Hinode is back with another fine Science Fiction release, 4 quality underground jams including an XDB Remix.
deep techno
Varg & Hypnobirds – Linje 19 LP [CDRLP024]
Northern Electronics artist Varg returns to Glasgow label Clan Destine Records for a second release this year. Dedicated to the various stops on Line 19 of the Stockholm metro, Linje 19 finds Varg working with a new partner in Hypnobirds. As you’d expect, the prevailing mood over the four tracks here is deep and atmospheric, see the discordant, delay-laden dub techno of opening track “Bandhagen”. From here Varg and Hypnobirds burrow deeper into the subterranean crawl space between ambient and techno with closing track “Hagsatra” a particular highlight. Here they take the listener on an icy but strangely warming voyage into otherworldly sonics.
Brett Johnson – The Mission [LWK2]
Legwork’s 2nd single comes from Brett Johnson. The Mission harks back to some of our favourite dub-techno moments, but keeps it’s own flare with Brett’s signature robo-rhythms and chopped and screwed vocal cuts. On the remix tip, it’s label head Lance DeSardi & Convextion bringing their own flavour to the table respectively, with Lance stepping to the chord memory, deep bass, and over sampled drums, and Convextion going all the way out into hyper space with his usual sub-aquatic space funk.
Seph – Cinética [AMR007CD]
The Aula Magna Records team is proud to present Cinética, Seph‘s new album. This is a project that takes his characteristic IDM-driven techno sound to the next step: just as it explicitly reveals Seph‘s intimate relationship with a fresh noise-textured sound palette it also makes evident that the artist‘s rhythmic engagement has pushed him to more complex beat programming than on his previous music.
The Persuader – The Persuader EP 3 [TEMPLAR003]
2562 – The New Today [DOUBT003]
Dave Huismans (A Made Up Sound) returns under his 2562 codename with the oneiric ambient/concrète dancefloor states of ‘The New Today’, his 4th solo album in this guise. Where its predecessor, ‘Air Jordan’, also for his When In Doubt label, took inspiration from the arid landscapes of the Middle East, ‘The New Today’ draws upon ideas sketched out whilst 2562 was in New York, late summer 2013, and was later finished at his home studio in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Rather than disco samples, as with his last LP ‘Fever’, he sources from and splices together an enviable library of European synth experiments, new age tapes, avant-garde, post punk, pop and long forgotten aces, offering an entirely different palette of textures and tones. Ambient is a keyword here, taking inspiration from the feeling of drift of utopian/dystopian novels, as much as the sublimation of electro-acoustic processes. Between the humid concrète drone sphere of ‘Arrival’ and the sweeping celestial space of closer ‘New Life’, there’s a keen sense of momentum through dreamy time and space, taking in the airborne melodies and syncopation of ‘Vibedoctor’ and ‘Utopia’ along with killer Afro-centric gyrations in ‘Terraforming’. Inarguably, it’s the the most diffuse yet cohesive and involving album in his celebrated cache.
ASOK – Hunter EP [SCN006]
Scenery label boss ASOK steps up with the next release, and that it comes with a remix from Dutchman Boris Bunnik in his Versalife guise is the icing on the cake. This is heady and original dance music from Scenery that continues the motion that has been set with the first few releases.
Lisière Collectif – Les sons de la Lisière [MG055]
Nice moody deep melodic techno tracks on Detroits Moods & Grooves records. Ploiesti Romania area childhood friends Andu Simion, Dan Gheorghe and Bogdan Ardeleanu are inspired by Detroit’s house sound and Berlin’s techno. Their resulting collaboration is best described as “deep techno” and their first release is appropriately on Moods & Grooves known for pushing both envelopes. ‘Les sons de la Lisière’ is a reflection of the beauty and silence of nature found in the suburbs of Ploiesti.
STL – Sound Transmission [SOMETHING026]
The latest Sound Transmission from Stephan Laubner under his STL project alias comes in shape of a 12 inch vinyl for likeminded people who are interested in the d-i-y sound research of the Something records audio sense facility.
Arkadelphia – New Sun [NORD006]
Danish NORD Records presents NORD006, an EP made by Arkadelphia from Tennessee, United States of America. The EP contains four warm sounding tracks that goes very deep.
SHXCXCHCXSH – Linear S Decoded [AVNLP002]
Rich sounding dark techno from this swedisch duo delivering their second album. Despite their impenetrable name and previous releases, SHXCXCHCXSH’s second album is strangely accessible. It seems that the Swedish duo has learnt the value of subtlety, but without losing their edge. From the eerie ambience of “Entering The S-Cloud” through the distorted, noisy electro of “Elo-cution”, the atmospheric techno sounds of “The Roots” and the snapping percussion and repetitive machine riffs of “Drain the Lord”, Linear S Decoded is one of 2014’s best techno albums.
BNJMN – Coil [DSR/E005]
BNJMN steps up to make his debut on Delsin with six tracks of experimental and inventive noise and techno. ‘Coil’ opens his account with screechy, unnerving synths squeals, imposing and throbbing pads and super deep kick drums that come at you from miles below. It’s a hugely textured and spine tingling affair before the ambiance of ‘Berth’ comes rippled with glassy and alien little melodies. ‘Merge’ has turbo charged drums hiding beneath more unsettled synth based noise that sound sernee at the same time as being paranoid. On the flip, ‘And Suddenly’ makes your hairs stand on end with is gothic celestial glow and slithering synth patterns, ‘Blown’ is a damaged and degraded bit of icy, thumping and reverb heavy techno and ‘Azure’ ends on a brain soothing, chilled out ambient high. These are the sort of truly unique and magically textured tracks you would expect from a producer like BNJMN, and mark a fine debut on Delsin.
TM404 – Svreca Remixes [KM037]
Mixing opposites is always an interesting project, and that brings us to the present release from Kontra-Musik. On the one hand, we have Swedish National Treasure Andreas Tilliander and his already classic TM404-album. On the other hand we have Svreca, the dark prince of Semantica Records and the heir to Oscar Mulero. We thought it would be most interesting to blend these clearly diverse elements together. We where right. There is a very clear and constant division through the entire release. On one hand you have the warm, fuzzy analogue dubbiness of TM404, on the other hand you have the focused, trimmed and piercing techno from Svreca. Where TM404 brings out beams of acid sunlight from his silver boxes, Svreca conjures up a starless night with his relentless beats. It’s a bit like Saruman was given the permission to remix a Gandalf record. TM404 + Svreca. A piece of modern Alchemy, brought to you by Kontra-Musik.
Jp Enfant – Echoes Of You Ep [ARTLESS2189]
The next techno adventure on Mojuba sub label a.r.t.less is ready to launch. This release is the shimmering debut by JP Enfant aka Jean Pierre Enfant, one of the initiators of the well respected LET (Les Enfants Terribles) crew from Amsterdam and established Trouw resident. This EP hits you with three unique Techno tracks fully charged with emotions.
Russo – Wild Metals [VV013]
Deeper and advanced electronix on Valcrond Video, the label run by sound and image artist Luke Wyatt (Torn Hawk). Ari Russo is an NYC based multi-artist whose engagement with abandoned media finds an outlet in the video bursts he culls as OfficeFern. As a programmer, he’s produced innovative music generation tools such as the Diamond Arpeggiator. He returns to his own music with this collection of challenging and transporting structures
Simone Gatto – Deep Vibes EP [NV024]
Strong underground tracks with a great variety by Simone Gatto on the Dutch label NightVision. The EP includes a remix by Santonio Echols.
Shlomo – Rechaim EP [BSRX003]
Parisian techno producer Shlomo gets another chance to show why he’s so highly rated with the third release on the Right Sounds label. As you might expect, lead track “The Other Side” (808 Intuition) swamps skittering Roland drum arrangements in an intoxicating dub techno atmosphere – what a bassline – and this dense production approach is displayed fully as the EP unfolds. There’s something spectral hidden in the depths of the glistening “Grounded Queen” whilst the title track reins in the drums to a percussive shiver as Shlomo focuses on hypnotising you with his sound design. This aspect is evident on closing track “Theory Is The Worst” too, but Shlomo brings the dancefloor pulse to the fore with impressive results. More please Shlomo.
CEOL – The Light [DBA016]
Versatile techno three tracker by CEOL, A moniker adopted by Glasgow’s Dom Cappello and Lee Duncan. Dom’s productions as Hutton Drive have appeared on cult labels like Soma and Frantic Flowers, whilst as half of Harri & Domenic he continues to hold down the residency at Glasgow’s legendary Sub Club. Fellow Glaswegian Lee Duncan records as Leeon and debuted in 2012 on the cult Seventh Sign label. Lee will also return under his solo alias later this year.
Conforce – Depth Over Distance [107DSR]
One of the most busy and consistently excellent producers in all of electronic music is Boris Bunnik, and now he is back under his most loved alias, Conforce, on his most regular home, Delsin. The Dutchman is best known for his serious deep and underwater tracks that are part dub, part ambient and part techno.
VA – Masse Box [MASSEBOX001]
May 2013 saw the premiere of the choreography ‘Masse’, a co-production between Berghain and the Staatsballett Berlin. A whole evening of contemporary dance which has been set up by three different choreographers is in need of three different sound producers. The painter Norbert Bisky has been chosen to create the stage design. At the core of the dance night lies a tryptichon made out of pure sound: the music of Henrik Schwarz, Marcel Dettmann & Frank Wiedemann and DIN aka Efdemin & Marcel Fengler was taken as the starting point for developing the choreographies.
The Hipodrome Of Music 