MARCO BAILEY Vinilo y CD

Review: Since switching from trance to techno at the tail end of the 90s, Marco Bailey has delivered a string of robust, mind-bending techno workouts. Predictably, he's at it again on 'Yellow', his latest EP for the Materia imprint he set up back in 2017. The pleasingly yellow record (it had to be, given the EP's title) opens with the formidable title track, where jacking drum machine handclaps, industrial-sounding loops and hissing cymbals ride a stomping techno groove, before dropping down a notch or two intensity-wise via the still energy-packed early morning hypnotism of 'Start It Up'. Over on the reverse, 'Falkan' is a drum-heavy techno slammer marked out by creepy, sustained chords, while 'Utiss' is a wild, acid-fired affair that's guaranteed to send dancefloors crazy.

Review: Marco Bailey's fifth full-length - his first set of all-new material for some five years - has been described by the man himself as the best representation of his sound and a "permanent snapshot of his live shows". It's certainly an arresting and largely club friendly affair - the odd ambient intro or interlude excepted - with Bailey serving up throbbing techno cuts that variously doff a cap to pitch-black Roman techno, Teutonic minimalism, the producer's largely forgotten trance roots, warehouse-friendly rhythmic psychedelia and, in the case of the organ-sporting "Reboot That Advice", the spiritually-inspired Detroit techno of Terrence Parker and Robert Hood.