BLAWAN Vinilo y CD

Review: Blawan is not only the most notable electronic producer to have ever come out of Barnsley (as far as we know, anyway_ but is also one of techno's most relentless innovators. He's done it all from heft, swinging bass to the most caustic and experimental techno. For this one on XL he aims at the club once more. 'Fires' is our pick - an unrelenting, tightly stacked rhythm with alluring vocal hooks swirling up top and weird synth sounds adding even more unusualness.

Review: Some eight years on from his Hessle Audio debut, Blawan has finally got round to releasing his debut album. Predictably, it's rather good, offering an eight-track assault on the senses built around his now familiar clanking, industrial-tinged polyrhythmic techno rhythms, foreboding electronics and paranoid, claustrophobic aural textures. Most of the sounds - including the percussion hits - were created using modular synthesis, which gives Wet Will Always Dry a particularly atmospheric and otherworldly feel. There are nods towards the likes of Surgeon and Livity Sound, as well as Rhythm & Sound/Basic Channel style dub techno, but the album's greatest strength is that it never sounds like anything other than a fine set of Blawan club tracks.