DJS: MOST CHARTED - TECHNO - MOST CHARTED IN 2012

Review: The trans-Atlantic pairing of Kyle Hall and Funkineven inaugurated their Funkinevil collaboration with the much anticipated plate Night, probably the first of many twelve inch shaped emissions to surface in the coming year. Setting the tone with the dextrously smokey "Intro", this twelve inch essentially pairs off the rugged, flatulent sounding DJ tool that is the title track against its smoother B Side counterpart and fans of either producer will need little additional persuasion to indulge here. The way that the percussion is almost spat out of the speakers at you on "Night" is just one reason why the track lives up to their new name, with the intermittent distorted chants of "evil" voiced throughout making for a neat reminder. In contrast, "Dusk" lets in more of the boogie infused swinging Eglo lightness, the moment those keys rise through and align being a mere shade short of sublime. "After Dusk" proves to be a fitting final act, all too brief but allowing Underground Resistance Timeline band leader Jon Dixon centre stage to show off his keyboard skills.

Review: ** Repress for the Tang fans ** Obsolete Music Technology aka Steven Tang has had another great year, nurturing his personal take on Chicago-filtered house music. "Mmmmmusic" is just sublime, taking us on a journey through rugged, drum machine terrains, swaying pads and crafty vocals; whilst the reprise version unearths those synths to create a majestic soundscape which develops into a semi-groove thanks to its smart melodies. Over to the B-side, "Distance" is as deep as one can go, aligning sharp slabs of percussion to more tranquil pads and woozy synth chimes. We even get a boisterous Chicago Skyway refix of the title track, rendering almost unrecognisable thanks to a truly mesmerising bundle of hi-hats and toms. Beautiful.

Review: ** FLOORPLAN REPRESS ** It's fair to say that this was one of the best Robert Hood moments in a while! Just two tracks but boy do they hit hard - "Altered Ego" is more brakey than the usual Hood bombs but he's kept the inimitable chords, all wailing and weaving their way through the beat. The real heat is on the flip however, where the nostalgic, rave-infused piano keys of "Confess" make for a certified classic! Is it Hood who influenced Shed on this sort of beat or the other way around? Who cares, it's bloody amazing!

Review: Robert Hood is techno's undisputed minimal master, but previous instalments of Nighttime World - especially the jazz-fuelled inaugural release in 1995 on Cheap - have afforded him the opportunity to go off script and indulge his conceptual whims. Will he do the same again on Motor? The answer is a resounding yes. Inspired by Julien Temple's 2010 documentary Requiem For Detroit?, which charts the fall and decline of America's former car manufacturing hub, the album is full of references to the effects of man's interaction with technology. If Kraftwerk's shimmering Man Machine was a testament to the benefits of humans harnessing technology, then Motor is the gloomy riposte, emerging from the rubble of a shattered metropolis to tell this sad but compelling tale and crucially, to offer some hope for the future.

Review: It's rare these days that you have a spare 90 minutes to focus on an album, but Techno Primitivism is one of those albums that makes you want to change your lifestyle accordingly. Everything about this new album from Juju & Jordash breathes class - released on Dekmantel with three slabs of 180 gram vinyl spread across a gatefold sleeve complemented by killer design from Orpheu De Jong, and brandishing a blend of music that's fully representative of the Amsterdam based duo's styles and influences. At 15 tracks deep, the full beauty of Techno Primitivism will undoubtedly reveal itself slowly, the cheeky misnomer of the title hinting at Gal & Jordan's often revealed humour. Opening in grand style with the triple suite of "Stoplight Loosejaw", "Diatoms" and "Backwash", the duo set a hazy, atmospheric tone that remains throughout, with brief machine funk interludes such as "Slow Boat To Haifa" and "Rogue Wave" in between longer improvised explorations. Favourites on this album change with every listen, but you can't deny the potency of tracks such as "Powwow" or the Magic Mountain High referencing "Track David Would Play" or the superbly titled "Dr Strangepork". One of the albums of this year, without doubt!

Review: Although his Modularz imprint has been receiving significant attention for its dark, textured take on techno functionalism, Developer's Archive imprint is an opportunity to showcase his own material on limited vinyl only runs. While the beautiful marble charcoal pressing would, in the hands of other labels, be to distract from below par music, there's nothing of the sort in evidence here, with the same intricate approach to sound design as contemporaries Silent Servant and Shifted. "Sangre Por Oro" takes a firm, yet ghostly stomp and foregrounds bleached out, ascending chords, while "Horns From The West" is an apt summation of its mood, with its Mariachi inspired melody and rolling drums. On the flip, "The Truth" goes for hypnotic key stabs shrouded in delay atop a rumbling rhythm, while "From The Womb" begins as an expectedly claustrophobic experience, with its muddy vocal snippet and shackling industrial rhythms, but slowly opening out with lighter hints of melody and gaseous atmospherics.

Review: As recent emissions from Brooks Mosher and M>O>S ably demonstrated, Steffi's Dolly label can always be relied upon to curate some of the finest contemporary analogue techno exponents either side of the Atlantic divide. Dolly 11 sees Chicago's Steven Tang step up for a quartet of sublime straight to tape jackers under his Obsolete Music Technology alias and it's hard to resist the sonic charms as soon as "Metropolitan View" rotates into focus. Wonderfully inventive in its execution, the track exists in constant flux never satisfied to remain in one rhythmic direction lending proceedings an improvised touch. Alongside this "Inflection Point" opts for a more mindful Utopian approach, its various elements working in opposing directions yet still intrinsically linked. On the flip "Subdue" highlights Tang's craft for layered percussion and "Swell" is all too appropriately titled, with the thick analogue lead billowing throughout.

Review: Previously given away as a free digital release, Legowelt's The TEAC Life gets a richly deserved vinyl pressing, comprised of four twelve inches. On his website, he describes the 14-track opus as "deep, tape saturated forest-techno", as adroit a summation of his sound as any scribe has ever managed. The title is an obvious nod to the equipment made to construct the album, an admission which, rather than spoiling the mystique, only adds to it. The 14 tracks paint incredibly vivid images, from the audible tape hiss and raw drums on opener "The Night Wind", which leads to the windswept landscape of "Half Moon 106? and the slightly more polished Chicagoan jack of "The Soul of a City". The Virgo-esque string led romanticism of "Metro Airport" is one of many high points on what was one of 2011's best albums.

Review: The name Alden Tyrell will be more familiar to long term advocates of the Clone Empire rather than those who might have been introduced to the myriad of Dutch labels in recent times by EPs from Untold and Blawan. That's mostly because the Dutch legend hasn't exactly been active of late in the old releasing records game, preferring to slip out the odd remix or concentrate on mammoth tasks like remastering the back catalogue of Drexciya for Clone. Those not so familiar with Tyrell could do worse than change that by starting with the two heaving slabs of monolithic techno that make up this mammoth contribution to the Clone Basement Series! There's a touch of Fachwerk to the growling tunnel-like groove of "Rush" which is offset by the rising key stabs which no doubt helped influence the title, while the excellently named "Tntus" sounds like it would consume your every last sense in the perfect environment - a dark, cramped basement with little light and plenty of speaker racks.

Review: Having firmly found his groove with UK labels such as 2nd Drop and Fourth Wave, Gerry Read's latest EP sees that further notch in his ascendancy as he gets snapped up by Dutch institution Delsin to kick off their new house-orientated series. Stylistically, the four tracks on this new EP continue the mission statement Read has already laid out; there's a claustrophobic quality to lead track "Yeh Come Dance", that finds a cacophony of wooden percussion and angular vocal loops sweating all over each other while the hi-hats leer on drunkenly. As something of a contrast, the beat in "Crawlspace" is decidedly straight by these standards, letting the sequencing of the drum machine call more of the shots before too much wayward sample placing can send the rhythm askew. It doesn't take much to see the jazzy quality in Read's music, but "Bozza" perhaps marks the first instance where this quality has been capitalised on and fully realised. In that sense it marks something of a progression for the young beatsmith, as the complex arrangement of brushed drums, piano and other sonic debris aim for a place other than that usual seedy corner of the dancefloor. "Crooked" rounds off the EP with by distilling all these feelings into one track of strung out strangeness, where the groove is borrowed from garage and then robbed of its innocence, with an underlying bed of mean-spirited audio fragments. As with all the GR output it's evocative stuff, and reminds you that this EP marks not just consistency but also progress for the plucky producer.

Review: Having become something of a regular fixture in the Mote Evolver camp, Shifted is back once again to head up Side A of the second Parallel Series 12". As you might expect, the techno comes bleak and throbbing from the Shifty one, although avoiding excessive heaviness over immersive progression and dubby FX. On the flip Samuli Kemppi plies his quirkier trade, using offbeat synth mess to counteract the steady rhythm of the bottom end on "Trans Neptunian". "Detached Object" meanwhile fires off streams of interlocking sounds which spiral around the relentless kick for a classy exercise in techno restraint. Highly recommended.

Review: It would be hard to tag Blawan's debut on Frozen Border affiliates Black Sun as anything other than four exercises in resolutely grubby, dark and industrial techno, so leave all your "post-whatever" classifications at the door. Lead track "Scarborough" demonstrates Blawan's noirish prowess for uncovering unnerving vocal samples and using the duration of the production to further bury this looped up element beneath the saturated crud of noise built up around the hollow scraping of kick drums that drives the track forth - see his recent YouTube burner "Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage" for further compelling evidence. It sets the slightly sinister tone for what follows with "Breathe Them Knees In" literally growling into life and scheming to blow the head off anyone not prepared for the huge waves of viscous pressure at its core. "Grafter Gets A Home" differs in that the malevolent vocal remains above the parapet of dystopian noise that bubbles underneath throughout its progression, while "6 To 6 Lick" sees Blawan let loose on the drums in schizophrenic fashion.

Review: The steadily-rising Modularz imprint strikes back once more with some killer, no-nonsense techno wares from Developer and Eduardo De La Calle. Developer's tracks plumb bleak depths, where the only tones allowed into the mix clang in atonal disharmony. De La Calle's "The Solution" has a little more warmth in its pulsing dub chords, but still maintaining that linear function for elongated mixes and hypnotic sets. The real jam is Developer's funky-assed "Under" which gets its jack off the nagging hi-hat, while the cavernous hits punch out off beat for a devastating rhythmic slayer which should get techno heads body popping like there's no tomorrow morning.

Review: The label arm of Berlin distro emporium Diamonds & Pearls well and truly flex their A&R muscle here with a killer second release of 2012 that pairs the monumentally gifted talents of XDB and Kassem Mosse with suitably worthy results. Deep Space boss XDB helms the A Side himself with a wonderfully rough hewn analogue house transmission "Ekatem" that feels like it slip into infinity without losing any sheen. If a combination of rattling percussion, discombobulating synths and rusty sounding square basslines appeals to you then you will find much joy with "Ekatem". Listen to "Omrish" blindfolded and you'd guess Mosse was involved given the gritty, smudged out nature of its execution, a wonderfully hazy melange of chiming melodic tones and off the grid percussive touches that appears to float in stasis and proves all too intoxicating on the senses.

Review: Shifted makes a welcome return to Our Circular Sound, having helmed the third release on Sigha's fledgling imprint late last year. Furthermore, the brilliantly titled Sickness By Means Of Clairvoyance is well timed, arriving in the same week as Avian, the label Shifted oversees with Ventress, further demonstrated their A& R muscle with a new release and a new sub-label in Mira. The four tracks here don't deviate from the established Our Circular Sound template, at times channelling the same intensity and single minded "heads down" momentum that ran through much of Crossed Paths, Shifted's debut LP for Mote Evolver. "Chapter" sets the grainy tone, locked grooving from the off yet slowly introducing extra rhythmic wallop and minute textural details that keep its head well above mere DJ tool. "Feeding" provides some brief yet ominous respite before launching straight into late 90s Downwards functionalism of "Aun Weor" and "Unveiled".

Review: It would be easy and unforgivably lazy to lump Claro's work in with the great unwashed of deep/dub techno. While Reform Club does sparkle and shimmer with epic strings, ghostly reversed chords and dreamy synths, it's the interplay between these elements and Stewart's unpredictable rhythmic dalliances that make his third album so rewarding. "Reformed" is a case in point: glassy percussion and sensuous string passages suggest an adept take on classic Detroit techno, but the underlying, resonating bass depicts an artist highlighting flaws and imperfections. In a similar vein is "It's Getting Late", where evocative chords unfold over a quirky bassline and the raw, Aardvarck-esque beats and breathy melodies of "Scriptease". But it's the tracks where Stewart appears to be sharing his own personal experiences that have the greatest impact. The atmospheric, chiming synths of "Still Here" has the same underlying sadness that Stewart articulated so beautifully on Metanarrative and the whistling sounds and serene ambience of "Quiet Life" elevate Stewart to the same level as great musical storytellers like Mark Hollis and Ian Curtis. The fact that be can bare his soul and document deeply personal topics without resorting to words makes his voice all the more powerful.

Review: "If you do not hear this" a distorted voice says at the start of Shed's third album, The Killer, before deploying a low bass frequency, "or that, you will not feel it". It's a statement of intent which is followed through with some of the heaviest material of the producer's career - whether it's the dense ambient of "STP3/The Killer", the tunnelling, waspish drone of "I Come By Night", or the screaming oscillations of "Day After". Despite being an album grounded by monolithic rave-era breakbeats, it's also an album of contemplative moments - the thermal current melodies of "Gas Up" and "The Praetorian" chief among them. The artwork says it all - this is an album made for the body, and our advice is to turn it up loud and let techno's greatest contemporary producer work his magic.

Review: Now exclusively helmed by Boddika now that his Instra:mental cohort Jon Convex has moved on with his own Convex Industries imprint, Nonplus enters a new phase of its existence. Those worried that the change in management will mean a dip in quality should rest easy however, as the veteran Canadian producer Basic Soul Unit is tapped up for one of his best releases to date. There's no bells and whistles with these tracks; "Swept Up" revolves around a raw breakbeat and rugged analogue one-note bassline, giving way to a wash of pulsating filtered chords and deep melody, while "Mindstorm" utilises muffled percussion and a sludgy but frenzied acid line, but there's no denying the craftsmanship on display. Not many producers can create techno that's satisfyingly deep and has industrial rhythmic tendencies, but this release positively nails it.

Review: Continuing a sterling run of form of late, Steven Tang's OMT moniker has been testing the fringes of classically rooted house and techno with a style that comes on somewhat malevolent without ever needing to resort to aggression. Indeed the original mix of "Since The Accident" is overtly creepy with its atonal acid lines and horror film strings, but the beats fall with a clean precision and there's not a touch of overdrive or unnecessary volume in sight. The bonus beats allow further clarity on this idea as well, while Specter's mix seems intent on opiating the entire jam into a mellifluous blur of strangeness. "Descending" is less uneasy in its demeanour, but still occupies an otherworldly space thus making it a worthy addition to the EP.

Review: The fourth release on Works The Long Nights sees the return of Karenn, and the most substantial statement of Blawan and Pariah's growing prowess as a duo. Brandishing some six tracks of raw, growling techno spread across two hefty plates of vinyl, Sheworks 004 is as heavy to hold in your hands as the music is uncompromising on your ears. From the off, it's clear Karenn's music has been influenced by the creative constraints afforded by swapping software for hardware, and also Blawan and Pariah's growing relationship with Italian duo The Analogue Cops. The wonderfully grimly titled "Nicotine Window Netting" jostles for favour with its equally well named B Side accompaniment "A Room Full Of Fuck All" - the former dominated by the deranged acid line that jolts around unsettlingly atop the all too dense thud. The latter's drum textures have this strange purring sound and even weirder velveteen, skin crawling sensation and this doesn't even cover the onslaught of tunnelling deranged rave sirens that veer in and out of focus. The vicious "Clean It Up" demonstrates they can manipulate pretty straight forward, heads down yet still blunt techno, while "Lifesbleach" sees them dabbling in tape saturated electro.