Willie Burns returns on the great Trilogy Tapes. The title track is akin to traveling in a time machine to 4am on a Saturday night in Den Haag circa 1994 – real grotty basement acid techno! Providing contrast in a way Burnett does so well, the B-side offers two tracks of a more immersive nature, with “She Left In Spring” an exercise in dubby techno as pensive as the title would suggest.
Ron Morelli returns to stare down the ‘floor with four pieces written during the stress-busting sessions for ‘Spit’. The muggy, droning welt of ‘Public Consumption’ kicks off with the sound of New York techno shot from the hip, while ‘Another Hit’ vents a vintage era-Regis style built on skull-chipping snares and effluent acid modulation. The album’s writhing batacuda banger, ‘Crack Microbes’ reappears here as an extra-ferric extended Version, sustaining the hypnotic intensity for nine minutes of panic attack acid and febrile cowbells, while ‘’Rushing Again’ escorts us to a close with triplet techno shook down by railgun snares and a grotty synthline.
The Power of Hydrogen EP collects three of Subspec’s finest Acid tracks as the label’s debut vinyl release, including a Hardfloor remix.
The first release on the Adelaide Soundworks label comes from producer TX Connect. He delivers 3 diverse lo-fi techno jams; lovely oldschool vive on the A side while the tracks on the flip are a bit more fierce
First full length album by Exploit combines punchy techno grooves and mature melodic electronic passages. You are taken on a real deep space journey: from strict techno in Utopia and UFO, through dubby chords of Time Slowdown and Visual Distorion, to electronic works like Shifted Reality and No Escape.
Shtum continues its trip through dark and gritty territories with its third record by Yor. And what he delivers is pure Techno-bliss. “Nachtwache” starts things off rather groovy with its Tom-heavy beats and rising synths. Following up, “Ritus” is driven by a hypnotic chord delay and makes an advanced Techno-track you can’t resist on the dance floor. On the flipside it gets even more bewitching. “Agony” develops a never ending suction over its 8 minute length. Finally, “Under The Influence” is no less mesmerizing but more playful Techno. It’s a track that feels like a storm is coming.
Not much more than a year has passed since the Zenker Brothers presented their debut EP Lion in Mars on Tresor Records. The follow-up record segues perfectly between a triumphant year in the studio and in performance, and a 2014 which promises to take their growing reputation for blazing techno to new heights.
The Zenker Brothers welcome Italian producer Stenny back into the Illian Tape fold for a third time, with the Eternal Restriction 12″ offering a further refinement on his distinctive blend of heavy bass, loud sonics and rhythmic syncopation. Dario and Marco end the record with a remix of the title track that evens out a few of the kinks without edging too close to being straightforward.
Welcome Rismu, a new project of M.A.D.A. (Marseille/France) debuting on Affin! Opener MST combines tricky chords with massive beats, working perfect as a bridge in the mix. The Plant Worker (also known from Blank Code & Limited) remix emphases the technoid elements of the original. S3 going its way with floating chord arrangements, nice delayed percussive lines and pounding beats while the reshaped version from The Plant Worker another time focuses more on his stoic beats
Strong release with trippy acid injected tracks to more psychotic trippy techno. Juho Kahilainen – the man who actually inspired label owner Max_M to conceive the Grey Series sublabel – returns with a new EP of experimental excursions that delve into the darkest realms of dance music. Max_M and his Grey Series continue to grant freedom to artists deviating from cliches and formulas. Juho’s “Dyson Sphere” encompasses that exact desire.
Deeper techno tracks by the macchines of Milano. Le Macchine are a Milanese trio formed of Cristian Croce, Luca Saponaro, and Nicola Mazzetti.
Phonica announce the arrival of their celebratory compilation marking ten years of the shop. A triple LP pack, where some of their favourite artists produced a track for an eclectic yet cohesive compilation, which will hopefully go some way towards sonically unfolding the ‘Ten Years of Phonica’. The triple LP features tracks from: I:Cube, Trevor Jackson, Raudive, Discodromo, Joe Claussell, John Morales, Henrik Schwarz, Massimiliano Pagliara, Iori remixed by Steve Moore, Juju & Jordash, Legowelt & In Flagranti.
Continuing the feeling that a new Legowelt record is seemingly announced or released on a weekly basis, the Dutch producer adds another label to his faintly daunting discography by inaugurating the Spanish label Riverette. Aside from a sparse website and hollow Soundcloud account, little is known about this low-key Madrid label, but it’s easy to focus on the music here as the Blue Tearz 12″ offers a snapshot of Legowelt’s production diversity. The title track grips all available space on the A Side and offers a perfect display of Wolfers’ talent for wrenching melodic beauty out of his equipment, whilst “I Shadow Wolf III” – which must be a reference to his recently unveiled Shadow wulf CyBeRpUnK E-ZiNe – is reminiscent of Psyche-era Carl Craig. “Source Of Menace” meanwhile is vintage Legowelt.
Following suit where his 2xlp left off Gunnar Haslam presents a new ep for L.I.E.S. Once again we see Haslam find a nice balance between combining samples and hardware in his productions creating moving and atmospheric tracks, which range from slow stripped down soundtrack style cuts to more developed far out techno.
New release by Arcanoid one Tabernacle Records, presenting his exploratory take on techno and electro.
Next for Brokntoys is prolific producer of the underground UK Electro scene, Scape One. Kurt Baggaley has released on many electro labels over the years including SCSI-AV, Drivecom, Electrix and Cultivated Electronics. For this EP Scape One serves up 4 tracks of deep and murky electro and techno for the early morning and afterhours.
Next on the “The Crystal Issue” series is EXS a side project from Robert Witschakowski better known as The Exaltics. Authentic Soul Techno flows on this one sided clear blue vinyl edition. German Techno rooted in Detroit for those who know.
