The debut release of Nijmegen’s underground techno collective ESHU on their own imprint ESHU Records. ‘Lunar Farside’ is a slow tension building space journey with off beat rhythms and some detailed sounddesign. Next up is the Lunar Farside remix. Dimi Angelis and Jeroen Search takes the original and makes it more suitable for the clubs, with a heavy throbbing bassline and some deep percussion. On the flipside we have ‘Definitely Lunar’, a 10 minute trip to the dark side of the moon.
Two deep house tracks from Latecomer on this new Motor City Drum Ensemble release. Latecomer, a former group with its roots in Moldova, formed by Eugen Kara, Cristofor Aldea-Teodorovici and with interventions from Octavian Cotet. A culmination of simple yet banging soundscapes, traditional approaches and composition linked together with modern rhythms and beats – a soulful tiny particule of the expansive musical universe.
Cottam’s debut on the Aus imprint, with Deep Deep Down continuing the lineage of thick set mid tempo acid explorations. Sprawling luxuriously across the length of the A Side, the title track builds effortlessly from the spacious grooves and alien chug of the opening moments into a sumptuous array of floating sax, twisting acid lines and forever floating pads. Step forward Vakula completely realigning the feel of the track despite retaining some core elements. Cottam completes this excellent 12″ with the quite aptly named “Twang”, a seven minute boogie burner.
Kazuki Yamaguchi aka Kez YM brings 4 excellent Detroit House beat-down tracks on Faces Records.
Elektro Guzzi deliver one of the most thrilling live performance models for techno and an innovative leap in the art of band performance at the very same time. Parquet, their second studio album sees them in an unprecedented monomaniacal techno mode. Throughout the 9 tracks the distinctions between instruments and roles are totally vaporized. While their instrumental approach is at the core of their aesthetics, it really doesn’t matter anymore if one sound comes from a guitar or bass or drum – it has all been merged into one sonic unit and all there is, is the music as a unified entity. While all the qualities of live performance are at hand – real time interaction, visual plausibility, instant miniscule adaptations – it is a radical break with what group performances have been about so far. The rhythms are stripped down to the core and structured for affecting longer stretches of perception. Every track comes with a distinctive, almost “branding” feature – like the hypnotic meter-shifting line of Affumicato, the gated chords of Pentagonia or the abridged rhythm of Absorber.
The sixth release in the Field’s various artist series showcases four peerless Dutch producers – Delta Funktionen, ROD, Mark Du Mosch and Roberto Auser. Delta Funktionen turns in a dry, concrete techno track, ROD a more frantic and amped up number whilst Mark Du Mosch goes for some heavy bass swing with his clipped and heavy house effort. Auser closes out a nicely rounded EP with some glistening ambient synth sounds that swirl around in your head like a calming breeze.
For Steadfast’s thirteenth release we have 2 smoking tracks of deep chunky techno from a collaborative project featuring John Daly and the mystery man known as 19.454.18.5.25.5.18.
The first release on this new imprint, Hush, is coming from DVS1. Smooth minimalist techno tracks rooted in the best detroit traditions of minimal techno!
Deeply Rooted House presents a new release by Bleak, featuring three techo cuts with a unique mixture of deep hypnotic and repetitive grooves.
All three excellent Fachwerk bosses step up here with a beautiful red vinyl release of their latest EP entitled, erm, Fachwerk on their own label. Roman Lindau goes first with some scraping, cavernous and loopy sounds before teaming up with Mike Dehnert for a beautifully bouncy acid number. Mike appears on his own for track three, a stomping peak time banger before Sascha Rydell gets some great height into his fat assed percussive groove, ‘It Happened’.
New release from Modularz by Developer with a solid remix from Truncate aka Audio Injection and two more cuts on the flip from Developer.
New release from the Trust orbit: SCRAM01 combines cold futurism with a pulp sci-fi mood, cool Berlin dub techno flavours with melodramatic Detroit strings. Side A is a pounding acid trance epic by Vienna’s Patrick Pulsinger, side B has the slightly more melodic original plus bonus beats.
‘Light Box’ is the first artist album to bear fruit from the recent studio partnership of James Ruskin and Mark Broom – aka The Fear Ratio. As The Fear Ratio, Broom and Ruskin delve into the hinterland of contemporary music. A space where cold atmospheres meet lush melody and tough, yet clipped pulsating beats. From the warm polyrhythmic funk of ‘Ax’ to the deep spatial reverb of ‘Guv 1’, the dub induced strains of ‘Pinhead’ and melancholic refrain of ‘Morning Blues’ Ruskin and Broom deliver their new artistic agenda.
Kondens is collaboration between Swedish electronic music veterans Andreas Tilliander aka Mokira and Stefan Thor aka Folie. The sound is a hybrid of techy dubstep with a twist and banging dub-influenced techno. Pure peak time bliss without losing the love for dub and tape delays. This is their ‘Second Coming’ and is supported by a breathtakingly beautiful Substance remix.
Surprising release from John Daly on Further Records. A side is a aquatic analogue ambient piece (the Haze mix). Main track/mix is on the b-side which is a stunning and epic techno track with intense strings and lovely fragile melodies on top.
Three techno tracks with a nice raw edge from Comfortable Records. Its taking things just a bit further then just your average techno tool.
Harry Klein Records is back with a two tracks EP. ‘Ultraschall’ is an homage to the first big techno club in Munich. Daniel takes us on a journey through the past and back to the future again. A charming mixture of laid-back grooves combined with some rough n ready rave moments make this a rapturous trip, no matter what time it is. ‘If You Loose My Number’ is the first Vivianne Projects aka Heartthrob tracks is more than 6 years.
