DJs: Most Charted - Techno - Most Charted In August 2012

Review: "If you do not hear this" a distorted voice says at the start of Shed's third album, The Killer, before deploying a low bass frequency, "or that, you will not feel it". It's a statement of intent which is followed through with some of the heaviest material of the producer's career - whether it's the dense ambient of "STP3/The Killer", the tunnelling, waspish drone of "I Come By Night", or the screaming oscillations of "Day After". Despite being an album grounded by monolithic rave-era breakbeats, it's also an album of contemplative moments - the thermal current melodies of "Gas Up" and "The Praetorian" chief among them. The artwork says it all - this is an album made for the body, and our advice is to turn it up loud and let techno's greatest contemporary producer work his magic.

Review: ** Repress ** Dave Huismans swiftly follows on from that incendiary 50 Weapons 12" with an equally explosive return to the Clone Basement Series. One of the first names to contribute to the series back in 2009, both "Hang Up" and "Sweetback" find Huismans eschewing the jagged, garage flecked drill techno dynamism of last year's "Take The Plunge" for some of his "most banging, straight-forward club material to date". The lead track is bristling with uneasy liquid funk, heavily diced Hancock vibes cascading around the buccaneering drum patterns with glee. "Sweetback," meanwhile, creeps out from the murky depths, driven by dust battered kicks and gnarly, sinewy analogue twists - there's no greater philosophy at work here, it's simply dark techno for dark rooms.

Review: Mark Broom and James Ruskin follow up their Lightbox album as The Fear Ratio with the Skana EP. The introduction of "Dirty Paws" sounds like something you would hear when trying to contact a passed loved one through radio static and white noise. A broken beat drum loop and swooping bass stabs break the confused silence which is later followed by air raid snares similarly heard in Plastikman's "Spastik". "Fedec" falls somewhere between Burial, Aphex Twin and early Scuba productions, replete with fuzzy electronics, moody melodies and over-driven kick drums. Like Stroboscopic Artefacts' Monad series the EP packs an ambient or beatless track and this comes in "Kingdom Of Ends", showcasing the duo's rarely heard penchant for non-dancefloor sound design. The only techno synonymic styled production is "Skana", a beautifully deep and pushy piece of melancholic techno.

Review: Bio Rhythm boss Paul Du Lac makes a welcome return to Clone's all conquering Jack For Daze initiative, some three years after dropping the incendiary Blowback 12". From the opening "Set IT Off" style bars of the title track, it's overtly clear Du Lac is in Jack For Daze appropriate mode, slamming down bumping rhythm on top one another whilst playfully laying down a detuned key line, making for the label's most unhinged homage to the days of Dancemania since Geeeman's "Rubberband2" a few years back. "Spaces Below" comes from a deeper place, with growling synth lines and textures expanding across the channels as Du Lac works the drum machines to the bone and "Tantra Master" greedily hogs the flip as submarine FX are thrown around the lower depths and the Rotterdam resident gets tantric with the groove. Download codes included for the time when you've rinsed the frack out of the vinyl.

Review: Clearly hitting his stride with the 4/4 focus of his Trevino alias, Marcus Intalex dishes out his third single under the moniker on his own Revolve:R label, and the quality hasn't dipped even slightly. "Discovery" works a solid tech-house pattern, letting snippets of moody chord flirt with more abrasive scrapes in a mechanical funk. "Lag" is more rough as it works a nasty bass guitar lick to deadly effect while the synth flourishes come in dramatically. "Tweakonomics" gets dirtier still as the 303 gets pulled out and twisted to a more broken kind of house template, leaving it to "Shorty" to really scrape the barrel with guttural sub, snappy claps and a hat-less garage flex that sounds set to explode at any given second.

Review: Modern day NYC legend Jason Letkiewicz adds the ever excellent Construction Paper label to his increasingly bustling discography with the aptly titled Analogous Desires EP under his familiar Steve Summers alias. A rich Juno bassline kicks off the title track, and before we know it we're taken on a Chicago-inspired journey through chimerical strings and crispy 707 drums. "Between Thoughts" opts for a more bumping approach but still retains that trademark brand of Summers euphoria we love so much. On the flipside, Summers presents the classic late-night jam "Beyond The Night," a production filled with warmth and mystique, whilst 'First Love Syndrome' goes even deeper and delivers a comforting cocktail of hi-hats, cascading drums and that infamous NY feel. One for the house heads!

Review: As Audio Injection's Truncate alias continues to gather momentum, this self-manned label plays home to his most personal no-nonsense techno. It doesn't take long to get your head around the premise of the two version of "Bodega"; there's a simple and direct approach at work even if the production itself has many layers to it. "Bodega V1" sports a nasty looping synth phrase which slowly opens up throughout the track, while the rock solid rhythm gets bolstered by claps dropped for maximum jacking potential. "Bodega V2" contorts that central phrase ever so slightly, and ups the ante on the claps, yet the final result feels somehow more restrained than its counterpart.

Review: The trans-Atlantic pairing of Kyle Hall and Funkineven inaugurated their Funkinevil collaboration with the much anticipated plate Night, probably the first of many twelve inch shaped emissions to surface in the coming year. Setting the tone with the dextrously smokey "Intro", this twelve inch essentially pairs off the rugged, flatulent sounding DJ tool that is the title track against its smoother B Side counterpart and fans of either producer will need little additional persuasion to indulge here. The way that the percussion is almost spat out of the speakers at you on "Night" is just one reason why the track lives up to their new name, with the intermittent distorted chants of "evil" voiced throughout making for a neat reminder. In contrast, "Dusk" lets in more of the boogie infused swinging Eglo lightness, the moment those keys rise through and align being a mere shade short of sublime. "After Dusk" proves to be a fitting final act, all too brief but allowing Underground Resistance Timeline band leader Jon Dixon centre stage to show off his keyboard skills.

Review: The Skudge Presents series has given us some of the finest doses of techno this year, and this new 12" by the enigmatic Rivet is yet more proof of their undeniable knack for associating themselves with some of the most forward-thinking artists around. Title track "Grifter" kicks off with a chunky 4/4 beat amid delays and effects but rapidly takes a turn for the unexpected and we're soon faced with a vicious electro bassline filled with crispy jungle break samples. "Sundry" also makes a clear reference to the jungle era by using smart, glitchy breakbeats and once again develops into something unpredicted. Haunting strings and dark melodies are moved along by an hypnotic, progressive beat and although deeper than the A-side it's probably the more interesting of the two. Yet more great stuff from the impeccable Swedish label.

Review: The ever impressive Avian imprint - impeccably curated by Shifted - comes good again with another essential release form the equally shadowy MPIA3. Although their name might sound like an obscure audio format, there's no loss of audio fidelity here - "WTTP" is a barebones slice of overdriven 303 driven acid techno, whose delicate flecks wrap around a serious kickdrum and little else. The theme continues on the flip with "Casual Welding", a production whose searing analogue noises sound welded to a highly sprung kick. In a current techno climate full of slate gray minimalism, it's refreshing to hear something go for it tooth and nail - highly recommended.

Review: Gerd and Phil land their first set of original Tuff City Kids tracks in style, taking the controls for the second release on Unterton, the newly established offshoot of Ost Gut Ton. The Bobby Tacker EP has Janson and Lauer crafting three tracks of beefcake house with one clear purpose in mind, and executed with the skills they've honed over countless excellent remixes under the Tuff City Kids banner over the years. Lead track "SFS" wastes no time in playing its trump card; a glossy, thick synth line that pulses all the way through the track while the bottom end comes on all rugged and antsy. Meanwhile "Bias" exercises an air of restraint, letting a simple beat unfold while a tense string edges in from the side hinting at the fearsome techno line that growls in the lower register, imbued with the DNA of dub but twisted to a malevolent intent. Finally "Begger" kicks off on some booming Chicago drums slowed down to a modern cruise, but once again it's a powerful lead synth that rules the day.

Review: Jack Dunning's audacious three part project reaches number 2, and while the first instalment may have been inspired by drum & bass (in spirit if not necessarily in sound), it seems as though this pair of tracks are more concerned with the aesthetic of early Detroit techno. The near industrial thud of "Caslon" utilises a simple monophonic sequence that slowly builds into a storm of raw square waves. "Breathe" meanwhile opts for a deeper approach which is one of the producer's most sedate works to date, utilising a swung rhythm that is as far from his traditional jackhammer approach as you could imagine, with a gentle bass accented with a Vangelis-like sci-fi soundscape. Highly recommended.

Review: Starting to get some real recognition for his icy take on vintage electro and techno, Robert Witschakowski seems unstoppable in his quest to mould ever fresh and vital shapes out of well-worn approaches. On this EP for Modal Analysis, he starts proceedings with the devastating half-speed lurch of "Node#1", eroding the beat with lashings of distortion and letting the synths swerve into each other in the fuzz. "Node#2" is far more incisive, stomping out a guttural line in electro synths and booming 808 kicks. Delta Funktionen smacks things up sharp with a punchy remix, retaining the dominant character of the tune.

Review: With his Modularz label becoming a firm bastion of unfiltered techno machinations, Developer sets about bombarding our senses with his productions and curations across two vinyl releases this month. For the first part, his own "Heated" rattles through an industrial landscape devoid of colour, instead populated by reverb decays and distant clangs of metal. The rest of the record is handed over to Truncate, whose "Diffraction" flips the script with a central melodic hook and a thoroughly austere beat. Jonas Kopp's remix beefs up that same theme by doubling up the phrase and edging towards a peak time monster, while Markus Suckut takes things deeper and into a more house compatible realm.

Review: John Heckle's debut album Second Son was undoubtedly one of 2011's highlights, traversing eclectic terrain, from beatless ambient interludes to raw analogue jams and heaving acid. Mathematics offers a timely reminder of how stunning it was with this twelve inch offering of the four tracks that featured on the CD release but not the double LP edition. The ever lolloping "One Self" demonstrates the Liverpudlian McNulty lookalike at his subaqueous, tape chewed best, whilst the beatless "I & I" oscillates with wildly experimental tones and vague hints of eastern enlightenment. From here, the orchestral touches that grace the deliciously utopian euphoria of "Fly City" provides some welcome respite while the brilliantly named "Analog Bulldog" jackhammers away at your senses with a relentless energy. The four tracks here encapsulate perfectly why Jamal Moss was so keen to release Heckle's long player.

Review: Ben Sims's label delivers a diverse but hard-hitting three-tracker. The label boss is first up and "Bite This" sees him sever the links with his loopy past. It's still a repetitive track, but as its basis Sims deploys a pulsing electronic groove and firing percussion, while a malevolent riff makes the transition from jarring and abrasive to atmospheric and eerie. Ritzi Lee travels a similar path on "Reverse Processed", where snappy percussion and a nagging bassline underpin metallic stabs and jarring riffs that reach out into the darkness. By contrast, Paul Mac's "Dry Run" is a more soulful experience. Despite the proliferation of spiky, metallic drums, it's the screeching, slightly deranged male vocal that stands out.

Review: ** FLOORPLAN REPRESS ** It's fair to say that this was one of the best Robert Hood moments in a while! Just two tracks but boy do they hit hard - "Altered Ego" is more brakey than the usual Hood bombs but he's kept the inimitable chords, all wailing and weaving their way through the beat. The real heat is on the flip however, where the nostalgic, rave-infused piano keys of "Confess" make for a certified classic! Is it Hood who influenced Shed on this sort of beat or the other way around? Who cares, it's bloody amazing!