STELLAR OM SOURCE Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Stellar Om Source's uniquely lively and dynamic techno sound is back! Here landing on Dekmantel, the producer is in full flow on "I See Through You" - opening with "Night Alone" which marries grubby, corrugated bass and jacked up drums with a super emotive diva vocal that is sure to become anthemic. "Lost Codes" is a darker transmission, with percussive flurries and siren like leads adding up to a real rave. There's a new vision for deep house laid out on the acid laced "White Echoes" before "Wild Palms" closes out with a peak time offering of posh techno trance.

Review: Absent from the record shelves since her fine 2013 album Joy One Mile, Christelle Gualdi returns triumphantly with a four track 12" of jacking new Stellar Om Source material in the shape of Nite-Glo. Again issued through New York label RVNG, the record hones in on a focussed exploration of the luminescent power of the Roland 303 and is undoubtedly the French artist's most dancefloor-concentrated body of work to date. The label suggest Gualdi was moved to produce this music as a means to deal with loss, and the four tracks suggest she has channelled this sense of grief in the most positive manner.

Review: Flitting around many sturdy and well-regarded underground institutions such as Olde English Spelling Bee and Black Dirt, this latest release for Stellar OM Source may well be her biggest move yet, signing up to the expansive plains of RVNG Intl, and sparring with the inimitable Kassem Mosse in the remix department. "Elite Excel" is a wondrous excursion propelled on submerged drum machine rhythm firing off in an urgent breakbeat, while psychedelic strands of synth dart around the mix before a more prominent main riff manages to come pealing through the mists and give the track some emotional gusto. It's the perfect jump-off point for someone like Kassem Mosse, who get slow and sizzling on his version with a glorious mural of melodic twists and turns while keeping the mechanical funk of his machines whirring constantly.

Review: RVNG Intl have already served up one of this year's most memorable long players in Max D's House of Woo, and they secure another potential candidate for those end of year lists with the superb Joy One Mile from Stellar Om Source. The French producer has demonstrated an increasing interest in techno that's no doubt informed by her current base in The Netherlands which was explored explicitly on last year's No Label 12" for Rush Hour. It's expanded much further on this eight track set which was apparently laid down live in one take without overdubs, improvised limitations or consequence. Gauldi subsequently handed these recordings to Gunnar Wendel, aka Kassem Mosse, who mixed down and arranged the album in its entirety with little prior guidance. The resultant album focuses in on a loose amalgamation of proper electro and detuned techno, with "Par Amour" an immediate highlight.

Review: It's been a while since we've heard from Stellar Om Source, the musical pseudonym of synthesizer obsessive Christelle Gauldi. Now within the loving arms of New York's brilliant RVNG INTL, she's ready to drop her first album since 2009. Predictably, it's superb, dripping with stylish synths, vintage drum machines and a knowing attitude -Gauldi is a student of proto-techno, early house, classic electro and Warp-ish early IDM. Joy One Mile sounds like a one-woman tribute to the combined works of Cybotron, Richard H. Kirk, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Newcleus and Legowelt. Yet it's deeper and more stylish than that. Seriously, if synth fetishism is your thing, check it out - if only for the sublime "Par Amour".