Juno Recommends Electro: August 2023

Review: Swedish producer Ola Obergman has been at the top of his game for over 20 years now, dropping superb electro on the finest labels. Last year he dropped a fantastic full-length album on Pariter, but now steps up to Infiltrate with a direct dance floor offering. 'Norma Cluster' pairs busy drums and bass with more atmospheric leads before 'Invariant Hyperbola' has a perfectly crisp boom-bap that is run through with synth sequences that get your head amongst the stars. 'Sterile Neutrino' is more raw and ragged with another irresistible rhythm and 'Dragonfly44' closes in a thoughtful fashion.

Review: A dystopian barrage of mechanoid electro soundscapes comes courtesy of Silicon Scally, a new, scathing alias alias of rather legendary UK music producer Carl Finlow, best known as 20:20 Vision. Inspired by the oncoming anxiety of a technological hell (trust us, we all feel it, Carl), it's either join the AI death cult or die, as a straight 60+ minutes of generative electro stabbery and post-neural warpings make the entire project sound like a supernatural server processing vast numeric quantities of infectious bytes.

Review: Four more lively, lovely electro offerings from Plant 43, the second in a limited edition series of EPs focussed on tracks written over the course of the winter of 2022/23. Opener 'Submolecular Shifting' is bright and bubbly, joining the dots between Kraftwerk and Model 500, while 'Eccentric Elliptical Orbit' follows on slower and more grandiose, echoing early New Order's icy cool synth sounds. 'Encased' has a more otherworldly Aphex-like feel, although the juddering, on-off bass keeps it plugged into the dancefloor. 'The Forgotten Storm' closes proceedings, more low key again and graced with ethereal, adding angelic choirs. Energised enough and streamlined enough to be good dancefloor gear, but expertly executed and, as ever, brimming with enough personality to be a decent home listen as well.

Review: Ninechecker is an electro producer from Ontario, Canada, who releases with only the biggest and best: Orson Records, Delsin, and Central Processing Unit to name but a small few. Adding to his extensive releases belt, he delivers four stone cold new ones for electro-techno-breakbeat Orson. With its name maybe nodding to the generative creation of fantasy landscapes in 3D CGI software, highlights like 'Magagun' convey a weird kind of horrific calculator-nightmare (bloop freakouts aplenty) between the beats, all going to make this a stellarly exciting EP.

Review: Is there a more vital label in all of underground electronic music than FXHE? It never ceases to amaze us how Omar S manages to put out so much music of such high quality, mostly of his own making, but also from plenty of satellite producers he lures under his wing. This time we're treated to a rare full-length from someone other than the boss as the Motor City's Hi Tech duo step up with a raw ghettotech workout. These are sleazy tracks with raw production, bumping basslines, high-speed rhythms and plenty of rapped vocals packed with juke and footwork attitude.

Review: Electro tastemaker Konerytmi is a busy man with a high rate of output on labels like Infiltrate, Eudemonia in Germany and Russia's Electro Music Coalition, which is where he appears again now with his Astrodanssi EP. As always, this is sci-fi styled sound with clean synth lines and celestial melodies. 'Kukka' opens up with a shiny and reflective hall of synths that glisten and gleam. 'Fantomi' brings rubbery acid elasticity to deep cosmic electro and 'Astrofyysikko' is another one powered by a bulbous, busy bassline and snappy snares. Three further cuts get increasingly mystic and turbulent on the flip.

Review: Way back in 1998, New York techno scene stalwart John Selway opened his Zoids Volume 2 EP with a quirky chunk of razor-sharp, acid-fired electro called 'Millennium Sound'. On the eve of its 25th birthday, Selway has decided to get the track remixed by some serious electro talents. Keith Tenniswood kicks things off as Radioactive Man, offering a fiendishly sub0heavy, alien-sounding electro rub that's guaranteed to put extra pressure on bassbins and sub cabinets, before Selway himself re-frames the cut as a moody, foreboding chunk of sci-fi electro excellence. Over on the flip, Sync 24 delivers a more percussively intense and weighty dark electro roller, while Transparent Sound joins the dots between classic 80s electro and the cybernetic moodiness of Selway's 1998 mix.

Review: The amusingly named Overthink Records embark on a fresh reissue of this gem from Bryan Never, who did the lesser-cited work of disseminating electro-techno for the late-90s US dance lover. First released on Psychoactive, this five-tracker has an unmistakable retro-tinged edge, evidently emergent from the hardware used in its making; and while a straight acid theme might only be established at first, its increasing musicianship makes itself gradually known, as on the synth bells of 'Suspension', the tense boss-battle breaths of 'Churn', and the mathematic synth bloopery of 'Keyhole'.

Review: Twilight Expanse is the latest reissued EP from New York producer Ebeats, who originally released this great breaksy classic in the early noughties. A crude minimalist exploration in breaks and dub effects, we've got the ultra-wally zoner 'Helion', which is like a hyper-compressed version of an ambient Aphex perambulator, and the comparatively jazzy and surreal 'Twilight Expanse'. On the B also come remixes by Radioactive Man and Voicedrone, which are far less playful, but make up for it with a modern heat which still respects the original's direction.

Review: When Magda and Jay Ahearn first unveiled the Blotter Trax project - rather mysteriously, it should be noted - the showcased cuts tended towards the more psychedelic end of the techno and electro spectrum. They've flipped the script on debut album Superconductor, a genuinely brilliant collection of funkier, far-sighted workouts that draws more on their joint love of Arthur Russell, early 80s NYC downtown disco, leftfield new-wave pop and flash-fried punk-funk. The addition of bass and guitar (from new third member Hannes Strobl and guest axe-slinger Shigeru Tanabu) adds an organic element, with lead vocals (courtesy of principal songwriter and singer Nina Hynes) humanising their sound further. A triumphant, if surprising, full-length debut that could turn out to be one of the electronic LPs of 2023.

Review: The superb Astra Spectra series has provided us with many magnificent new sounds so it's a shame that this is the last of the eight part project. Alas, all good things must come to an end and so it does with one more quality EP. Label co-founder Syrte steps up for this one with an artful EP that fuses IDM, electro and ambient synth designs into deep space journeys. All six tracks are brain frying, synapse twitching jams that take you into another dimension. Also included is a collaboration with Science Cult co-operator Aura Nox to round it out in style.

Review: Sumerian Fleet is a collaborative project from Mr. Pauli and Alden Tyrell, and alongside their couple of excellent albums on Dark Entries these dark side synth wave devotees also delivered a coveted record to Clone's West Coast Series back in 2010. Finally, that record is getting a repress to thwart the sharks and get grimy, gothic electro back in the hands of the real fans. Every track is a masterpiece, but one of our personal favourites is the rubbery nightmare funk of 'Blech Erkrankung', which comes on like Joy Division and Front 242 getting in a fight and falling down the stairs together.

Review: Electro brain-frazzler Pthgn has a keen ear for the deranged, as evidenced here, their latest EP 'Binary Operation'. The German producer offers up four neo-Drexciyan flavours, with the likes of 'Binary Operation' and 'Cyber NetiK' assaulting the senses with overdriven drums and ghostly pad movements, while the B-side gets a bit snappier with it, moving into surreal baller tech on the ultimate track 'Won't Stop Tippin'.

Review: WNCL is back to provide more high grade dance floor explosives here in the form of a potent 10" battle weapon from Skin Teeth. Up on the A-side is 'Void 93,' a terse mix of busted breaks, heavy bass hits and jungle energy that's run through with dark vocal snippets. It's a hard-ass cut that will fill the club with a caustic sound. On the flip is 'Knuckle Bone' with more dub-wise vocal elements and heavy, tumbling drums and neck-snapping hits. It's as physical and uncompromising a beat track as you could imagine.

Review: On The Button has been hosting parties in Leeds now for around a year. They have been successful, too, which is no mean feat in a city that has seen more than its fair share of nights come and go in a little over a few months. Now the Yorkshire born founder Miles steps out with debut EP to encapsulate the identity of the brand. It makes for a varied listen with spaced out electro-tech to start, gritty electro menace on 'Depths of Mind', a thumping space cruise on 'Nights over Yorkshire' and darker workout on 'Conscious Exploration.'

Review: EYA boss and London tastemaker Jos completed a successful tour down under earlier in the year and now steps out with this new EP to kick off the Naarm based label, Entered Records. He does so with his uniquely storytelling electro - wispy melodies that convey real meaning and human emotion over compelling rhythms. 'Absence Of Thought' is a chunky bumper to start with, then the Dashiell Breakbeat Rethink is a darker more jungle leaning rework. 'L'Esprit' then layers up massive rubbery kicks with chattering percussion and moody chords before 'Go Beyond' shuts down with an eerie lead synth over marching drums that mean business.

Review: 2-step gets speedy on this cheek-biter from Danny Goliger and Choopsie, two relative unknowns on the scene, yet whose efforts clearly need to be brought to a much wider audience. The A-sider 'AF Rex' sits somewhere between classic 2-step and cutesy TikTok reel music, but it errs far less on the side of knife-edge autotuned lyrics, preferring chirrupy vocal one-shots and instrumental fun instead. Think Doss, but shiftier. 'Cycling' brings up the B with far murkier yet no less lively scenes.