New releases this week: Techno (Alles)

Review: Moving Pressure makes its inaugural bow here with a first 12" from Rene Wise. Wise by name, wise by nature it seems, cause this is some seriously fresh techno that looks outside the usual reference points. 'Escaping Siro' is busy, energetic, persuasive in its layering of quickened drums, twisted synths and cosmic atmospheres while 'Caging Green' is stripped back but not minimal - paddy drums and floating synths surge onwards as future tribal percussion peppers the beats. 'Dry Beetle' brings dome depth and dub, with warped synths panning about the mix and the linear beats soon sweeping you up. 'Lonely Singing' shuts down with more deep space eeriness.

Review: Nowhere does techno as proper as Planet Rhythm. This latest 12" is another no-frills banger with rusty synth and menacing drum loops all perfectly intertwined. There is a hurried sense of funk to 'Formation' that really keeps you on edge, while 'Basel' is turbocharged with video-game style synths. 'Romance' gets more edgy and brings some industrial percussion and automation to the beats while 'Here' slips into thumping and loopy house territory of the sort that reminds us of the one and only Floorplan.

Review: Greyscale unveils its latest endeavour, the Spectrum Series, as a way to continue to evolve its offerings and this time it is with something that makes a vibrant departure from its traditional black-and-white aesthetic. The inaugural release features the iconic Lithuanian dub track 'Kasdienybes Sventykla' by grad_u & Eazystyle MC as a way of commemorating its 15th anniversary. It came as a double CD in 2011 but now gets a first vinyl pressing on a nice 10" slab of wax. The track itself taps into the earliest roots of dub in the 70s and traces a line through the 80s with its heavyweight drums and endlessly echoing bass topped by great mic work. A pared-back instrumental features on the flip of this latest crucial drop from the dub dons at Greyscale

Review: This is techno, but not as we know it from the Vigenere. Sparagamos (a fitting name given the word originally means to render, tear apart, or mangle) is behind these freaky beats but we nothing more about the artist. Suffice it to say they sure do have a fine grip of their studio and can manipulate sound in some thrilling ways. The opener is a warp-speed warehouse banger with distorted bass and manic energy, track two explores sludgy acid techno underworlds and track there is a twitchy cosmic workout with serene pads. 'Track 4' is a world of dystopian robotics while the flip side offers tripped-out, double-time dub techno, more acid intensity and experimental mind melters with exceptional sound design.

Review: The always-quality Lempuyang is back with a scorching pink vinyl that packs a deliciously deep dub techno punch. It is a collaboration between Hidden Sequence and Milly James that opens with the super smooth and aquatic 'Legends' which rolls along the ocean floor with sparse chords and alluring vocals drifting way up above the surface. The 'dub' strips them away and allows things to move even an even more heady manner while 'All I Need' has a little more drift but no less depth to it and a Paul Simmons Off Curve Re Rub brings upright drum kicks and a little extra skip in the beats to close out a heady EP.