New releases last four weeks: Techno (Alles)

Review: This blistering four-track compilation from a Greek techno label Analogue delivers a no-frills, high-impact set of weapons designed for dark rooms and peak-time chaos. Hector Oaks opens with 'Formal Basica', a tribal bruiser built on relentless percussion and searing momentum, offering pure machine funk with a primal edge. Obscure Shape follows with "'My Muse Is On Vacation'. a grinding, loopy hard techno cut that broods and boils with menace, pushing the tension without ever losing focus. Flip to Side-B and Jerm's 'Forcing Function' plunges into industrial terrain, all metallic clangs and weighty kickdrums, evoking a brutalist rave landscape that never lets up. The closer is Endlec's 'Total Control' which is a deep, shape-shifting techno track that thrives on constant evolution. Layers rise and fall with precision, threading hypnotic sequences into a commanding whole. Each cut stands strong alone, but together they form a formidable combination of well produced techno tracks that can do damage.

Review: SEXYRECS is back for round two with a selection of technoists all charged with firing up the floor. VNTM's 'May I' opens with booming kicks and unsettling tension. Jerm's 'Scar Tissue' is more in your face with ragged rhythms and lurking low ends that flow through the mix. Obscure Shape taps into his signature scintillating loop sound which is designed to suspend you just above the ground on 'What Connects Us?'. Last of all, Valentina Miceli ups the intensity with 'Fact One', which marries the urgency of early Jeff Mills with the low-end throb of Skudge. Four well-tooled weapons.