Back catalogue: Techno (Alles)

Review: Lempuyang's third offering is an outstanding split release between Steve O'Sullivan & Hydergine, label bosses for Mosaic/Bluetrain & Ranges. In 'Binary Riddim' Steve delivers a two-part dub track spanning >13 minutes, seriously heavy in the low end; melancholy strings in the first half, progressing to outright menacing chord stabs in the latter. A versatile track offering something for both warm-up and the dancefloor. Complimenting on the flip are 'Mystic Light' and 'Lunar Eclipse' from Hydergine. Deep, dubby atmospherics meander over a weighty 909 kick on B1. Subtle minimalism a la Terrence Dixon, pitched down on B2. Essential release!

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged, but otherwise in excellent condition***

Scott Hallam has been an acid devotee since the early days, and he's largely put out his music on his own Axia label. While most of that is digital-only, now Cartulis have picked up on the considerable talents of this hardware lifer and presented five of his finest works on wax. The vibe veers tremendously, touching on dark and sinewy dungeon acid, boxy electro workouts, strangely psychedelic hardcore and plenty more besides. Hallam's style feels betrothed to the outboard approach - it's all synths and drum machines to these ears, and its immediacy is a big part of the charm. That, and the playful personality he works into those wigged out acid lines and pinging FX.

Review: Scott Hallam has been an acid devotee since the early days, and he's largely put out his music on his own Axia label. While most of that is digital-only, now Cartulis have picked up on the considerable talents of this hardware lifer and presented five of his finest works on wax. The vibe veers tremendously, touching on dark and sinewy dungeon acid, boxy electro workouts, strangely psychedelic hardcore and plenty more besides. Hallam's style feels betrothed to the outboard approach - it's all synths and drum machines to these ears, and its immediacy is a big part of the charm. That, and the playful personality he works into those wigged out acid lines and pinging FX.

Review: Prolific L.I.E.S. cohort Gunnar Haslam inaugurates the Kavalanic Languages label with some of his sinewy, head-twisting hardware techno machinations, showing us just how to make militant techno as thrilling as possible and leaving ample room for experimental weirdness as well. Opening track "Sostanze" is a taut and wiry beast that will lay waste to mild-mannered crowds, clubs and DJs, while "Atayalic" ramps up the industrial influences for a scary-in-a-good-way romp through evilest techno. "Ururu" is less malevolent but no less kinetically charged, firing off a wealth of pinging percussive synth tones that sound rather modular in nature. Beatless experiment "Ialysas" is no slouch either, pinging out unsettling tones of a discordant nature and creating something quite compelling in the process.

Review: A new label out of Mexico, Short Attention Records launches its second release with a five track offering of proper melodic house & techno from Hector Ram with the word 'quality' stamped large upon them. 'Midnight Sounds' starts things off with the grand rhythmically-building 'Midnight Sounds', almost New Order-esque at times. 'For Our Small Parties' follows, old skool again in flavour, blending subtly employed breaks and a sturdy house framework, then 'Dear Dancefloor', probably the gentlest and most fragile effort here, opens side two. 'On The Road' boasts a more electro feel and Orbital-esque synths, and is deemed worthy of a second airing via a nicely throbbing remix from Detroit's Generation Next closing proceedings.

Review: Let's get a few things clear before we start. This Heinrich Dressel is not the same German archeologist Heinrich Dressel who studied under the great Theodor Mommsen in Berlin during the late-mid 1800s. He is, however, the Rome-born electronic producer who takes a massive lead from the funky, glittering, but subtly chilling horror movie scores of the 1970s and 1980s, crafting highly detailed but lo-fi feeling tracks that are packed with pastiche but never parody.

Promenade is his latest effort, and instantly captures (or creates) the atmosphere this producer is best-known for. At a time when this end of synth wave has experienced a huge resurgence thanks to successive movie soundtracks that took a lead from the aforementioned era, not to mention TV series like Stranger Things, this couldn't be more appropriate, and what makes it so essential is that authenticity in audible - feeling like it belongs, rather than simply riding a bandwagon.

Review: Emergent Italian producer Herva has been responsible for some truly unique music committed to wax in recent times - see last year's album for Delsin as well as his hook up with Massprod on the mighty Kontra-Musik. His run of fine releases continues here with How To Mind Your Own, a six track EP for Dublin's All City operation which doesn't so much as defy easy genre categorisation, it laughs in the face of such futile gestures. Some may call it deep house but really Herva has crafted some mutant brands of the genre where individual tracks contain more ideas and rhythmic deviations than you are likely to hear in whole 12"s from many other artists. Totally crazy and totally refreshing.

Review: Hidden Sequence have appeared on legendary dub techno label Mosaic in fine form of late and now they land on the Lempuyang imprint with four more serene fusions. Their Theories of Time EP opens up with the swaggering dub rhythms and bottomless depths of 'Distortion', a cut as heady as they come. 'Travelling,' as the title suggests, has a deeper rolling groove and more movement to it as it snakes through underwater dub caverns. Flip it over for more widescreen and serene explorations of the ocean floor with 'Shift' and mysterious leads of 'Delay' which is a fourth and final frictionless dub dream.

Review: NX12X is the first in a new series of experimental records from this label and the artists given the keys for the inaugural release are Goldsmiths student and modular synth maestro Sam Hostettler and electronic innovator La Leif who tackle a pair of tracks each. Hostettler's sounds are the moody, heavy ambient atmospheres of 'Pointalims' and the more light and airy li-fi soundscapes of 'Opalescence.' La Leif offers broken beats with a skeletal feel and a burial-style synth aesthetic on 'Kyoto' and then crunchy breaks and fizzing, distorted synth malfunctions of 'Kimochi.'

Review: Dub techno don Steve O'Sullivan's Mosaic label is back with a new dubs series and vol 1 kicks things off with a real doozy on lovely red wax. The boss himself offers up a Bluetrain special edition dub of Hidden Sequence's 'Synapse' which is all icy lines and liquid rhythms which make you think of some frozen lake on a misty morning. Sub Basics (Temple of Sound, Lion Charge Records) opens up with a fresh dub laden track with rippling chords, tons of echo and rolling drums on 'Quarters.' Both are timeless dub outings, as you would expect from this label.

Review: This is a new CD version including bonus tracks of Hi Tech's self-titled album which comes here on Diners Club International but first landed on Omar S's FXHE. It is a full ghetto tech workout with pumped-up booty-bouncing beats that traverse a wide range of tempos. The high energy highlights come thick and fast with the likes of 'Big Prism' riding on juke beats, 'Milf Milo' bringing some lithe synth chords and raw claps and 'I Swear It's A Bop' (feat KAYY & ALLGIRLSALLOWED) featuring broken drum patterns, glistening synth stabs and r&b vocals full of soul.

Review: After its initial release on vinyl on Omar S's FXHE last summer, Diners Club International have put together a new CD version of Hi Tech's Dttwat album featuring some new bonus cuts. It's a stylish blend of Motor City beats, ghetto energy and r&b vocals that all get cut up and chopped and spliced into short, quickfire but potent tunes that make a lasting impact. A wide range of guest vocals come from Cheapskate Skutta, Dastardly Kids, Nlghind and many more so these beats brim with colour and character. With the added bonus cuts this is a must-cop CD direct from the D.

Review: Is there a more vital label in all of underground electronic music than FXHE? It never ceases to amaze us how Omar S manages to put out so much music of such high quality, mostly of his own making, but also from plenty of satellite producers he lures under his wing. This time we're treated to a rare full-length from someone other than the boss as the Motor City's Hi Tech duo step up with a raw ghettotech workout. These are sleazy tracks with raw production, bumping basslines, high-speed rhythms and plenty of rapped vocals packed with juke and footwork attitude.