Super Rhythm Trax serves up a trio of 1990 style, rave-era British acid house/techno tributes from Jared Wilson. The three tracks could be considered riffs on a theme, as each – in different ways – reminded us of Orbital’s early work. Choose between the bold acid lines and jack-track beats of “How Deep”, the acid melodies and “Belfast” style chords of “Plate Mining”, and the pleasingly alien acid-funk of “Idea of A Deep State”.
Patrick Walker of Forward Strategy Group on Soma. Starting off on “Space Wrecks”, it sees Walker drop tough tribal beats and relentless filters. “Outpost” and “Leviathan” go harder, powered by shaking percussion and hammering drums. However, Walker is at his most potent when he plays a more understated hand and closing track “Orbits Decay”, with its loose drums, lulls listeners into a false sense of security before Walker garrotes them with bursts of cheese-wire percussion.
Crimes Of The Future rounds off the year in fine style with an absolutely essential EP from TWINS. Three moody US house cuts straught out of Atlanta and a sublime deep remix from label boss Scott Fraser.
After signing his album to the Amsterdam Dekmantel label, Basic Soul Unit still has more to offer. His first outing on the Skudge imprint shows four rugged dark techno jams.
Swedish techno producer and performer Ascorbite is launching his own imprint Corseque Records by releasing a solid four tracker on limited 12” vinyl.
MindTrip presents its 12th release, which sees two young Argentinian techno producers – Alderaan & Mental Resonance – joining forces to create the Man from Earth EP. This record features 3 outstanding, original tracks and an explosive remix from MindTrip’s fulcrum, Pfirter.
With their first release the team behind the Moscow clubbing institution has aimed to recreate the atmosphere that has made the club such an important part of the Russian techno movement. Featuring Oliver Deutschmann, Unbalance, Recid & Anastasia Kristensen.
Don’t Be Afraid imprint welcomes back DJ Bone under the Differ-Ent guise. It’s a sombre tone that sees the Detroit icon return too, with both these tracks produced by Bone in the immediate aftermath of his mother passing away after battling cancer. The 10-minute “M.O.M.” is something of a throbbing, pulsating techno delight, with the Detroit veteran adding colossal organ chords and mind-altering electronics to a stomping, brain-melting groove. Bone goes deeper on similarly epic “The Final Driver”, combining shuffling techno rhythms and alien electronics with warm, deep chords, and the melodic ethos of Omar-S style Detroit house.
BNJMN returns to his regular label home of Delsin with a brand new mini-album of experimental cuts that continue his journey into ever more decayed, lo-fi and gritty sound sculpture. This new release features six tracks and kicks off with ‘Microgravity,’ a shadowy exercise in suspensory dub that ripples and groans, growing in menace over its static laced three minutes. Next, ‘Womb’ is a vast chamber of glory synths and rippling pads that sounds like it comes from the after life, ‘P-Tr’ is a high tension, nerve jangling brew of glassy electronics with heavy kicks buried deep below and ‘1987’, a fuzzy, darkened brew of spacious kicks, whirring machines and bubbly tape sounds that are seriously foreboding. ‘Oder’ is a more emotional work where multiple synth lines echo about and emit cautious rays of light, then finally ‘Amygdala’ is based around a frazzled, oversized and spraying bassline that is backed by radiant pads and a dystopian house groove and it rounds out another expertly outlier collection full of strange yet compelling tracks and textures.
2016 marks a decade since Dario Zenker released his first 12″, the Whatever EP on Balkon. Here, he returns to the Ilian Tape label he co-founded with brother Marco for a first solo missive since his 2014 turn on The Trilogy Tapes. There’s much to admire about Dedication, from the starburst synths and booming, broken techno rhythms of opener “There Is Hope”, to the Roman techno revivalism of “Gianluca Cazzeti”, and the skittish, funk-fuelled intensity of the Dave Clarke style “For Internal Use”. Arguably best of all, though, is “Spice Universal”, a delicious combination of dub-flecked loop techno and the undulating, far-sighted futurism of Detroit.
The young Ukrainian producer follows his debut on Ben Klock’s label with this innovative, unusual techno record. “Axiom” is reminiscent somewhat of DVS1, with its meaty bass snaking its way through an insistent, minimal groove. By contrast, “Sakura” resounds to microscopic beats and hypnotic, tonal bleeps. It’s just as subtle as “Axiom”, but far more understated. This proves to be a temporary diversion however, and straight afterwards, he drops “Lyrae”. Tight claps, insistent pulses and bristling percussion make for a functional but distinctive dance floor track. Last and possibly best of all is “Luna”. Its melancholic bass and windswept, mysterious melodies make for a beautiful, unexpected end to this release.
Psyk takes the stage with a four-track solo EP ”Works”, also including a digital bonus track. On both side’s first positions, with ”Definition” and ”Balance”, Psyk delivers electrifying tracks teetering on the boundaries of hypnosis. On the inner-rims, Psyk slows down the pace with ”Stigma” and ”Lowdown”, introducing some industrial tones to his techno equation.
Stuart Li, better known as Basic Soul Unit, brings his rugged house to the Dekmantel imprint for the very first time, serving up this finely crafted follow-up to his 2012 debut album. Delivering ten Detroit and Chicago-inspired house tracks of the finest calibre, Li’s offset and grubby bruk drums are a constant nod to the dance floor, while his melodies lean towards an unparalleled industrial edged emotion. From the LFO-like synth-line and crunchy jack of ‘Fate In Hand’, to the Levon Vincent-esque techno shuffle ‘n mutter of ‘Landlocked’ and the Morphosis-gone-wild style of ‘Unwavered’, on the to the dark subbass welt of ‘The Rift Between’ and the relentless floor destroyer ‘Temptress’: ‘Under The Same Sky’ sets the bar fly high for raw yet extremely original house music.
Frigio Records are delighted to announce that Alessandro Parisi is once again donning the darkened robes of Hesperius Draco. Following the acclaimed Cathar Rhythms this supremely talented Italian artist delivers. The five track mini-album continues the Draco search to balance tainted techno, sinister synth and soulful sounds. The underhanded rumblings of “Tronitum Domini” introduces before filth encrusted bass blurs the menacing visage of “Mjolnir”, claps scarring the already grimacing sounds. To end the first side, the medieval blast of “ASI Kingdom (Mitt Hjerte)” is track that surely won’t pass unnoticed. Skies crack with thunder by analogue alchemist Drvg Cvltvre on this interesting remix of “Fenrir Eye” which original version ends the release with Blackened clouds build for the intense and tapering approach.
When Richard Maguire is in the mood to make spacey, off-the-wall grit-house, he prefers to go by the name Richard Fearless He’s back on his Drone label with “Overview Effect”, a raw, percussion-driven house cut that falls into the mood end of the spectrum, but contains enough charm and energy to render it a magnificent weapon on the dancefloor. However, the real best is within “Metal Dub” on the B side, and the track’s name describes its sounds only too well, a sublime cascade of wobbly bass tones and rattling drums.
Sneaker is going deep with his interpretation of Rai music on RAT 6. “Rai is a type of Algerian popular music that arose in the 1920s in the Algerian city of Oran, back then known as “little Paris”, it was a melting pot of various cultures, full of nightclubs and cabarets, it was the place to go for a bawdy good time. Out of this milieu arose a group of Male and Female Muslim singers, who rejected the refined, classical poetry of traditional Algerian music. Instead, to the accompaniment of pottery drums and end-blown flutes , they sang about the adversity of urban life in a raw, gritty, sometimes vulgar, and inevitably controversial language that appealed especially to the socially and economically disadvantaged.” sounds like the definition of Rat Life! Put some drum machine patterns on top of it and here we go: long overdue Sneaker solo EP on Rat Life Records!
The Hipodrome Of Music 