LDR returns with another addition to their roster at Lunar Disko. Waterford native Leonid delivers a rare EP, crafted as always with methodical depth and warmth. A 5 track journey of emotive electronics and machine soul, evolving into another timeless masterpiece from Leonid.
EPM continue their 20th birthday celebrations with an ep dedicated to electro featuring The Advent, Carl Finlow, Detroits Filthiest and Freddy Fresh. As all good electro-heads will know, The Advent (Cisco Ferreira) is as renowned for electro as he is for techno. On ‘Strangeform’ he works alongside his son and rising talent, Zein to turn in pure electro-funk that’s blistering to the last beat. Another absolute master of the scene is Carl Finlow who brings deep bass notes, carefully crafted melody and his meticulous production skills to ‘Optogenetic’. Detroit’s Filthiest has been wowing listeners with his work for labels like Casa Voyager, Bass Agenda, Philthtrax and his own MCEC. His track ‘Werewolf’ is the electro monster the title suggests – dark and tough Detroit-electro book-ended with a playful vocal. The EP closes with the legendary, Freddie Fresh who after three decades is a genuine virtuoso. Under his Modulator guise he layers beautiful retro synth stylings and sci-fi atmospherics on ‘ProMars’. The third EP featuring four house tracks will follow in July, with the ‘EPM20’ compilation after the summer.
A smokey hookah lounge lies nestled amongst Saturn’s outer rings – for those who know where to look. Its sole occupant for a thousand years, the being known as Planar Traits. Lick the cosmic toad and strap yourself in for a fourth ride on the Magic Carpet. Propulsive breaks and mystical atmospheres send us crashing through the waterfall, deep into the velvet jungle beyond.
Libertine welcomes Dj Overdose for the second release of ”X” series, featuring 6 sick cuts between experimental electro and wave sounds.
20/20 Vision present the debut release from Manchester based artists Armec. The Caged EP hits the ground running – with a record that spans heavy club-ready electro and futuristic soundscapes. Complete with a remix from German acid connoisseurs Hardfloor.
For the 12th release on Welsh imprint Haŵs. Zobol and Reptant are clearly on the same mission: to breathe life into the humdrum and start the road to recovery on the dancefloor. ‘Diminishing Returns’ posits an answer to its first question: that innovating with what we have is the way to overcome monotony, as well as reassuring that the collective pulse is still very much warm.
PHXS18 is coming from Los Angeles based Machino. 9 tracks album 45 minutes of music, surrounds a dark atmosphere of Electro which combine with Electronic Body Music and a blend of industrial visualizing the fragmented, vulnerable state of the occurring within an isolated, controlled space where robots learn to function solely from the movement of their human subjects. the subject’s demeanour of fragility and curiosity towards the robot creates a sense of eroticism within their synchronous relationship.
Next up on Avoidance is another Helsinki local, 53X. Opening with a boomy EBM-tinged techno cut, the record then moves into more slowed-down electric, trancey and trippy jams, all four live-arranged.
Carl Finlow makes his full debut on Avoidant Records with the clinical Engines Of Creation EP. Easily one of the most highly respected producers to come out of the UK, Carl has a discography going back over 20 years and spanning multiple genres. After his first outing the label as part of the ”Defend Your Planet” compilation, Carl drops 4 classic, superbly produced cuts of hi techno electro funk. Title track “Engines Of Creation” opens in true Finlow style with robotic beats and flexing, otherworldly synths. “Dead Centre” bangs hard with it’s disruptive, fast paced percussion but leads down darker paths with ominous, spacial FX and atmospheres. The frenetic sounds of “Sonic Six” continue Finlow’s innovative and funked up trajectory before closing out with the interstellar trip of “Reckless”, that bounds through the the cosmos, radiating it’s high energy output.
Improvisation on Four Sequences was performed live in quadraphonic sound on the Buchla 200e and the Animoog at Festival Antigel in Geneva, Switzerland on January 25th, 2020. This record is specially encoded to be played back in quadraphonic sound and is also stereo compatible. This is the first release in 25 years on Suzanne Ciani’s Atmospheric label, which focuses on her live electronic music.
Welcome to Nicolini’s wonderful world of surprise – Penni’s Palace. Here you will find zebra-chairs and matchbox countachs, colourful tv-screens and Penni the cat presiding over proceedings. You will also find Nicolini, hunched over his MPC or Casio keyboards, sweeping the EQs to make the sounds move, jamming out his songs in heavy microdoses. They are the sounds of machines and the city – Amsterdam centre to be precise – brought to life with volts of electricity. These songs started out as a live show on the terrace of Garage Noord nightclub, and over the following months Nicolini tweaked and re-recorded them into the collection of tracks you have before you. Bristling with energy, these live jams have a loose, almost mystical feeling – you never know quite what’s around the corner. Sounds jump out of the speakers at you, from car engines to reverb crashes. Opposites face off against each other – the mechanical meets the organic, and the cold emptiness of the city contrasts with the warm timbres of tropical climes.
OHM Series continues to round up some of the best and the brightest within the dub techno scene. Side A features Federsen and Roger Gerressen, while the flipside we find grad_u and Merv.
Johannes Volk debuts on Eternal Friction Records with a 4 track EP called “Mutable Motor Units”. The result is a powerful EP filled with powerful grooves, smooth leads and uplifting rhythms, that clearly demonstrates Johannes unique and personal approach to techno.
Detroit techno icons Octave One serve up the third volume of their Locus of Control EP series. The two-track offering again explores the ‘power or powerlessness people feel over the things that shape their world,’ and never has that been more true than during the last 18 months of the pandemic.
Bunker returns with the third volume of Rogue Frequencies. Selected from Mike Hellboii’s archives, a whole set of predominantly heavy ’80’s-and-’90’s-Bruxelles-and-UK-styled electro-wave-synth-poppin’ EBM and other ever-tragically ‘New Romantic’ techno ‘massive-rave-and-lonely-dance floor classics.
First co-edition between Soil and Fill-Lex records. Bestial Mouths’ creations in the last two years are the phoenix cries of the project’s rebirth under the guiding hand of vocalist Lynette Cerezo, melding noise and darkwave pop into a theatre of skin-shredding catharsis that brings the project’s post-punk roots to new levels of club-ready destruction—equal parts intensity and accessibility. “Thousandneedles” pierces that veil with warped reimaginings of both releases, from a diverse selection of artists in the dark underground. Each brings their own unique twist, whether it’s to a dance ritual of pounding EBM and industrialized techno, fog-shrouded darkwave dives, cosmic washes of synthpop bliss, or soul-smashing noise dredged from a sewer cathedral. Dance through the pain, and make new paths of your scars.
Fourth installment of Syntetyk’s record venture comes in the split format – a collab between Mchy i Porosty and DogPatrol. Both artists sharing a love to the dirty and nostalgic, both writing their narrative on the respective sides of the 12″. A side guardian, Mchy i Porosty, is a spirit residing deep in the Polish woods. By twisting and mutating the soul of the forest with his craft, he was able to produce a very distinctive sound on the edge of euphoria and delirium covered with ruthless saturated drum work. On the B side resides DogPatrol, a notorious player overwatching the streets of Mannheim, Germany. Just like that murky tape you played loud while riding in the night, he asserts total dominance with his unique mixture of oddities, brutal patterns and razor-sharp technique.
The Hipodrome Of Music 