“Before This” is the third studio album by London based techno producer Ashley Burchett and the first release for his label Modwerks. The culmination of three years work, this project has been produced almost entirely by Ø Phase from the music to the artwork to the accompanying videos.
This is the third release in Modern Cathedrals’ “Sacred Sevens” catalog, a series of EP’s released on marbled 7″ and 10″ vinyl records. The vinyl version of this release features two original tracks by ASC.
11001 Records is a Berlin-based record label focused on techno, ambient, experimental and other forms of abstract visions. Co-founder of Teufelsberg Domecast, a sound installation podcast series with ambient experimental live performances using the dome at the top of Teufelsberg as a natural parabolic reverb. In ‘Dimensional Perception’, each song revolves around an object in outer space.
To open M-Plant’s 2021 schedule, Robert Hood announces the return of the Perpetual Masters series. The ‘Underestimated EP’ still sounds as fierce as it did when it was originally released in 1998, delivering Hood’s personal style of minimal, stripped back Techno with crisp beats, powerful build-ups and flawless grooves; nothing is superfluous.
Originally released as a box set and now available as individual records. The label has become synonymous with quality and consistency with a wide range of timeless sounds from Techno, House, Dub Techno, Electro, championing some of the most respected names in the scene and pushing the youth and putting this same youth at the very top of the chain, the label philosophy keeps rotating on a different level of orbits trying to reach always the best result and never be influenced by anything in the scene. This EP includes tracks by Shlømo, Subjected, Truncate and Dead Fader.
Truncate arrives on Token. David Flores’ raw, jacking sound refines the best bits of modern production whilst staying true to the core proponents of the Techno genre. His upcoming appearance on the label shows him in great form, channelling classic sounds in an elegant, reduced fashion.
Audition is now back with another hard-hitting, no compromise EP. Things kicks off with Sync a prime time banger track, while Altered Vision has a more soft side to it with its squelchy synth lines while remaining very playable. On the flip side, The Dictator goes back to more relentless rhythms and heavy sequences, and the EP ends up with In Substance with its ghost-like melodies.
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‘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.
Dutch mainstay Jeroen Search is a true genius of building linear grooves, either subtly breathing or powerfully bouncing. Minimalistic, hypnotic loops simply introduce the varied 5-track EP, followed up some by some heavyweight acid-house punchlines. The flip makes its name, changing course again in order to head deeper for a more heads-down exploration of the bleep-space nebula. Sitting firmly nestled in the center of the record, Magnet Tapes is that endless loop suspended in time and space, slowly working its way into one’s consciousness with every repetition. Search cleverly captures this moment to introduce some sounds beyond the structure of track and loop, challenging our conception of music yet playfully igniting the mind’s imaginations.
The Dutch Sci-Fi Master DJ Surgeles is taking us for a space travel within this 4 tracks EP on Modular Underground.
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.
Token returns with the second instalment of Fuga. Spread across eight tracks once more, the release continues in the same vein as its predecessor presenting a collection of reduced techno recordings in equal parts atmospheric as they are functional. Fuga II provides a continuation of the motifs and constructions explored in the first entry, advancing them to some degree and introducing new characters to Token, whilst maintaining a sense of cohesion within the series itself, and the label as a whole.
The solid Spanish producer is back. He presents three tracks with his unique style that is clean and repetitive.
The next release from Koryu Budo brings one of the pivotal figures of the Madrid underground techno scene on board, Unkle Fon. Musically speaking, Manuel started as a guitarist and soon evolved into studio engineer, label owner, club promoter, record shop owner (Ater Cosmo), social agitator… and adventurous character that reflects in his productions all his knowledge of the dancefloor.
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.
