Juno Recommends Electro July 2020

Review: Having previously impressed with some deliciously wide-eyed, mind-mangling missives on Salt Mines, Planet Euphorique and Craigie Knowes, Reptant pops up on Kalahari Oyster Cult with some similarly inclining late night workouts. Check first title track "Phasic Reflex", a bustling body-pop across intergalactic electro territory that flits between string-laden dreaminess and weighty, acid-fired wonkiness, before admiring the tighter electro bounce of the Egyptian Lover-ish "MS Plenty". Over on side B it's all about "A Realist's Realistic Reality", where Reptant's foreboding, spacey and Dexter-ish original version comes accompanied by a wonderfully melodious, breakbeat-driven electronica re-make by Roza Terenzi.

Review: 2020 marks the tenth of collaboration for Red Axes, the Tel Aviv-based duo of Dori Sadovnik and Niv Arzi. Informed by post-punk, new wave, and a plethora of club sounds old and new, they have cleaved a singular path with their hefty discography. To celebrate their anniversary, they reunite with Dark Entries for an eponymous 11 track LP brimming with jagged guitars, spacy arpeggios, and hypnotic vocals. Although Sadovnik and Arzi have previously released LPs on I'm A Cliche and Garzen Records, Red Axes is their first effort written and conceived of as an album-length listening experience. This work flows effortlessly through a variety of stylistic detours, highlighting their ears as both keen listeners and skilled DJs. Opener 'They Game' is a grooving number that unifies the psychedelia of cosmic disco with the early 90s 'baggy' sound. The energy mounts further with "Shelera", a guitar-driven acidic banger, and "Sticks and Stones", a certifiable club hit fueled by sassy vocals courtesy of Adi Bronicki. Launching Side B is "Break the Limit", an EBM-laced number that wouldn't sound out of place on a Razormaid compilation. The following tracks wax moodier, with "Brotherhood (Of the Misunderstanding)" touching on darkwave territory. "Udibaby" and "Arpman" close out the album with their respectively dense and sparse takes on kosmische lysergia. Red Axes was mixed by Steve Dub and mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The album's artwork starkly depicts the project's name in blood-red smear. Also included is a postcard with full credits and album art. It's rare one finds an album that so casually challenges classification while still being firmly rooted on the dancefloor.

Review: Solar One Music's cofounder Robert Witschakowski and Dopplereffek's Gerald Donald return with another sauced out electro offering that takes you to another dimension. Their trademark sounds jump out of the speakers across four glorious sides of vinyl. The slipper baselines, the sci-fi motifs, the feeling of high speed space travel all define these cuts as you guide n bumpy beats or get lost in glistening synths. The duo first worked together a number of year ago but are still finding fresh new forms that make them as essential as ever.

Review: Late Night Approach are no strangers to Klakson, having made their debut on Steffi's long-running electro imprint three years ago. Here they return with their first outing of 2020 - a sweaty and forthright affair that maintains a strong dancefloor focus throughout. The A-side is all about "Overbridge", an unflinchingly weighty and mind-mangling affair in the style of fellow Klakson artist Dexter that's given a buzzing, all-action, alien techno-funk makeover by Fastograph. Over on side B, the Italian twosome goes a little deeper on the bubbly, spacey and energetic "The Naus Investigation", before reaching for psychedelic acid lines, ghostly Drexciya style chords and bustling beats on paranoid closing cut "Decanaus".

Review: The 7th release on BLKMARKET MUSIC comes from Samuel Jabba and is the first part of the Dystopian Future series.
Samuel Jabba is the label co-founder of a new vinyl only label called From the Void Above. Hailing from Bogota, Colombia, Samuel is a young DJ and talented producer who creates music spanning different genres of electronic music.

On his debut release for Blkmarket Music, the A side starts off with his electro track 'Acid Pleasure' on A1. The A2 track 'Space Mirage' takes you on an outer space voyage focusing on the more deeper side of techno.

The B side kicks off with his heady breakbeat track 'Robotics' on the B1. On B2, Samuel takes us on a dark journey with his minimal electro track entitled 'Random Demise.'

Review: Second time around for the third and final part of electro hero Gerard 'ERP' Hanson's "Evoked Potentials" series, which first hit stores way back in 2011. A-side "Repose" is (quite literally) classic ERP, with Hanson peppering Egyptian Lover style drums and funky synth-bass with chiming lead lines, starburst chords and deep space chords. It's tuneful and picturesque, but will also have you on your feet and throwing shapes in no time at all. Over on the flip, Plant43 (London electro veteran Emile Facey) turns in a very Drexciyan take on "Sensory Process", in the process wrapping Hanson's bittersweet strings and 33rd century electronic motifs around a suitably deep sea electro rhythm.

Review: The first missive on Dublin's freshly minted, vinyl-only Space Shepherd label comes courtesy of Maltese producer Sound Synthesis, an experienced but still little-known artist within the global electro community. As you'd expect, the quality threshold remains high from start to finish. Opener "Arpeggiate" cloaks a squelching bassline and crunchy electro beats in sumptuous chords and sci-fi melodies, while "Diving In" adds sharp and mind-altering acid lines to the same far-sighted electro template. Sound Synthesis explores darker, horror soundtrack-influenced acid-electro pastures on B-side opener "Arp Reaktor", before rounding off a fine EP via the poignant chords, widescreen strings and bustling beats of "Love Drones"

Review: Iranians-in-Europe Tonnovelle have yet to really break through, though their releases to date for When We Met, OSMAN and their own Tonnovelle imprint have all delivered perfectly pitched blends of electro and techno. They're at it again on "Equinox", an action-packed EP that we think contains some of their most potent work to date. Check first the weighty, alien-sounding creepiness of "Spooky Action At A Distance", which sounds like a cross between bleep-era LFO and Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia, before admiring the brilliant blend of squidgy synth bass, crunchy machine drums and arpeggiated synthesizer lines that is EP opener "Equinox". Elsewhere, "Open Secret" is a foreboding, horror-flecked fusion of electro, techno and raging acid, while "End of a Beginning" is a deliciously unorthodox chunk of skittish, off-kilter IDM.

Review: After spending much of the last few years exploring forthright, mind-altering techno sounds under his given name, Thomas P Heckmann has recently started offering up new material from his Electro Nation project - an exploration of the potential of the electro form that was most active in the 1990s. He begins his second new EP of the year (there have also been some reissues) with the sharp, squelch-along club electro buzz of "Dope Head", before beefing up the beats and reaching for minor key melodies on the intergalactic pop of "Sucker Beat". Elsewhere, Heckmann successfully wraps warehouse-ready house stabs around bustling acid bass and snappy electro drums on "Virus", while closing cut "Juicy Beast" is a Fairlight stab-sporting sprint through NYC freestyle/early '80s electro fusion.

Review: This is the first episode of a new project under the name of "Generative Operations" a project born from a new vision and workflow at the Boris Divider studio. Delivering a minimal concept staying true to Divider's roots surrounded by contemporary elements.

Review: Since parting company with DFA a decade ago, Gavin Russom's releases as Black Meteoric Star have become increasingly few and far between. "Disco", his third and arguably most expansive album to date under the alias, is therefore a more than welcome arrival. It's an impressive set, too, with Russom offering up a deliciously distorted, fuzzy and forthright mix of hazy, sound collage style interludes, throbbing new wave, tactile deep electro, razor sharp analogue jack-tracks, decidedly alien-sounding instrumentals, redlined EBM throb-jobs and clanking, lo-fi electro. It all sounds like it was recorded in a cement mixer using a particularly dusty collection of old synthesizers and drum machines, but that's no bad thing; in fact, it plays a big part in the album's undoubted lo-fi charm.