Spammerheads: This is definitely our most personal work to date. During the previous works we experimented to find our sound and in this work we have found it. It is a raw sound, which seeks to reproduce the sounds of the factories in the suburbs, among which we lived when we were children. The sound of the Great Machine of Industry at full capacity. The album conveys that strange energy of today’s big cities, shrouded in smog, pollution and decay.
The machines maniacs Bologna based duo FLML returns to Alley Version with “Wired Cruel Run”, a totally DIY 6-tracker EP of technoid experiments, drony patterns, wachy funks, inspired by the obscure side of Chicago jack-beats, early Industrial music, J.G. Ballard’s novels, low-budget VHS era horror movies.
All tracks are recorded analogically live on reel to reel.
Beau (Wanzer), Jason (Letkiewicz) and Misha (Khokhlov) are Frantic Excess and they’re here to sour up your night. Very good for any mutant hideout or humid dungeon.
Gated’s second compilation takes inspiration from the path less travelled, the earthen underbelly that binds disparate threads to its wonky centre. So while the music here is from artists all over the world, each track is grounded in a quirky, off-kilter sound, from the opener by UK hardware house don Perseus Traxx to the closer by Space Agent, the alias of a yet-to-be unveiled techno artist. In between we get Gated stalwarts Guavid, Lucita Octans, Acidulant, and Lloyd Stellar with their takes on the wonk, plus glassy-eyed electro from Austin, USA-based Terrestrial Access Network, unusually banging fare from man of the moment MOY, and broken techno from the criminally under-appreciated Stacie-Anne Churchman. There’s also the reissued and remastered sub-bass squelcher Beta Carotene by Modified Starch, which was originally released in 1998 on UK breaks label Slalom.
The acidic electro master Sound Synthesis is back on Furthur Electronix with a brand new album.
Tresor Records announce forthcoming special editions of its entire catalogue of Drexciya and related projects. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of James Stinson and the releases of the Transllusion and Shifted Phases albums. In recognition, the rightsholders, their families, and the label have commissioned Detroit-based contemporary artist Matthew Angelo Harrison to re-conceptualize the covers of Tresor’s Drexciya-related catalogue. The series starts with Neptune’s Lair, first released in 1999.
The Blackploid resurgence of recent years continues to gather steam. After laying dormant for some time, Martin Matiske’s project roared back into life in 2021 with a pair of EPs for Central Processing Unit. It doesn’t look like he’ll be taking his foot off the gas any time soon – not only does the new Blackploid collection “Planetary Science” complete Matiske’s hat-trick for the Sheffield label, but it also serves as a prelude to the full-length album which Blackploid will deliver on CPU in 2023.
Active for over 25 years as a music journalist, writer and author of books, Giosuè Impellizzeri was, for a period, also a composer. Through several records recorded since 2002 as DJ Gio MC-505, he has developed a sound obtained on the crossroads between chiptune, electro and synthetic disco with a few glimpses of funk, techno, house and EBM. Now completely dedicated to journalism, Impellizzeri has stopped creating music for over a decade. In the drawer, however, he still had unpublished tracks, written and produced in the past, and five of them now end up in this EP entitled “Saved From Oblivion”: from the cinematic “Il Bacio” to the legoweltian “Jupiter Lander”, from the biting “Picnic On Pluton” “to” Sexy Song “that plays with 80s synth pop up to cybernetics” The Eyes Of Memory “in which you can see trails of SID style. Made between 2005 and 2006 and recorded live in a combination of hardware and software instruments, the tracks of the EP are subject to an adequate and effective mastering.
Following on from Tu Sei Pazza, Daniel Monaco returns to the Bordello with the bitter taste of the TB303 on his tongue. Acid Maria smoulders with the intensity of a Belgian new beat banger circa 1989. Smoky words whisper over rusted rhythms before the fog and strobe take hold. Cold strings haunt with snaking coils of 303 squawk growing ever bolder in this intense track. The flip is divided into two very different remixes. First up is Curses who approaches the piece in his own unique way. The fanfare and frigid lines of the original are expanded. Strings come care of guitars as a bright synth wave reimaging unfolds, a reimaging with one of the most daring breaks you are likely to ever hear. Younger Than Me close. This interpretation adds a fevered tone to the original. BPMs rise and pitches are pushed while chilly notes soon balloon into a frenzy to bring a full floor energy. Three tracks born to bring brimming basements into the beyond.
Something very special here with Slow Motion’s 48th release. Recorded while experimenting with gear at CIMM studios (Venice Biennale’s centre for computer music which Bottin co-designed in 2019), EYE-BM is a joint release between two of our heaviest hitters: hairy Fabrizio Mammarella and baldie Bottin. EYE-BM is three tracks of sinister music, sweaty electro with tinges of cyberpunky EBM and New Beat. The icing on the cake is the euphoric remix from Italian synth wave pioneer Alexander Robotnick. The acidic and jacking flavour might as well be the sound of your mind and body losing it on the dancefloor or missing your stop on the ass-bahn.
If you like your Italo-disco bright, full-throttle and peak-time ready, Thomas Blanckaert’s occasional work as Palermo Disco Squad (he’s better known for his rave-ready techno jams as Innershades) should be on your radar. It’s been four years since he last used the alias, but the project’s belated return to Bordello a Parigi is predictably triumphant. He sets his stall out with the freestyle and Bobby Orlando-influenced shimmer of ‘After All These Tears’, before opting for more chugging sequenced synth-bass and undulating lead lines on the slower ‘L’amice Geniale (theme)’. ‘Loupara’ sounds like a shinier, more sun-splashed ‘Please’-era Pet Shop Boys instrumental, while ‘The Return’ is a rushing, feel-good slab of freestyle/post-Italo fusion that’s as sunny and joyous as they come.
Originally released in 1990 ‘Voaria’ was written by Benjamin Nhassavele and produced & arranged by the late Tata Sibeko, the revered South African producer and member of Kabasa. Taken from the LP of the same name ‘Voaria’ was released at a time when early house music was emerging as a key influence in the South African musical landscape, an evolvement of the Bubblegum pop sound that had fused disco and boogie with township funk. Characterised by Roland kick drums, Yamaha DX7s and Juno Synthesisers the Kwaito sound is the musical heartbeat of ‘Voaria’. Featuring Benjamin on lead vocals ‘Voaria’ comes in 2 versions, a main House mix on the A side and the Clubhouse mix on the flip which switches up the arrangement placing more emphasis on the groove.
The sixth release on Italian imprint Tempo Dischi comes from Alessandro Bernabeo, aka Raduan, the Italian DJ and producer behind ‘Taki-Naki-Naki’, one of the most eclectic and unconventional electronic records made in Italy in the late 1980s.
Belgrade’s Tapan debut on Offen with an EP that has been a long time in the making but finally arrives in grand fashion. It is an exotic and intoxicating take on Balearic music with ‘Missing’ defined by snaking and hypnotic synths and tumbling drums. There is brilliantly loose drum programming and tons of echoing hits on ‘Samo Prolaznost’ that make it impossible not to shake your limbs to and ‘Rain Dance’ is a ten-minute slow-motion workout. ‘Novi Svet’ closes with more crashing drums and intense dance floor feels.
Skudge may no longer be a duo – Elias Landberg has been using the alias for his solo productions for a few years now – but the long-serving act’s sound remains as inspired, club-ready and far-sighted as ever. That much is proved by Soundworks, the first Skudge album in two years. Rooted in machine soul, it boasts tracks that variously doff a cap to Motor City futurism, the organ-tinged throb of Rob and Lyric Hood’s 21st century Floorplan productions, the sparse and dubby vibes of vintage UK bleep techno, late ’90s tech-house, and the woozy, life-affirming lusciousness of deep techno. In other words, it’s full of “proper techno” produced by a true master of his craft.
Across professions, consistency is a direct product of work ethic. In the case of Judas consistency is key, “H O Σ T I L E ” is a great representation of the maturity of vision during these years, all the four cuts are crafted with the same language that the artist matured, but with a twist that defines his future and our future of modern techno music.
Joey Beltram 1991 timeless classic is back on vinyl, originally released on Nu Groove. This reissue from brand new imprint Orange Wedge hears the original in fully-remastered glory, charting the proto-bleep tones of a trio of quizzical ‘Quad’ tunes. These B-side tracks are very nicely intro’ed by ‘C.O.D.E.S.’, a trance track which seems to revel quite well in the wonder of cyberspace, lilting between two chords in permanent alternation.
Swedish born, London based producer Hans Berg provides the title track ‘A Floor of Stars’ for a brand new white label from Klasse Wrecks. Starry-eyed rave nostalgia for the 2020s, produced and presented without a cheapshot gimmick in sight. Luca Lozano provides a interpretation on the flip, increasing the breakbeat pressure slightly and taking a left turn into the hoover-vortex continuum. Its a space race journey of sorts, with the producer adorning the track with more rave decoration and climactic pianos flourishes.
Childhood returns with a 4 tracker 12” by Mr. G. This record continues to elaborate on the rather obscure path that G already explored with last years album The Forced Force is not the True Force, yet focuses a bit more on the magic of the dance floor. Ranging from hypnotic patterns over house grooves to fast forward techno funk: this record clearly shows again that Mr. G always manages to keep his distinct signature sound we all love him for, even while advancing into unknown territory. Another magical ride, delivered by yours truly, the Childhood team.
The Hipodrome Of Music 