DEFEKT Vinilo y CD

Review: Exit Planet Earth continues its exploration of the world of electro universe with an expansive, extended six track EP, featuring The Advent x Zein Ferreira, DeFeKT, London Modular Alliance, Konertymi and Zobol. The Advent, whose weekly Gardening Club residency in the mid-90s helped to drag electro out of the realms of the retro and back into the future, team up with Zein Ferreira for a Kraftwerk-on-speed extended mix of 'CarpeDiem', before London Modular Alliance's more moderately paced but still squiggle and bleep laced 'Lump of Coal' plus a 'beats' breakdown for the DJs. The B-side brings us the acid-powered 'Pulssi' by Konerytmi, the bouncy, breakdance-friendly 'Radar' by DeFeKT, and the relatively pure, optimistic sonics of Zobol's 'Data Wars'. Thumbs up all round.

Review: It's hard to refer to Cocoon without calling it 'mighty' because the now 20+ year old label run by Sven Vath is one of European techno's most prominent. It is synonymous with colourful parties all over the world but still does a great job of serving up fresh sounds too. Two mainstays combine for this one with Defekt and Extrawelt cooking up 'Cell Sync' which is dark and menacing, with rigid drum loops and menacing synths. 'In The Space Of' has more molten synth modulations layered up to a ghoulish effect over slamming drums. It's peak time stuff, for sure.

Review: Defekt's Cultivated Electronics presents For The Floor, a new series of split 12"s on its vinyl-only sister label CE LTD. Boldly, this is electro that refuses to stay as 'clean' as the Spotify algorithm or YouTube compression process would like it to be. Everything is distorted: 'Control Your Mind', for example, more or less sounds as though it's been run through an analogue master bus that's been half-corroded by nuclear fallout, with meditations on brainwashing and mind control repeating throughout. It's almost as if clipping and/or distortion is a metaphor for the mediated mind-frazzling that keeps us in check, that keeps us consuming.