NYC experimentalists Sheik ‘N’ Beik with another weird and wonderful record courtesy of founder Julio operating under a new guise: Rechulski. A regular at the collective’s parties – Rechulski offers up a celestial 3 track EP as his debut and in doing so offers up an insight into a left-of-centre approach to production that lends him perfectly to a record with Sheik ‘N’ Beik.
BNJMN returns to his regular label home of Delsin with a brand new mini-album of experimental cuts that continue his journey into ever more decayed, lo-fi and gritty sound sculpture. This new release features six tracks and kicks off with ‘Microgravity,’ a shadowy exercise in suspensory dub that ripples and groans, growing in menace over its static laced three minutes. Next, ‘Womb’ is a vast chamber of glory synths and rippling pads that sounds like it comes from the after life, ‘P-Tr’ is a high tension, nerve jangling brew of glassy electronics with heavy kicks buried deep below and ‘1987’, a fuzzy, darkened brew of spacious kicks, whirring machines and bubbly tape sounds that are seriously foreboding. ‘Oder’ is a more emotional work where multiple synth lines echo about and emit cautious rays of light, then finally ‘Amygdala’ is based around a frazzled, oversized and spraying bassline that is backed by radiant pads and a dystopian house groove and it rounds out another expertly outlier collection full of strange yet compelling tracks and textures.
With 28 years of nurturing local DJ talent and delivering quality music week in and week out to Glasgow’s most clued up people, the Sub Club is proud to present to you their brand new record label, Nautilus Rising. Fair to say it’s been a long time breaking the surface. For this inaugural Nautilus Rising EP, the Sub Club sticks with that tried and trusted Subbie approach. NR001 presents 4 new tracks from 4 Scottish producers. Timeless techno with soul, funk and energy.
DeepLabs is a Detroit based record label run by Luke Hess. The focus for the label is to release Detroit influenced techno for the dancefloor and to build a strong community of likeminded artists.
Anagram returns for their fifth edition, this time from Octual. A pangalactic melodic journey that crosses various spaces, under guidance of throbbing basslines, galloping hi-hats and enthralling pads. Four tracks that showcase depth of sound and mood.
The next release on Chaval Records unites its main producer, Victor Santana with one of the masters of British techno, Mark Broom. How much Helium does the Techno you usually listen to contain? This new offering from Chaval has an extra supply of the chemical compound. The best-known use for this noble gas could be to inflate balloons and airships. A chemical element used to both fly to the sky as well as dive to the depths of our seas. These properties are very similar to the techno we like. If you bind two atoms of oxygen to the sun’s temperature then you create helium, and if you join Mark Broom and Victor Santana, you get Techno. The EP features 2 new tracks by Mark Broom and 2 by Victor Santana.
Delsin release a new EP from Voiski entitled ‘Breaths Written Outside Gloom’ that features four cuts of the Frenchman’s trademark techno. Opener ‘Downhearted Holidays’ is all about a menacing bassline that looms large below jostling metal percussion and frazzled synth lines. It’s spare and absorbing, inhuman and bleak in the most inviting way. ‘Galaxy Call’ is a more energetic affair with squeaking, pixelated and high pitched melodies squealing over a gloomy and gloopy bass line. Militant snares are upright and driven and the result is a track that sounds like the machines are taking over. ‘Mathematical Park’ is about mid tempo drums, paranoid synth drones and desolate urban soundscapes all run through with a sense of dark futurism and finally ‘Answer Silently’ is the slowest and swampiest of the lot. A growing sense of darkness permeates slithering synths, icy hi hats and lazy drums and there is a real air of foreboding through this and all the cuts here that make it perfect night time music.
Killer EP from 1993 from Detroit pioneers Octave One. One of their releases that never got a lot of attention, never was a hit record, but now proven to be one of their timeless records that should be available for the next generation. All 3 wonderful deep tracks firmly steeped in motor city history.
Blue Hour’s self-titled outlet launches a new remix series. Answer Code Request applies the driving hybrid techno-bass approach that has made him one of Berghain’s brightest stars to Blue Hour 002 title cut Axis Motive; Paris-based Tresor resident Marcelus offers an ethereal take that focuses on Blue Hour 003’s Reference 97’s more hypnotic elements; and Ostgut Ton’s Steffi is perfectly matched to the third EP’s Moments, employing her signature sound that similarly offers a timeless anthemic quality to the original…
The first chapter in a series of three EPs to come from Dutch label Field Records is from Swedish producer Staffan Linzatti. Hypnotic techno from the outer edges of our galaxy combined with richly melodic, angelic and heavenly electronics on the deep space affair. Dedicated Millsian productions which are riddled with spaceship communications and distant sonar pushes.
Ben Sims’ Symbolism continues apace with a release from Binny, a Liverpool-based producer DJ otherwise known for some superb output as part of Phantom Planet Outlaws. Comprising three original tracks, the Subtractive Rhythm EP also takes in a remix from long-time Sims collaborator and British techno legend, Paul Mac.
The MNS X series returns for its 4th issue with one from the Spainard mystic: Eduardo De La Calle. Featuring full EPs from the label artists, the MNS X series plays in the field of the analog, acid and techno. For this, Eduardo De La Calle has put forward a tougher stance from his other silky productions, heading into the rough, analogue and raw terrain for Midnight Shift. The result packs a punch, rounded up with a remix by Hodge.
Gary Martin releases his second sequential EP on Motech Records, the ‘This is It’ EP. The Ep features two more exclusive tracks, ‘This is It’ a driving composition accented with piano and synth patterns and subtle funky movement, and ‘Galaxy Style’ a percussive, building composition expertly laced with muted samples and synth progressions.
The original version of Stunned was released on Mark Broom & Dave Hills renowned Pure Plastic label back in 1997. The 97 Mix featured here started as a live mix of the track, which Mark has now tweaked for maximum dancefloor devastation. Its accompanied on the flip side by a brand new composition of equally outstanding quality. Broom is in fine form on Decay with his tight production skills delivering the kind of tough, raw Techno that sits perfectly on M-Plant.
11 years after the release of Exhibitionist, Jeff Mills reveals the follow-up to his innovative film with Exhibitionist 2. Exhibitionist 2 explores DJing as an art form and gives us a peak into how a DJ makes use of current technological means to create seamless mixes and complex transitions to levels that were thought impossible not long ago. In this second volume, Jeff Mills goes deeper and not only shows how he approaches the mixing process but also how he thinks in real time, spontaneously creating, just like a musician playing an acoustic instrument or a soloist thinking of rhythms on-the-fly. The ambitious project captures the DJ over the course of multiple sequences, with closeup and multi-angle shots that allow us to see exactly what a DJ does and how music is programmed and played for the purpose of dancing.
This is Johannes Volk’s second EP for Dolly. Two fierce but club friendly rolling techno tracks featuring an epic Luke Hess remix. With their warm and euphoric chords ‘Hydro Funk’ and ‘Shadow Section’ will take you right back to the golden days of techno. Detroit’s Luke Hess on remix duties takes ‘Hydro Funk’ into even deeper territories. An hypnotic and melancholic, yet very driving detroit techno tool.
The Hipodrome Of Music 