Semantica drops a new release with Svreca’s two-tracker “Vilna/Hagagatan”. By title sounding like a tribute to the Baltic Sea region, its A-side features a galvanized treatment of “Vilna” by Orphx, an industrial-rooted collective knowing no mercy. This is honest techno with echoing thunder and distortion-coated bass, in Spanish-Canadian collaboration. Dark rhythm and noise exposure also in “Hagagatan”, which takes to the throat of a foundry with all exit doors blocked.
Marco Bernardi is back on Clone Royal Oak with a beautiful three track ep! Tracks that are a nice blend of his roots in Glasgow and Detroit techno stirred into a nice personal outing that show his talents. The Ep features slowly building tracks that keep the tension high with Bernardi’s trademark melodies layered over basic house rhythms with a raw edge.
After four years of techno EPs for Delsin and Ann Aimee, Niels Luinenburg aka Delta Funktionen has finished his debut full length, Traces. Though still very much couched in techno, the album sees the Dutchman explore plenty of new sonic territory, as he often does in his long ranging DJ sets. It’s adventurous, basically, and is an album that doesn’t loose itself in intricate sound design, but instead pairs a raw, machine made aesthetic with plenty of real human soul and palpable earthly emotion.
“Traces is about my long time research into electronic music. It covers tracks that make reference to my favourite subgenres within electronic music: techno, house, electro and (Italo)-disco. There was no specific idea behind it because the album contains tracks made over a long time. Some are 3 years old, others were made this year, but in the end I think it sounds like a coherent piece of work.”
Made using a mixture of drum machines, FM and digital synthesizers, various bits of hardware and digital FX units, the whole thing was sequenced in Ableton with plenty of sample use to finish it off. From the atmospheric openings of blissful electro joint “Frozen Land” through the sultry and searching acid of “Enter” and on to more forceful cuts like “Redemption”, this is an album for listening to as much as it is for dancing. Mood driven landscapes like “Onkalo” prove that, but you’ll have to check it out for yourself to get a real appreciation of the story Delta Funktionen is telling.
Mike Dehnert marks a quarter century of releases on his own label with Fachwerk 25, a full-length album comprised of 13 tracks. This new album sees Mike experimenting somewhat. Away from the dubbed out, functional and raw techno funk of his usual output, Fachwerk 25 shows some concession to the album format, with more mysterious tracks of ambient buried amongst bits of acid, rave and plenty of unhinged sound design. After the dystopian and scene-setting intro, there’s the chugging house and nagging synths of ‘Fraction’ that are both dark and beautiful at the same time. From there, there’s slowed, melancholic dub in the form of ‘Modulat” and the beat-less, underwater sounding ‘Courant’ with its icy pads and wide lateral spread. The title track is more what you’d expect of Dehnert, with well-swung kicks and grainy synth chords rolling along like basement techno should, before the squelchy industrial madness of ‘Grundform’ breaks the stride of the album once again, taking you off to a different place entirely. The second half is just as varied and unpredictable, ranging from raucous peak time stuff to more nuanced and cerebral fair that always manages to bares the hallmarks of Fachwerk: quality, invention and unpredictability.
Phat driving old schoolish analogue sounding techno tracks. Raw minimal Detroit infected Techno.
René Pawlowitz aka Shed returns to Ostgut Ton under the new moniker The Traveller and delivers the first 12′ of this new project. Under his new guise Pawlowitz picks up at his roots and delivers a deep techno record made for the floor.The beats on the A-Side ‘A 100’ are fierce, the melodic synth line lifts you up while everything around appears to be burning down. The experimental first track on the B-side ‘BER’ meanders without beats and full of broken chords around thatmoment of ecstasy without ever reaching a break. On the B-side’s second track ‘Bypass’ René says hello to the techno-heroes, rolls out a red carpet and shows them what he has learned.
Modularz presents a powerful release by Developer this time getting together with techno producer Jeroen Search delivering a driving remix of Orgins.
The second Secluded aka Hans Bouffmyhre project, this time on his own Sleaze Records. The first remix on this record comes from Fachwerk label head and Berlin techno legend, Mike Dehnert. Shifted provides the final remix.
Semantica debut of NX1, delivering more hot & moody basement techno, as on their highly in-demand releases on their own NX1 label.
After the success of the first release, Tanstaafl returns for their second wax adventure, this time with the musical renegade Dj October at the helm. October has entered a new phase of production for the Tanstaafl series and has focused himself firmly on a reduced, stripped and effective formula for the floor. His productions are heavy, smoked out narcoleptic dub infused journey’s, and his latest 12 offers more or less of the same opaque vibe but with his sights firmly set on the floor, with one foot in the past and the other in the future – drawing from his usual Detroit, NYC and Chicago influences.
Berlin’s Out-Er label marks’ it’s forth colour coded release with a stunning package from London based Italian producer Luciano Esse, offering up three brand new slices of deep techno. From the spacious opener ‘The Foul’ through the darkly hypnotic ‘The Laziest Man’ and on to the edgy and percussive ‘Black Stick’ there is nothing but quality from beginning to end.
Untitled ep with 4 stripped down techno tracks topped with some dubby influences on this label from Detroit.
Rush Hour digs out from the vault a very juicy 12″, with an Actress remix for Tom Trago and an unreleased Convextion re-slap of Terrence Dixon.
A brand new 12” filled with some very introspective and deep tracks, of what we consider simply pure & honest house music! With a slight techno feel that is by the mysterious French producer RTX.
Micropunto Schallplatten is back with a release reuniting two different generations of Spanish techno in an epic release signed by Tadeo with a rework from NX1. Spanish techno legend Tadeo gives us three tracks of his signature outer space techno starting with Vortex, a techno burner that brings us to a journey into the realms of space with a very futuristic sound but built over classic sounds from the past. Translacion works with different elements building up a track with a fast pace that reminds us of great Hood or Mills productions. NX1 remix of Vortex is a darker, heavier version of the original that reminds us of Birmingham’s more industrial take on techno. The Gate works as a perfect outro to this EP.
New release by Brommage Dub on a fresh new label created by Jean-Louis Huhta. Brommage Dub is one of Sweden’s most creative exports. Consisting of two veteran producers, Jesper Dahlbäck and Jean-Louis Huhta, Brommage Dub journeys deep into uncharted dubbed out techno territory that is both powerful and meditative.
The Hipodrome Of Music 