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.

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Martin Matiske’s renaissance continues as he delivers another fresh EP as Blackploid for effervescent Sheffield imprint Central Processing Unit. In keeping with the German producer’s other recent material, we can hear echoes of his classic, mid-2000s Blackploid material. Strange Stars also continues his interplanetary theme, delivering a quartet of sci-fi powered cuts full of squelchy acid bass, star-fall electronics, Kraftwerkian melodies and beats so crunchy you could probably eat them for breakfast. Our picks of a very strong bunch are probably pulsating opener ‘Star Patrol’ and the turn-of-the-80s sci-fi movie feel of ‘Unseen’, but to be honest all four tracks hit the spot.

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Cosmic Traveler, a four-track affair, marks Matiske’s debut appearance on Sheffield’s Central Processing Unit. Given the long wait, it’s great just to see Blackploid back among the fray once again. But for the project’s CPU curtain-raiser to be an EP of such high-quality techno jams? Now that really is spoiling us. Cosmic Traveler’s title nods towards the sort of stargazing aesthetics one finds in classic Detroit techno. However, while there are undoubtedly ties to the Motor City in this music, the record ultimately steers less towards spacious atmospherics and more towards the taut, lean machine-funk of seminal practitioners like Dopplereffekt.

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