Review: Budapest's Dalmata Daniel rewire the electro efforts of Timothy K. Fairplay for their ninth 12", which also includes a B-side icing by none other than fellow producer Norwell. These four retrofuturist cosmopolitan jams are heard divided between the two artists, and do well to flaunt the specific valences of their production styles, which, while doing well to stick to the cosmic aesthetic, cannot help but betray unconscious stylistic hallmarks. Fairplay's is as tweezy and kick-phat as ever, with 'Caliber 9' being the obvious choice as the sonic equivalent of a 70s infographic on telecoms gone haywire. Norwell's take on the vibe is breaksier and more muted, with closing number 'Natives' being the cut of choice, burbling in a vat of liquid acid and emotive smoke.
Lewis Fautzi & Norbak - "Code Of Deception" (5:17)
Oscar Mulero - "Zw System" (5:20)
Temudo - "Niiv" (6:29)
Kessell - "Time Domain" (5:11)
Review: Faut Section's Perception Series is back with a second sizzling installment of freshly made techno. Lewis Fautzi & Norbak pair off to open up with 'Code Of Deception', a barreling cut with icy hi hats and taught bass twangs full of dusty factory floor menace. Oscar Mulero offers one of his signature loop-techno rollers in 'Zw System' Temudo then rattles walls with the mysterious bass rumbles of 'Niiv'. Completing what is an EP that is as varied as it is vital is Kessell with the dubby broken techno beats of 'Time Domain' which has fizzing synths cracking like static on a 90s TV screen.
Review: Welcome back to Planet Rhythm where the techno is serious and the grooves compelling. Nachtwaker is behind this one and opens up with the deep and mind-melting 'Post' with its feeling of factory floor automation licking you in. 'Shiver' is another linear and dynamic deep techno cut with synth details peeling off the grooves and static electricity adding some edge. 'Withhold' (Arkvs remix) is more dark and edgy but still stripped back and economical and design and the original rounds out the EP with some nice dubby currents and textural percussion.
Review: Mental health charity label Serenity keeps it sophisticated with its sixth outing and once again donates all proceeds to charity this time Young Minds. It is underground house mainstay and DiY Discs legend Nail who steps up first with a much more breezy and balmy sound than you would expect but it sure is lush. 'Pad On' slips into his more usual and driving house sound but with swirling pads up top for summery refinement. Trixie, Connor Male & Thoma Bulwer then get deep and late night with their punchy 'Impromptune' while Trixie's solo cut 'restless sculptures' is a jacked-up and percussive number that leans into techno.
Review: By their standards, Berlin twosome Nap92 have been positively prolific this year. Having previously confined their output to a sole EP a year, this 12" marks their second of 2024. It is, of course, rather good, with the pair once again offering a collection of retro-futurist workouts that blend early 90s house sounds and late 90s tech-house tropes with plenty of ear-catching samples and agreeable melodic motifs. You'll find plenty of fine fare amongst the five tracks on show, from breakbeat house style opener 'Most Perfect' (where a squelchy bassline, floatation tank synths and eyes-closed vocal snippets catch the ear) and Clav-sporting garage-house shuffler 'Track 3', to the organ-rich MK goes tech-house flex of 'Laurent' and the fiendishly sub-heavy 'Body Body'.
Review: During their time as Nexus 21, Altern-8 pair Mark Archer and Chris Peat were given the opportunity to head to Detroit and record with some of their techno heroes, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May included. "Made In Detroit" presents these rare and significant recordings for the first time, offering a suite of tracks that fix UK-style bleep melodies (all the rage in late 1989/early 1990) to the kind of fizzing rhythms, warm bass and futuristic electronics then popular in the Motor City. There are two versions of house-tempo standout "Don't Do It Like That" (one with a whispered lead vocal by Ann Saunderson), while the clanking and metallic "Nexus" and more ghostly "No Statues" accurately fuse the best bits of both British and American techno at the time.
Review: Don't forget to put on your Anorax... A new retro-futuristic outing by veteran dance music exec Neil Rushton marks his latest configuration in techno, which has kept mutant ever since the DJ broke from his infamous, 1970s Northern soul label Inferno. If Inferno was a glittery bodysuit, Anorax is like blast-protective PPE. Here Rushton welcomes Mark Archer and Chris Peat aka Nexus 21 back to the fold. Emissaries of the Salford dance music circuit, Nexus 21 have always harked a frontier-scouring, centennial vibe in sound. Their latest release is reissued from 2008, though the Network Records original only cut it to B-side: 'Self-Hypnosis' is a semiconscious auto-state in sound, bringing jam-born orchestra-stabs and sprung synth toms to a strange brew. We're left spiral-eyed.
Review: There is such a great amount of force and weight to the techno served up here by Owen NI that it feels as though his kick drums could move whole mountains. Opener 'The Test Sequence' has mid-tempo but brutal drums with razor-sharp hi-hats, clipped vocal yelps and a lively siren style lead adding further intensity to this most muscular of warehouse tracks. The DX-9 remix layers up more balmy pads to soften the edges and the drums become a little more rounded and dubbed out, while the Arbilla remix takes things into paranoid afters territory. 'Wiggle Room' is a dubby, forceful and heady roller.
Review: Round Qube Music has tapped up Niki Il B for a new EP that explores a mystic take on cosmic electro. 'Ry01' is all eerie lines and punchy broken beats with supple acid squelch in the middle. 'Waiting' then mixes up more gorging acid with hurried drum loops and slow motion ambient pads that make for a fine vibe before 'Lo Spazio' has a heavier low end. The bass here is spanned and the distant pads unsettling. 'Car Sex' closes things in brilliant fashion with suspensory pads and loopy drums that ride up and down next to meandering pads.
Review: Nikolajev is an original pioneer of Tallinn's techno scene. He is back here on the Sad Fun label with two more of his bass-driven dance floor delights. First up is 'Lego Dub' which has no sharp edges and just silky synths, rolling drums and flanged up sounds that swell with warming intensity. On the flip side is 'Tongue Double' which slows things down and brings a little sense of funk next to some playful synth lines that wiggle about the mix and are underpinned by true low end menace, perfect for maximum volume on a sound system.
Review: No Spiritual Surrender is the new project of two Spanish techno veterans: label head JC Cabrera & Mario-Castillo aka Kastil. The Maslac EP commences with the brooding atmosphere of the title track, a seriously seething slow burner, before going straight on the offensive with the mental and hard-hitting DJ tool 'Monday'. 'Break' provides a welcome relief on this mesmerising ambient passage before lunging straight for the jugular again on KTS' advanced IDM/electro remix of 'Maslac' and ending with the strobe-lit peak time austerity of 'Saturday'.
Review: Kumquat returns with their second release, his time a various artists' EP packed with sleek tracks perfect for all sorts of movers and shakers. Four standout artists from the legendary French party scene deliver an irresistible blend of wonk and bounce across four groovy cuts. Noiro keeps it slinky and minimal on 'Yougoslash' then Belic & Mani get more stark and twisted with their tech sounds on 'The Flow.' Rancel's sound is laden with a libidinous sax line over clipped and crisp beats and Paradise City Breakers close down with the future tech of 'Mentalist.'
Dracula vs Frankenstein (Kenny Hooper remix) (6:53)
Dracula vs Frankenstein (G-Prod remix) (7:44)
Review: Swiss label Acquit Records has got a couple of superb outings lined up this month and Nate Nubia is behind this one which offers up a single and three different mixes of it. Original cut 'Dracula Vs. Frankenstein' is a warm analogue world of smeared synths and dusty drums over a crisp broken beat. It's full of machine soul and melancholic moods. The Info Remix is more edgy and driven, while the Kenny Hooper remix layers in extra light and melody. The G-Prod remix is one with its head amongst the stars and plenty of celestial synths.
Review: Nur Jaber lived in Berlin for eight years and this new P is a tribute to the time spent there. It was a period of chaos and darkness and beauty, often all at once, and that is captured here across four involving cuts. The first 'Energie & Liebe' (feat Repeat) has trance chords of old school and tough techno beats, with layers of dust and dirt. 'In My Memory' is more urgent but has the same mix of trance and techno to take you to a higher plane then the OBI remix gets full-on old-school post-rave techno-rave. It's a joy to behold before 'Dance Dance (With The Morning Light)' revels in darkness and subtle trance chord work.
Review: Nuron's latest album, Blanchimont, released on De:tuned Records, reaffirms his status as a luminary in the ambient techno realm. The title track, 'Blanchimont,' is fused with Detroit's machine soul while adding some European twist, heightened by its release on vibrant orange vinyl. 'Stavelot' on Side-1 enchants with its scenic beauty and soulful melodies, reminiscent of Detroit techno's finest moments. Meanwhile, 'Masta' on Side 2 explores ambient realms, echoing the styles of CIM, As One, or Stasis. Throughout the album, Nuron's signature blend of nostalgia and innovation shines, creating a sonic experience that resonates with both longtime fans and newcomers alike. Blanchimont stands as another jewel in Nuron's discography, another bookmark in his enduring influence and creative talents in the ambient techno genre.
Review: The Rotterdam label Mort's long-running Herdersmat series was first released in digital compilation form; only now has this round table turned its swords towards a sequential vinyl series, not the first of which you hear here. This 12" marks parts 16 in the series, clocking contributions from producers Rumenige, TAKA, Jokasti, Nek, and NX1. The heads-down producoes so named have delivered a creative, blazing irradiation of broken techno heat here, charting a rumbly and grounded, yet no less interoceptively arresting haul; our fave 'Eka' throws our sense of balance of course with quick, hard autopans and roughly ingrained, kick trods; then the silver medalist 'MRD1' bucks the proceedings off to unploughed courses, frightening the listener with garbled, found-footage EVP voices between horror-techno kicks.
Review: Planet Rhythm's brand of techno is utterly timeless and always futuristic. The latest trip around the stars is a various artists EP that varies in mood and tempo. Shekon's 'Hypno' (Phara remix) kicks off with big, boisterous drum loops full of bounce and swirled with coarse synths. Gotshell takes a more deep approach with gurgling basslines making for a subterranean sound on 'Sindrome De Volar.' KaioBarssalos's 'Detroit' then taps into a classic 313 techno style with shimmering pads and earth-shattering drums. Netty Hugo's 'Ecxtrem' is a pulsating cosmic closer.
B-STOCK: Record sleeve damaged, product in working order
Quantum Entanglement (6:45)
Fighting Gravity (7:04)
The Galaxy Next Door (6:52)
Empty Space Equals Energy (7:24)
Angular Momentum (7:01)
Sea Of Stars (6:15)
Position In Time (5:39)
Space-Time (6:57)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Record sleeve damaged, product in working order***
Broken Techno / Electronica label Theoretical Rhythms is taking it to the next level with their first vinyl release. Label boss Nickel Eye is honoured with the production duties and come up with a beautiful album which can be described as an audio Sci-Fi poem. Rich textures and pads are present in all tracks giving the album trippiness bringing the listener on a cosmic excursion. Steady broken beats keep the things on a dancier side and the listener can have a dance while watching the stars listening to the album.
Space Child is an album that would work equally well at home on an individual journey as well as on the dance floor where each party goer can take their personal trip.
Review: Nitechord is an enigmatic ambient-tech duo that makes a striking debut here with Lume having previously released only two remixes. It was a demo tape from 2022 that impressed the Past Inside the Present label with its raw allure and it is that work which appears here nearly unaltered but for mastering from James Bernard. The opener unfolds with atmospheric guitar loops anchored by a steady kick and bass, 'Near' brings a hint of twang to expansive guitar tones and in 'Dim,' layered drones and melodies rise and fall like petals. Add in the suspensory sounds of 'Absent' and 'Carry' which blooms into a full orchestral swell and you have an immersive, introspective suite of sonic bliss.
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