DJS: MOST CHARTED - TECHNO - MOST CHARTED IN MAY 2014

Review: Gesloten Cirkel has become one of techno's true cult figures since his emergence back in 2009 with a self-titled 12" for Viewlexx offshoot Murder Capital, exploring the strange fringe between techno and electro with intermittent releases for David Vunk's Moustache Techno and Berceuse Heroique. Supposedly from Russia, there has nonetheless been much speculation as to the producer's true identity, though his musical roots seem very much planted in the sound of The Hague. His debut album Submit X is described quite aptly as "not for the faint-hearted", featuring a host of electro and techno cuts filled with classic breakbeats, tripped out vocal samples and caustic acid lines. However, it's also an album which looks to classic minimal wave sounds for inspiration - the lean rhythm and vocoder of "Stakan" and decayed 8-bit textures of "Chatters" provide some of the album's most memorable moments, proving Gesloten Cirkel is a producer with a few tricks up his sleeve. Undoubtedly one of the albums of the year.

Review: Yes! Finally the debut album from Joey Anderson arrives on wax after what seems like forever (if you'll excuse the pun). The vinyl edition of After Forever pulls together nine all new productions from the understated New Jersey-based producer (digital includes two cuts from his 2013 Dekmantel bow) and demonstrates Anderson's dedication to beat his own path, with plenty of mind bending moments to contend with. Highlights come thick and fast, "Space Colors Ideas" is a wondrous cascade of scatty bass synth and celestial sweeps, whilst the suitably named "Sorcery" melds together palpitating, subliminal kicks, a light dusting of hats, some loping Rhodes and complimentary synth notes. After Forever is destined to remain in the record boxes of the more considered selectors for years to come.

Review: Veteran Italian producer Donato Dozzy and California's Tin Man are old pals, with the latter having first remixed the former way back in 2011. Here, the two join forces for a voyage into acid-flecked late night science for Absurd's ever excellent Acid Test series. "Test 7" sets the tone, delivering a hypnotic, heads-down journey into deep, stripped-back acid house. While it's the EP's most obviously floor-friendly moment, there's something far more thrilling about the bubbling, beatless electronics of "Test 2" and "Test 3". The latter, doused in minimal techno atmospherics, is intensely beautiful in its warm, melodic simplicity.

Review: To the casual observer it might seem like we are approaching 'Donatoverload' with numerous Dozzy related projects released recently. Look a bit closer though, and it's either been reissues (like the Aquaplano Sessions) collaborations with Tin Man and Neel or extensive remix packages like Plays Bee Mask. There has been little actual solo Dozzy material since a 2011 release for the Acid Test series, so this release for Lucy's Stroboscopic Artefacts label is most welcome! Translating roughly as "Third Day", the four track Terzo Giorno 12" is typical Dozzy with a fine sense of textural dexterity evident on "Il Canto Della Maga (part 2)" and the title track. The addition of Dozzy makes perfect sense for Stroboscopic Artefacts within the context of their recent releases from Lakker, Rrose and Chevel which have provided the label with a renewed juncture to the dancefloor.

Review: There's a specific kink to the kind of dark and potent techno that Rodhad crafts. Back once again on Dystopian, the Red Rising EP offers up three examples of how to push things forward in the more serious corners of the techno menagerie. "Hell Diver" works around the cyclical motion of a few key ingredients to create a measured malice that will do nothing for your disposition, with slight touches of foreign sounds in those choice moments to make the ears dart around in paranoia. "Mines Of Mars" meanwhile lets a bleepy bassline head out in front with some playful fills creating a distinctive quality to the synth. "Rising" finishes proceedings off with a stout floor worker buttoned up so tight it might combust at any moment.

Review: Giegling say that Traumprinz has his own dream about American house music, about how things were when he wasn't around. Following the release of the Mothercave LP he continues this dream with the I Love Ya EP and brings with it a rougher aesthetic. The title-track has a distinct Fachwerk funk and toughness to it, while "Something Magic" is a linear, minimal and tough drum track that's like a colourful Prince Of Denmark production. It's "Intrinity" though that will get airplay on podcast and DJ sets thanks to a killer vocal line, and if you liked Juxta Position's Mistress, then this record is a must.

Review: Old flatmates Function and Ed Davenport (aka Inland) team up to deliver a two-track 12" of synthy techno that sounds like what Klaus Schultz and Kraftwerk might be making today if they were contemporary techno artists collaborating. You can really feel that Function is exploring his kosmische side of tonal and synth production on this release, while it's easy to assume that Inland, recently a proponent of dubby rhythm tracks, helps provide both pieces with a solid backbone, flecked with Function's trademark percussive sequences. Beginnings of a new project? We can only hope.

Review: First emerging on his own self-titled label back in 2011, Abdulla Rashim has cultivated a brand of extended, atmospheric techno that explores African and Arab motifs under a cloak of intended anonymity. Respected hubs like Prologue, Semantica and Studio Barnhus have all issued work from Rashim in one form or another and he's also developed a fine curatorial streak as the head of the Northern Electronics label. It's through this outlet that the Swedish producer issues his debut album Unanimity, with the nine-tracks exactly the kind of immersive experience one would expect, poised somewhere between the psychedelia of Dozzy and the slightly foreboding sound design that punctuated Silent Servant's excellent 2012 LP.

Review: ** REPRESS ** On the surface of things it may seem like Boddika's Nonplus label has engaged curveball mode with the signing of Rekids boss Radio Slave for its first record in over a year, but the approach of the two heads, who both like their beats rolling and their bass dense, have much in common. "Don't Stop No Sleep" is about as high grade as tech house gets, showing the pretenders how its done with its loopy vocal and firm grasp of rhythmic mechanics - it even comes in acapella version for creative mixing. "War Dub (version 2)" is much more cybernetic in its approach, as steely textures and a bleepy lead take things into hypnotic yet alienating territory, while the "Nightmare mix" of the title track provides a disorientating club cut whose subtle shuffling rhythms belie their impact. Essential.

Review: Emotional Especial gathers pace with an eighth release from Richard Sen, a man whose cultured touch has had a hand in various strands of the UK underground for the past two decades. Graffiti artist, graphic designer, music curator, DJ and producer are all vocations Richard Sen has done at one point or another. Here he goes solo with the Ghost Train EP, a dark and brooding release of old school meets new school house jack that takes it's cues from '80s New York, Italian house and the nascent UK acid house that Sen himself documented with aplomb on a 2012 compilation for Strut. Naggingly familiar samples and a low slung box jam groove drive the spectral title cut forward, whilst Sen's mastery of delay is shown with aplomb on the Dub version that closes out the record. Nestled in between is the highlight however in "Meteor Shower" where discoid basslines merge with psychedelically charged keys and hollowed out steppers percussion.

Review: It's a mark of the respect the Livity Sound crew are held in by their peers that the ongoing series of remixes hasn't resulted in a duff one since the series was inaugurated by MMM and Hessle Audio's Pangaea back in late February. This fourth edition really slams home how flossy Pev, Asusu and Kowton's collective contact lists is with highly respected figures of the electronic music spectrum in Surgeon and Nick Hoppner contributing. In remixing the immediately recognisable "Raw Code", Surgeon has been handed perhaps the most difficult task of the series so far, and the UK techno legend has opted to leave little of the original production intact. Meanwhile, the accompanying rework of Asusu's early Livity Sound release "Sister" from Nick Hoppner is a less drastic revision, with Panorama Bar resident Hoppner a wise choice to tease out some of the more ambient elements of the Detroit techno-influenced production.

Review: The Inhalants collaboration between Opal Tapes artist Patricia and L.I.E.S. synth explorer Jahiliyya Fields first emerged last October when the former posted a queasy techno jam produced by the pair on SoundCloud, and now the project has been formalised with the debut Inhalants record for L.I.E.S. featuring three tracks of brilliantly gnarly techno. As you'd expect, freeform hardware jams are the name of the game here, but there's a pleasing psychedelic streak running throughout; the squealing lead and spectral chord of "Inhalants" hints at Teutonic styles but with a much darker edge, the squeaky clatter of "No Hats" comes across like Container covering Geeeman's "Rubberband2", while the bleep-centric techno of "There Are Cops Around" sounds like it was made by a paranoid Jeff Mills. Once again, another collection of killer tracks from L.I.E.S.

Review: If there's someone you can count on for excellence in minimalism when it comes to techno, it's Mike Parker. This time it's Mote-Evolver he's doing the business for, turning out three po-faced slices of tough and stealthy tackle for the dance. "Spitting Electricity" uses neat and tidy polyrhythms to create a slip-sliding effect as the titular electricity undulates through a filter. "Polar Vortex" is more obtuse with its bubbling synth tone that comes straight out of the textbook of freaky sound effects in techno tracks. "Ice Fissure" too turns to canny sound design to make its point, not to mention audibly crafting the crack of the title over a slow marching kick.

Review: For their latest trip into the analogue unknown, Jamal Moss's Mathematics imprint has turned to John Heckle cohort and occasional Tabernacle type Mark Forshaw. The producer duly delivers an impressively varied and superbly imagined quartet of cuts, heavy on snappy analogue percussion, stargazing synths and icy, out-there atmospherics. There's some deep but driving underwater techno in the shape of the claustrophobic "Sessions", a clanking exercise in drum machine love (the intense but woozy "Tools of the Unexpected"), a deeper, slower tempo trip into melodic analogue deep house territory ("Analog Kicks"), and a acid-flecked jack-track with distinct Detroit techno overtones ("Neptanus"). Predictably, all four tracks are superb.

Review: No matter how often you check in on the Relative label, you know you'll be rewarded with some quality DJ tools and this is certainly the case with their first release of the year. At the helm is John Swing, responsible for some of the Juno office's favourite Relative releases - "Rolling" from 2011 still blows minds - and this Dusty Dancing 12" pretty much lives up to it's name. Fragments of disco DNA are fed through Swing's hardware on opening track "Dirty Disco" with a central disco loop subjected to all manner of delay and EQ tweaking, whilst "Re Funked" applies a similar method to a low slung guitar riff. Interestingly, Swing changes tack on the flip, with "Madman Groove" a frantic exercise in percussion heavy cut up house whilst "Raw Twist" bangs hard!

Review: The ball of Ilian Tape keeps getting bigger and bigger and adding to it this time is new name Rupcy (our guess, a Marko Zenker alias). Chances are this record is already getting major play throughout Europe's clubs at the moment and it's likely that the A1, "Utow", is what's getting worn away most. This is because of the killer call and response combo between the bleeps and short air raid siren. With its Markus Suckut kick drum, "Can" is a dirty club track perfect for DJs looking to transition into something deeper while still wanting to remain hard-edged. On the B-side the title "Assemblage" has a slight Fachwerk ring to it, as does the crunchy hi-hats and other aggravated fizzes of the track which leads into an Aphex Twin-sounding ambient broken-beat session called "Bows".

Review: One of the founding fathers of the Jakbeat ethos alongside fellow Nation artists Tadd Mullinix and Melvin Oliphant III, D'Marc Cantu's music doesn't really deviate down the weird wormholes that the other two occasionally like to occupy. He is however remarkably prolific, and yet there is always a sense of quality that comes with each and every D'Marc Cantu release. Recent times have found the producer stepping outside of Creme and MOS comfort zone in style, but it's nice to find D'Marc Cantu back on Aroy Dee's label with the Long Weekend 12" for MOS DEEP. Some three tracks deep, Long Weekend largely sees the producer in full-on 303 mode, with the B-side given over entirely to two fast-paced acid jams, with only the title track on the A-side going on a deeper house tip.

Review: The Day The Sky Fell In sees Indigo Aera look to the Parisian techno scene for their eleventh twelve inch transmission, with Concrete resident Antigone adding the Dutch label to a prospering production discography that's seen him feature on Construct Re-form, Ars Mechanica, Children Of Tomorrow and the Concrete label itself. If you've indulged in one of those aforementioned releases, you'll be aware of the signature sound Antigone is cultivating and it's on full display here specifically the opening track "Words Of Silences". Here soul searching strings and faint strains of spine tingling vocals call out over a taut percussive backbone with the results sounding undeniably futuristic. Antigone adopts a slightly faster pace with "Third From The Sun" without any concession to the smoothness of production and it's kept company by a remix of "Words Of Silence" from label bosses Jasper and Maarten that veers towards more abrasive territory.

Review: With Bliq operating at a rate of roughly two 12"s per year, it's possible that this debut release from Deemonlover is the last vinyl transmission we'll see from the London-based label in 2014. If that's the case, there is plenty of mileage in the four tracks that make up the Manticore 12" and there's plenty of house and techno selectors out there that will be pulling for this record for some time yet. Fans of the Dial label will certainly find much to embrace in the buoyant yet melancholic opening track "Velcro" which engages subtle shifts in pitch. This atmospheric opener is something of a false dawn however, as Deemonlover duck between the abstract ghetto house of "J.a.a.p." and the dusty Naples style deepness of "Violet Kink" before closing on the crunching peak time techno of "Till Primals".

Review: If you wanted something tangible to sum up the Plan B label right now, this Underground Sounds Volume 2 12" fits the bill perfectly. Label founder DJ Spider shares the A-side with fellow New Yorker and collaborator Phil Moffa, with the Plan B boss turning in a typically smudgy, acid stained drum track while Moffa delivers some deep techno in "A Place Of Shadows" (which sounds it would also fit well on Anthony Parasole's The Corner). On the B-side, "Synchronicity" from joint label boss Dakini9 is a kooky, stripped-back and spaced-out minimal house jam, while Hakim Murphy is again left to his own devices to create a jilted deep house number that's as rigid as it is soulful.

Review: When Broom met Hood! To celebrate M Plant's 20th anniversary, Robert Hood is planning a whole host of events and releases including a sequence of 12"s that see classics and rarities remixed and edited. Who better to inaugurate the series than Hood's UK contemporary Mark Broom? Here Broom digs deep into the M Plant archives, choosing to work with "Untitled 1" from Hood's Moveable Parts series and "One Touch" from the Minimal Nation album. Canvas Hood fans and the majority will probably nominate the first edition of the Moveable Parts series as one of their favourites, so it's little surprise that Broom elected to add his own signature dirty funk to the opening track for this 12". His edit of Minimal Nation opener "One Touch" proves to be just as effective, playing toyfully with the bassline whilst dicing the beats with undoubtedly dark results.

Review: Derrick May's seminal Transmat opens it's storied book on a new chapter with his record from French producer Karim Sahraoui. Founded way back in 1986, Transmat was one of the original wave of Detroit techno labels alongside Juan Atkins' Metroplex and Kevin Saunderson's KMS imprint. Although KMS has been releasing music quite consistently over the past few years and Metroplex returned to life last year with a collaboration between Juan Atkins and Mark Ernestus, Transmat has been dormant for a few years now, with Greg Gow's Twilight Soul EP in 2011 being the label's last release. Sahraoui's Eternal Life EP Part 1 is the start of a new chapter in the Transmat story devoted to "multiplying emerging artists' productions," done with classic artwork recalling Transmat's early days, with each record delivering "modern interpretations of Transmat's distinctive sounds." The two tracks from the French producer live up to such billing and then some, with "Stella" filled with star gazing Utopian bliss.

Review: Having made his name with releases for Tresor and Deeply Rooted, French producer Marcelus has adopted the well worn role of label boss with the Singular Records operation, but you can't fault the music that's surfaced on the label thus far. Marcelus himself helms this fifth Singular transmission, with a four track grip that really demonstrates his variety and prowess for techno that is both razor-sharp and trippy. Lead track "Direct Drive" encapsulates this approach perfectly, as a dusty, booming groove jack hammers its route through a wall of abstract sound design that feels oddly liquid and rubbery at the same time. "Savage Pattern" leans more on the abstract side of things, with a minimalist, almost tribal backbone wedged deep into a production that feels almost ominously alive. "Oneness" could easily be mistaken for a Terrence Dixon track, whilst "Incantation" is the sort of techno you want to hear testing the intricacies and acoustics of a confined warehouse space installed with a Function One.

Review: While Redshape certainly has a way with melody, his real skill is drum programming. Even his most metronomic techno productions are blessed with swing, shuffle and a percussive looseness that belies their thunderous heaviness. Further proof of his skill with drums can be found on Bonuz Beatz Volume 1, a quartet of stripped-back but surprisingly lively percussion tools guaranteed to ignite dancefloors. Each of the cuts, from the handclap-laden low-slung bounce of "Itz" and tech-jazz swing of "Finizh", to the cowbell-laden vintage breakbeat-house goodness of "Dogz" and basement techno slammer "Zteel", feels like an invitation to lose it out on the dancefloor. Making drum tracks this addictive is a skill, and Redshape is undoubtedly a master of the groove.

Review: Following DJ Spider's debut on Nord, the Danish label gives the Brooklyn-based artist the full treatment with a four-track remix 12". The label has employed a varied cast to re-smudge or clean up Spider's sounds, starting with Token artist Ctrls who delivers, as always, a gruelling industrial take on an already very grubby "Absolute Zero". Steven Tang provides some effervescent respite to the original EP's title-track, "Northern Abyss", while UK producer Charlton under his Taprius alias delivers a remake of "Acid Rain" which sounds like something that might come from the Head Front Panel label. Anton Zap, like he does best, then drops in with some slower BPMs and trippy sounds with his unique take on "Deep Freeze".

Review: While Luke Slater is busy as always, his Planetary Assault Systems output has slowed since the release of the all conquering Messenger LP for Ostgut Ton in 2011. For this Future Modular 12", Slater is less visceral and more arpeggiated than previous releases, harking back to a '90s-early-2000s PAS-sound, specifically the A-side's title-track. On the B-sides there's the deep, trippy and linear "Serc", but before that there's a sinister "Riot In Silo 12" that's showered in 909-hi-hats to get through first.