Crossroads explores the mysterious terrains of contemporary deep minimal techno with the Feral’s distinct and inimitable tribal sound.
Feral – Crossroads [HYPNUS034]
ambient techno
Konduku – Mantis 09/10 [DSR-MTS09/DSR-MTS10]
Konduku returns to the Delsin Mantis series with an exciting double pack which dives deeper into his remarkable fractured rhythms and light-touch synthesis. Over the course of nine tracks Ruben Üvez straddles the space between introspective headphone trips and hypnotising dancefloor elegance, operating in a liminal zone of fluid tempos, submerged atmospheres and pointillist beats. It’s an open-ended but clear-sighted approach that aligns perfectly with the direction of the Mantis series.
Cio D’or – Polar Q LP [KYN019]
Unmistakably Cio D’Or, Polar Q’s eight tracks explore ambient and cinematic techno, before dissolving into broken-beat, aquatic compositions from the outer reaches.
Toki Fuko – Narration [AFFIN055LTD]
With Narration, Toki Fuko returns to Affin after a long break. The EP contains 4 stylistically diverse tracks (some of them overlong), which are captivating in their perfection and document the musical versatility of the musician, who skilfully moves between dubby, hypnotic, in-depth techno here.
bvdub – Decades On Divided Stars [AFFNLP03LTD]
On “Decades On Divided Stars” Brock Van Wey, aka bvdub, presents his first album on Affin, each of its tracks spanning his trademark Odyssean length, with a sonic and emotional density second to none. You are lost… losing your sense of time… of self. Yet finding your inner existence in its inwardly-folding galaxies. Your thoughts and emotions revolve, as planets caught in gravitational pull, before you suddenly awake, as if from a dream, unaware of how much time has passed. Only the stars will tell…
Jeff Mills – Mind Power Mind Control [AX106]
Detroit legend Jeff Mills’ returns with an exciting new LP, and as always, there’s a deep concept behind it. Mind Power Mind Control explores various techniques used for mind control, the deceptive techniques devised for such purposes and its power over people. Similarly, the music on offer here is incredibly hypnotic – this is a Mills album after all – with each track’s complex sonic tapestry sure to entrance you. All of The Wizard’s idiosyncrasies are on offer: immaculately programmed 909 rhythms underpin majestic strings and sublime tones, all delivered with his trademark style of futurist minimalism. While less dancefloor oriented than some of this revered DJ’s previous releases, it’s awe-inspiring nonetheless. Essential listening.
J.S. Zeiter – Three EP [LOA005]
Luck of Access, Andrey Pushkarev’s tastemaking label, is back from a year’s hiatus with a new release from an iconic name. No stranger to the world of the finest dub-techno, a Mancunian producer about whom we still don’t know much, J.S. Zeiter delivers three elegant tracks that connect the dots between Detroit-dub and ambient. On the A-side, you’ll find “Scatter” — a rolling and intriguing journey through melancholic and enigmatic dub techno that’s enhanced by drifting delays, gentle forthright drums and crisp percussion. Over on side B, you’ll meet an impressive duo. “Silent Running” is the epitome of surreal broken beats and could become a perfect set-closing track. “Absence” reveals epic and immersive soundscapes that give you a glimpse of what a dystopian future may sound like.
Transpac – Ezzential Electro 002 – Telecommunication [ERZZ002-36]
Transpac’s new album could be his best work to date. All sounds, sequences and beats are created with heavy analog machinery, including the classic EMS AKS. Highly addictive album! ”Ezzential Electro” is the biggest project Electro Records has done so far. It consists of 36 vinyl records produced by artists they consider essential for the current underground electro movement. The first six parts of the series come in beautiful white silkscreen printed sleeves on recycled cardboard and include a real puzzle piece on the front cover, indicating which part of the series you have in your hands.
Transpac – The Future Is Here (In Tribute to THX 1138) [ER016]
On Electro Records’ ”Sci Fi Electro” series, each artist has created a 15 minute track for each side of the record, taking you from pure electro tracks to very experimental compositions, sounds and atmospheres. Each side is divided in ”movements” in a continuous morphing process without any pause between different tracks. The series is a collection of seven releases inspired by the following films created in the 20th century: THX 1138, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, The Thing, Akira, Terminator and Tron. Cool colored vinyl pressing with silkscreened sleeves.
Hems – Chaotic Affair [TITR001]
Titrate is a platform for the publication of experimental sonic pieces, set out on a path of continual research and exploration. Spread across five tracks, the release transits a number of spaces – from the post-inertia stirrings of “Chaotic Affair”, to the cutting and more austere drone layout of “One”. Cosmic tech broadcast “Beautiful weekend with friends” is a fizzing metamorphosis that melts and mutates itself into “Switching Gears”, a darker and more liquid environment. The final track “Stain” concludes the release with a musique concrète touch. With an overall meditative albeit experimental tone, this package is replete with rich textural qualities luring the listener into auditory immersion.
Artefakt & Claudio PRC – Collaborations I [DS-03]
Collaborations is a new series curated by Artefakt on their own imprint De Stijl. Inviting friends and likeminded artists for extended studio improvisations crafting an EP based on live sessions. First guest is Claudio PRC, a close friend and familiar face in the deep techno scene. Both artists reside in Berlin and share a dedicated passion for atmospheric and immersive ambient and techno. Collaborations I features four jams combining the unmistakable strengths of both artists, resulting in a well varied pack of emotive techno with room for experiment.
Jordan GCZ – My Brain’s Brain [MDA002]
Premium solo material from Jordan CGZ (Magic Mountain High, Juju & Jordash). An unbounded trip around the producers musical universe. Sounds ranging from icy futuristic soundscapes to crunchy melodica techno workouts, Other-wordly Jazz explorations to hazy Rhodes washed Deep house memories.
Coral Morphologic – Coral Morphologic 1 [TF008]
Coral Morphologic is the brainchild of Jared McKay and Colin Foord. A mending of minds, the arts, science, and the sea. Their lab in Miami lies close to the Florida Reef just offshore; the third largest coral barrier reef system in the world. This album composed by Jared echoes the voice of the reef. A reflection of its cosmic connection to our moon. A departure from the earth into deep space. We often wonder what intelligent life exists outside of our own aquatic world. Look and listen to the synchronous celestial satellites and the endless love song they sing.
Gëinst / Inerit – Gëinst / Inerit [ITAE001]
This release is coming exactly 3 years after Gëinst ARTS, Accents Records and Inerit discussed about a new place where they could converge musically and artistically. A place to propose spontaneous and borderless music by avoiding any kind of standardization. This place is now called ITAE and this is the first release. ITAE001 is a first great demonstration of the esthetic that ITAE wants to share and develop over time.
Luigi Tozzi – Deep Blue: Volume 3 [HYPNUS033]
In honor of the December full moon 2021, Luigi Tozzi invites us to another emotional journey, down into the depths of the Deep Blue. We float in emotional currents and floods of driving waves.
Priori – Your Own Power [NAFF014]
Following on from the 2020 release of ‘On A Nimbus’, Priori returns with his second album ‘Your Own Power’ on NAFF – the label he co-founded alongside Ex-Terrestrial. ‘Your Own Power’ was produced between April and July of 2020, with the lockdown allowing Priori to spend more time in the studio exploring new instruments and wiring the equipment in new inspiring ways. Like a lot of people, the isolation and change of pace got him back into more contemplative styles of music like shoegaze and ambient, which had a big impact on how the album was recorded. The only collaboration on the album is ‘The Tower’ which was recorded with Ex-Terrestrial in Montreal and highlights the contemplative quality that defines the album.
Marco Shuttle – Cobalt Desert Oasis [INC-012]
Marco Shuttle’s third album, Cobalt Desert Oasis, features a varied collection of music recorded across a two year period. Often traveling to remote destinations, Marco would come back to Berlin with field recordings, images, and other inspirations to process in his studio and turn into sound. The theme of the journey turns into a something more abstract than a travel diary, where environmental sounds blend in with modular synthesis, drum machines, effects and analog oscillators resulting in a cinematic listening experience where psychedelia, ritualism, and mysticism weave together in a sort of alien soundscape – that as the title of the album suggests, is reminiscent of a parallel utopian world. The album is rich in complex rhythmics, and more than in any of his previous work, has strong acoustic elements. Amongst other percussion instruments, Marco used the Tombak, a traditional Persian hand drum capable of reaching a very wide range of frequencies – from deep round subby toms, to high pitched sharp rimshots, throughout the record. Marco Shuttle is certainly not new to these sort of elements, but in Cobalt Desert Oasis he brings the environmental element of his sound into the forefront in a way that takes the listener into a hazy expanse where it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the machine elements from the natural – and where the music almost becomes a visual experience, which relates to Marco’s own photography used throughout the cover and insert images.
Yagya – Always Maybe Tomorrow [2SPA]
Icelandic dub techno linchpin Yagya returns for a second release on his emergent label, Small Plastic Animals. The music Yagya crafts is spacious and atmospheric, using the techno tradition as a vessel for meditative as well as emotional exploration and experimenting with sound design according to a specific, patiently cultivated style. “Always Maybe Tomorrow” finds Yagya ruminating on the behavioral energy of environments as viewed from afar – the man-made electricity of urban expanses and the interconnected flora and fauna of ecosystems. Looking to his chosen tools as a means to express these ideas, he employed a non-linear approach to each of the four tracks on this EP, choosing to create musical systems in constant flux rather than composing each piece in a conventional left-to-right narrative. Yagya’s trademark voluminous chords and vast pads ebb and flow through filters controlled by LFOs and randomness, creating their own micro-incidents and macro evolution as though holding a mirror up to the environments the initial inspiration was drawn from.
VA – Ohm Series #2 [OHM002]
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.
Edanticonf – The Story Of Q [FE064]
Edanticonf with the first album since the “Forest Echo” that was released back in 2012 on Silent Season. “The Story Of Q” is a fantastic album and a great follow up, another timeless journey in fine style.
The Hipodrome Of Music 