Above Board Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Bushwacka! deserves any plaudits that come his way. He was there at the birth of acid house and went on to foment his own take on tech house. He held a legendary residency at the End in London and of course dropped countless seminal tunes alongside Layo, not least their epic 'Love Story' mash-up. Now the acclaimed but still relevant UK veteran dives back into his roots to serve up the sounds that came before tech house with highlights that would have been heard at the time at parties like Heart & Soul, Release, The Drop, Vapour Space, and at venues like Heaven and The End. Skippy, dubbed garage and driving house all feature in a fine collection.

Review: Laggy Panteli and Zeno Messis (aka Megalon) were cult techno artists back in the mid-nineties. They released seminal albums like 1994's Pandora's Box and mixed up ambient, Detroit techno, electro, European electronics and their own experiences of London's acid house scene. The good folks at Above Board have been digging in the duo's vaults and put together this collection of all of their best EPs across four crucial sides of vinyl. This is deep, atmospheric techno for the small hours with the likes of skittish rhythmic workout 'Sorcerer' (Funky Magus mix) sitting next to the widescreen acid styles of 'Semblance' (Dim B) and the shimmering leads of future tribal cut 'Transition'.

Review: When it was released a few weeks ago, the first volume of Ivan Smagghe and Vladimir Ivkovic's two-part IDMEMO: A Future of Nostalgia compilation delivered a killer collection of largely forgotten or overlooked gems from the Artificial Intelligence-era of electronica and ambient techno. The second installment is equally as inspired, with highlights including the ever-changing, acid-flecked exoticism of the Black Dog's 'Psyil Cosyin', Autechre's haunting, 12-minute remix of Seefeel's 'Spangle', the Tangerine Dream-does-ambient trip that is Beautyon's 'To Swing Pil', and the stately beauty of Beaumant Hannant's 'Utuba (Reprised Version)'. Look out also for a largely unknown - and pleasingly melodious - remix of Soft Ballet by Richard D James under his infrequently used Polygon Window pseudonym.

Review: Ed Cartwright's first compilation, which is landing in two parts (this is the first), celebrates the period between 1992 and '96, when electronic music in Britain was going in a multitude of different directions, and the (ultimately unfulfilled) 'brave new dawn' offered by Blair's New Labour government was still some way off. Cartwright's selections thus flit between gorgeous UK techno (Syzygy's 1992 gem 'Meditation'), sub-heavy post-bleep brilliance (Cabaret Voltaire), classic IDM (the Black Dog's Ken Downie as Xeper), mind-mangling slow acid (Thunderhead's excellent 'True Romance'), anti-Criminal Justice Bill material (Ultramarine's 'Happy Land') and some early Matthew Herbert brilliance ('Housewife'). Throw in extensive liner notes from dance music historian Matt Anniss, and you have a fantastic package.