Electro Recommendations September 2016

Review: The Aqualung Series division of Clone Records has been at the top of the reissuing game in the last few years, dropping bomb after bomb by Drexciya and their various sattelite projects. Paranormale Aktivitat is something a little more recent, however; it was originally released on Rephlex back in 2011 and it's made up of the combined talents of Drexciya's Heinrich Mueller, Susana Correia, Penelope Martin, and Beta Evers. Deep, sullen electro would be the best way to encapsulate its murky stratosphere, but the album goes way beyond the normal confines of the genre and frequently heads into the utter unknown, the underbelly of experimental dance music. The air is thick and the sounds are tenebrous, so tread lightly but be sure to know that it's an unmissable and timeless album for those who know.

Review: Despite being at it for well over two decades, Ed 'DMX Krew' Upton shows no signs of slowing down. Even more impressively, his EPs remain as essential now as he did in the mid '90s. There's naturally much to admire on this deep, woozy and spacey electro EP for Dutch titans Shipwrec. Amongst the highlights, you'll find the deep boogie/sunny electro hybrid "Cordial", the high-octane bleep and braindance rhythms of "Ping Me Back", the dark Italo throb of "Mini-Owner", and the bubbly, Detroit-goes-to-Romford-via-Chicago quirkiness of closer "Thinking Using Another's Brain". As usual, Upton barely puts a foot wrong, with even the EP's lesser moments being head and shoulders above those produced by most of his rivals.

Review: It's the tenth outing from Holland's 030303 imprint, and we're good and ready for some jacked-up, screw-face techno-house from this bunch of misfits. Wildcard D'Marc Cantu opens the EP by dropping a vicious electro bruiser in "Mine Motion", a tune would go down a storm in a dark basement with nothing but a single strobe to accompany its industrial bleeps, while Murder Capital associate Mark Du Mosch's "Bermuda" is a gentler, more opaque house duster with a dubby afterglow. Finally, Bio Rhythm overseer Paul Du Lac delivers the hypnotic "Beta Rhythm", a kick-less techno scorcher with a frenetic percussion and a bassline that would make Plastikman circa 1998 a very proud man indeed.

Review: Since having been picked up for WeMe Records by the legendary Heinrich Mueller - one half of Drexciya and one half of Dopplereffekt - Italy's Federico Leocata has delivered powerful, singular electro experiments on a non-stop basis and for labels such as Frustrated Funk and, more recently, Last Known Trajectory. Central Processing Unit is the new home to house the brooding, grey-scaled metallic beats of "Den Eviga Aterkomsten" and "Zunachst"; the latter being led by the coldwave vocals of Beta Evers. On the B-side, "Relativity" flaps its grainy, molecular wings to a glitchy minimal kind of beat flex, and a similar framework is carried through on "Metavision", except this time Leocata has slotted in an additional layer of eeriness in the shape of ghostly vocal swarms. High-tech gear.

Review: Responsible for that wonderful Voironizer EP from local talent Voiron earlier this year, Paris electro outpost Nocta Numerica return with a rather fine split release. Voiron himself features, opening proceedings with "Voiron Augmente," a chunky and punchy slab of modern electro that occasionally descends into gleeful breakbeat madness. Following this, the suitably-named Too Smooth Christ takes matters down a sleek house path on "Orco" whilst Master Flashhh brings a sense of contemplation with "Marauders". Opening the B-side, "WNTRSX" from Glass Figure is full of crystalline synthplay and operatic drama, whilst Le Matin brings some classicist electro vibes on "La Fuite En Avant". To close, Eliott Litrowski comes correct with "Late Night Grasshopper" which feels like an instrumental electro take on LCD Soundsystem classic "Tribulations".

Review: More than a few eyebrows were raised when Thomas Blanckaert - best known for the Belgian rave revivalism of his Innershades project - popped up on Bordello A Parigi last year under the Palermo Disco Squad alias. Like that EP - entitled Palermo Disco Theme - this follow-up explores a tuneful, ear-pleasing sound that draws influence from classic electro and Italo-disco. Undeniably analogue-rich and stylistically spot-on - all four tracks sound like they could have been made around 1984 - there's little to fault throughout. Highlights include the spacey pads, rising and falling melodies and gently pulsing arpeggio lines of "Sicilian Nights", the sticky, pitched-down chug of "Island Life", and the bubbly electro hustle of "Streets of Palermo".