DJS: MOST CHARTED - TECHNO - MOST CHARTED IN JULY 2015

Review: Later in the year, Jeff Mills will release the long-awaited follow-up to his legendary Exhibition mix CD. Details are relatively scarce at present, though according to its creator the CD/DVD package "explains a lot about the mindset, and the concepts, and the procedure of how a DJ does what he does". In a bid to raise interest in the project - not that the Detroit legend needs much help in that regard - he's put together this 12" of previously unheard studio material. It's typical of Mills' floor-friendly exploits, with all four tracks fusing intergalactic, outer-space electronics (see opener "Signals To Atomix One") with rolling Motor City grooves (complete with the usual relentless cymbals) and bubbling basslines.

Review: Releases on Dolly offshoot Dolly Dubs are infuriatingly infrequent, but when they do appear they're invariably excellent. This latest offering - the first for 12 months - is predictably impressive. It's Martyn's second contribution to the series, and his first EP of 2015. There's naturally much to set the senses tingling, from the wobbly analogue bass, dreamy pads and loose, rave-era house breakbeats of flipside "Don't Block The Box", to the pitched-down jungle rhythms, bittersweet chords and notable bass of opener "Done Away". The swinging, spooky and downright chilling "EF40" is pretty darn tasty, too.

Review: The UK's number one house pusher, Mr G, steps out of his own Phoenix G stable and lands on Holland's long-running Planet Rhythm, an imprint ran out of The Netherlands by Glenn Wilson. The music, however, is quality as per usual from our main man but the tracks are a little darker, a little edgier in texture. "M's Retrogade", for instance, is more broken compared to Mr G's usual sound, its metallic percussion stabbing away nicely at the rolling beats, while "Flexable" is deeper, dubbier and straighter. Over on the flip, "Binky's Groove" is a classic G joint, straight highs and ingenious vocal samples sliding like mad, and "Dis-tracted" is a swinging techno belter for peak time floor damage. Red hot!

Review: Dutch label Dynamic reflection continues to go from strength to strength with their latest offering from Abstract Division, the power duo comprised of label boss paul Boex and Dave Miller. The original of "Metropolis" is a nice slice of soulful melodic techno that fans of Heiko Laux or Vince Watson will be all over. The first thing you may think then listening to the Trolley Route mix is it sounds like Oscar Mulero; it is and the remix adopts his trademark hypnotic take on things. It all gets more hectic on the accompanying big gun remixes from Function and Marcel Fengler; Dave Sumner's pounding yet atmospheric version is all you'd expect, but he keeps the lush melody of the original intact and it works well. Fengler's rendition delivers exactly what he's renowned for in the form of energised, peak time minimal; just the way it should be!

Review: Bjarki, a new producer hailing from Iceland, makes his debut on Nina Kraviz's Trip with an effective two-piecer aimed at the dancefloor. "I Wanna Go Bang" is straight, hard-hitting and boasting an instantly memorable vocal which you'll probably be hearing around the dances this summer. "Orange Juice Man", however, is the complete antithesis of it's A-side cousin, where Bjarki opts for a deeper, chuggier kinda groove that's more suited to the corner-dwellers than the first-rowers.

Review: The legendary Paul Woolford, who also goes by the name Special Request and who has appeared on everything from Sven Vath's Cocoon to Carl Craig's Planet E, returns to Scuba's Hotflush with a bouncy two-tracker that's bound to cause a stir on the dancefloor. "Orbit" takes over the entirety of the A-side with a powerful swell of bass hypnotics, driving percussion shots and a heavy dosage of head-banging. Over on the B-side, "MDMA" is inevitably madder, its bassline being more deranged and broken down...sliding nicely in between equally wonky piano keys and strange atmospherics. Large.

Review: Appian Sounds' Indelible Expressions series returns with its second and final chapter, this time spear-headed by a totally different collection of artists. The Irish label have featured plenty of exciting talent in the past, including Joey Anderson, Imugem Orihasam, Eduardo De La Calle, so we know that they can throw together an excellent variety of artists to form one hell of an EP. This time we have: Evigt Morker with the supremely dubby and laid-back "Langbro Kyrka", "Once Upon A Time In A Dub" by G-Prod, "ison" by Vidab and Curle members Hiver, and a cracking piece of percussive grit-house by the one and only XDB, always up for it and never shy of a fat groove.

Review: Scenery White is as you'd expect, a white label offshoot of Stuart 'ASOK' Robinson's Scenery label, a Liverpool operation that has really developed over the past 12 months thanks to material from Mark Forshaw, Versalife, and John Heckle. Robinson himself features on this debut 12", going toe to toe with UK legend Neville Watson. Two sides, two tracks each: ASOK calls shotgun and delivers the grainy house textures of "The Future", and the driving, deep space squelches of "Perspective". Watson marks the B-side with "Idolatrous", a percussion-heavy bit of tribalism, followed by the dense and meaty arrangement of "Big Unit".

Review: The Peer Pressure EP from the under-rated Mark Forshaw finds Scenery Records once again highlighting the rich strain of local production talent in the Liverpool area. Involved in the Merseyside scene since the '90s, Forshaw has released on labels like Mathematics, Tabernacle and Apartment and is also a member of Phantom Planet Outlaws with John Heckle and Binny. If you've checked Forshaw's prior output you will be happy with Peer Pressure as soon as the grubby, jacked up house of the title track hits its groove, with his four other cuts heading down a similarly unpredictable path. Kudos to Scenery for seeking out Swedish producer Daniel Andreasson to remix the title track too! This is another no nonsense EP from Scenery that is lovably rugged and unpredictably creative.

Review: Welsh purveyors of deep and mysterious subterranean grooves UntilMyHeartStops return with a lovely second release by Duckett. He keeps on with the consistent quality and aesthetic that these label has become renowned for. The sombre, tripped out repetition of the groove to "Ewlowe Drive" is quite original "Cobwebs And Waiters" meanders about with its rolling bass, broken beat and lush Rhodes piano and mysterious bells jangling away subtlety in the background. On the flip; "Nervous In Regard To Waking Up" gets more on the techno tip with its razor sharp arpeggio and haunting pads and "Are Things OK At Home" almost like a version of "Cobwebs and Waiters" again but more upbeat with its bleeps and shuffling rhythm. Tip!

Review: Undoubtedly one of the most prolific Dutch artists currently working in electronic music, Boris Bunnik has put out a staggering amount of records in the eight years since he first surfaced. Presentism is his fourth full length under the familiar Conforce name and flips the script a little. Recorded following his recent move to Rotterdam, it sees the veteran Dutch artist blending glacial electronics, crystal clear melodies and spacey chords with elements of ambient, classic IDM and Detroit techno. As a result, it's a far more picturesque and set than his three previous albums, with an emphasis on mood and melody previously buried beneath industrial textures and razor-sharp rhythms. It could well be his best set to date, and that's saying something.

Review: London's Progression returns to Blueprint Limited with four high-powered slabs of machine noise, characterized most appropriately by the term 'techno'. This naughty, hand-stamped piece of wax is dark, foreboding and distinctly industrial in texture, where cuts such as "Omnipotent 3", "Obscuro" and "CH1" explore all of the genre's tricks and no nonsense sonics. The bleepy outlook of "The Coriolis Effect" is a particular highlight!

Review: Under his Bookworms name, Nik Dawson was responsible for one of THE label defining LIES records in 2012's Love Triangles and it's nice to see his weird streak been channelled good and proper on this new 12" for Ron Morelli's outfit. Clearly inspired by his ongoing musical experiments with Steve Summers at Confused House HQ, these four Bookworms cuts bristle with odd energy, coaxing you into experiment different notches on the pitch adjust. For example "Touchless Automatic" sounds all the more hypnotic and druggy with the tempo pitched right down, whilst "Coaxial Electric Slide" feels like an Acido track done Brooklyn style. There is a dank feel to the modular strains throughout "Exotic Auto Boutique" that you can almost touch whilst "Control That" perversely sounds like Dawson is barely making a faltering drum machine work. Wonderful chaos in other words.

Review: Oh yes! Belgium's supreme techno warlords Token are back with their very own Indigo Kennedy, and he's brought along a squadron of remixers to transform his recent "Requiem" tune. First up is Dial's Efdemin, who quickly adds his signature brand of freeform deep house - sinister pads all around - followed by Kangding Ray and his slo-mo version, a truly chuggy affair in all sense of the word. The flip sees Downwards master and UK techno legend Regis inject his deep and menacing style onto the framework, and Full Panda's Dasha Rush takes the straight-ahead techno approach but proceeds to surround the beats with gorgeous swirls of instrumentation.

Review: The techno community as a whole was undoubtedly shaken by the loss of M_Rec founder Max Magrini earlier this year who passed after succumbing to cancer, so this 12" takes on extra meaning and resonance. It finds Magrini collaboration with Wrong Assessment, a producer who also works as Overall Serenity, on two tracks. "1004-A" is a chilling, sinister, kick-led bombshell with hissing highs and sludgy synths, while "1004-B" hits the spot with its contorted percussion structure and eerie backdrop of pads. For the darker sets and a fine way to celebrate Magrini's legacy.

Review: There's usually something a little creepy about Roger Semsroth's work under the Sleeparchive alias, an aesthetic that both of his previous 2015 12" singles, And In His Eyes I Saw Death and Senza Titolo, gleefully embraced. He's at it again on this outing for Warm Up Spain. Opener "Window-057" sets the tone, lacing uneasy, off-key electronic loops over a decidedly unsettling techno groove. "Window-092" is similarly horror-inclined, albeit with twisted sirens and fizzing textures over a booming kick-drum led rhythm. Warm Up owner Oscar Mulero provides flipside remixes of both, shuffling around the parts whilst retaining Semsroth's typically forthright approach.

Review: Aside from dealing with distribution matters, Germany's Diamonds and Pearls also puts out killer house and techno music on its own self-titled imprint. The past has seen releases by the likes of Dettmann, Efdemin, and Kassem Mosse, among others, and this time they've brought together house deviant XDB and the younger Even Drones onto one slab of wax. XDB drops some of his familiar blend of minimal funk on "Mitos", which is expertly rewired by Even Drones into a sparser, more broken cut. The flipside contains another original from XDB, "Enpii", which is moodier and more molecular than its predecessor; and once again, ED features on rewiring duties, moulding the original into a deep-space belter with a driving groove and one hell of a hook.

Review: The second release on FINA White is a four tracker from rising Barcelona producer and former RBMA attendee Clip! Diverse releases on Discomaths, Classicworks, Sweat Taste and JD Records, coupled with his signature 'hardware only' live shows have really put Clip! on the map locally and throughout Europe. Key to his sound is a shifting style and impressive knowledge of sound design, displayed on this Brotherhood EP though four pure and unadulterated peak time cuts. There's a real menace to the bassline, low end throb and razor hats of the title track, whilst "R36" showcases the fusion of sounds Clip! can attain in his productions. On the flip side, "Forward" is, surprise, a no messing, relentlessly percussive banger whilst "Dissonance's Technique" heads down an equally straight-up, rough n' ready path.

Review: There was naturally some surprise when Manchester producer Marcus Kaye - best known for his soulful D&B work as Marcus Intalex - started making techno under the Trevino alias back in 2011. It was his 2012 EP for Ben Klock's Klockworks imprint that really sealed his reputation amongst the techno community. Here, he returns to that imprint, bringing with him three varied tracks. Contrast, for example, the rave-era breakbeats, stretched-out pads and epic breakdowns of "Eclipse" - an unashamed chunk of early '90s revivalism - with the spooky melodies and intense rhythms of "The Dismal Truth". Then there's "After The Rain", which fixes Detroit techno chords and melodies to a pulsating, electro-influenced groove.

Review: Since making her debut on Sandwell District back in 2011, Rrose has become a familiar figure on the experimental techno circuit. Though she recently committed a quite singular album to the Further Records cause, it's Rrose's own Eaux label through which her revelatory material largely arrives and For Aquantice is another fine 12". Rrose's first 12" of 2015 features three more ghostly, otherworldly compositions, beginning with the creepy electronics and undulating rhythms of "Levitate". There's a greater rhythmic intensity to the wonky, delay-laden drums of the equally supernatural "Vellum", while "Signs" charges off in a classic off-key intelligent techno vein - all spiraling riffs, spitting melodies and psychedelic electronics.

Review: Uh oh, Truncate is back onto your subwoofers with the second chapter of his recent remix series...the last outing still pounding its way across the Juno HQ! This time the American techno maverick chooses Par Grindvik and Dustin Zahn to mould "Mira Mar" into bleepy, hi-hat-heavy tool, while Zahn himself strips "Modify" of all its dignity and cuts it down to a beautifully simple kick-beat approach. Grindvik closes this chapter off with a deeper, more mentalist take on "Mira Mar", where the melodies are catapulted into oblivion thanks to intricate FX processing .

Review: The latest release from Untilmyheartstops sees the label turn to an individual they know all too well in Duckett, a fellow resident at the excellent UK festival Freerotation. As the title suggests, Part 1 (Coffee, Women and Skits) is the first of two releases due on Untilmyheartstops from Duckett and backs up his status as an unsung hero of the Welsh scene. All four tracks nestle snugly in the brand of deep house this label has cultivated, yet Duckett still covers quite a lot of different ground stylistically. From the Borft style guttural throb and shuffle of opening track "Crappop", Duckett veers off into more cerebral, introspective territory on the delightfully fuzzy "Blackbody Radiation" whilst "Valentines Day Is For Animals" is a shimmering highlight.

Review: Anthony Child graces us with some exclusive unreleased material for one of the most seminal periods, not just within his career but for techno in general. From the same era that spawned classics such as "Badger Bite" and "Magneze" come six more finely executed scenes of sheer naked aggression. Undoubtedly influenced by the second wave of the Motor City at the time, namely Jeff Mills and Robert Hood; these tracks are still undoubtedly Child's own. Still, credit where credit's due; "Spider", "Lash Lite" and "IT-2" wear the M-Plant influence firmly on their sleeve with their entrancing synth stabs and claps on the kick. "Hard" and "Zilla" follow the instruction book for relentlessly hard grooves heard on Mill's Waveform Transmissions series. Essential listening.