Techno Recommendations May 2013

Review: ** Repress for the dons ** Thankyou based Bankhead for this much needed repress of the mini LP from Leipzig power duo Kassem Mosse and Mix Mup aimed at fending off scrilla hungry Discogs sharks but also offers some a chance to replace their battered copies from the first pressing. KM MM breezes through a dizzying and highly experimental range of tracks, happily placing genuinely thrilling moments of sonic bombast next to arrangements that came across like three different tracks mangled together. In the midst of all this, "Birds Flying In The Sun Like U Know How" is calming and unashamedly odd, the ghost of Nina Simone plunged deep into the plucked, malfunctioning house groove.

Review: The gap between what is acceptable minimal and tech house is being made even greater thanks to a new wave of producers hailing from the far reaches of Eastern Europe. One label championing this finely tuned and dub-tinged sound is the mysterious Andromeda imprint, which debuts newcomer Sepp. What makes "Biatac" so good is its less-is-more approach and deft usage of reverb - harking back to Kalon's "Haiku" on Sandwell District. On the flip is "Lamartine", a cut which really defines this eastern European sound; flat beats, plateaus grooves, sparse sonics and creepy ambience.

Review: San Francisco residing UK visual artist come techno producer Oliver Vereker returns to LIES with the final part of two devastating releases for Ron Morelli's towering label. For those not in the know, Vereker was already an established part of the L.I.E.S. family, having co-produced videos for last year's Mutant Beat Dance and Two Dogs In A House releases along with Juan Bocca. Both reflected the grimy L.I.E.S. sound with a grainy, colour-saturated VHS aesthetic which was encapsulated in the throbbing, disintegrating quality of Rosite, Vereker's debut LIES 12" from last month. And it very much continues here with the title track from Fear Eats The Soul scraping away at your senses like The Black Dog at their best. Face down, Vereker goes for the grubby, basement techno approach on "Next" which appears to use a sample of a distant chainsaw as the basis of the bass line whilst "Untitled" is droning, rattling acid techno at its best.

Review: Amir Alexander's Vanguard Sound! operation has established itself as a firm favourite at the Juno office since it was launched last year with the Idiot Savant Masterpiece 12" from Alexander himself a late highlight of 2012. The first Vanguard Sound! Release this year sees label mainstay Chris Mitchell maintain his stylistic course through the deeper echelons of house and techno previously plotted on releases for Plan B and Proper Trax through four productions that pair tough, rough percussive arrangements with throbbing, hypnosis inducing basslines and melodies. Tracks such as "Snakes Heat & Concrete" or "Sway" are a world away from the snapback cap pack of shallow house currently diluting the market - if you want some real deepness Vanguard Sound! delivers.

Review: With a sudden swell of imaginative house and techno releases around him, Roger Gerressen returns to Fear Of Flying after appearing just last month with more of his smoky styles. "Liberal" plies a dubby trade in slender chords, ticking along at a slow but steady pace and somehow worming a processed funk into the broth at the same time. "Mint" is a more slippery devil, whipping up complex drum machine patterns in a minimal stylee over which strange speech samples can flutter. "Drunk Game" is an easier prospect, skipping as it does on a lazy swing for some low-slung warm-up goodness of the highest order, with Smokin' G's drawl melding nicely into the mix.

Review: When he's not scoring short films, collaborating with astronauts or DJing at ground level, Jeff Mills can be found working on his Something In The Sky series, now up to its 11th release. Jeff Mills' elevated fascination with space is truly evident in these four spooky and trippy blipped tracks. "Track 1" holds an unsettling tension throughout its plateaus and loopy arrangement, with random flutters of data processing sounds adding an eerie atmosphere to its spectral design. Uncanny sonancy and confusing tones make up "Track 2", which sounds like a malfunctioning supercomputer lost in space, while the delayed tom drums in "Track 3" give of an effect of falling through a black hole to no end. "Track 4" is by far the most hectic of all four productions, like a murder scene from a Kubrick film, Mills somehow harmonises his synths to the sounds of a frenzied electronic brain setting itself to self destruct.

Review: Truncate supplies four more functional cuts of club techno for the eighth release on Truncate records and in doing so resurrects Furesshu's Esoteric alias. Skittled clap patterns and fluxed synth melodies loop endlessly in "Coaster", with Esoteric focusing on the musical elements and snappish claps in his remix. Fellow west coast techno producer Developer coats Truncate "Message" in a black coat of heaving bass, windy atmospherics and rolling percussion, which deviates downwards from Truncates siren sounding original.

Review: Coldfish returns to his own Revelations EP, originally issued last year, for a fresh round of remixes from G. Verrina & G. Ventura, Cristi Cons - all of which come in a distinctly different flavour. G. Verrina & G. Ventura dive into the heavier end of tech house through their use of a cumbrous drums and a dislocated basslines with rapid fire snares, while Cristi Cons opts for spacious minimalism and the most subtle of vocal atmospherics. TC studio, like G. Verrina & G. Ventura, push for a harder sound, but rather than relying on bass, the two utilise reverb and lower mid frequencies to achieve a potent result of jilted grooves and kooky flex.

Review: Yes! John Swing and EMG re-engage on the Vinalog project with perhaps the finest Relative transmission to date. There are definite elements of chaos at play on lead cut "Truck" which staggers unrelentingly forward, powered by a growling bassline and rugged, staggering drums before a hellish array of ghostly voices mesh together and send the production into meltdown in a manner that will appeal greatly to Blawan. Alongside it "Sediments" feels caked in dirt from the off, with scraggly white noise trying to drag the thumping beat beneath but failing as an army of extra drums appear and crush your senses. Cruddy lysergic elements ripple menacingly in the lower reaches of the "Acid Choice" tool whilst "At The Warehouse" is a suitably industrial sounding exercise in groggy techno replete with slurred vocal samples.

Review: Paul Boex's Dynamic Reflection imprint is continually growing in calibre with each release. Time & Perception Part 1 is the labels 16th title and fifth for Abstract Division, a collab between Boex and Dave Miller. The EP opens with "Fierce Tension", which sees the duo bury their siren-sounding synths into a condensed wall of sinister force, while Shifted's booming and reverb heavy remix annihilates much of the originals musicality, it unrelentingly bores a war path of linear techno championed by the likes of DVS1. On the flip, "Comprehend" is like being caught in a wind storm of flying bolts, rust and ripped roofing, while the EPs ambient track "Collision" squeaks and gurgles like a alien trapped at the bottom cave in a Ridley Scott film.

Review: Adam X calls upon the cream of the Sonic Groove crop to remix his Traversable Wormhole project. Orphx's takes on "Worldline", with the Canadian duo melding deconstructive elements of harsh sound design with metrical time signatures to create a rhythmically coarse barrage of piston pumping percussion and kinetically powered drums. Belgian industrial veteran Monolith remixes "The Wormhole Nexus", which he coats in a wavering fuzz of voltaic heat, while Northern Structures' reduction of "Subliminal Warp Drive" sounds like the pair have submerged their studio in salt water and hit record while wearing 1920s styled atmospheric diving suits. Dasha Rush infuses elements of dub techno into her remix of "Universal Time", working the delays throughout the tracks loopy and self propelled motion.

Review: In a year where Downwards are celebrating their 20th anniversary, the label seems more willing than ever to push the boundaries of expectation. So far in 2012, Samuel Kerridge's startling four track suite of industrial techno has been complemented by Nightshade, the debut album from DVA Damas and a contender for end of year lists. Lycan obsessives OAKE join them with their debut missive Offenbarung, a three track 12" that sits close to Kerridge's work in the scale of things though the Berlin duo has their own unmistakable sound. From the off, OAKE are all about building and executing a sense of tension; the first two tracks seem them slither in the direction of your senses, not necessarily driven forward but creeping none the less. Scraping textures act as the rhythmic base and low groaning vocals meld with dissonant, rumbling tones. Final track "Nihnin Ned Bargund" is the closest thing to techno, commencing in dramatic fashion with a gong like singular kick drum sucking you in before a rising crescendo of reverberant metallic textures and psychosis inducing strings pull you into a nightmarish dimension.

Review: As a staunch representative of Midwest techno since the mid-nineties, Fanon Flowers has always skirted on the periphery of the scene rather than getting placed on the pedestal many of his neighbours do, but this return to UK's Sect Records sees a further widening of his reach, with this particular record embracing his dub techno side with a cavernous chord deployment and plenty of metallic hits. Substance is on deadly form for the remix, trimming said chord down to a fine point and adding some welcome funk into the arrangement to a thoroughly engrossing end.

Review: The Loch & Hill EP sees Steffi vocalist and Panorama Bar resident Virginia debut proper on Ostgut Ton. Perhaps best known to the world for her vocal contributions to Steffi's 2011 album Yours & Mine including the ubiquitous "Yours," Virginia is nevertheless a seasoned DJ and producer in her own right, having emerged from the Munich scene to take up a residency at Berlin's Panorama Bar in recent times. She's also grown into something of a producer under the tutelage of Steffi, most recently remixing the amusingly named "Shit On Me", a track Virginia vocalised on last year's Third Side LP . The Loch & Hill EP contains four vintage-leaning house productions with a modern sheen that clearly demonstrate her Panorama Bar experience; "Neurosis" for example is succinctly described by the label as a "playful, uplifting night-time jacker", while "Shifter" brings more explicit Detroit influences to bear with its elastic synth line and rumbling techno bassline.

Review: Belgian label Token dip their toes in the reissue game with this marbled vinyl presentation of a Mark Broom cut from 2002. Originally released through the Coda offshoot of James Ruskin's Blue Print, "Two" apparently highest amongst Token boss Kr!z's personal favourite Mark Broom productions and the track still sounds immense some eleven years on. A classic example of Broom at his most relentlessly thumping, "Two" is given some contemporary context on the B Side with a Syntax remix whose spacious textures and brushed syncopation offer a more serene accompaniment. Broom's original also features alongside Xhin, Ben Klock and Surgeon on a forthcoming label compilation from Token

Review: Kanding Ray continues his gradual ascendance through the Stroboscopic Artefacts ranks with the Tempered Inmid EP, the Raster Noton regular's first full release for Lucy's label. The producer, real name David Letellier, first appeared in Stroboscopic colours last year with a contribution to the digital only Monad series and has since appeared on a split release, laid down two tracks for the Stellate series and remix Dadub. So the chance to see the Frenchman explore his sound palette in a more expansive release for SA is exciting, and the four tracks on Tempered Inmid represent a further definition of Ray's futuristic and classically informed style of techno-meets-electronica. If you can imagine the fuzzy edged electronica of Clark mixed with Surgeon's precision club tools and brushed with the childlike tones of Aphex Twin then Tempered Inmid will certainly appeal.

Review: Turbo come through with a rather belated 12" issue for Plush, the all too demure meeting of minds that is Matthew Dear and label boss Tiga which comes backed with remixes from the thin white duke of electro Jacques Lu Cont and the excellent I:Cube. Inspired by Tiga's love of 80s dance TV and respect for Detroit's ongoing influence, it's little surprise that "Plush" comes across as a crass, technicolour appropriation of early 80s Detroit funk. It's typical Tiga and apparently the first of numerous collaborations with Dear! Remix wise Lu Cont opts to fast forward a decade on a rave-heavy rework whilst I:Cube totally destroys the vocal amidst a suitably singular acid heavy refrain.

Review: Erik & Fiedel's tantalisingly intermittent MMM project dusts itself off and gets pec-flexing for another bout on their own label with this assured two-track heavy hitter. There's no time wasted with the sassy stomp of "Que Barbaro" which works off a Latin guitar lick and some no-nonsense Soca drum arrangements, sporting the same fearless embrace of repetition you'd hope for from the wider Smith N' Hack camp. That said, this is definitely more on the crowd-pleasing summer mega-hit end of the spectrum than your average MMM release. "Casio Dub" gets a touch wilder with its overdriven bass and playfully teased sample loops, but still played out with restraint and poise. Once again though, the Soca break informs the groove which should find it working in more experimental kinds of sun-kissed outdoor parties.