Three deep, spheric house tunes by Ireland’s John Daly on Secretsundaze. Glorious string loaded tracks with nice basslines and warm pads. All tracks have a nice melancholic and Detroit-ish techno feel.
techno
OCH vs Jay Bliss – The Remix EP [AUTO015]
OCH has a strong pedigree of collaborations with fellow underground stalwart Jay Bliss the latest to share space on a Autoreply record with the label boss. Bliss should be known to many as the co-owner of Electrique Boutique alongside Markus Homm, for a long time the only vinyl outlet in Romania, and his discography makes for impressive reading these days. Recent times have seen Mr Bliss share record space with the likes of Skudge and Petre Inspirescu on respected imprints like 20:20 Vision, All Inn, Hudd Traxx and Fear Of Flying. AUTO 015 kicks off with a bouncy rework of OCH’s “Scammell” from Bliss featuring sub-aqua sound-scapes and sonar blips on an instantly playable US inspired groove. OCH’s original has a distinctly liquid approach possibly referencing the work of LTJ Bukem and Good Looking over techno framework. Jay’s main offering “Men Are From Mars” is sexy controlled acid which OCH shifts up a gear for peak time floor-play layering the original TB303 patterns to thundering climax. Road-tested on Eleven Club, Tokyo’s Alpha System’s custom speakers.
Mike Parker – Lustrations [PRGLP004]
The Essentials of Techno! It’s been twelve years since the first and last Mike Parker album called “Dispatches”. 12 years later, Prologue is very excited to host the second album from Mike and this time it’s all about techno performed as a kind of ritual. Let us open the secrets of Mike Parker’s “Lustrations”. The title has multiple meanings and stands also for clarity. Clarity is in general the attitude of Mike’s tracks. He has the massive aptitude to bring techno back to the essentials. Mike’s music has clarity in sound structures, bass lines, drums and arrangements. Everything is lead by puristic sound engineering and exactly this kind of unique and authentic Techno can be discovered on “Lustrations”. 12 hypnotic driven tracks designed to be timeless, produced to be played in techno temples in order to set the audience in hypnotism and to clear the mind.
NX1 – NX105 [NX105]
When I opened my eyes it seemed that something has changed, the same people, the same place, the same climate, but a different situation to which I adapted by inertia, lay before us a new dimension. Thick, intimate, felt. Music as nexus. Industrial banging techno from the Spanish NX1 label.
Marco Zenker – Morpho [IT019]
Marco aka The Riss Jr. Zenker is back with a pumping 3 tracker right before the Bavarian summer holidays. Excellent, tough jacking, classic 1990s US Techno reminiscent EP.
Truncate & Luis Flores – Ratios [TRUNCATE009]
The 9th release in the Truncate series featuring some solid warehouse techno tracks. This time from labelboss Truncate and Luis Flores.
Tobias – Classics [NAIF005]
Naif returns with 2 bass line-killers here on number 005, delivered by Tobias. from Berlin and o.utlier from Ireland.
VA – Ldnwht 1 [LDNWHT001]
LDNwht, London White is a new London based vinyl only. For the first release they lineup four tracks by Charlton, Viktoria Rebeka, Bleaching Agent and Espen Lauritzen. Hard hitting, noisy, acidic Techno mini compilation.
Metropolis – A Machine Of Desire [SEQ007]
Nick Lapien’s debut release as Metropolis garnered little attention when it materialized last year. A skeptical yet dedicated network of underground heads built up a subterranean buzz that has yet to spread into the daylight. That initial transmission was thick with the raw analogue flavors that have become ever-present in dance floor fare recentlybut his is a sound that is dedicated to the emotive, narrative aspects of electronic music rather than simple fetishization or passing curiosity in the days of yore. This, his second release as Metropolis, shows a more focused and patient hand at work. The titular track on the A side is a deep, psychedelic groover. Melodies, textures and sequences undulate and intertwine within a lightless atmosphere guided by Lapien with optimum restraint. Equally pensive and gorgeous, The Flood serves as a Machine’s beat-less foil on the reverse. Made up of little more than feedback and two slow, echo laden arpeggiated sequences, this is reminiscent of Jean Michel Jarre’s more sinister moments: a brilliant paradox of economy and indulgence.
Parassela – Home Alone EP [RST017]
Parassela is the studio and live project of Blawan and The Analogue Cops. The project lands on Restoration, featuring the appearance of Pariah on track A1, a crossover monster of techno and garage. Getting darker, A2 is an unfriendly radio-activity with a gloomy chicagoid reminiscence. Side B displays two dystopic cuts of massive sci-fi acidic techno. There are no titles for the tracks, just insurgent grooves, by men and machines, coming from magnetic tapes.
Floorplan aka Robert Hood – Paradise [MPM16LP]
Paradise sees minimal Detroit techno icon Robert Hood exploring the Floorplan concept in more expansive style. The Floorplan project was founded in the mid 90s, as Hood looked to merge his minimalist approach with elements of house, disco, funk and gospel. Explored intermittently over a six year period, Hood put it to one side and it was a reissue of the Floorplan debut by Rush Hour that inspired him to revisit the project in 2011, scoring a bonafide gem in “We Magnify His Name”. Explored in album format here, Paradise is a mixture of all new material and tracks culled from these recent M Plant 12″ releases, lending the album a sense of continuity. It’s all the more impressive when you consider the fact Hood’s been releasing one highly conceptual album a year since 2009.
The Third Man – Pipes of Helios Canyon [EPM004V]
Features 2 tracks taken from The Third Man’s debut album Beyond the Heliosphere with Legowelt remixing Pipes of Helios Canyon, with the addition of the growling Techno tune The Tracker.
R-Zone – R-Zone 03 [RZONE003]
R-Zone is a new label launched by Global Darkness. Who is involved isn’t exactly a secret, those who feel so inclined can piece the information together quite easily. It is however irrelevant to the concept of R-Zone, which would like to shift the focus away from namedropping and perception based on hype around individual artists and bring it back where it belongs; in the lap of the music.
Stellar OM Source – Joy One Mile [RVNGNL020CD]
Stellar OM Source’s new album, Joy One Mile, marks a certain and spirited departure into worlds unknown. A faithful leap into the infinite beat, Joy One Mile is the most forward-reaching effort by Stellar OM Source yet. Stellar OM Source originated from Christelle Gualdi’s desire to unhinge from her academic musical upbringing. Gualdi completed her studies in electro-acoustic composition at the Conservatoire de Paris after earning an architecture degree. The process of Gualdi’s “unlearning” began in experimental ensemble settings, and it became more recognizable as she moved toward solo performance. Stellar OM Source’s name is fittingly inspired in part by the pathway to higher consciousness and cosmos via one’s own voice. Based By virtue of her many aspirations and the array of hardware that Gualdi brought to the table, Joy One Mile took form in chaos. Where this disorder might cripple others, Gualdi’s response was energetically and emotionally charged. While recording, each corner of Joy One Mile became draped in dramatic ornamentation, the mood rarely varying from frantic to frenetic. From the vantage point of the finish line, Joy One Mile bares no straight club tracks, but it depends upon a percussive propulsion nevertheless. The singularity of Gualdi’s compositions, when pulled back and recalibrated even slightly, resemble early era Warp Records, and, by that admission, the wayward electro of early-90s Detroit. The abstractions in Gualdi’s programming and mutant melodies is what keeps Joy One Mile perfectly relegated to outsider status, akin to the primitive techno of Esplendor Geometrico and Chris & Cosey.
“Sometimes you feel that you’re getting really close to what being alive means, be it learning about distant planets or being grounded by life’s occasionally heavy burden,” notes Gualdi. “Joy One Mile grew from the consciousness of such moments. When I listen to it, I see myself walking through a pouring rain at night with headphones on, embracing both the misery and ecstasy.”
VA – Bosconi Stallions Athena [BOSCONI025]
For the fourth and final round of the Stallions compilation, Bosconi Records closes in style with Athena: muscular four tracks that run between Detroit and Chicago sounds, Dub and Ambient aiming at the discovery of new, unexplored horizons. The Oliverwho Factory with a rousing Mind Free, Nick Anthony Simoncino of an entrancing and picturesque Tramonto Techno, Nicholas with a soaring and disruptive From Somewhere Else and Ennio Colaci on beautifully nuanced Hinterland.
John Daly – The Breakthrough [FEEL014]
”I’ve been trying to make a track like this for many years, fusing the sounds of 70s heavy jazz with melodic techno. This is the breakthrough. Fascination and resistance.’
Stellar OM Source – Elite Excel [RVNGNL019]
“Elite Excel” is the lead track from Joy One Mile, the new album by French visual artist and musician Stellar OM Source. Furthering her sound from the formless soundscapes of her earlier work by digging into the roots of Detroit electro and techno primitivism, Christelle Gualdi’s version of dance music is unpredictable and inventive. “Elite Excel” pits a puckish synthline against a morose 303 bassline and icey arpeggiation, sharing a similar frequency with LFO’s classic output. The b-side features a top-notch remix by techno recluse producer Kassem Mosse, who also arranged and mixed Joy One Mile.
Andy Ash / Circular Rhythms – Dub 2 [SCN003]
A heavy lead rhythm provides the foundation from which spiralling elements project. They coruscate, pulse with light and collapse inwards, until just the echoes of Dub2 are left. Rising from these depths, the sharpness of Distribution Theorys crisp hi-hats and snapping claps provide forward momentum to a series of stabs. The house element. Beginning as a mystery but ending as a certainty, the ethereal theme that opens Untitled Document gives way as it increases velocity, shaking and rattling under the strain. The apex. Hands reach, seeking, The elusive moment has already passed, all left is pure. Bliss. Circumflex kicks hard, a final statement of intent. Powerful. Corrosive. This is late night techno, played over a system on which the squelching acid-lines converge within the mind. The body jacks.
Elec PT.1 – Another Untitled EP [PANZERKREUZ1013]
New and improved Bunker / Panzerkreuz Records! A4 inlay with artwork by Elec PT.1 himself + red Bunker stamp! Deutschland keeps on pushing it with some more macabre acidic industrial techno, dark and psychotic as the Lord has intended, ‘das beste Stahl’!
The Sun God – The Nine Billion Names Of God EP [RHYTHM007]
Four mindbending & spiritual acid sessions by mighty mr. Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being, reconnecting the children of earth once more with the ongoing bio rhythm of Dharma, the regulatory order of the universe and the ever & omnipresent sacred spirit of jack.
The Hipodrome Of Music 