SURGEON Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Techno talents don't come much more proven than Speedy J and Surgeon. Both are veterans of the game but artists who have remained at the sharp end and their Multiples collaborative project is in part responsible for that. Now it births a full-length album of tweaked experiments that take techno into new realms. The whole thing was recorded in just two days at J's STOOR lab in Rotterdam on an array of hardware machines. Each tune is a raw, one-take affair which means they are perfectly imperfect and feel utterly alive. Techno and elector collide with beatless moments, pummelling low ends and plenty of club heft.

Review: Since at least 2024, by our estimation, shells have been enjoying something of an "it moment" in electronic music. Don't ask us why. Perhaps the icky palps of nautiluses, or the helical segmentation of various fossils, would seem to predict the naturalisation of mechanical reproductions expressed in techno. Birmingham keystone Surgeon (Anthony Child) swoops in on the fervour, repurposing larked sonic opercula into filter-fed 4x4 Borg-anisms. But despite the implied theme, Child uses limited equipment - "For me, it's an interesting experience returning to old techniques again after 30 years" - and refashions a classic live-show-style approach here. All eight tracks were done in a single take, and only 'Dying' upends beats, delivering a moribund, mantric sound piece.

Review: Anthony Child claims that the inspiration for his seventh artist album came from using hardware to receive transmissions from far-flung galaxies. He then hooked up with astrophysicist Dr Andrew Read - a former collaborator - to work out the bewildering track titles. That's the concept. The reality is that From Farthest Known Objects is a dense, grainy work. It feels like Child has deconstructed or in some more extreme situations has hacked away at tropes like minimalism, clicks and cuts and dub step to reveal an inner, hidden world. On the first few tracks, this alternate reality resounds to a sluggish pace, amid the crackle and groan of cleaved percussion and tortured subs, but it gradually comes round to stepping, broken beat techno and lunging rhythms. That these also descend into pulverising walls of white noise and nausea-inducing frequency shifts at times also serve as a reminder that Child has tuned into something other or inner-worldly.