SSTROM is back on Rosten with ‘Drenched’, 12 tracks for the floor, divided on 3 EPs, each to be released three weeks apart. SSTROM is the project of Hannes Stenstrom, once part of Swedish band Slagsmalsklubben, and one half of enigmatic techno duo SHXCXCHCXSH (SHX).
Steven Tang’s Emphasis returns with the reclusive Intrinsic on Firewalls. ”Firewalls” builds soulfully techno syncopated synths & rhythms while the deeply modulated ”Falling” is thick & smoky filled with delayed synth madness that coalesces with a brooding bass line. Includes ”Bonus Beats”.
Mannequin boss Alessandro Adriani returns with his second full-length, ‘Morphic Dreams’, this time on Stroboscopic Artefacts. Throughout eleven cuts painstakingly executed but lacking not an iota of the fresh, spontaneous oomph that made his sound stand out of the crowd of techno producers to have emerged over the past decade, Adriani lays the foundations to a suspended sound imaginarium, governed by its own rules and principles of gravity. Revolving around the notions of sublimation and quest for inner balance, ‘Morphic Dreams’ is comprised of four distinct sequences, conceived and designed as reflections of four mental states, each of them linked to the four alchemical elements – i.e. Water, Earth, Air and Fire.
Cardinal & Nun from Marseille delivers his debut EP for L.I.E.S. with a four track no holds barred synth punk assault. Injecting energy into the dead, channeling chaos and turmoil into his music, he rips through four tracks with a rough yet somehow elegant approach…raw to the bone yet flawlessly arranged. Synths that sound like guitars, guitars that sound like synths, metallic drum machines with a human touch and deranged vocals fuel this record til the end. Think Screamers meet Chrome meet Liasions with a healthy dose of southern California gutter punks on meth and you’re in the right place.
Hard hitting duo TV.OUT return to L.I.E.S. with their 2nd EP for the label. Clocking in with four tracks, these guys move with ease from classic Frankfurt style New Beat to teeth grindin, lower bpm EBM and Hague style electro, all tracks suited for the club. Head right to the opener XTC for an immediate 8 minute expansive modern day lesson in dancefloor drama- strings and claps perfectly placed as the bassline drives you insane. Fast forward to ”Black Out” for a slower paced harder hitting beating, air raid sirens scream as the metalworks clang on. TV.OUT at the top of their game with this one.
Cold and sinister combat electro by Russian pourvoyeurs Larionov & St Theodore. Infectious analogue rhythms emerged deep down the hearts of these young souls. The Bleak Warfare EP presents five cuts with each their own desire for the dancefloors.
Tribe is a record label created by like-minded artists from Barcelona, with a bold purpose of generating and sharing their idea of timeless electronic music. The debut EP Tribe01 comprises four different yet catchy and charismatic tunes that meet at the same point – the dance floor.
Hieroglyphic Being has materialized with the limited & stamped “A Synthetic Love Life Vol. 1” created a decade ago to cassette & sonically presented to higher plane listeners. Volume 1 of 9 for Mathematics Plus.
The New York Haunted label owner Drvg Cvltvre drops 3 new tracks on Concrete Records. Strong synths, acid bass lines and aggressive sounds are the elements that always characterized Drvg Cvltvre’s music, in this EP he shows another more sophisticated and personal side: pads and ambient suggestions coexist with the strong basslines and rhythms. A different approach that gives a more deep and mental oriented tone to the tracks. A lot of percussion add raw sound characterized this three tracks, a just balance between the raw house genre and the violent techno sound.
Dark Entries presents two new EPs from De Bons en Pierre, the duo of Beau Wanzer & Maoupa Mazzocchetti. Beau Wanzer spends the majority of his days sifting through paraffin embedded animal tissues and reading old issues of Fangoria, occasionally breaking his monotonous routine to record in various fits and bursts. As well as solo material, he is also in numerous projects including Streetwalker, Mutant Beat Dance, Civil Duty, and Corporate Park. Maoupa Mazzocchetti is the pseudonym of Florent Mazzocchetti, a French producer based in Brussels. His sonic vision is one which constantly straddles the line between wild experimentation and rhythmic compatibility, drawing influence from early concrète, 80’s tape scene and Birmingham school techno. After working together on the ‘Crepes’ EP that we released in 2017, De Bons en Pierre reunited for a two day recording session in Brussels. The duo recorded 13 tracks that we’ve split across 2 EPs with 6 tracks on ‘EP No. 1’ and 7 tracks on ‘EP No. 2’. Beau says, “We hooked everything up and just pushed play. We didn’t really discuss much about the process….it was very ‘spur of the moment’.” The equipment set up included a Roland TR-808, TR-606, SH-101, CR-78, CR-8000, two Syncussions and effects. Each EP contains 25 minutes of dance floor perversions that tackle an array of rhythmic forms. Sludgy synths, serrated percussion and viscous distortion goops over leviathan rhythms.
A passionate tribute to a time before techno… or was techno already there? This beautiful and highly limited package includes two The Human League edits.
Dircsen is back on Soundtravels with four heavyweight dancefloor bombs, well worked out, 303 basslines, accompanied by moody synths. Dircsens tracks are always built to perfection, distinguished and raw at the same time. Timeless tracks which will last a lifetime.
OCP presents their debut release, coming from Koga, Frankfurt underground DJ and connoisseur of the M1 organ bass. The ‘Hive Mind’ EP contains four well executed tracks that are likely to disintegrate dance floors around the globe. Title track ‘Hive Mind’, featuring Simon Moncler, is a Brooklyn-style techno jam packed with hard hitting RZ-1 hats, while ‘Survivor (M&M’s techno will survive mix)’, featuring Maurice, freshly connects trancey elements with breaks and bleeps. The B side kicks off with ‘Fox Undercover’, a jam displaying developed knowledge of clunky baselines and pounding grooves, the 12″ rounds of with a bass-heavy remix of ‘Fox Undercover’ by DJ Slyngshot.
Black Meteoric Star returns with the Ghost Frequency EP, and this 12-minute hardware techno jam captures the haunted synthesizer sound that the title implies.
Jensen Interceptor, doing what he is very reknown for, delivers a fierce electro jam and Tim Fairplay conjurs up a tremendously intense remix to seal this release pressed on limited edition, hand stamped & numbered one-sided black vinyl housed in a white disco bag with a printed insert info sheet.
After their collaboration in Panzerkreuz Records with Black Sites (F#x & Helena Hauff), the guys from Ghetto GEM did a series of small live performances in the The Hague squat scene. Places like Dystopia, Maakhaven and Syndicaat. Performances that took place during the Schilderswijk riots which delivered some slow and menacing tracks. Some of the recordings where found and six of these tracks can be found on this mini tape album.
The Hacker pulls out his Amato moniker to deliver an abyssal, floor-ready EP, drawing on influence from the funkier side of early electronic body music. Though dark, the illustrious Frenchman seasons the A-side tracks with a healthy dose of groove for peak-time frenzy. Meanwhile the rather dejected flip side will do the trick for the murkier of dance-floors.
Identified Patient and his notorious femme fatale are back with another record of deranged darkroom anthems for Pinkman. This 12″ is where crunchy drums and heavy bass are laced with aggressively seductive vocals by Sophie Du Palais. While the theme of the songs, compared with their previous record, goes in a rather kinky direction, the raw ferocity that never fails to grip a dance floor remains.
The Hipodrome Of Music 