Karen Gwyer returns to cement her reputation as one of the most individual and daring voices in dance music with ‘Rembo’, her first full LP for Don’t Be Afraid. Reflecting the sheer energy of Gwyer’s improvised, undulating and unpredictable live shows, ‘Rembo’ captures Gwyer in her element as a techno producer not afraid to smudge both the physical and emotional edges of what we may have come to expect in the club.
Tracks from Hyvinkää, Finland. Written by Juho Kahilainen and Tomi Kesäniemi. Both boring family men, middle-aged and middle-class. However, they’ve been here long enough to learn a trick or two. Nods to Detroit, nods to acid. A mid-tempo track Tape Loader sounds like a 909 trapped in swamp. Fast and jazzy R Train Funk pays a tribute to Detroit-legends with a decent 303-line to drink beer to. The Tower That Stands In The Woods is a dubby slow-down before Suomi 100 Acid celebrates Finland’s 100th anniversary with lyrics that deal with recession and the Finnish government’s fair deal to cut everyone’s wage.
For their second release Parallax Unknown bring co-founder ES-Q in again on the ‘Friend Zoned EP’ with three club tracks – Friend Zone, Everything Else and Thinking About Thoughts.
Ian Martin should be no stranger to people who are into electro and trippy electronics. With releases on Bunker, Panzerkreuz and Strange Life his reputation is quite settled. For Gooiland Elektro he came up with four tracks filled with dark beats. From pounding to spacey, elektro and EBM influenced with industrial tendencies.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
