TZUSING Schallplatten & CDs

Review: There's a delightfully celebratory feel about this debut volume of Cititrax Tracks, a new 12" series from Minimal Wave offshoot Cititrax. As beautifully presented as we've come to expect, Tracks Volume 1 boasts a quartet of dancefloor-ready smashers from a blend of new faces and label stalwarts. Amato (aka The Hacker) kicks things off with the glistening EBM funk of "Physique" - all restless synth refrains and pounding bottom end - before LIES affiliate Tsuzing go all dark, psychedelic and twisted on the thrillingly intense, acid-flecked "King of System". An-I go all DAF (with a touch of Front 242) on the fuzzy and dystopian stomper "Mutter", before Cititrax regulars Broken English Club delivers a storming chunk of industrial-tinged analogue funk ("Glass"). Bravo!

Review: Munich nu-balearic crew Public Possession broaden their horizons beyond said sensibilities, but instead venture further into oddball groove territory; in this case it's Sweden. First up Born Free main man Samo DJ delivers the low slung funk groove of "Triad Board Meeting" (sounding like some creepy, old midi file.. yet not altogether unpleasant) while Baba Stilz delivers some of the weirdest deep house you'll hear this year on on "Pacific Times" and "Beirut" respectively. But they save the best for last on the explosive collaboration between Samo and Cititrax troublemaker Tzusing on "Hollabackboi", a smashing, pop-inflected curveball that'll flip your mind.

Review: Shanghai-based, Malaysian-born artist Tzusing offers us a future-facing and experimental techno record that also serves as a meditation on "China's complicated history of patriarchal heteronormativity, and how these archaic double standards continue to dominate the culture in pervasive, often invisible ways." It is packed with dancefloor highlights after a deep-thinking cultural monologue to start with. Hard and funky drums, twisted sonics, manic uptempo bangers and wheezing voices and downtempo rhythms all combine into something utterly unique.

Review: Having previously delivered two moody, dystopian EPs for L.I.E.S, Taipei-based Malaysian Tzusing is now an established member of the label's growing roster of artists. A year on from his last missive for Ron Morelli's imprint, he returns with A Name Out Of Place Pt III. As usual, he's in a dark mood, delivering a trio of tracks that bristle with pitch-black electronics, crackly drum machine hits, mind bending acid lines and metallic, industrial-influenced noises. Our pick is probably "Face Of Electric", with its' foreboding chords, warped vocal samples, wild electronics and crunchy breakbeats, but the bittersweet "Emotional Eater" and acid-flecked "R" aren't far behind.

Review: Malaysian-in-Shanghai Tsuzing is one of the more interesting recent additions to the L.I.E.S roster, if only for his interest in blending elements of EBM, industrial and new wave influences with the scuffed house and bleak techno the label is renowned for. There's much to enjoy on the fast-rising producer's second E.P for Ron Morelli's label, not least the clanking, Nitzer Ebb-inspired thump of opener "4 Floors of Whores". Even better is standout "Frankincense & Myrrh", a hellish fusion of riotous rave influences, twisted stabs, thunderous beats and mangled sirens. "Khi-Tang" is a little more subdued, but still deliciously strange and metallic (think Cabaret Voltaire meets Willie Burns, and you're close), while "Odd" is a cacophonous chunk of nightmarish industrial techno.

Review: Last seen next to Jamal Moss on one of Clan Destine's Dark Acid releases, the largely unknown Tsuzing debuts in quite distinctive fashion on LIES with A Name Out Of Place Pt 1. Gripping a quartet of productions, this 12" is, as the title suggests, the first of several records for LIES by Tsuzing, a Shanghai-based producer and resident DJ at the city's Shelter Club. As LIES bullishly claim, there are plenty of records at the moment supposedly influenced by EBM or Industrial music, though it's very apparent in the music Tzusing makes. See the politically loaded samples peppered throughout "1976" or the marauding sense of terror that runs through "Axis Of Revision".

Review: Cititrax's first Tracks 12" sampler did a good job in showcasing material from some of the Brooklyn-based label's favourite contemporary producers. This follow-up, arriving only a few short months after the first, aims to do the same. Returning for his second appearance, Tsuzing kicks things off with the razor-sharp shuffle of "Nonlinear War", whose intoxicating electronics and wild synth lines recall Brown Album-era Orbital, before London-based L/F/D/M takes a trip into bleak techno territory with the acid-laden "Mouth Holes". Flip for Silent Servant's deliciously grandiose, muscular electro-disco workout "The Touch", and the clanking industrial percussion, EBM attitude and humming electro beats of Maelstrom's "Lithium".