techno
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.
DJ Nephil LIVE @ Mechatronica, Griessmühle (Berlin) 10.06.2017
Dj Overdose – Feeding The Fad [UTTU074]
Label-hopping Dutchman DJ Overdose can usually be relied upon to bring the goods. Happily, he’s in fine form on this first solo Unknown to the Unknown appearance since 2015’s fantastic Housejam Freaker. Wisely, he’s decided to steer clear of well-worn retro-futurist cliches (jungle breaks, hardcore revivalism and so on), instead delivering a trio of raw cuts that blend elements of electro, 1990 style European techno and blistering acid house. Flipside “Probably Too Commercial”, a rough-and-ready dose of distorted, high octane electro smothered in alien electronics, is probably the pick of the bunch, though sweaty, stab-tastic opener “Feeding The Fad” – all razor-sharp electronic riffs, wayward drum machine beats and old school vocal samples – also impresses.
Justin Cudmore – Acid Series Vol.2 [IT039]
To celebrate 10 years of No Way Back (a regular party in Detroit…and beyond), the label is launching the Acid Series, a series of records on Interdimensional Transmissions inspired by the No Way Back parties. The second release in the series comes from Justin Cudmore. He is the latest in the line of midwesterners to emerge from the Brooklyn music scene, hailing originally from Illinois. And you can hear it in his music, that mesmerizing midwestern groove and deep heady thoughtfulness.
Crystal Maze – Mind Process Controller [EIDE003]
Brokntoys techno series detic continues with Crystal Maze. Gijs Poortman & Marco Spaventi form Crystal Maze, a sporadic project when they both get the time away from their busy solo projects. Here they present 4 tracks cutting between rolling techno, deep jacking grooves and beatless excursions.
Villa Åbo – Brain Charter Disco [BSR012]
Since ’87 a 13 year old Jan Svensson AKA Villa Abo has been the back bone of Swedish electronic experimentalist group Frak and behind one of the biggest inspirations for Butter Sessions, Borft Records. As always, Jan keeps pushing the boundaries on this 4 tracker.
Mick Wills – VRRC Podcast 023
UnknownmiX – Chew Some More [LXRC031]
UnknownmiX was a band active in Zürich between 1983 and 1992. Their music is a mixture of free vocalism, new wave and industrial, they released five LPs and three EPs. Out of their discography Lux Rec selected four tracks, remastered from the original tapes, and presented as a sampler EP. Four tracks that fit perfectly to the label’s tonal view. An ode to those Zürich days, when excesses and uncompromising choices were a badge of honour. And music was something to fight for, or fight with, or dive in and die.
Broken English Club – The English Beach [LIES094]
British techno veteran Oliver Ho has released some fine material as Broken English Club since debuting the alias back in 2014. The English Beach, Ho’s second BEC full-length and first for L.I.E.S, is the audio equivalent of a trip to a run-down North Sea coastal resort on a wet Wednesday in November. Full of end-of-days electronics, stripped-back industrial techno, moody minimal wave shufflers and bubbly EBM workouts, it’s as authentic a tribute to early ’80s electronic experimentalism as you’re likely to hear all year. Highlights include the Nitzer Ebb style bounce of “Pylon”, the foreboding, desolate electronica of “Rust Ballad”, the angry electro moodiness of “Carrion” and the rolling, organ-laden autumnal bliss of “The English Beach”.
Steffi – Fabric 94 [FABRIC187]
Given that there have been 93 previous editions of Fabric’s long-running mix series, you’d think DJs would struggle to find a new angle. Steffi, though, has had no such problems. The Berlin-based Dutchwoman has flipped the script by commissioning all 16 tracks especially for the mix. It’s a neat trick and works well, with the result being a typically impressively put-together stroll through a myriad of techno, house, IDM and electro-related sounds. There are two exclusive Steffi collaborations (one with Martyn as Doms and Deykers, the other with Shed), alongside seriously good cuts from pals Dexter (solo and alongside Virginia), Late Night Approach, Answer Code Request, Privacy and UAS.
VA – Dollydeluxe3 [DOLLYDELUXE003]
Number 3 of this 4 piece exclusive 12-inch series! All tracks are specially produced for Steffi’s Fabric 94 mix CD.
Heinrich Dressel – The Styx Swamp [BAR014]
Roman producer (and a force behind MinimalRome label) Valerio Lombardozzi known as Heinrich Dressel returns to Barba with a second release for our label, titled “The Styx Swamp”. Heinrich has a unique way of combining classic techno and electro sounds with elements from the beloved Drexcyan universe and John Carpenter leitmotifs, and making them come together in a manner that both moves your body and pushes your mind beyond the point of awareness. “Gray Slope”, “Sailing The Nether Waterways” and “The Styx Swamp” are all quite moody and deep, rich with sound and thick with vibe. However, the tracks feel equally at home in 4 am techno situation and a heady afterhours affair. He truly is a master of crafting hybrids whose influences get so flawlessly embedded that it’s hard to point them out. If that’s not enough, “The Styx Swamp” got a treatment by Nigel Rogers aka Perseus Traxx, a multi-faceted producer and a mighty live act performer. Nigel stayed respectful to the original but made the original’s bouncy groove into something more direct and reduced, while retaining the same feel conditioned by lead synth’s hypnotic quality.
Obergman – Quantum Eraser [BT008]
BT08 brings back Obergman to brokntoys after his appearance on the Guests of Reality compilation. The Stockholm based producer showcases here his trademark sound, off-key driving excursions complemented by an icy beatless number.
Jasen Loveland – Acid Series Vol.1 [IT038]
Jasen Loveland is a doctor of medicine, with interests in house music and computer dating. This is his recorded debut. Recorded in LA and mixed in Detroit at the IT studios. To celebrate 10 years of No Way Back (a regular party in Detroit…and beyond), the label is launching the Acid Series, a series of records on Interdimensional Transmissions inspired by the No Way Back parties.
