of their tenth birthday, Selador marks the occasion in style with a four-track collaborative EP, featuring tracks from 3D, Robert Owens, Olivier Giacomotto, Quivver, Dave Seaman, Hernan Cattaneo, Argia, and Jepe. The opening track, 'Known Love', is a deep, pulasting house tune that feels like an instant classic, perhaps thanks to the soulful, pop-tinged vocals - think LCD soundsystem meets Four Tet. 'Snailblazer', the second track on the EP, takes a much darker turn, with a chugging, EBM-esque feel. Full-bodied and complete with obscured vocals, this is the kind of track to pull out your bag when it's time to really get stuck in. On the B-side, 'Napkin Knowledge' draws on the glistening synths of eurodance, yet still securing the melodies to a grounded bassline and rhythm section. 'Salitre' is the perfect closing track, rising up in a gleaming, ecstatic melody, before delicately returning to ground level. A varied yet firmly cohesive collaborative release - the perfect way for Selador to kick off their 2023 catalogue.

Review: Dark Entries label regulars De-Bons-en-Pierre are back with more of their scuzzy delights in the form of their Card Short of a Full Deck EP. It's drenched in textbook sludginess as is often the way with Beau Wanzer and Maoupa Mazzochetti ever since they came together in 2016. These tunes were all originally written back in 2019 for live performances and really find the pair pushing at the boundaries of accepted social norms. The absurd sounds pair skipping rhythms with dark and freaky basslines and plenty of eerie rave chords to make for an all-new kind of dance floor energy.

Review: Charlotte De Witte has long been a leader of the new school of techno. Her sound is tough an uncompromising and borrows from trance, hard techno and ambient often all at once. Her own KNTXT label is where she releases it and that is where she appears once more now with another fierce peak time EP. 'Power Of Thought' has big unrelenting drums, guying acid and some subtle smoked words for maximum anthemic effect. 'Pria' then brings some Middle Eastern melodic and vocal exoticness to her tightly clipped techno grooves and 'Abada' is a dramatic and cinematic ambient closer.

Review: Deetron's been turning out serene house and techno for many a year but he changes tact here and presents Soulmate on Ilian Tape. It's an EP with a wide array of influences and kicks off with 'Path' which is bright, melodic, electric house music with cow bells galore. 'Zoom' is tightly coiled, loopy, dusty, turbocharged tackle with a warming intensity and then 'Screen' pairs more balmy and blissed-out chords with hurried beats and layers of FX and percussion. Last of all is the best of the lot - 'Blade'. It's a tribal, percussive cut that cannot fail to sweep you off your feet.

Review: Cyphon Recordings' slim but rapidly expanding catalogue is full of quality cuts from both rising stars and established artists. Their latest EP - another must-check release - comes from someone who comfortably sits in the second camp: long-serving British techno, ambient and IDM futurist Kirk Degiorgio. As usual, Degiorgio has delivered some effortlessly melodious, emotive and immersive fare. For proof, check 'All About You', where sparkling synth-pop melodies, layered electronics and dreamy pads rise above a groove inspired by Motor City futurism and Latin rhythms. That Latin influence comes to the fore on the gorgeous, percussive and picturesque techno bliss of 'Cidad Do Futuro', while 'Frayed Edge' is a deep and melody-rich slab of electro excellence.

Review: Mike Dehnert delivers a versatile four-track EP of his signature slippery machine funq on Syncrophone, with tendrils of influence unfurling in a plethora of directions, from DJ Rush and Paul Johnson's springheeled Chi-town bump to the more recent soul leanings of John FM and Omar S' FXHE alumni. Opener 'Un' is the most conservative, with a restless shuffling b-line and surgically cropped hats assembled for maximum club pressure, while 'Deux' is a spacious, clattering soulful trip full of small room synth squelch and honeyed vocal mantras. The flip is both more pensive and noisy, with the distant hydraulic wheeze of 'Trois' giving way to the wonky, swaggering gait of the closer 'Quatre'. Proper.

Review: 'Proceed With Caution' is the latest four-track EP of classic Detroit techno from the city's Filthiest (one more recent alias of longtime genre purveyor Julian Shamou), coming packed as ever with a cleanly modern twist, and incorporating elements of breakbeat and g-funk swagger along the way. Easing up on the layering, and thus to provide extra room for snappiness and sonic aloofness, 'Up In Smoke' clears the air, displacing oxygen with pyrolitic combustions, sputters and snare-drummed bangs. Equally is the bass-heavier 'Check Out The Technique', evoking not just the awe of technique, but the horrors of technicity, in its doomy imitations of authoritarian war brasses by way of a synthetic analog bass riff.

Review: Romanians Drago Ilici and Prichindel's Tonomat Records welcome boss man Ilici in his Dilly Bombastik guise for a new EP packed with power across three fresh cuts and one remix from DJ Normal 4. 'Reflo' kicks off with the sort of crunchy drums and breaks that you don't hear all too often out of the more minimal minded Romanians. It's awash with some cosmic melody that brings the vibes then 'Workout' is a party pumper with slinky drum loops and molten synth patterns raining down from above. 'Stelu Gamanu' gets all dark and paranoid with a more edgy breakbeat foundation and DJ Normal 4's Melange mixX is all 90s video game synths and melted neon synths. Great stuff.

Review: Sascha Dive has been around underground house circles forever, always offering up his own deep take on the genre with a fresh European twist. The Deep Vibes Recordings label head brings plenty of dub-tech stylings to this new one which opens with 'Natural Forces' with its rolling, steel plated drums and far-sighted chords that are sustained so long you cannot fail but zone out. Add in some smoky Robert Owens vocals and you have a real classic. 'Dub Chronicles and 'Time For A Change' then complete the trip in the flip with more superbly stylish and widescreen sounds for low lit basements and cosy back rooms.

Review: Mall Grab's Steel City Dance Discs bangs out a 29th volume of its self-titled series here and DJ Boneyard is the one who has been digging in his vaults to serve up six deathly techno slammers. 'Bonestyle' is all about the distorted low ends and sleazy broken beast which power it along under edgy synths. 'Flutter' is a crispy electro scuzz-fest with more ear-ticking low end fizz and brighter trance chords up top. 'Slap Slap Slap' is a percussive flurry, a tumble of drums and gritty warehouse noise while three more brilliantly tough and fucked up takes on techno feature on the flip side.

Review: DJ Life's music will invigorate any dancefloor you care to test it on. The Welcome label head DJ Life was also out on Program Earth back in summer and now heads over to the excellent Craigie Knowes for there more high class electronic trips. 'Whomnp' kicks off with a paced progressive techno mind melter that is wired up with screw synths and sci-fi motifs, while 'Frayed' has more psychedelic colours twisting and turning their way over filtered vocal fragments and supple drums. 'Transmission' closes down with stomping drum funk that is again lit up by some celestial melody.

Review: You can't get more reliable than Ed DMX frankly. The veteran artist can do all electro styles imaginable and all with equal elan. This month, for example, is dropping a disco and boogie fried 12" as well as this more classically inclined electro outing on the fine Shipwrec label out of the Netherlands. 'Parasite' has a perfectly elastic and rubbery baseline under celestial melodies, 'Tree In Space' is a twitchy rhythm and 'Unbelief' then settles into a deeper groove with smeared synth chords. 'Meltdown' ends with a darker and more atmospheric sound for the late night hours.

Review: Dutch artist Frenk Dublin is evidently a master of minimalism and sublimation, with his new EP for Echo Ltd. here somehow managing to convey abyssal levels of depth, all while not seeming to reveal too much or indulge too many complex parts. It's this paradox that rests at the heart of dub techno; like dubstep, the trick is to emphasise weight and space, while layering things subtly enough not to betray the mystery. It's a well-deserved release for the esteemed label, following up priors on Dub Communication and Planet Rhythm. The most polished gem? 'Static Dub', which uniquely blends both high and low chord stabs, and gets them to take up wholly different rhythm- and freqspace.

Review: Dynamic Reflection remains a steadfast platform for 'proper' techno with something to say. Since 2008 they've been pushing artists to match dancefloor functionality with original ideas, and so the story continues on this latest VA release. Veritable legend Function steps up first with the tense, restrained arp odyssey of 'Give Thanks To The Sun', while label regular Viels jumps in next with the ironically titled tough-trucking workout 'Fragile'. Abstract Division kick off the B-side with the sizzling, rippling 'Convolution' (not to be confused with the Skudge track of the same name), and DOM completes the picture with a teasing, broken rhythm and psychoactive frequencies of the highest calibre.