SPEKKI WEBU Vinilo y CD

Review: As part of Amniote Editions' fifth birthday, the admirably experimental label has decided to release a full-length excursion from Mirror Zone founder Spekki Webu, AKA Heliobolus. The multi-disciplinary artist has decided to utilise both aliases on the album, a way of reinforcing the key conceptual idea behind it - that it is a "story of intertwined storylines" akin to "parallel universes that connect and diverge". Musically, it's an intriguing affair, with pulsating, full-throttle sci-fi techno workouts sitting side by side with darker, more intense cuts, sound design-heavy experimental techno soundscapes, and nods towards the horror end of the cinematic soundtrack spectrum. Throw in a few mutant, noise-laden post-IDM compositions and you have a genuinely impressive full-length excursion.

Review: Delft native Spekki Webu is by now widely known as a master builder of alien sonic technology; each of his tunes work in the same combo of sonic slime and bioengineering one might also recognise in H.R. Giger's artworks. This new EP adds to his grotesque menagerie, seeing him team up with fellow producer and relative newcomer from Italy, Abo Abo (Danielle Carcassi), for an oocyte outing in plasmic hardcore techno, charged with the luminescent energies of a foreign organism. Though the pace is regular, the feel is teeming and squidgy, giving rise to 'Infinite Path Of Life' and 'Anodyne', two sonobiotic narcotics of unknown chemical composition. Then there's the eerily alien scales of 'Vector Field' and the gurgling thunderclaps of 'Line Storm', the latter especially evocative of an alien chasm (Or dancefloor? We can't tell the difference!) and sputtering with huge, forking electrical arcs.

Review: The Blue Hour crew have put together this classy four-track various artists EP to round out their year in style. Spekki Webu's 'Cycleon' is the busy opener with silky, punchy breaks and melon-twisting pads up top. DJ Ibon's 'Slug Knife' is more hard techno in vibe with flat, unrelenting drums. LDS's 'Ere Audio' (vinyl edit) keeps that hard style coming with drilling bass and glitchy synths over looped drums that lock you into a hypnotic rhythm. Vel's 'Tunnel' then brings a punishing techno sound to close with all sorts of freaky sounds scurrying throughout the arrangement.