Network’s 30th Anniversary celebration continue with a dig in the vaults finding three timeless treasures from UK Techno pioneers Nexus 21. The “Progression Logical” highlights how skilfully the Stafford duo – Mark Archer and Chris Peat – combined their love of Detroit inspired Techno with North of London Bleep culture. The third track is well and truly an historic piece of Techno history – Carl Craig’s first ever remix no less.
‘Psy Visionary’ is the latest outing by the long going Spanish techno producer ORBE. On his self titled imprint he’s been pushing futuristic and hypnotizing techno sounds since 2014. His latest collection of tracks is a full solo effort and comes as an expansive 4LP vinyl box exploring a wide universum of techno. Atmospheric and spaced out booming techno trips spread over 16 heavy cuts to showcase ORBE and his visionary sounds.
Erell Ranson confidently displays his renowned character of finely textured Electronics with old school aesthetics on Propersound 007. Electro, Deep Techno, and Downtempo are the styles traversed to you from the machines with emotive class, and ambient pads across 4 lovely tracks.
New DeepLabs Record release featuring a special collaboration by label founder Luke Hess & his brother Jeff Hess. This is the 10th Anniversary release on DeepLabs featuring full sleeve artwork by Haqq. Three functional and diverse Detroit Techno tracks with stripped down analog sounds reminiscent of the mid-90’s warehouse scene.
The Dutch Sci-Fi Master DJ Surgeles is taking us for a space travel within this 4 tracks EP on Modular Underground.
Delsin presents two supplement EPs to the recently released retrospective compilations of Wladimir M. and Florence. This first Florence disc its a collection of rarities. The EP opens with Convextion’s remix of ‘The Vineyard’, never been released on vinyl before. Second track on side A is the original mix of ‘Exploration’ as featured on the very first Eevo Lute EP in 1991. Side B opens with Peter Ford aka Baby Ford’s remix of ‘The Vineyard’, originally released in 1996. The EP closes with the original instrumental version of ‘Disappointment’, to which the lyrics and vocals by Wladimir M. were added later on.
A master in letting shapes find their form, Dixon allows the listener to wallow in recurring scenes. Lost Communication Procedure, Found In Space and Remarkable Wanderer etch a sound world of choral vibrations and cinematic dirge. Where gaseous clouds scrape the natural sonic pastures of such environments, the hypnotized listener staggers a drunken step, moving sideways by 0 or 1 or -1 into new scenes. Not least an expert in industrial abstraction, a human silhouette permeates Dixon’s sound. His ethereal storytelling portrays the heart-rending romance of Unconditional Love and unearths in I’m Away In Detroit monologuing moodscapes recalling our GPS voice assistants. Out of Darkness initial recalls Kraftwerk’s Geiger counter, as from pure signal data and feedback spells an unceasing locomotive wormhole. Hazy, dense grooves drive across bleak city scenes in We Can Rebuild Him, into the raw vibe of Framework and the rude stabs of Spectrum of Light. The varying presence of Dixon’s work is one of his textural signatures, at arm’s length, brushing right within, and far out. The bumping mood of Earth Station is one such moment, close enough to isolate the diving bass somewhere within, simultaneously from afar it becomes positively gravitational.
Delsin dives deeper in the Dutch techno archives once more by re-masterering, re-cutting and re-releasing Ballet Mechanique’s Embody EP. A keystone release containing four tracks of tough, yet emotive electro jams, sounding fresh till the date of today. Originally released in 1996 on Eevo Lute Muzique and definitely one of the highlights when it comes to pure futuristic techno soul. The Embody EP from Jeroen Borrenbergs aka Ballet Mechanique and Eevo’s in-house graphic designer at that time made his first public work on one of the most influential techno labels from the Netherlands.
As Morganistic, Luke Slater only released a handful of cuts-but among those was the album ‘Fluids Amniotic’, still widely praised today as a benchmark techno long-player. Regularly featuring in the sets of Hood and Mills, Morganistic’s dark, rumbling minimalism was, as the album title suggests, the sonic equivalent of being trapped in the murky, viscous fluids of some sinister alien womb. Slater unearthed the original DAT and reel-to-reel tapes and got them remastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis. Fluids Amniotic will get re-issued both on vinyl and digitally for the first time in 25 years.
Detroit pioneer Robert Hood joins Rekids label with a new album entitled ‘Mirror Man’, showcasing his innate knack for crafting paired back but intricate rhythms that deliver punch and soul. Opening with the cinematic ‘Through A Looking Glass Darkly’, the album quickly flows into precise, powerful four four. There’s mesmerising cuts such as ‘Fear Not’ with its throbbing bass and spectral vocals, the twisted and off-key ‘Run Bobby, Run’, not to mention muscular tracks designed to light up dancefloors like the machine driven ‘A System of Mirrors’ or the mesmerising ‘Face In The Water’. Hood also breaks things up with downtempo and mind-bending interludes, including the tranquil yet spooky ‘Black Mirror’ and the beatless and murky ‘Freeze’. Each of these are aural feasts that demonstrate his vast musical pallet. From start to finish ‘Mirror Man’ is an education in finesse from one of techno’s most heroic artists, landing on one of electronic music’s most important labels.
Debut album from Israel Vines on Interdimensional Transmissions, a futuristic fusion of UK bass, post-jungle breakbeats and techno with the rhythmic flex of Detroit Electro. Across its nine tracks, Vines channels the spirit of undulating UK techno and bass — think Bristol and London — into a form and shape all his own, indebted to his American Midwestern roots. Rolling beats, uncommon rhythms, and club-floor sensibility paired with a polyrhythmic touch.
De Lichting shines their light on one of their core members, Human Space Machine. The Amsterdam centered collective known for their forward-thinking live sessions and highly praised compilation series now presents the third edition in their run of solo projects. Over the course of three tracks, HSM explores the rich territories in between moody breakbeats, mesmerizing percussion riffs and drifting house. Its a well-varied collection capturing a wide range of moods that makes this a well-deserved and right on time solo outing from a producer that shows his true musical diversity.
In a distant future a spaceship crew passing the gate to an unknown civilization. The first contact takes place via telepathy, but fails due to a mental breakdown of the spaceship crew. The telepathic conversation left irreparable damage to the swarm intelligence of the unknown civilization as well and it is classified as a hostile attack. Thereupon they flee and fight their way through the unknown surroundings of the alien planet. With their remote control they are able to get their spaceship back and leave the planet. A technical defect on the spaceship causes them to drift away into infinity, but after a few weeks they reach a time journey sector and manage to activate a time portal back home. After 7000 years they return home and they have to find out that their home planet no longer exists. The only thing they can find is a lost capsule… the new album of Johannes Volk on Axis Records.
James Pennington is the Detroit techno talent who records as the Suburban Knight and has done since the middle of the eighties. He’s got plenty of mini-classics to his name such as ‘The Groove’ and ‘Art of Stalking’ and now he is back with what amounts to his first solo record in over a decade having previously worked with Inner City and Underground Resistance. Here he offers scintillatingly soulful techno on ‘Inner City’, which comes with a deeper and more quickened 207737 edit. Reverse the record and you’ll find ‘Species’, an intergalactic techno trip on bumping beats. ‘Intel Bombs’ (feat Ray 7) closes out with intense drum work and turbocharged stabs.
Ace, warm, funky Dutch / Detroit school House / Techno EP from Orlando Voorn on Marcel Dettmann’s label Bad Manners.
Shawn’s statement regarding this album: “‘Conduit’ contains moments from the last two or so years of my life. There have been a lot of trying times and ups and downs in there. These moments are the exhaust of that life. Some more subjective than others. We are simply conduits for whatever flows through our cores. We tap into it. We allow it to flow through us. As it takes shape, we select its forms and hone its output. We are simply conduit for our work. Maintain the Flow State.”
The album is the second full length album by Shawn Rudiman for Pittsburgh Tracks.
