Juno Recommends Electro: November 2022

Review: As one of the iconic partnerships from the electroclash era, Miss Kittin & The Hacker helped define seedy synth tackle at the turn of the century. Given the prevalence of minimal wave in this day and age, it feels like the perfect time for them to come back with a new album. Teetering between pop nous and the darkest of deviant nighttime dreams, this is everything you would want from a return of the Grenoble greats. Listening to 'Purist' and they could easily be taking on the charts, while a trip into 'La Cave' is like donning your finest leathers and sliding into the dungeon.

Review: LA-based Ole Mic Odd makes a return to Source Material for second dose of booty acid beauty. after featuring on numerous labels worldwide in recent years. As its title suggests, the four tracks here have heaps of gnarly acid attitude and speed-wise are set to maximum twerk. All highly likely to keep your 3AM crowd rooted to the spot and away from any thoughts of heading off for the night bus or taxi rank, sure, but there's another layer to this release beyond such functionalities. Ole Mic Odd has clearly mastered the art of light and shade, because he barely needs a note or two to switch up the mood of 'Bunsen Burner' or the heavily electro-weighted 'LA Gear', meaning all four have depth as well as impact.

Review: Originally from France and now based in Berlin, Isolated Material has dropped a steady run of heavy hitting releases on labels including; Brokntoys, Haws, Ukonx, 909 Connection and Mind Controlled Rectifier before joining us for his debut EP on 20/20 Vision.

'Hidden Node' kicks off the wax with a jarring excursion of futuristic breaks and abrasive sound design firing on all cylinders with complex drum patterns, bleeps and glitches. 'Asynchronous Funk' sees Isolated Material serve up an abstract slice of electro funk with a solid broken beat groove peppered with unexpected moments of off-kilter magic.

On the flip side - title track 'Hidden Node' offers up a dose of Drexciyan inspired funk primed for a set on the dark side of the moon with; high octane breaks, quick fire drum programming, intricate synth patterns and ominous undertones. Wrapping up the EP 'Unmarked Sequence' is an equally potent chaser for the wide eyed deep space traveller in need of body jerking breaks.

Review: Self-styled 'suspected leader of the lizard tech militia' Reptant has built up a quietly impressive catalogue over the years, thanks in no small part to appearances on hyped underground imprints including Kalahari Oyster Cult, Craigie Knowes, Salt Mines and Die Orakel. Here he pops up on another acclaimed label: DJ Glow's much-admired TRUST stable. The Aussie electro explorer begins in punchy, bass-heavy fashion on intergalactic-sounding workout 'The Clique's Clack', before reaching for discordant bleeps, aquatic electronics, tight bass and bustling beats on 'Syncussion Concussion'. 'Snitches Get Glitches' is a hip-hop-tempo chunk of post-apocalyptic IDM creepiness, while 'Halls of Perception' is a fizzing and buzzing chunk of mind-mangling peak-time electro heaviness.

Review: If the Spanish know how to keep one thing alive, it's community; in the spirit of this truth, Xuntaza, the name of Fanzine's latest EP series, is a Galician word that means 'the action of gathering of a group of people to discuss an issue or have fun'. Not overthought beyond the simple xuntanzing of its brightest artists, Vol. 1 in the series functions as a fantastic meeting point between dub techno, tech house, and experimental electro.

Review: Five new blistering electro cuts from LAZER Records, centring on an initial posthumous track, Microlith's 'ClockEXT', which celebrates one of the late producer's hardest tracks. Four more tracks from Sound Synthesis, Volph, Cignol and Type303 follow on this incredible attack of titanic tunes from the international crew.

Review: Fresh from delivering the killer General Maintenance EP to No Static / Automatic, Ben Pest bounces his lysergic electro wares over to Mechatronica Music and once again lays down the law in terms of brain-tweaking machine funk. As '8 Octavial' demonstrates, there are no prisoners being taken here as Pest gleefully piles on thick layers of cybernetic sound juggled with a masterful touch. It's absolutely rolling and rave ready, but there's also more than enough detail pinging around these mixes to keep a headphone raver happy. Don't overlook the edgy pings and plongs of 'VCS Wig' or the playful synthetic soul touches of 'Strict Saws', which might well be the best joint on the whole record.

Review: Some 15 years have now passed since Solar One Music founder Robert Witschakowski debuted The Exaltics alias, and in that time the project has delivered some genuinely brilliant and far-sighted electro and techno. This compilation of highlights, which mines a variety of albums and EPs released between 2009 and 2019 (including some previously digital-only and long out of print material), is therefore well overdue. Highlights are naturally plentiful, with our picks of an extremely strong bunch including the acid-fired, mind-mangling peak-time aggression of 'Second Phases', the heavyweight star-fall intensity of 'Irresistible', the Drexcyian rush of 'Skyway Chase' and the near D&B-tempo, new wave influenced retro-futurism of 'Nothing's Too Late'.

Review: Initially inspired by collaborative jam sessions at Curtis Electronix HQ, Satellite marks the debut of new outfit Gravity Waves, a trio comprising experienced electro producers Kalean, Z.I.P.P.O and CEM343. Musically, it owes a lot to the electro sound of Detroit - and the peerless Drexciya in particular - and could be seen as a whole-hearted tribute to the Motor City machine musicians who have inspired a lot of Europeans over the years. The trio hits the mark from the start, opening with a suitably heavy but spacey club cut ('Memory 3'), before doffing a cap to Cybotron ('Satellite') and rolling out a series of inspiring, high-grade cuts that tend towards the timeless. Arguably best of all though is 'Time Diver', which brilliantly joins the dots between driving futurist techno and the sub-aquatic sounds of Drexciya.

Review: Detroit Techno Records co-head Mollison Folson returns under the Body Mechanic alias with the High Octane EP for Toronto-based ghettotech purveyors Philthtrax. This one features some straight-up Motor City computer funk as heard on side A's 'Detroit Electronics'', with more fierce electro beats coming at you on B1 cut 'Electroit', that's followed by the emotive mood music of 'Electricity' - this one's sure to get the showroom dummies moving when the lights go out.

Review: Having notched up releases as OCB on Casa Voyager, WARNIG and Rue De Plaisance a few years ago, Driss Beniss has been persuaded to re-animate the project via a four-tracker on admirable imprint Craigie Knowes. He's in fine form from the start, peppering a rubbery analogue bassline and rolling breakbeats with evocative pads, dreamy chords and bittersweet melodies on 'Crocodile Tears'. He gleefully joins the dots between surging, TB-303-powered acid house, Detroit futurism and bumpin' U.S house on 'Autoroute', before pressing the button marked "classic electro" on the frankly superb 'Corporate Sound'. To round things off, he adds vintage Korg M-1 organ stabs and synth sounds reminiscent of the lead lines in Orbital's 'Lush 3' to a breathlessly energetic electro-breaks beat. In a word: ace!

Review: Now this is the kind of house we live for. Mired in the rawness of post-punk and making use of never-heard-before drums and basses, DOTT hails from the underrepresented dance scene extant in Bangkok, Thailand. Her unusual palette reflects a slapdash vibe that could only come from an individual mind. The tracks on 'Deep Soi', were they to act as sonic guides for deep-sea adventures, cover every depth from abyssal trenches to sprawling coral reefs. 'Stalking Merlin' is our highlight: nothing more is needed in this minimal, grainy, chromatic stew.

Review: As part of Tresor's mega reissue campaign of Drexciya's back catalogue, 'Hydro Doorways' comes as a 6-track teaser 12" showing off the legendary electro supergroup's best lesser-known cuts from 2000. Originally featuring concept art for a 'Drexciyan cruiser' modelled after a giant squid on its 12" sleeve, 'Hydro Doorways' features six stonking mechanistic dance bits ranging from the emotive to the stompy. Clock the nods to Kraftwerk in its various melodies and lulls.

Review: Sound the ghettotech alarm, DJ Godfather is in the building. Detroit's undisputed master of this eternally catchy branch of electro knows exactly what he's doing, and his Databass label is the most trusted stamp in the scene. '313 Keeps It Down' is a no-nonsense body rocker with whipcrack claps, brittle hats and dirty thump in the low end, of course with some reliable vocoder chants to lock on to. There's a dub mix of that track to get creative in the mix with, plus 'Owe Your Shit' which brings a deadly, filthy rap from Lil Mz 313 to put all needy bros in their place. 'Late Night Funk' offers something more introspective thanks to its lush pads, showing there's more than one side to the Godfather.

Review: As soon as you drop the needle on this new record from Reflection Port Assembly, you are sunk into a cosmic work of seductive electro. 'New Horizon' layers up balmy synths with crisp drums and rich bass to make for something perfect cinematic. 'Otra Cultura' has more textural synths but still plenty of beautiful chords over the jazzy beats and 'Blue Sky' then trips you out a little with crispy hits and sci-fi motifs over a rasping bassline. Cignol shows his eternal class with a far-sighted electro-soul and twitchy acid loveliness.