Techno (Alles) charts

Review: Golden Pudel's number one DJ-turned-producer, Helena Hauff, returns to Actress's Werkdiscs with her debut LP, marking a fine start to the September release downpour! Compared to her last effort for the label and her banger of an EP on Lux, Discreet Desires spans across much vaster landscapes, and while we knew that she was heavily into Detroit electro, the album is heavily focused on fast, broken beats brimming with synths. "Spur" and "Funereal Morality", for example, are a pair of Drexcyian bombshells, while "Piece Of Pleasure" clearly takes inspiration from Kraftwerk and the resulting synth pop wave. Instead, "Silver Sands & Boxes Of Mould" showcases her more experimental side thanks to its cinematic soundscapes and sparse beats, along with the beatless sway of "Dreams In Color". A fine debut LP that cements Hauff's position at the vanguard of current electronics.

Review: The creative partnership between Tiga & Hudson Mohawke expresses a mutual love of "hardcore romance," a liminal state where the bounds between euphoria, melancholy and the raw power of friendship disintegrate completely. Recorded in Los Angeles from 2019-2023, these commonalities ebbed and flowed through various recording sessions, culminating in their debut album - L'Ecstacy - the sounds in which "all come from the same place, the same musical universe," in Hudson Mohawke's own words. Referencing the album's locus of bouncy elasticity and cinematic gloss - "we're building a particular kind of zone where it all fits together. A place lost in time." With guest appearances by luminaries like Abra, Channel Tres, and Jesse Boykins III, as well as album artwork by Wolfgang Tillmans, the result is delivered with "no apology, no cynicism, no irony, no winking."

Review: 'The Cosmic Memoirs Of The Late Great Rupert J Rosinthrope' is an obscure rarity by a short-lived alias of Drexciya member James Stinson, Shifted Phases, which is now getting the full, refocused reissue treatment by German clubbing giant Tresor. Having remained out of print since its initially tiny release for over two decades, this bubbly yet grim electro album reflects an epistolary concept expressed musically rather than in written form. Rupert J. Rosinthrope is a mysterious character, but these cosmic memoirs hopefully shed at least some light on "his" misunderstood memory.

Review: Russian Ilya Bitekhtin, also known as Illocanblo, has already impressed with previous outings but now steps up his game with new album, Liminal Rhythms. He is a party promoter behind Saint-Petersburg's IDM Nights who also runs the Nenormalizm netlabel as well as producing so really knows what it takes to get the floor going and draws on that here. The record has six tracks of signature electro and seventeen remixes from artists all around the world. 'Nebulonix' kicks off with freewheeling synth lines and cosmic colours, 'Solitude' is a restless and richly layered track of percolating electro-funk and 'Ethereal' is a celestial party starter. The likes of Ambidextrous, Bistro Boy, Cyance and Energy N-13 then step up with the remixes to make this a global release.

Review: Helena Hauff is surely one of the most important envelope pushers in the modern electro scene, able to lay waste to parties big and small with her razor-sharp fusion of early EBM and industrial, slamming, deeply-dug machine funk and thunderous techno. Cutting hard and fast to keep the energy up and our minds fried, her invitation to the Fabric presents series is just another confirmation of the stature she commands. If you're down with Hauff's style you'll get exactly what you crave here - all-time classics from the likes of Clarence G and Radioactive Man alongside up to the minute bomb drops from IMOGEN, Nite Fleit and so many more besides.