Four track EP containing 2 remastered cuts and two unreleased tracks by Jeff Mills on his own Axis label. Note by Jeff Mills: ”Looking back in hindsight to the activity and accomplishments of Axis is with much pride – to witness the relationship between the music and listener evolving to this point. The Director’s Cut reissue project is about manicuring detail. It’s about a rare opportunity to enhance what we’ve done so that the relationship strengthens for the long term”
Dimi Angelis’ eighth release on his ANGLS label is essentially a tale of four brothers. Four separate tracks, clearly related yet with distinctive qualities that sets each of them apart in its own unique way. ”Out Of Nowhere” does its name justice by hitting home from its opening bars, throwing a messy sawtooth layered with evolving percussion at the listener. Following suit, ”Funky Lizard” is an amalgamy of trippy, filtered arps blended with a classic rhythm section. Damage guaranteed.
Splice is the a.k.a. of Elias Landberg from Skudge. The fact that he released already on Skudge, Arsenik and Non Series… is a perfect picture of his taste. Repetitive, trippy and groovy, the perfect combination for dancers or dreamers. Close your eyes and start the journey.
This EP represents in full effect the evolution of the solid duo from Utrecht. Four tracks where they show their roots and their influences, that definitely are techno. They don’t like to be too exposed; they like to share their concept through their music.
Reissue of rare UK ambient techno from ’93-‘94. Cold Blow has joined forces with Berlin’s AVA. Records in unearthing some of the finest ambient techno from the Artificial Intelligence era in a beautiful double LP package. The compilation covers essential cuts from the back catalog of J. M. Adkins’ releases and includes 2 tracks available on vinyl for the first time. Aside from Descent, a previously unreleased track, the material was previously released on the short-lived Metatone Recordings which was founded by Adkins himself together with Damon D’Cruz known from his preceding Jack Trax label. Compiled from the original DAT tapes and remastered by Andreas “Lupo” Lubich at Calyx Mastering, “Electro Music Union, Sinoesin & Xonox Works 1993 – 1994” reintroduces Adkin’s work as some of the era-defining classics from the early years of techno.
Next up on the fresh imprint is one half of the Chateau Royal, Rapha, who delivers his debut solo 12”. A powerfull and distorted electro flavored 6 tracker reinforced with a killer remix from Rotterhague’s boss DJ Overdose.
The re-issue of a real Electro gem by the genious Thomas P. Heckmann. It’s the ”Electro Nation – Shipwrecked” originally released 1998 on Electrocute.
Biologic Records welcomes Cooper Saver to the label with two stunning remixes from Khidja and Abstraxion.
The new installment of the Hivern split series features John Talabot and Khidja. Both tracks have slowish tempos, are built around obsessive motifs and make an outlandish use of delays. An unsettling and menacing atmosphere, fruit of masterful exercises on tension building, that seems tailored for those early moments in a set when you feel the need to rise the pressure without causing too much of a blast. These tracks are prime examples that’s there’s space for functional tracks away from the most obvious paths. And that’s the ultimate purpose of the series.
Private Selection Records founder and curator Dreams comes crashing in with a 6-tracker falling between thick body music and gnarly, frenzied electro. With ragged rhythms, reverberating synths and heart-wrenching vocal elements these tracks tie together a dystopian journey beginning with sheer rampage, leading to devastation and ending in hopeless ruin.
The fifth release of the label returns us to the first compilation universe. This time in orbit you can hear (as in the first release) the French producer Umwelt with the apocalyptic doom core track ‘Fallen Empire’. Also a collaboration of the Mosaique label owner Moralez and the legendary American EBM/ Hard Core artist The Horrorist. They were joined by a hypnotic composition from the Mannequin label owner Alessandro Adriani and accidentally surviving track (after the death of the artist’s music storage) from Greek artist Morah, who’s was released on Helena Hauf’s label Return To Disorder.
Into The Light Records has worked with the Greek composer Dimitris Petsetakis to compile a follow-up album that takes an even deeper dive into his archive of previously unreleased material. Like its predecessor, “On Shores” draws on music recorded in the 1980s and early ’90s. It contains just two previous released tracks, the humid ‘Clearance (Part 2)’ and poignant ‘On Endless Shores’, both of which first featured on Petsetakis’s cult 1991 album Missing Links. “On Shores” offers another unparalleled insight into the picturesque and atmospheric soundscapes created in the Piraeus-based composer’s basement studio using a mixture of electronic and acoustic instruments, a wide range of global influences and a keen interest in both minimalism and new age ambience. Listeners will encounter a range of stunningly beautiful and beguiling compositions, from the creepy, slow-burn exoticism of ‘Pythia’s Dance’ and rhythmic, otherworldly escapism of ‘Violated Asylum’, to the gentle bliss of ‘Like a Knife’ and sun-bright joy of ‘Nearxi (Minimal Marimba Edit)’.
Valentino Mora’s IDO (Intercontinental Dance Organisation) is back for its fourth release featuring some deep techno excursions from Olorun.
Kris Baha is back on Pinkman Records following up his ‘Can’t Keep The Fact’ EP last year with another great release rich in energy, rhythm and under the influence of his Master. In ‘My Master’ Kris expertly fuses the past and present amidst sonic aesthetics of 80s new-wave, minimal synth and post-punk – all this in amongst fierce percussion, wired sequenced baselines and his vocals up front, revealed and out of the dubby shadows. The result is 6 tracks dribbling with nostalgia in a 2019 context and in classic Kris fashion, can be played on the dance floors of your mind right through to dance floors of reality. In this release Kris submits himself, wholly to his master, which is himself. Who is your master?’
Having collaborated over the years in several projects, Endless Illusion and brokntoys join forces for a trilogy of EPs to showcase unique talent across the globe. Meeting somewhere across both label’s middle grounds, the first volume of Human Abstracts captures an array of international players operating at the fringes of the ‘floor’. Colombian duo Vltra Delta Drive kick off the EP with the tense, body-propelled El Complot. Santoine builds up the drama with the uneasy, percussive Transmission. Closing the Aside, Outermost brings his trademark ominous sounds in Mystic River. On the flip, cult favourite Konsistent weaves narcotic grooves on Paranoid Humanoid. After his knockout contribution for Move’s launch EP, Black Propaganda brings the EP to a close with the utopian Instrument Of Liberation.
Kluentah recrutes for the next number on Zement the underground prodigy L.F.T. straight out the sewer. All four tracks are neckbracking belter on its own class. Murderous acidlines and floorshaking basslines plus dirty drums that will blast your pants off.
Killer 13th EP release as Head Front Panel aka John Heckle with some relentless techno tracks in the best tradition.
The Hipodrome Of Music 