Back catalogue: Techno (Alles)

Review: Upstairs Asylum is kicking off the year in some style with a couple of killer new EPs. This one is the first in what is presumably a new series to showcase the talents of the Motor City. Mike Clark & Marcus Harris get things underway with 'Hey' which has a subtly uplifting feel thanks to the bright, sustained chords and cuddly drums. Santonio Echols's 'Piano In The Light' (DJ Emanuell Echols mix) is laidback, playful deep house with magical chord work and Brian Kage brings his classy depths to the smooth grooves of 'This Saturday Night.' Ryan Sadorus brings things to a close with the smoky 'Down Below.'

Review: Cyclic and Random combine their creative forces on what is a deeply atmospheric new EP of club-ready techno for Notta. 'I Am Happy, As Am I' gets underway with celestial synths up top and more rugged rhythms down low while the mid-section is defined by sustained drones.'Speak Dirty' sinks it grainy, smoky dub techno territory and if it rolled for days you wouldn't mind such is its depth. 'DddSP' keeps things airy with more optimistic chords floating over another set of grainy dub drums with tons of reverb. A Tm Shuffle dub shuts down with a more upright groove that hints at something playful is to come.

Review: British label Clergy marks a decade in the game with a special 12" featuring a range of artists who have ties to the imprint. Stef Mendesidis comes with the trance tinged overtones of 'Hydra' and its slamming drums and bass blend. Regent's 'Decoder' is a more minimal sound but unfurls high speed with a deep vibe and Hertz Collision/Programma 101's 'Concrete Skin' is all about masterful loops and eerie synths. On the flip, 'Rebecca Delle Piane stands out with the heady minimalism and 90s techno vibes of 'Ten Doses Of Melatonin'.

Review: London label Fourier Transform welcome back Rekab (James Baker) and label debuter Mre for 'Ace High'. 'Armadillos' rolls up its chassis for a serious exercise in minimal weight, reconstituting tuned percussions as it trundles along, while Rekab's 'Always Having Fun' posits an ideal life-mode: a steady, direct current of enjoyment, set to hedonically calculated beats. 'Climbing High' rebates the percussions for a subtle lark's ascent in deep acid, while 'Ace' complementarily descends across cross-rhythmic breaks and harmonies.

Review: Gems, a new label with a nose for unearthing dusty relics of the UK tech-house scene, kicks off with a double shot of pure 90s dynamite. Label boss Paul Still, Croydon luminary and veteran crate-digger, has dusted off these two bangers, ready to reignite dancefloors. First up, Terry Francis unleashes a remix of Radical Chic's 'In Da Shadows' that'll have you reaching for the lasers and sweating buckets. This ain't no polite shuffle - it's a full-on assault of pulsating basslines, swirling synths and big energy. Francis, a master of his craft, layers textures and effects like a sonic sorcerer, conjuring a tapestry of sound that's both intricate and exhilarating. Flip the wax and Space Bunny's 'The Key' unlocks a different kind of chaos. This infectious groove, built on chunky drums and a hypnotic bassline, is pure, unadulterated dancefloor hedonism. But it's the vocal snippets and playful synth stabs that truly elevate it to legendary status. The Wax Trax remix adds a contemporary twist, injecting a fresh dose of energy while retaining the original's undeniable swagger. If you're craving the authentic sounds of early tech-house, Gems is your new dealer. These aren't just reissues; they're sonic time capsules, transporting you back to a time when the dancefloor was a sweaty, euphoric escape from reality.

Review: London underground night train riders Deadbeat Records prioritise techno-breaks handmade for late night and early morning dancefloors, times when both the best and worst comes emerges from each of us. Their inaugural Deadbeat Breaks compilation hears six out of ten full digital curations brought to a shadowy, space-invaded black vinyl truncation, with modern talking synth vomits from Olly Rant, booty bass hups from Hunter Starkings, hackney parroting hurtles from Rnbws, and a closing breakstep broil from Hooverian Blur.

Review: The Spanish producer returns to Kompakt's and its iconic Speicher series with the 134th edition. Delivering two distinct and different tracks highlight the artists versatility in electronic music. Known for his full-length release on the label in 2021, Raxon continues to impress, contributing to the legacy of a series that has defined techno for over 25 years under Wolfgang Voigt's visionary guidance. Side -1 'Acid Call' is a quirky, minimalist delight, its driving, heavy beat underpinning a dynamic bassline that twists and turns with crisp, intricate production. The track's playful, acid-tinged elements keep it engaging without sacrificing its grooveia perfect fit for both peak-time sets and deeper exploration. On Side-2, 'Don't Cry Pluto' ventures into cinematic territory with melodic, analogue textures. Ethereal layers and fairytale-like tones combine with a powerful undercurrent, creating a dynamic contrast between weight and whimsy. Speicher 134 reaffirms Kompakt's status as a techno tastemaker and Raxon's role as an innovative, always engaging artist.

Review: BeAvantGarde Records have been away for a while but now makes an always-welcome return with the underground favourite that is Riccardo. He does his usual do of serving up four tracks of spaced-out invention. 'In Space' opens up with nice warped bass and insistent synth stabs with jacked-up drums and perc. 'Frequency' then has a more bright and cosmic sense of mood as the drums slow down and lull you into their hypnotic patterns. There is plenty of snap and crispy bass to 'Timeout' with its searching lead synths and gritty baseline while last of all is 'Kalapas' which cuts are loose and has ragged rhythms and textures for a more arresting vibe.

Review: Rick 8 is the techno alias of Italy's Riccardo Falsini, and here he revives the pioneering spirit of his iconic Interactive Test label with this early gem, which offers an essential slice of trance, techno and progressive house history. Known for reshaping genre boundaries, the label was a beacon of innovation, as this EP shows. Each track is a potent club tool, designed for transcendental dancefloor moments and sonic ascension from the chunky tribalism of 'Hypernotes Velocity' to the standout remix of 'C'Mon' by Sound Metaphors affiliate Trent, who injects progressive firepower. 'Born To Sinthetize' is a deeper, spiritual sound with flashy synth work married to loose drum loops.

Review: Ukraine has been a hotbed of house and techno innovation going back a good few years now. Nechto is a label that has more than played its part in that and now kicks on with a new EP as it hurtles towards 30 releases in all. RMK is behind this one and opens up with some impassioned vocal cries over sleek linear beats. 'Vessel' is a tightly woven deep techno tapestry with soulful synth warmth lighting things up. There is no let up on 'Factory Streets' with its driving drums and pulling synths adding meat to the bones and last of all is 'Keys', another triumphant example of how both form and function can happily co-exist in the techno world.

Review: Pumping new Syncrophone remixes from producer Rolando, who helps the label celebrate its 60th outing with a fresh crock of remixes of star releases from its back catalogue. Including versions of Derrick Thompson, Zadig and Malvito, this collection brings a powerful Detroit-inspired sound to a cutting-edge modern feel, not getting too bogged down in tradition and yet keeping quite true to the raw and unvarnished finish incipient of the early motorised sound. Best here has to be the B2, which heads in a broken direction, splitting rhythmic hairs with auto-somatic woodblock strikes and deep pads.

Review: Ron & Roland was a mid-90s collaboration between Matt Hodgson (7th Voyage) and Laurant Webb (Housey Doingz) and at their peak they made some untouchable records that perfectly straddled the house and techno divide. This new reissue on Pariter is one of them and it features a trio of cuts laced with visceral acid energy. 'Nassaur Bassed Party' kicks off with crispy drums and snares that cut through the rich bass. 'Acidless Party' gets wilder with extra 303 energy and 'Track Ball Treck' balances dynamic drive with sonic detail for a dubby, elastic groove that was initially recorded at Swag Studios Croydon in 1996 and, with these other cuts, was initially released on Surreal. It's been a cult favourite ever since and still sounds magnificent.

Review: Four new motoric Hardgrooves from the eponymous label, riffing off the back of a mountain of DJ support in recent months to bring three of the best formerly digital-only tracks to grace the label's catalogue, plus a brand new, previously unreleased cut from Ben Sims and Mark Broom under their infamous Roku guise. Sims and Broom whack up the velocity thruster to eleven on the As 1 and 2 respectively, with 'Snapshot '99' and 'WWWWWWWWork' providing little opportunity for exhalation or ease. The odometer hand is well and truly straining, nigh broken by the time we reach Mark Williams' 'Next 21s', with its hypey falsetto rave shouts, while the diminutive duo Roku round things off on a salacious acid smoke bomb, 'Acid Amnesia'.

Review: The sixth album from Radioactive Man aka former Weatherall collaborator Keith Tenniswood, written amid a whirlwind of international touring,. 'Under The Counter' sets the tone with its soft, gleaming textures and deep bass. From there, the album dives into a vibrant mix of styles, from the slap bass funk of 'See Above' to the dense techno of 'Colourful Language'. But there's more than bangers. 'Sinkhole', for example, a collaboration with Suade Bergemann featuring vocals from Ali Love and Chloe Raunet, provides a poignant counterpoint with its melancholic melody. This triple 12" package, released on Tenniswood's own label, is a journey through UK rave, breakbeat and Detroit techno, all filtered through the lens of a master electro craftsman.

Review: The Dalmata Daniel label welcomes Rapha for Midnight Dancer, a bold new album of journey electro and electronics. 'U Win I Win' gets things underway with glistening and innocent melodies over steely analogue drums. The CT Kidobo remix) makes it more raw and elsewhere the artist plays with slower tempos for chugging cuts like 'Midnight Dancer' that still shine with bright, pixel-thin pads. Add in gems like 'Lost Star' and 'Galactico' and you have a tastefully intergalactic trip from which you won't want to return.

Review: Rivet's newest album for Editions Mego blends optimism and negation, emerging sanguinely from a period of personal tragedy and disillusionment undergone by the artist. Mika Hallback, a key figure in the Swedish underground, first gained attention with industrial techno as Grovskopa before shifting to experimental work, including On Feather and Wire (2020). After the loss of fellow musician Peter Rehberg and his dog Lilo, Hallback created the somber L+P-2 (2023), and now Peck Glamour marks his return, coming reinfused with hope and exploration. Drawing on punk, industrial, techno, and trauma, the album combines synthetic and organic elements, with 'Orbiting Empty Cocoon', with its tugging, metal ballistic sound-rooms sounding like an Au-technic, cybernetic ritual, a dance anthem 'Patitur Butcher' and 'We Left Before We Came' concluding on comparatively layered zoonotic notes; posthuman synthesis backed by birdsong.