Techno charts

Review: Tresor is celebrating 30 years in the game with a series of special reissue projects. This one really goes way back to almost the start, when Juan Atkins was already defining the early techno sound. For this one he linked up with Moritz von Oswald and Thomas Fehlmann in 1992 for a second iteration of the 3 Men in Berlin project. The monumental results join the dots between Detroit and Berlin across a collection of timeless cuts that meld bassline funk, hypnotic minimalism and soulful machine sounds into propulsive, emotive dance floor joy. The unbridled energy and cosmic elegance of 'Jazz Is The Teacher' might just be the highlight.

Review: Considered by some to be one of the greatest IDM albums of all time (though we'd argue that it's really an electro set), Drexciya's 2002 set 'Harnessed The Storm' has been given the 20th anniversary reissue treatment. Pressed to striking silver vinyl and housed in freshly redesigned packaging, it's certainly an alluring album. It was part of a series of conceptually linked sets the pair recorded in 12 months (most of the others were subsequently released under other aliases after the surprise death of member James Stinson), and it has a typically atmospheric, other-worldly sound - underwater sci-fi electro that twisted standard Motor City tropes into a variety of futuristic directions. Highlights include the fizzing 'Digital Tsunami', the beautiful and widescreen 'Under Sea Disturbances' (a freakishly sub-heavy affair) and the clandestine shimmer of 'Lake Haze'.

Review: The reissue of Surgeon's classic 1999 album Force & Form brings back the unique sound of the Birmingham techno maestro. With every track from Electric Chicken, Movement, to Prowler hearing a thorough remastering job from the one and only Matt Colton, this album is renowned as one of the true inception points of the Birmingham sound: cold metallics, industrial noise, intense rhythms and unrelenting energy. Considered a turning point in the artist's wilfully scalpel-precise career, Force & Form established Surgeon as a true master of techno.

Review: For the latest volume in their essential reissue series, Tresor has decided to offer up a brand new edition of Robert Hood's celebrated 1994 debut album, "Internal Empire". A quarter of a century after Hood first committed it to wax, it remains one of the Motor City maestro's most potent and inspired works. It effectively defined his throbbing, minimalist style, with heavy and hypnotic cuts such as the bleeping "Minus" and deep and wonky "Within" perfectly encapsulating the stripped-back genius of Hood's production. If you've yet to acquire a copy, we'd recommending grabbing one of these: in truth, no techno collection is complete without it.

Review: Since opting to release more music under his given name, DeepChord man Rod Modell has largely stuck to dubbed-out ambience and heady drone soundscapes. His latest full-length is a little different, though, offering up club-focused cuts that mix his usual fuzzy aural textures and dub-fired motifs with up-tempo techno rhythms. By his standards, it's a very forthright set, with highlights including the noise-soaked stomp of "Reiki", the thrusting heaviness of "ITO", the hypnotic slam of "Jade" - where breezy, early morning electronics flutter away above tough drums and a mind-altering bassline - and the boisterous peak-time techno anthem "Scrawler".

Review: Formed as the collaborative project of techno legends Mark Broom & James Ruskin, The Fear Ratio was created as a means for the pair to explore their more experimental urges, away from their usual house and techno, through which both found success in the 1990s. Their new album under that name, 'Slinky', features British rapper King Kashmere, and a one-off vocal cameo from London singer Ella Fleur on the track 'Lacovset'.

Review: DJ Shufflemaster (real name Tatsuya Kanamori) first saw fame with Tresor's release of the 'EXP' album all the way back in 2001, at a time when the Berlin clubbing institution was already aiming to shine a light on techno scenes beyond its own walls. Vastly ahead of its time, the tracks on the album (now once more called to our attention via this reissue) are what we'd have considered ourselves more liable to encounter in the UK in the mid-2010s; tracks like 'Onto The Body' have a broken beat feel to them, and many tracks verge quite readily off the edge of 4x4 kick drum orthodoxy. A compressed and washy techno album drawing on every influence from dub to Brummy sound.

Review: Electro lovers will be foaming at the mouth over this one - it is a super luxe reissue of some seminal UK electro from the late 90s. It channels plenty of Drexcyia vibes with its cinematic sound and sci-fi overtones and sounds as good now as it ever has. All of the tunes on it have been remastered from DAT tapes and included along the way is 'Original Flow' which wasn't on the album before and has never been released. It was only recently unearthed having been written in 2000.

Review: Of all the many Drexciya-related projects, Transllusion is surely one of the finest. Coming in the twilight years of James Stinson's life, there's a bittersweet quality to Opening Of The Cerebral Gate but it doesn't hold the force of the music back. From 'Transmission Of Life's searing arps to the nasty machine funk of 'Negative Flash', this is Stinson running at full clip, speaking that innate Drexciyan language through the machines in a manner which has been oft imitated but never even remotely matched. Reissued by Tresor in 2014 with a bonus 12", now it's presented with a fresh sleeve design which evokes the cyberpunk mood of the music in fine style.

Review: Tresor's extended focus on reissuing old Drexciya and Drexciya-related projects continues here with this version of Shifted Phases' 'The Cosmic Memoirs Of The Late Great Rupert J Rosinthrope'. A short-lived alias of Drexciya's beloved James Stinson, Shifted Phases' only LP here is one of few affiliated projects that has remained out of print ever since its rather low-key release in 2002. Wildly popular despite it, the music heard on the album is undeniable early electro, locking in a characteristically frank, almost meek, yet astro-nautical electro sound. Scratchy crud and sonar feedback beeps extend to the deepest sonic reaches on this one; you better salvage it from the abyssal waters of history (by copping it), and quick.

Review: After a five year album-hiatus, the iconic UK artist is back with his highly-anticipated release, Crash Recoil, which has found its home on the equally iconic Tresor. Drawn from the spontaneous experimentation of Surgeon's live sets, Crash Recoil spans eight MIDI-sequenced, hardware-reconfigured tracks, inflected with the artist's signature penchant for raw and rugged sound. The first track, 'Oak Bank', builds up to a throbbing core - a cacophony of driving percussion and side-stepping melodic layers that shift expertly in and out of focus. 'Second Magnitude Stars' moves with a tidal rhythm, like waves retreating backwards across shingle before crashing forwards once again with force. 'We Laugh & Clap At The Circus' is, texturally speaking, a touch lighter and more spacious, yet still replete with a sense of spiralling chaos. 'Leadership Contes' feels closer to ground-level - earthy yet eerie atmospheres meld with drums that seem located in the subterranean. A masterful album from the techno key-player - well worth the five year wait.

Review: Given the reissue wave of Drexciya-related material has been trucking for more than 10 years now, it's quite remarkable this masterpiece from the late James Stinson has waited so long to be reissued. Originally carried on Tresor in 2002 as one of the final releases he put out in his lifetime, the one-off Shifted Phases project feels loaded with context not least with the album framed as 'Cosmic Memoirs'. This is unmistakably Stinson's work, veering from rubbery machine funk freakery to the melancholic, back room electro mood of The Other People Place, all presented with due care across three discs by the Tresor faithful and including two outstanding tracks which were previously only available on the CD edition.