SHJVA Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Dub techno meets amphibian ambient trance on this next 'Message' from Shjva, the Ukrainian-born, Warsaw-based artist. After standouts on People & Places and Warning, his debut EP for Neptune discs here does certainly feel like a Neptunian ocean landing, with acid laps on 'Zumi Tek' and measured sonic thruster descents on 'Nebulogy' giving the sustained feel of a landing craft gone rogue. On the flip there's also Jeku's rather striking reinterpretation, reworking the material into a Goa-inspired odyssey that stretches the sonic palette into psychedelic, trance-adjacent territory.

Review: Wordlessly issued by the 2022 launched label Different Times, this minimal-trance-breaker from Shjva and Stereometrix (Ukraine) follows after the former duo broke from their shared Plan alias formed in 2021. They now operate separately but on a single record; sometimes collaborative chemistry works best when it goes hand-in-hand with individual creativity. Three A side inductors by Shjva kick the record off through a range of tensile tools, from velocity sensitive e-drum primers to sweeping mini-dub-trance workouts, reducing the listener to a puttylike state. Then comes Stereometrix’s sole contribution with ‘No Need To Squeeze’, which deserves its singular B-side status as the digging inquisitor’s choice, with its flexuous melo-arps, distant silences and sample-and-held counterpoints: truly a melodic masterstroke.