The Don is back to round off the series with maybe his most sought after release, his Remember EP. Reaching crazy prices online, the two tracks have been lost for some time. Now being remastered, ready for any dark club or after party.
Adeen Records is on a roll right now and this time out they welcome the Detroit hero that is Marcellus Pittman for a new and beguiling four-track 12”. Known for his work with The 3 Chairs collective as well as his solo jams, this Motor City mainstay opens up with ‘You Always Hank Bank One Time’ which is a real mental maze of rickety loops and blurts of degraded synth. ‘Another Spring Lover’ is another rusty and lo-fi piece of archetypal Detroit house that is very clearly machine music but with a unique sense of human soul. ‘I’m Gonna Be The Everything’ is a raw drum track with sparse, heartwarming chords and ‘Slick Nickle Pladium Investment’ is a knackered downbeat hip-hop closer.
The techno masterpiece by Juan Atkins & Orlando Voorn gets a remix treatment including mixes by Steve Rachmad and DJ S2 aka Santiago Salazar, former member of Underground Resistance and co-founder of the Historia y Violencia label together with Silent Servant. The original version of Game One was released on Metroplex back in 1994. The Steve Rachmad mix and Salazar remake have both been carefully restored from the original tapes and then remastered. Santiago made an alternative mix in the same session which is exclusive to this release and previously unreleased.
Juan Atkin’s masterpiece compilation, the blueprint of Techno albums…. the 1993 Model 500 ‘Classics’ compilation with some of Juan Atkins’ biggest early Metroplex milestones, with some of them in exclusive remixed versions. 3 decades later Metroplex is re-releasing this collection of hugely influential tracks for a new generation to play from fresh and clean vinyl!. Just like the recent 12″ reissue series, this album has been fully remastered with all the care and attention to detail you can imagine. Tracks like ,,No UFOs”, ,,The Chase”, ,,Techno Music”, ,,Night Drive (Time, Space, Transmat)” or ,,Off To Battle” are basically techno ground zero, with the electro influence of mid-80s to late-80s Juan Atkins productions still omnipresent. 30 years on since its original release on R&S records, ‘Classics’ is still as gritty and timeless a statement as ever.
Vibraphone presents another huge release. This time it’s Silicon Minds – IHY (Interstellar Hypnotic Yama -Biko), with an timeless Mayday Tribute Mix by the one and only Derrick May.
The “Edge Of The Visible Universe” is a 24 tracks album by Terrence Dixon. The album was recorded in Detroit and Amsterdam and is only be available exclusively on band camp in digital format only.
The album will be followed soon by a vinyl release with the same name featuring four club oriented tracks under the Population one alias.
Metroplex continues its run of reissues with two more seminal releases from the label’s golden back catalog. First off is Catalog number M003, aka late 80’s Metroplex electro staple Channel One, a Juan Atkins joint with Doug Craig (Carl Craig’s cousin) on vocals. Futuristic and playful techno from the late 80s which soundwise evolves from Cybotron and the obvious Kraftwerk influences. Juan Atkins said about the release in a 2005 interview that “it was more fun than politically driven, just about the colors and combination spread from colors”. An important release in the history of Techno from both a cultural and creative perspective. Channel One’s technicolor has been carefully remastered from the original tapes.
The second 12” from Stasis on De:tuned. Steve Pickton is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the early UK techno scene. Here he returns with a new 3 track EP of carefully selected and previously unreleased DAT tape tracks from the heyday of 90s electronic music. On offer a uniquely lush and sentimental style that resonates with the 313 Motor City sound. Sweet memories are the greatest kind of nostalgia.
Repetitive Rhythm Research mainstay Frequency returns to the series with ”Turn The Light”. Taking cues from classic Detroit influences, but taking it even deeper with trippy vocal edits and tight production. Alden Tyrell & Serge turn the lights up with a bottom heavy remix. ”Space Dub Work” closes in style with it’s deep dubby breakbeat.
Dolly is kicking off a new TS series, focused on serious high quality techno in the widest sense. The first release in the series comes from Detroit dub techno specialist, Luke Hess. Dynamic, pumpy and melodic, deep techno bombs with super solid remixes by Portuguese techno talent Vil as well as the Italian power duo Fireground.
Twenty five years after its initial release, and accompanying the re-release of ‘Internal Empire’ Tresor Records present a new cut and pressing (180gm) of Robert Hood’s essential ‘Master Builder’. The ongoing importance of this single and its adjacent album is indisputable, essential both to techno and to Tresor. It is a history intertwined. This work elevates its maker as master, and remains a cherished moment in the Tresor story, sharing an irrefutable singular magic, sounding as present and indispensable as when first created. To understand this work fully is to stand back and celebrate its impact.
Part of the Axis Expressionist Series. A collection of vinyl and limited digital releases, curated by Millsart, an alias of Jeff Mills, of his most eclectic and transcendent compositions that derive from his Every Dog Has Its Day project as well as new unreleased works. Vernacular creations that fall off from the ”other side” of the Electronic Music tree, this project is designed for the experienced Techno music listener, and its goal is to reflect upon the pure artistry of the craft of storytelling. A realization between music and life. Whereas ”dancing” is the goal of Dance Music, the goal of this music is about ”reflecting on the complexity and simplification of life”. Soundtracks for people in their evolutionary process.
Norm Talley returns to his Upstairs Asylum label alongside fellow US house pioneer Delano Smith for Straight Up No Chaser, an eight-track opus featuring four solo cuts each. Talley’s gritty, dubbed-out, low-rolling house style is present and correct throughout with the loopy chords of ‘Blak Bottom’ getting things going, ‘The Flip’ getting more cavernous and aqueous and ‘ISO Vision’ leaning into dub techno. ‘Believe It’ is a soulful deep house looper, while Smith gets bubbly with ‘The Bassline’, lays down thumping kicks on ‘Travels 23’ and his trademark synth smears on ‘The Drive’ while ‘Remembrance’ is a heady dub house cut that locks you into a state of perfect hypnosis.
Detroit alumni Brian Kage joins Craigie Knowes for the release of his “Analog Heart, Magnetic Soul” EP. 4 stone-cold cuts carved from bedrock of lake Michigan. 4 club-rocking beats that’ll beam you up from the streets and transport you straight to the edge of the cosmos.
Metroplex continues its run of reissues with more seminal releases from the label’s essential back catalog. The long-awaited reissue of M024: Model 500’s eternal techno meditation “Starlight”, a mid-90s collaboration with dub techno maestro Moritz von Oswald of Basic Channel, Maurizio, and Rhythm & Sound fame. Remastered from original tapes and sounding super fresh.
Following the club and label’s 20th Anniversary back in 2011, Tresor memorialised its two decades of existence with an exclusive mix from one of its esteemed Detroit connections, Mike Huckaby. On that mix, Mike Huckaby included an exclusive production of his, the first one to be released on Tresor Records. Today, Tresor announces the repress of the “The Tresor Track” on wax, making up for a massive A.side cut at 45 RPM. This title is on its way to stand along with the label’s most important classics, a genuine anthem for the Berlin techno institute.
Berlin’s Mojuba Records welcome Viktor Apo to the a.r.t.less family, exporting these sonic labour-fruits from the heart of Macedonia. ‘Regenerate’ is a wicked Detroit-technical EP; fast, hat-led, synthetically morphologic. Opener ‘Flow’ lives up to its name with a meandering, oxbow-laking chordstream set channelled through a driving, pistoning techno backbone. Then come the comparative cascaders ‘Royal S’ and ‘Regenerate’, both of which keep the pace. Finally, we’re met with ‘Aerial Scape’, which occupies a strange boxy stratosphere – an ultra-minimal track in progression and texture.
Dublin based Phil Robertson DJ/Producer alias Arbilla is back with it’s second release on his own imprint Xistence Records. This 4 tracker EP brings some dark Detroit Techno where classic meets the modern sound. Detroit’s techno legend, lifetime member of Underground Resistance, master of the darkness James Pennington aka Suburban Knight on remix duty… pure Detroit machine funk, more groove oriented version with filthy bass.
The Hipodrome Of Music 