Techno Recommendations November 2010

Review: Dekmantel unleash Detroit legend Robert Hood on Juju and Jordash's "Deep Blue Meanies" from last year's self titled album. The virulent pulse that ran through the track marked "Deep Blue Meanies" as the most impressive moment, and Hood does the track justice with two differing but equally astounding treatments. The A Side Sci Fi Mix is akin to a full on sensory assault, flipping the track into a relentless thumping future techno groove replete with throbbing bass that absorbs brain matter and multi layered percussion that demands to be bounced off cavernous warehouse walls. On the other side Hood's "Monobox Remix" tones down the percussion to focus on crafting hypnotic patterns of scratched melodies and singular drones atop a minimalist groove. The growing acid tension that characterises the closing stages of this remix make it hard to choose a favourite. Special mention to for the rather attractive screen printed sleeve art.

Review: Following his Studio 395 EP supported by Zip, Oliver Deutschmann, Baby Ford, Rolando & Ben Sims to name a few, Ed returns with another satisfying 2 tracker. Centrality is a strong, peak time techno track that features raw 909 percussion paired with an infectious synth riff & haunting house vocals finishing on a Transmat style synth solo, the kind of track that stays in your head for hours if not days after you've left the nightclub. B side Spirits incorporates the same distinguished groove of Centrality but opens the possibilities up tenfold, inviting plays on both house & techno dance floors equally suited to night & day!

Review: ** FLOORPLAN REPRESS ** Not content with releasing one of this year's best techno albums under his own name, Detroit producer Robert Hood turns his focus to his Floorplan alter ego. While it may not enjoy the same profile as Hood side-projects like The Vision and Monobox, it does provide an alternative to his repetitive metallic techno. Indeed, the title track is a jacking house workout centred on a disco loop and the chugging train sounds sampled so memorably on Telex's 'Moscow Disko'. 'Wall to Wall' is more in keeping with Hood's trademark techno, but here too, the harsh snares and ominous, prowling bassline are offset by a filtered disco groove.

Review: The second Reality Or Nothing release of the week comes replete with three new remixes of the previously unreleased title track (which was made back in 1998 and his hidden in the techno vault of the Sandwell District crew ever since), plus a demo version of the original which is steeped in melodic atmospherics. Function, CH-Signal and Silent Servant all chip in with remixes in what serves as a must-have for Sandwell District completists - the Function version in particular brings the big room vibe to the table. These 12"s also serve as a mouth whetting appetiser for the debut Sandwell album, which is due to hit the shelves this month.

Review: Baeks and Trias aka Ancient Methods return with the fifth in their series of relentless industrial techno bombs. The unnamed A Side track sounds like Sir Jeff of Detroit in his Tresor pomp, hardly surprising considering both of these chaps have been around since the first wave of Berlin techno. The Juno highlight however has be the second B Side track, which is an absolute growling monster.

Review: Ben Klock revives his own Klockworks imprint with some pounding excursions into the genre we call techno. The fleeting organ melody of "Under Pressure" rests above a taught, tense drum loop, while "Voyage One" begins with the kind of thumping beat that characterises a Ben Klock DJ set, with a frenzied key structure giving the track a sense of unease and nervous anticipation, almost like Jeff Mills' Something In The Sky series with a Berghain beat. ""You" rounds off the 12" in a minimal, atmospheric undertone. Limited supply, get in quick.

Review: It's a measure of the esteem in which Scottish producer Gary Beck is held that he has managed to attract not one but two of techno's most seminal talents for this remix package. Long-serving artist Mark Broom is going through something of a renaissance period; as his recent Acid House album for Saved showed, Broom has put the purist sounds of Pure Plastic on hold and is making more party-based material. Unsurprisingly, he brings this approach to his version of "Consumed", based on a rolling rhythm and deep filters that build to an effective and somewhat epic climax, Broom's remix also has sharp jacking beats to ensure that it doesn't end up like a light version of his King of Snakes material. Speedy J aka Jochem Paap is also in fine form. The Dutch producer's first take features rolling house beats, but allaying any doubts that he is mellowing out, he drops searing, razor-sharp percussion and waves of jagged metallic hi-hats. Paap's .Straight Faced Dub' is also sure to cause chaos: based on a woozy filter and a quaking, evil bass, the fact that it doesn't slam the listener into submission with a fast tempo makes its intense, low-end approach all the more effective.

Review: Reality Or Nothing is the surreptitious (and now defunct) side project of UK techno dons Regis and Female. The duo slyly released their material through Chicago's mysterious Housewerk Records in the late 90s, and here we see a piece of previously unreleased material remixed by the current Sandwell District stable. Sprawled across the A Side here is a fantastic stepping reshape of "Reality Or Nothing" by Female, whilst the opening B-Side cut is a crunchy bags-of-gravel remix of "Kalon 08" by the Sandwell District collective. The 1998 original version of the title track is included for good measure, and we'd go as far to say it's the best of the lot.

Review: The first of three Creme Jak releases to land on our shelves this week comes from James T. Cotton and D'Marc Cantu's 2 AM/FM project. "The Final Approach" opens in cinematic fashion, a menacing bass throb working underneath slowly swirling synths. Soon after a compressed kick drum enters the fray, complemented by twinkling keys which give the tracks a small ray of light. The track then all but finishes before kicking back in with more ominous vocals and a spacey Frankie Knuckles-esque Chi-town synth pattern, bringing to a close another epic galactic adventure on Creme Jak.

Review: Everyone's favourite enclave of mystery Swedish techno mind melters unveil the second chapter of remixes with a suitably classy line up across both sides of this 12 inch. The inaugural Skudge remix 12" housed one of our favourite reworks of 2010 in Aardvarck's relentless regroove of "Convolution" and the same track is reworked here. Marcel Fengler, no stranger to creating a wall of reverberating sound as resident at Berghain, delivers a remix propelled along by a heavy throbbing bass line. Around this, he crafts abrasive tones, piercing kicks and heavily compressed vocal edits that have a distinctly 2-step vibe. Expect a messy dancefloor at the midpoint descent into the bass line throb. Veteran techno don Aubrey tackles "Melodrama" on the flip, reimagining the track as a bustling Basic Channel hypno groove replete with busy percussion, industrial tones, heavily phased vocal snippets and generally harsh bass scratches.

Review: A raw analogue throb prevails throughout on D Marc Cantu's "Black Tears", which comfortably takes up a full 12 inches on this one sided release. Intermittent snare hits and a moody, droning synth give the track a hypnotic vibe, but as the bassline intensifies towards the end you realise you are dealing with an epic slice of music that goes beyond Chicago house pastiche and instead becomes something very special in its own right.

Review: The mysterious Minister pops on Creme Jak with a three track 12", which like everything on this fine sub-label is heavily indebted to the sounds of Chicago. The central feature of "My Land Of Exstacy" is a pulsating synth line which would have not sounded out of place had the legendary Ron Hardy dropped it at the Muzic Box back in the day. Next up twirling acid synth jam "Physical Pain" is followed by the raw pads and spacey squiggles of cinematic finale "Paranoia On Planet X". A fine release.