Next up on Gravitational Waves, Dj Nephil brings four unrelenting bangers designed for peak hour play. A collection of tough drums and arpeggiated synths is a unifying theme and will serve those djs who want to highly energetic EBM tinged weapons.
techno
Donarra – Les Sentiments De Shiva [SUIT010]
New to the Stay Underground It Pays gang, the tenth release on the label comes from one of the hotest & experimental french producer from Marseille : Donarra. The EP includes 6 cuts, which is almost a mini album introducing us to his astonishing sound. It could be described as dreamy, raw, completely analog, well some kind of proto-techno Chicago new-wave belter.
Richard Fearless – BIS Radio Show #888
400PPM – Fit For Purpose [AVNLP004]
New York native Shawn O’Sullivan returns to Avian as 400PPM with debut LP, ‘Fit for Purpose’. As an artist, O’Sullivan has long since explored the juncture between hard-hitting, functional dance floor material and more lofty, conceptual work. From a purely structural standpoint, the artist’s return to Avian bears all the hallmarks of previous output under the alias, utilising the same palette found on early EP’s for Guy Brewer’s label. Stripped back and driven, the music marries caustic drum-machine polyrhythms with warping, pitch bent leads and characteristically atmospheric use of reverb. It’s a decidedly dance floor offering, but the music comes refracted through O’Sullivan’s own lens, with plenty of elegant references to a career spent exploring much of the Techno genre’s periphery, from Noise to New Wave. Crushed vox bubble up from beneath wrought-iron percussion and the artist takes time to step away from high energy 4×4 workouts to explore more complex rhythmic structures and harsh, low tempo grooves. While O’Sullivan’s music as 400PPM might eschew the colour and vibrance of some of the unabashed hedonists that made up the Club Kids scene – who reinvented the DIY spirit of punk rock and incorporated Sci-Fi and the circus, there is on the one hand an undeniable sense of both the rising hysteria that comes with the pervasive and unbridled drug use for which the group were as infamous as their outfits and rejection of then societal norms, and on the other, a further anxiety regarding the notion of machine-made music in a contemporary society swiftly approaching a new and daunting technological age.
Roogunit – Mesh EP [MOTE049]
Roog Unit is the new production duo fusing together the talents of Luke Slater and Ø [Phase] a.k.a. Ashley Burchett, the music being the result of many months of discourse and growing connection. The full dose of “Mesh” shows two producers clearly at their most focused and precise. Like their best work to date, it will get fans’ active imaginations churning – and leave them wondering what this collaboration has in store for the near future.
Zenker Brothers – The Schyren [IT033]
Noleian Reusse – First Generation EP [RHYTHM022]
From Chicago Noleian Reusse (Africans With Mainframes) serves 3 tracks of alien jacking weirdness. The package is completed with a remix by labelboss Paul du Lac aka Paul West.
Gene Hunt – Feeling It [MNSX010]
One of the founding fathers of Chicago house, himself a grandson to a DJ and frequently alongside other greats such as Ron Hardy on the decks, Gene Hunt summons a 3-tracker for the Midnight Shift label. True house and techno direct from the source and in his own words, a rather ‘jungly’ take of it due to the tracks’ chaotic percussion.
Identified Patient – Weeshuis Der Verloren Zielen [PNKMN019]
Identified Patient debuts on Pinkman with a brimming 12” with claustrophobia and paranoia. Acrid acid lines have been boiled down and smeared across cranking percussion. Sired in a soup of static, a blackened groove stalks the entire EP. Dusty beats are rinsed in smelting liquor, a smouldering EBM undercurrent surfacing as the noose tightens to a close.
Alessandro Adriani – Fall Elsewhere and Shatter [PBD007]
Alessandro Adriani weaves a nightmarish scenario as the Mannequin man returns to Pinkman’s Broken Dreams with four hardened works. Beats are shaven into rigid points as EBM echoes are speared with contemporary contempt. Throughout the quartet are moments of exotic abstraction, psychological stresses and visceral disorders. Music for sleepless nights and addled minds.
Seph – Rom [AMR010]
The Aula Magna team presents the label’s tenth release, Rom by Seph, featuring Cosmin TRG as remixer. A modern and energetic EP that showcases the artist’s unique techno sound: deep, robust & daring. Lead track Rom kicks off the record in breakbeat manner, an epic cut that twists its sounds progressively through distorted percussive and melodic riffs. This is followed by Cosmin TRG’s tribal take on the title track, a mind-dazzling and hypnotic reinterpretation. Two techno highlights from Seph’s latest live sets thrust the B side even further into the dance floor. Inner warps its solid rhythmic core through swirling dub noise mayhem and P+1 ends the record with a steady synth chord that evolves throughout the track on top of a powerful, stripped down beat.
VA – Voiceless Z [AF005Z]
Analogical Force drops the third and last part in the voiceless series taking no prisoners. For this EP AF mastermind Pervert has teamed up with incendiary friends to deliver a must for the collectors of the label. Heavy line up that includes the Hamburg’s well respected Helena Hauff, Zurich’s acid lover CCO (50% of Savage Grounds), the legendary UK techno imprint B12, Canada’s Suction Records co-funder Lowfish and Utrecht based Endfest. Stunning 5-track record with loads of acid-drenched techno, super wide basslines, melancholic pads, slamming 808’s…enough to fill brains as well as floors. This release is dedicated to Rhys Celeste.
VA – Time Marches On (Part 2) [LDR2020]
Lunar Disko presents… Time marches on with two Various Artist EPs to celebrate the 20th release on Lunar Disko Records. Eight tracks encompassing the modus operandi of the label since the beginnings. Part 2 features another selection of Lunar Disko favourites, with the return of DJ Overdose and Raiders of the Lost ARP, while two of Ireland’s finest in Tr One and Automatic Tasty complete this stellar line-up. ..and time is still marching on
Steve Summers – Artifical Light [CLEAR004]
The prolific Jason Letkiewicz returns to his Steve Summers alias for a suite of post-apocalyptic jack tracks. Across labels like L.I.E.S., Future Times, Echovolt, Nation and Clone, Letkiewicz spent the last decade exploring dimensional rifts between techno, house, noise, ambient and more. After occupying nearly as many cities as monikers he’s landed in Chicago and on local outpost Clear.
D’Marc Cantu / Rival – Omega Red / Sustain [DRONE010]
D’Marc Cantu’s second release on Drone is an introspective, emotive piece of electro. With it’s deep pads, ‘Omega Red’ provides the soundtrack to a trek through the snowy wastes, never letting up and calling through the night. In contrast, under his Rival alias Cantu delivers ‘Sustain’ a ferocious track with monotonous drum lines that slowly takes you into the night.
Pablo Mateo – Tentlover EP [AR001]
‘Artful Rifle’ is a new record label dedicated to ‘non-serious techno music’ founded by Berlin based producer Pablo Mateo. The first release “Tentlover” EP comes up with 4 atmospherical, psychedelic techno trips – paying an homage to Octavia E. Butlers ‘Xenogenesis’ trilogy.
Gavin Guthrie aka TX Connect – VRRC Podcast 022
Vertical67 – Morphed Reality [BT018]
Fresh from contributing from The Glowing compilation Vertical67 AKA Thomas Pahl is back on brokntoys with Morphed Reality. BT18 shows his versatility as a producer switching between gnarly, acid flecked electro to more introspective, IDM influenced brooding techno.
Mystic Letter K – Soul Storm [MLK001]
MLK presents Soul Storm (MLK1) by Mystic Letter K (aka Cari Lekebusch), the first release in the new MLK series. The EPVcontain 2 extraordinary electro sonic experiments that will continue the story of a mystery in sound architecture science.
3KZ – Not From Here [BALANS021]
The Dutch label Balans Records returns with it’s twenty-first instalment to the series. This time Darko Esser’s imprint presents a collaboration between Z.I.P.P.O and Kalean, under their 3KZ moniker. ‘Not From Here’ opens the EP with its flowing grooves & eerie pads to create a beautiful techno track followed by ‘Nature Of Motion’ that offers an astral like immersion to the listener with its haunting melodic rhythms. On the flipside ‘Circles’ & ‘Times’ switch up the vibe in a more intense & playful mood, resulting in a finely balanced EP of atmospheric driving techno.
