Skudge surface once again with a double tracker containing some of their deepest joints yet. With Irie finally available on wax after the Nonplus 5th year celebration, the band plays with contrast, crafting a warm and yet sinister mental floor killer, while Faux ventures into more abstract melodies with one of their hardest drive ever.
For the fourth R-Zone, we serve up three more tracks of fizzing atmospheric house. First track Exclamation is rough and rugged with rattling percussion hidden behind layers of grainy sci fi ambiance and the breathy exhalations of a male voice. Nebulous pads and synths spiral around each other forming a dense layer of dust and next track March Of The Worms is even more militant. This one crawls deep below the surface where analogue machines carve out weird patterns, forming a truly knackered sounding house groove. Finally, Claustrophobic Habits bangs a bit harder, its all splintered drums and coarse claps backed with a howling, gnarly groan and truly transports you to a sonic universe miles away from the norm.
A regular fixture at Hamburg’s Golden Pudel club where she presides over the Birds and Other Instruments night, Helena Hauff is a killer DJ with a keen interest in classic and contemporary electro. A longstanding friendship with Actress has resulted in his Werkdiscs label issuing Actio Reactio, her debut EP of solo productions. Both the title track and “Break Force” see Hauff utilize her arsenal of analogue gear to deliver two tracks of acid-drenched hardware techno, while shorter production “Micro Manifesto” is more grounded in the realm of primitive electronics.
Transhumans bring some fresh new techno sounds to the platter. ‘A piece of raw asphyxiated post-industrial techno which explores the duality between two primary stimulus: pleasure and pain…’ “Stimulus 1” is squelchy, acidic, reverberating and narcotic. Tailor made to get dancers vibrating manically next to the speaker stacks come 5AM. Übermensch remixes the track into something equally as narcotic, but utilizing repeating dark synth stabs and darting leads to send the track further down the wormhole. “Stimulus 2” has a bounce that recalls Dave Angel and Sound Enforcer – straight up banging Euro tech. Rolando-esque strings converge on the track as it evolves, making for a pretty spine-tingling excursion. Finally “Stimulus 3” uses futuristic drum patterns and sounds for some cerebral twisting and body eleviation.
Mute presents Carsten Nicolai & Olaf Bender producing some crispy, abstract Electro & Techno cuts under Diamond Version project.
Effective, hard stomping, noisy droning Techno EP coming from Henning Baer & Milton Bradley under their K209 collaboration.
The second release features multi talented Uncanny Valley artist Jacob Stoy. His fascinating bassline cruiser “S51” from the UV 010 is being properly tuned by Monomood into a massive acid dirt bike racer, that leaves torn soil behind. On the B side you get another deep techno mover called “Dominate” as well as a detroitish and dubby remix by Jacob Stoy.
Berlin/Zurich based label Tardis is back, enthusiastically dancing out of the studio into the dawn of a much wished-for summer. For their second release, Tardis has enlisted Paul Mac aka Jorge Zamacona who hoists in not one but three rough house killers.
FunkinEven’s Apron imprint next release will be the first not to come from FunkinEven himself, and will be sourced instead from 19 year-old Miami producer Greg Beato. “Respect The 78″ pairs crunchy kicks with a noisily filtered arpeggio, “Let Em Know” delivers some smudgy yet powerful deep house, while “3″ finishes off with an abstract techno jam with all the rough sound of a badly scratched Chicago house 12″.
Earlier this year, Nick Hoppner stepped down from his role as Ostgut Ton label manager, handing the reins to Jenus Baumecker without a hint of self importance or grand standing. The reasoning behind this decision was apparently so Hoppner could dedicate more time to creative pursuits and this has delivered some swift results in the form of Red Hook Soil, a three track 12″ for the label he no longer oversees. The release is Hoppner’s first for Ostgut since 2011, though he’s been active in the interim period gracing Kompakt Extra and Echochord with aplomb. All three tracks on the Red Hook Soil see Hoppner in a four-four mood, with the title track venturing into uplifting, and in parts, melancholic fields of production that share a similar, only more textured feel to 2010?s “Brush Me Down” from the EP of the same name. The B-side is met with strains of Italo on the verging-on-epic “Bait & Tackle”, though Hoppner does move into tougher techno territory with a dryer and regimented track in “Decal”.
Expander & Thinkfreak were so hyped up when the World was about to end that they produced three more tracks for the Big Crunch (in physical cosmology, the Big Crunch is one possible scenario for the ultimate fate of the universe). And here we have the final 3-tracker that was made to implode everything in a techno fashion. For those of you who do not want to hear the words of the apocalypse that are part of Sunburner, there is a dub version available on the EP. It’s true that we all survived, in a way. The big blue planet is still pinned to the galaxy, so the future should be bright with more productions of this dynamic duo to come forward. Let us pray.
The end of summer 2013 the Berlin based Fachwerk label clock up its 30th release. The EP features solo productions by all key members of the label family (boss Mike Dehnert and pals Sascha Rydell and Roman Lindau) as well one collaborative effort that also features vocals from Sophia. Vocals are not something normally associated with the dub-wise techno label but listen in to ‘Fachwerk 30’ and you will see how well this crew have made them work within their usual concrete funk template. Above rugged, frayed synths and mutant, mutating melodies, Sophia’s echoing, shadowy voice lurks and imbues the thing with an uneasy sense of paranoia as the machines gurgle all around. Elsewhere, Mike Dehnert turns in the hiccupping techno loops of ‘FK’ complete with searching wide screen and super grainy and grimy synths, whilst Roman Lindau’s ‘The Yeah Thing’ is a cantering techno number with pinging kick drums and gallivanting metallic synths that melt your mind into a molten mess. Finally, Sascha Rydell’s ‘Palinka Girl’ is a heads down groove run through with icy hi hat ringlets and a raw, chunky drum funk plus all the usual shadowy dub textures we have come to love from this most focused and excellent label.
The arrangements are compiled by a selected group of producers focusing mainly on rhythms made for building. We wanted to merge the idea along side true innovators of modern architecture and the thought process it took for reinvention during those times.
Apparent Horizon burst on to the Berlin Scene with a impressive Hera EP. 4 Tracks from Bule and Hunab (a member of Sowing Paranoia). Late ’90s-styled techno dub , infected with the new virus of avant techno.
New project from René Pawlowitz aka Shed. The Final Experiment with two tracks under two Shed’s new aliases of Craft and Seelow. Well equalized, effectively waxed DJ tool killer Techno.
Marcel Dettmann and Steve Rachmad remixes for one of the stronger tracks of Non series, Trow by Maan.
Once again Mutex deliver a killer release with fresh and unique soundscapes. This time deep but pumping techno cuts are supplied by Egor Boss. New age techno heroes Thomas Hessler and Idealist complement the release with their exclusive touches.
The Hipodrome Of Music 