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techno
DJ Stingray – Kern Vol.4 [KERN004]
For the latest volume in Tresor’s occasional Kern compilation series, the long standing German imprint has turned to balaclava-sporting Detroit legend DJ Stingray. The Drexciya associate has gathered together a typically forthright selection of techno and electro jams, presented here in unmixed form for pure DJ pleasure. Given that all the material is high quality, picking highlights is tough. Our favourites include the deep space electro brilliance of “Musik Politik” by Syncom Data, the trippy, acid-fired madness of vintage Aphex Twin wriggler “Serge Fenix Rendered 2”, the throbbing sub-bass and crusty drum machine hits of Herva’s “Slam The Laptop” and the bustling techno madness of Dynarec’s intergalactic workout “Moving Corridors”.
Ekman – Doomsday Argument EP [CR1295]
Creme Organization returns in July with four searing electro cuts from Dutchman Ekman. Mixing up West Coast electro with tougher, more textured techno styles in recent releases for Berceuse Heroique and Bedouin Record, this artist is as much about the past as the future and proves that across this new and impressive set of tracks. Doomsday Argument is not as dark as you would expect form the name: its a lithe and slippery electro affair with crisp snares and gurgling bass all topped off by a freaky top line. The Great Filter mixes up distorted bass with rippling glass synths and sounds both spooky and cosmic, then Post Singularity Day picks up the pace with a quick and urgent Drexcyian style that is restless, dynamic and busy. Last of all Antifragile is a wild acid workout with rocking beats and ripping 303s that twitch every nerve in your body.
Dmitry Distant / Natural Magic – Dark Leader 003 [DL003]
Dark Leader 003 featuring Riga’s Dmitry Distant and Portland’s own Natural Magic. Side A begins with “Tukšums” a driving acid jam by Dmitry Distant that brings the energy level up to 11. Natural Magic’s “Most High” polishes off side A with a triumphantly positive romp that puts the love icing right on the cake. Side B opens with “Artificial Joy” a breaky acid track by Dmitry Distant that will engross the dance floor with groovy sinister funk. This release concludes with Natural Magic’s “Dude Can Dance” a drummy piece of hypnotic dance music that dabbles in experimentalism.
VA – Compilation 05 Sampler 1 [COR056]
Correspondant’s annual compilation dispatches have become calendar essentials for all connoisseurs of the barbed, darker, leftfield side of the dancefloor. This summer they hit ‘Correspondent Compilation 5’ with another future-bound 15 track opus from their label family and friends. This inaugural vinyl samplers is turbo-charged by some of the label’s newest friends as Khidja, Marvin & Guy and Kempes all make their Correspondant compilation debuts alongside established affiliate Jonathan Kusuma. Each artist drawing out some deliciously mystic sci-fi aesthetics to the collection, it’s a remarkable introduction to what is arguably one of the Jennifer Cardini’s label’s most comprehensive and explorative various artist albums to date.
Mick Clarke – Play Time [FRV025]
Frigio Records is going back in time for its latest release, some 38 years into the past. Back then a young Newcastle man was experimenting with early electronic instruments and synths. Mick Clarke is his name and nearly forty years later he is still at it. Two tracks have been borrowed from Clarke’s seminal Games LP, each given a bit of modern boot polish from MinimalRome’s Heinrich Dressel and Frigio father Juanpablo. “Walls of the Night” is a blissed out work of ambient prog rock abstraction. Think rumbling horror score and soaring guitar strings. Heinrich Dressel offers a giallo dipped remix. The building bars of the original are maintained, beats added for ballast and darkened organ keys for a remake etched with murderous intent. The flip is introduced by the dreamy “Time Is Now.” Slender synthlines intertwine with gentle strings in a cerebral work. Juanpablo tweaks the 1979 material. Syrupy acid lines swim in meandering currents, a thick beat keeping time in murky waters of modulations and undulations.
VA – Act II [PROPAGANDAM002]
The legendary Moscow club Propaganda celebrates its 20th Anniversary in April 2017 and launches a brand new record label. The label will cover different styles of intelligent electronic music, focusing on techno in the first year. At the beginning there will be released music by great artists who had performances at Propaganda club in past. More artists will be involved and more excellent music will be released over time.
Alderaan – Retina EP [WU049]
The argentinian Alderaan makes his debut on Warm-Up Recordings. He offers three slices of modern techno, heavy percussive based but whit a lot of intelligent elements inside. Oscar Mulero remixes one track, getting rid of the textures and focusing in rhythm and repetition in a minimalistic remake.
Johannes Heil – Exile 008 [EXILE008]
With no track names, minimalist artwork and a matter-or-fact EP title (simply the record’s catalogue number), it would be fair to assume that Johannes Heil’s latest EP is a forthright, no-nonsense affair. Predictably, it is, with the long serving German producer dishing up a quartet of throbbing techno box jams. While each track is a loopy, rhythm-based trip, there’s still variety across the EP. Contrast, for example, the fluttering, alien-sounding synth loops and crunchy snare hits of “Track 2” with the buzzing, industrial-tinged intensity of “Track 3”. Or, for that matter, the jacking drum machine percussion and heavy bass of “Track 4”, and the clandestine creepiness of standout cut “Track 1”.
Rag Dabons – Boite De 4 [CCRT7AM004]
VA – Plaza 001 [PLAZA001]
Plaza’s first physical release features 4 tracks from an all local lineup of Atripat, Consulate, Lanngman and Mike Midnight. This one comes from a special place, a place where raw electronic excursions go head to head with heavy machine fuelled jams. Conceived in the North Western Coast and commemorated from the depths of the City.
Ekman – Sturm Und Drang [SHIP051]
Roel Dijcks, better known as Ekman, is no stranger to Shipwrec. Following his Heimwee EP and Synaptic Feedback Loops comes a two tracker of serious proportions. “Sturm un Drang” gets the ball rolling. A rasping beat cuts into thick bass. A pool of liquified notes shimmers as an isolated world unfolds, a tactile world of arcing strings and clean complexity. If “Sturm un Drang” is a glimpse into an alien realm, “First Mover” is surely the beast that inhabits it. Bulbous bars trudge through a swamp of static, distortion drips from cymbals leaving melodies buried in the marshland.
Outermost – Intruder EP [EVR025]
When the derangement has reached the limitless limits. Like the sound of a light-beam reaching the immense gravitational waves of a black hole. Is there sound in nothingness This is your Outermost reality.
Black Merlin @ Strange Sounds From Beyond (Amsterdam) 25.06.2017
Bill Converse – The Shape Of Things To Come [DE158]
Dark Entries present the sophomore album from Austin, Texas analogue hardware enthusiast Bill Converse. Immersed in the early days of the 90s midwest rave scene, Bill began DJing at a young age in Lansing, Michigan. Luminaries such as Claude Young, Traxx, and Derrick May were key early influences. Techno, noise, ambient and tape processing are all part of his uncanny sound palette. ‘The Shape Of Things To Come’ is a 70 minute journey spread across two pieces of vinyl. It’s comprised of seven tracks recorded directly to tape with no overdubs, made at Converse’s home studio. At the time of recording, Bill was sending this material to Josh Vance (Josua Dorje Ngodup) for feedback. Most of the time Josh would respond in the form of artwork, and then Bill would create another track inspired by this feedback chain. Converse has dedicated this series of tracks to him. The songs on this album reveal a sublime influence from Detroit techno, early Chicago house, and Acid. For this album Converse slightly bumped up the tempos geared for dancefloor energy. Built around vintage synthesizer lines and gritty drum machine percussion, the tracks evoke how things have changed and how they have come to be.
ADMX-71 – Melted Fuel [LIES097]
Techno veteran Adam-X dons his ADMX-71 moniker with three tracks of subterranean, cyborb, body music influenced slow grinding techno. Tense, textured, and ready to explode all three tracks explore the dark present and future we are heading towards, with track titles like Nuclear Hysterics and Dire Situation the music goes hand in hand with the modern day chaos unfolding daily. Properly heavy and dense there is still air letting the tracks breathe and develop as they slowly boil over scorching everything in their path.
Cardopusher – Nothing Left To Believe In EP [ZONE029]
Zone Records welcomes Cardopusher for their next EP, a five track affair that is arresting from the off. Venezuelan born Cardopusher is now based in Barcelona and co-founded the Classicworks label. His diverse and experimental sound takes him from techno to electro to acid to rave to house, all with his own singular perspective. Kicking things off is the raw and raucous ‘Nothing Left to Believe In.’ It is a macho tune with fractured vocals, wild synths and slap funk drums all sounding industrial and tortured. Then comes ‘Blast Cut’, a more dynamic and stripped back electro groove with a corrugated bassline and metallic synth stabs all sounding informed by the past but looking to a distant future.
Interstellar Funk @ Strange Sounds From Beyond (Amsterdam) 25.06.2017
Mor Elian – Cymatic Ring [FAM001]
Fever AM comes from a Berlin connection between a pair of artists with roots on either side of the Mediterranean Sea and on both sides of the Atlantic. Label founders Mor Elian and Rhyw (one half of Cassegrain) share many musical reference points reaching back to early childhood right up to the present including the deeper, darker reaches of electronic music. The label is the pair s rawest and truest realisation of these influences. The first EP will be from Elian, a sublime 4 tracker that has matured after a winter in the studio and is now ready for club play – from heating up peak time dance floors to trippier after hours moments. Sprinkling her trademark stripped back sound with electro and breakbeats the release sets out the label s stall to release vibrant, challenging dance floor music.
Annanan & Maroje T. – The Brooklyn Sessions [PNKMN020]
The Brooklyn Sessions bring together old and new Pinkman friends. Annanan returns, this time with Maroje T, for three pieces of NY darkness. Acid tainted torment opens the 12″, pain and rejection catalogued in the barren “Confrontations in Terms of Sexuality.” “I Saw You” maintains that cold edge. Militaristic percussion is dipped in industrial grease, lost samples circling in a haze of distortion. The pair explore reduction with tracks being boiled down to leave only distilled dread behind. The breathy vocals of “I Am” close, drum patterns looped into machine groan and the aching abyss.
The Hipodrome Of Music 