New releases last eight weeks: Techno (Alles)

Review: As the artist alias kind of suggests, Abyssy takes a deep dive into the unknown depths of the human spirit. It finds the artist returning to Simona Faraone's label after several years and finds him exploring electronic sounds of the 70s and 80s, blending Berlin school minimalism with Detroit techno's soul and funk. It is a record that ranges in mood and tempo as it heads into oceanic depths where wispy pads and chattery percussive patterns collide in unusual ways. It's a largely abstract album of unusual sound designs and genuine electronic discovery that often has you wondering just how certain abounds have been made.

Review: Domenic Cappello is a long time legend of the scene who has been in the form of his life of late. As such he finally drops a much anticipated and long awaited debut album 'Basement Philosophy on Alien Communications that comes 20 years after he started making beats. Cappello's sound permeates the whole record as it traverses diverse sonic landscapes with captivating potency. Opening with 'Mushroom Waltz', dreamy pads and lively chords set the tone, leading into the soulful depths of 'Midnight with T'. 'Early Flight' builds cerebral atmospheres with characteristic snapping drums. 'Acid Rain' evokes nostalgia, while '3am Jamaica Street' pulsates with peak-time energy. 'Moon Jump' offers languid melodies reminiscent of classic Underground Resistance and electro-inspired 'Burning Past' and 'Not for Instagram DJs' conclude ta high class record in style.

Review: Container is a long-running project from Ren Schofield but he has hasn't released anything since back in 2021 when he delighted techno heads with his Creamer EP. His manic sound has recently taken him to some sold out shows around the world and now comes Tacker, a new album that fuses rock with electronic stylings on Alter. Nirvana's 'Oh, The Guilt', Mindflayer's album 'It's Always 1999', and the Rah Bras song 'Sooop Toe Pump Girls' have all been given as points of inspiration for this most brain-fizzing, hardcore collision of worlds.

Review: Dark Entries welcome back the inimitable Doc Sleep aka Melissa Maristuen for a superb new album of ghostly and ethereal house and techno. This is a welcome follow-up to last year's ambient and IDM exploration, Birds, and shows another side that draws on Maristuen's years of queer clubbing. It fuses aspects of New York house, Berlin techno and West-coast breakbeats and is "a love letter to the West Coast's magnificent natural landscape, the light of the Pacific sunrise." That is reflected in the sublime synths and silky rhythms which manage to both move your body but also captivate your mind. It's another cracking album from the Doc.

Review: Detroit house hero Kyle Hall returns with his biggest project in some time in the form of Transmissions, a new double album on his own well-regarded Forget The Clock. All six tracks have enigmatic, functional titles and the music is as idiosyncratic as ever. Each one veers more towards techno than is Hall's usual style, with pulsating synth lines and tight, dusty drum tracks making for stripped-to-the-bones grooves. Later on, things grow ever more abstract with twisted acid lines screwing their way through the increasingly ragged and roughshod drums. These are perfectly imperfect jams from a master of the form.

Review: Seven years after his last album, UK techno mainstay Perc is back with another thrilling full length that brings together the past, present and future of his sound. Hard techno is very much in right now but Perc has always dealt in a tough take on the genre that is at odds with the usual tropes and he showcases that again here with plenty of high-energy tracks and a healthy dose of his signature industrial texture. In between percussive workouts, there are some flashy acid lines and all manner of deeply penetrating drones. A great return for this vital artist.

Review: The much loved llian crew reverts to its Skee Series here and serves up more magic from Skee Mask aka Munich mainstay Bryan Muller. He has roasted pretty exclusively here and never fails to innovate with each new drop. This one again hits the mark across seven elastic techno cuts that are underpinned by lovely dub weight and propelled by tight, pinging kicks. 'Dachtekker' is lit up with hi-tek soul synths straight from Detroit, 'Double Standard' is deliciously deep and driving with swirling pads smeared around up top and 'Small Stone S700' manages to pair soul-drenched chords full of subtle joy with kinetic drum programming that makes you want to move. Superb.

Review: Mad-heads, rave veterans and lovers of having their brains rewired by previously unexplored sonic realms unite, because here comes the first of four, yes four, new albums from the fantastic freak of nature that is Special Request. His 'What Time Is Love? Sessions' arrives in several different formats this month and across six sizzling tracks that re-wire the KLF's hit of that name, he taps into everything from "ephemeral ambiance to barnstorming hardcore, pummelling house to pointillist trance" and does so with a mix of the surreal and the psychotic, the psychedelic and the downright ridiculous. It's mental, and we love it.

Review: As you know if you have followed the work of Special Request aka Paul Woolford, it often comes in huge bursts and across several releases at once. So it is that this year the one-man production machine is to drop not one but a four-album run over the next 12 months, all independently. Quite what he runs on we do not know but we need some because once again on this limited clear vinyl version of his 'What Time Is Love? Sessions' he taps into the future as he rewires the musical DNA of rave, techno, bass and jungle into tracks that make your brain fizz and your body move. Unreal work once more from this unstoppable force.

Review: Statiqbloom's new album Kain epitomises the essence of industrial music as it transcends mere sound and embodies a more broad worldview. With a fusion of innovative, dystopian sounds, pulsating basslines, and mid-tempo rhythmic beats, the album offers a meticulously crafted industrial techno journey that never lets up. It goes beyond conventional boundaries to embrace forward-thinking elements to create an arresting and immersive experience that encapsulates an outlook on the world, inviting you into a realm where darkness and innovation converge. With its evocative soundscapes, this album stands as a testament to Statiqbloom's commitment to pushing the boundaries of industrial.

Review: STL is a master of making knackered sound drum loops and lo-fi sounds then chucking them all into a blender and serving them up for deployment in backrooms around Europe's most heady clubs. He has been at it again it seems and now has a whole bunch of brilliantly dishevelled cuts for us on this new album U Know The Score on Something. It is packed with twitchy, urgent rhythms punctuated with occult sounds, smudgy melodies and shards of melody that all sound like they could collapse at any moment, but until they do, you will be locked in for the ride. Some are dark, some are light, all of them are brilliantly beguiling.

Review: After making more than a good impression with his releases on the likes of Jeff Mills's Axis imprint and Oscar Mulero's Warm Up, Mike Storm now steps it up a gear with his debut full-length. The Dutch native's The Pale Blue Dot again draws on his love of conceptual sci-fi and was reportedly all written live in one take, with no recall, which is a unique approach in this day and age. that lends each track a realness and toughness that makes them stand out even more as the pummelling drums drive on towards some unknown cosmic future and the synths are so tightly interwoven that they melt your mind as you try and keep up.

Review: Global Underground is one of the longest-running DJ mix series and it has always been one of the best. Plenty of big-names over the years have made their mark, often more than once, and now it is the turn of the famously long-playing New York titan Danny Tenaglia to show us what he's made of. He brings his signature grooves and a hint of Latin flavour to proceedings on this, a third and final installment of his trilogy for the series. It is mostly contemporary names serving up new school sounds but all delivered with Danny's cultured and old school DJ mentality.

Review: When you look back at the first PlayStation several landmark releases spring to mind - Resident Evil, Tekken 2, Crash Bandicoot - the list could go on much longer and should definitely include Wipeout and Wipeout 2097. Both were renowned for combining high pace, futuristic visuals with contemporary electronic club music from some of the biggest producers and acts at the time. Less remembered, in Europe at least, is the Ape Escape series, an intense party-platform title which arguably has the greatest dance music game score of all time. Comprising six tracks from that saga, this compilation of Soichi Terada's soundtracks emphasises that bold point. Opening on the crisp, punchy techno drive of 'Specters Factory', we find ourselves in suitably spooky jungle ('Haunted House'), rumbling dnb ('Spectors Castle') and roughneck hardcore bass ('Coasters'), among other made up genres. A collection which resembles Terada's amazing 1996 album, Sumo Jungle and makes a case for the Japanese enigma as one of dance music's most underrated geniuses.

Review: The Milano Undiscovered series has been expertly overseen by Fred Ventura and now clocks up a third installment. It again delves into Milan's dynamic techno and house scene between the years of 1988 and 1992. Unveiling a trove of unreleased demos, it highlights the city's burgeoning underground culture during this period. Influenced by the pioneering sounds of Chicago, Detroit, London, and Sheffield, Milanese producers embarked on a creative journey, crafting their own distinct interpretations of electronic dance music. These demos offer a glimpse into the innovative spirit and diverse sonic landscape that defined Milan's contribution to the global dance music scene during this transformative era.

Review: Italian artist Younger Than Me makes a great impression with is debut album, The Golden Age Of Love, on 90's Wax. Collaborations with Massimiliano Pagliara, Brame & Hamo, and Pablo Bozzi enrich the diverse array of sounds he explore after making a name for himself with a modern take on 90s club music that blends prog, trance, EBM, breakbeat and techno with nostalgic elements from rave culture's many idiosyncrasies. It is infused with contemporary electronic elements so tracks like 'Zarathustra Dance' and 'Eternal Sunshine Of Solitary Mind' showcase a dynamic sound, while 'Music Will Never Stop, Heartbeat Will Never Fade, Party Will Never End' encapsulates the eternal essence of the thing we call rave.

Review: An incredible roster is drafted for this very rare rethink and revisitation of work by the mighty Dutch oddities ZEA, a band most probably won't be too familiar with, and, as a quick Google will tell you, are definitely not ZE:A, a South Korean boy band who make decidedly more chart friendly (in South East Asia at least) forms of music. Instead, these Netherlanders are known for their Kraut, kosmische, post punk, DIY electro stylings, and those building blocks make for some excellent reworking courtesy of a cast from various sites of steeped musical heritage. Andy Moor (The Ex, Amsterdam), Desmond Denker, Phanton, and Begritty (Cologne), Yurke (Dusseldorf), Istari Lasterfahrer (Hamburg), Dubby King Knarf (Knarf Rellom, Hamburg) all offer their own takes on that which was already difficult to describe, making for a strange and beguiling collection which is impossible to say no to.