Another pocketsize edition in the Brew white label series. Sounds big enough for your weird uncle’s wedding, but also perfect to play at other mutant gatherings. 2 tracks, very loud.
RB – B02.5 [B02.5]
techno
Megalon – Pandora’s Box [ABPLP007]
A sublime techno reissue from the vaults of one of London’s leading electronic labels of the last 25 years, remastered and re-presented for 2022. Originally released in 1994 on Mr.C’s cult UK house and techno label Plink-Plonk and composed and performed by Laggy Panteli and Zeno Messis (aka Megalon) in their London studio, ‘Pandora’s Box’ is a truly unique record. Sleek, futuristic, fathoms deep and wholly original, the music contained on these 2 discs sounds as modern and as vital as it did on it’s arrival all of those years ago. Exploring a deeper vein of electronic music, Megalon craft their own sonic landscapes that are undoubtedly inspired by all forms of cerebral electronic music. Ambient, Detroit techno, electro, European electronics and of course the duo’s experiences in London’s early acid house and rave scene all filter through their lens to bring something brand new to the table. The arrangement, sound design and mix on the album is outstanding, lending a totally visionary and modern feel to the tracks that continues to echo today.
Atonism – Kiki [KEY027]
Atonism has apparently been production electronic music for 12 years, but somehow this is a first ever official release. It lands on the Key Vinyl label and suggests the artist has a love of proper techno. Opener ‘Stampede’ piles on the pressure with its hurried drums and slinky synths all racing ahead in hypnotic linear fashion. ‘Still’ is a mind melter where drums, bass and synths all interweave freely and manically, then ‘Waiting For You’ mangles fragments of melody into a tight arrangement next to slapping hits and drums and oversized and frazzled hi hats. ‘Kobalt’ is a peak time, strobe lit bit of techno funk.
KSEL – Kontrast [KEY026]
Swedish duo KSEL is made up of Kim Stockblom and Elias Landberg (Skudge). This is their debut offering on the Key Vinyl label and it is couched in Jeff Mills style Detroit techno minimalism. Opener ‘Kontrast’ is all chattery claps, hurried drum loops and subtly evolving synth melodies, ‘Dash’ is edgy and keeps you in suspense, while ‘Reformed’ gets even more manic with its pinging drums and silvery hi hats overlaid with restless and warped synths lines. ‘Codex’ closes out with searching sonar blips and supple drums designed to take you deep down a rabbit hole.
Wildacre – The Backcorner Tribe [WA001]
This is the first release of a new mysterious label Wildacre. Straight from the eastern outskirts of the Netherlands with 3 tracks pure effective deep, dubby house & techno groovers.
Jean Louis Huhta – Wormhole Of Time [OA009]
Jean-Louis Huhta is best known these days as Dungeon Acid, but the Trinidadian-Swedish techno maverick has a long and varied musical past that touches on punk, industrial and funk as much as contemporary club music. The latest release on Organic Analogue digs back into the archives of his prolific 90s period to offer up kinked machine jams that spit and snarl with non-conformist noise, shining a light on a somewhat overlooked talent with his own idiosyncratic take on the techno tradition. The tracks that make up “Wormhole Of Time” comprise both unreleased cuts and some long out-of-print jams from the ‘90s, spanning many of Huhta’s aliases he adopted at the time.
Steve Moore – Gone World [PGHTRXLP06]
Trascend∆nce – Under The Sphinx Eyes [BS08]
Better Sound 08 by Trascend∆nce aka Riccardo Buccirossi. He is co-founder of Imprints Records and the owner of Metropolita, Amazing Stories, and Elma Rivaga.
J.Wiltshire – Luv44 [MUSAR016]
UK-born, Berlin-based, J.Wiltshire (Hypercolour/Super Hexagon) returns to MUSAR for a deep excursion with Planet Mu’s Konx-om-Pax on remix duties. The tracks came to fruition in Berlin during a time in society when everything was closed and there was a huge layer of uncertainty across the globe.
Human Rebellion – Cosmocracy [HRR001]
Human Rebellion is a project based on a vision of a dystopian world where humans are in resistance against a global empire that has taken control. Totally dedicated to a powerful and energetic electro-techno based on futuristic sounds straight out of their analog and modular synthesizers. They have been working under various pseudonyms for the last 25 years and signed their first vinyl in the early 2000s before coming back to their favorite style, Kraftwerk’s electro and everything that followed. This first EP of Human Rebellion is a nice overview of their universe. Fierce electro with dark atmospheres and raw heavy beats that topped with cold and percussive basslines, hypnotic arpeggios, sci-fi textures straight out of their modular and analog synths. Essential stuff for those who like powerful and energetic 90’s electro-techno rooted in the early 90’s.
Simbolo – Ecdisis Vol. 4 (Mick Wills Edits) [FRV038]
Mick Wills is no stranger to Frigio Records, the German Dj and producer has turned his hand to edits and remixes on previous releases and now arrives with his own 12” of edits for the volumen 4th of the label’s Ecdisis series. The source material for the two pieces on offer comes from Brazil’s Simbolo, a band formed in 1988 and still active with a career spanning more than thirty years, was a central player in South America’s EBM and Synth scene. MIck Wills has selected two tracks from the Brazilian’s back catalogue, the first being “Mind.” Industrial influences come immediately to the fore, complex drum patterns give way to a juddering groove in which guttural vocals depict a scene of hurt and pain. “Synchrono” occupies the flip. Taken from the 1995 album, In the Danger Zone, the original two minute piece is extended into a seven plus minute epic. Following on from “Mind”, “Synchrono” melts stuttering bass-lines and textured percussion with indecipherable lyrics counter-balancing heady strings. Two cuts of emotive and impacting electronics.
SARIN x Scarlit Port – Daevas [MTRONW009]
“Daevas”, meaning divinities of chaos and disorder in the Zoroastrian faith, is the combined effort of SARIN x Scarlit Port recorded in Berlin during the lockdown of 2020. The six track 30 minute EP is a winding journey that dives into both artists’ shared Persian heritage by referencing ancient pagan Gods, mysticism and the more recent tragic histories of colonialism, dictatorships, longing and a sense of being uprooted. These unwinding stories and artefacts are imprinted within a dark cascade of sounds incorporating and combining each artist’s influences to create a total work that encompasses elements of techno body music, acid, industrial and the subtle application of more traditional Persian musical forms.
Morah – Bizarre Beauty [BDMS017]
New self-released album from Morah, producer, DJ and head of Phormix Records from Athens, Greece. ‘Bizarre Beauty’ consist of 10 tracks on cassette and digital and a limited vinyl EP on Filmmaker’s Body Musick. Ferocious beats and hits for corporal and metaphysical experience.
Alpha Sect – Dark Rituals [SOIL016]
Spammerheads – Bricks for Reconstruction [SOTA053]
Spammerheads is a Valencian duo formed by Ana Escudero and David Garrido. An audio-visual project forged in 2019 under the punk concept “do it yourself” in which both sound and graphic creation (videos and covers) have been developed by the duo. “Bricks for Reconstruction” is their new album released on cassette by Soil Records.
Jayson Wynters – Filtered Xploits [EON004]
The EON label’s fourth vinyl release features an original from Birmingham producer Jayson Wynters with Chicago innovator Hieroglyphic Being on the remix. Wynters invites us ever deeper into his nebulous deep techno world with a superb new single ‘Filtered Xploits.’ It’s a punchy but dynamic cut with lush ambient pads smeared across a cosmic sky while chattery percussion and lithe synth power onwards. It has a futuristic soul that recalls early Detroit techno and might be his best work yet. Jamal Moss is on reworks and in his hands, ‘Filtered Xploits’ becomes a brilliantly raw and textured track with layer upon layer of fractured melody and gurgling acid. The prickly, jacked up drums will make an impact on any floor, and as the chords shine through the mix they bring a sense of hope and optimism.
Versalife – Shape Shifter 2 EP [DSR/E12]
Versalife with the second installment of his Shape Shifter series on the Delsin electronic series. Fresh harbour city electro jams.
VA – Palace Of Memory Where Nostalgia Is Fear [PSR007]
Always hot on the hard-as-steel plates and murky subterranean atmospheres, Public System turns in a haunted double package from the crypt. Spanning hi-octane indus bullets, half-baked mutant salvos and shadow-clad juicers from a host of reputed names and rabid underdogs, this new comp collates ruff’n’tuff joints from gritty techno don Container, genre-unbound explorer E-Saggila, Berlin’s electro arsonist Privacy, acid-spitting hydra DJ Loser x Penelopes Fiance, basement guerilla Yabboq Penuel alias Le Syndicat Electronique, neo-punk beat thrasher Crave, Yves Tumor collaborator and sine-wave crusher Anthem, expert circuit dissector Beau Wanzer, Liquid G as remixed by Mick Wills, Night Gaunt’s Lower Tar, occult machine funk preacher Maenad Veyl, DJ Chupacabras under new guise 110, soundwaves cross-pollinator DJ Richard, vibrant mood-scapist Gavilán Rayna Russom, as well as label boss Myn going ubiquitous with studio fellows Kluentah as Myntha, and NYC’s R Gamble under their Fade Accompli moniker. A much desirable feast of raw, unhinged, all-round spine-tingling jams for both inside and outside the club.
Frak – Formless Obstruction EP [FP006]
Futurepast welcomes for their sixth release the Swedish trio Frak. On their ‘Formless Obstruction’ EP, Frak have provided a window into the sinister twists and turns of their work. On the A-side, you see creeping Detroit stylings of ‘Scientific Bella’ set against ‘Wrong Owl’ with it’s EBM underpinnings and industrial inflections. On the flip, ‘Concentrated Feed’ bubbles next to the razor sharp ‘Capacity Faun’, both are filled with characteristic machine quirks and experimentalism.
Arnaud Rebotini – Outlaw [RMR005V]
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