Juno Recommends Techno: Best of 2022

Review: It's over 25 years since Baby Ford decamped to the studio with, alternately, Mark Broom and the late Ian 'Eon' Loveday to re-examine the depths and possibilities of collaborative underground techno. The result, as we now know, was a giant step forward into a new sound, with a new label, Ifach, that would go on to define the blueprint for a more minimal sound it would take others a decade emulate. Monolense, four bittersweet, emotional, stripped bare explorations of techno has long been sought-after, commanding high prices on the secondhand market, and is finally getting a re-release. This is not just a moment in time, but a bookmark in UK techno history.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: After strong turns from buttechno and label founder Pavel Milyakov, RASSVET makes one of its most decisive moves yet with this crucial slab of dance-wrecking badness from Shadowax. The Russian artist made her first appearance on a compilation on Nina Kraviz's Trip label, and now steps forward with some seriously badass techno that will draw in curious trainspotters and head-in-the-clouds ravers alike. "A & B" is a cover of 90s Russian hip-hop crew Pyanstvu Boys, and Shadowax's version is pure fire, her voice poising eerily over a punchy off-beat and droning bass. Buttechno delivers a simple, savage remix, while the B side presents an alternative mix and an acappella that should see lots of action from remixers and creative DJs alike.

Review: Previously, we'd have known exactly what to expect from a brand-new Paranoid London release: TB-303 driven acid house jack-tracks. Annihilate The World and Start Again, their first EP of fresh material since 2019, bucks this trend, setting aside their beloved acid lines in favour of a more mixed-up selection of hardware-heavy workouts. Check first the droning, mind-mangling bass, hypnotic techno beats and creepy chords of the excellent title track, before admiring the breathless, psychedelic techno-jack of 'External In'. Warmer and dreamier fare is provided via melodious electro number 'The State of That', before Detroit veteran Paris Brightledge adds a wonderfully emotive, almost melancholic vocal to analogue deep house-meets-Motor City techno cut 'Linked In'.

Review: A limited edition 12" vinyl with two extension cuts of Obergman's new album on Pariter! Vinyl only - No repress! Dreamy synths wash over the listener, analogue bubbles heading for the surface - imagine Drexciya in 'Wavejumper' or 'Sea Snake' mode, only with its restless electro foundations replaced by something more regular and reassuringly solid in the beats department. All in all, oozing melodic techno class.

Review: Veteran British producer Steve O'Sullivan originally premiered the track 'Chant Down' on the long-player Steady Pulse earlier this year for Alistair Kelly's Lempuyang imprint which now gets treated to some fine remixes. O'Sullivan gets stuck in for the first rerub on the A-side, a slinky and hypnotic Recycled dub, while over on the flip he dons the Bluetrain alias again for the icy and cavernous version Excursion providing the perfect backdrop for its mesmerizing vocal. Finally, BLKRTZ head Deadbeat takes the track into even murkier and ominous territory on his impressive perspective.

Review: 'At Les' is one of Carl Craig's most beloved productions: a gorgeously dreamy chunk of Innerzone Orchestra style tech-jazz that first surfaced - on a now in-demand compilation - 25 years ago. Craig has revisited it several times since, but it's Christian Smith's 2010 reworks - reissued on this 12" for the first time since - that are arguably the most peak-time ready and dancefloor-centric. On the A-side 'Tronic Treatment' version Smith layers the track's iconic synthesizer motif - heart-achingly poignant and drenched in delay - and deep, spacey chords over deep, rumbling sub-bass and a crunchy deep house beat. Smith ups the tempo and intensity on the arguably even better 'Hypnotica Mix', which is closer in tone to pure Motor City techno and features a genuinely spellbinding breakdown.

Review: 25 years ago, one of the most essential deep & dubby techno projects put forth its roots in the form of the 'JS' and 'MCMLXV' labels. Two decades later the consistency & quality of James' output is as solid as ever. The aptly titled Universe EP showcases the breadth of his talent; from the atmosphere-skimming feel of 'Refracted', to the melodic vibes of 'Cyclic'. The flip sees more familiar territory in the abrasive 'Gravity Waves', and the expansive & soaring 'Blueshift' has future classic written all over it. Timeless material.

Review: "Way back in the 1990s, Mark Hand, Neil Iceton & Jez Nicholl channelled their love of sci-fi-fired Motor City techno into a string of inspired releases under the alias Cubic Space Collective.

After reuniting for a memorable machine jam at Freerotation festival in 2016, Hand & Iceton headed back into the studio for a one-off session and recorded 'Holiday in Beta Centauri', a musical love letter to Mad Mike and the rest of Detroit's most militant futurist techno crew.

Sending us surging skywards via 'Binary System', where lilting lead lines, fizzing electronics and enveloping chords dance atop a snappy, cymbal-heavy drum machine rhythm, before 'Arps in Hyperspace' sees them step things up a notch via layered waves of synths, sparkling melodies and a driving, hyper-speed groove.

The North-East-based twosome then attempt to warm us to the core in the shape of 'Rigil': restless organ stabs, undulating Michigan bass, alien electronics, psychedelic acid lines and Galaxy 2 Galaxy style chords catching the ear. Bringing us gently back down to earth, they complete their deep space mission with 'Beyond The Nebula (Holiday in Beta Centauri)', a bustling electro number full of stabbing analogue bass, star-burst electronics, meditative ambient chords that shimmer full of night-sky melodies.

A fine return to action for this Teesside UR-loving techno twosome... 3,167 miles away in Detroit, their achievement will be noted."

Review: More from mystery artist Surrogate, reportedly a veteran Detroit-based techno producer operating under a new alias for the first time in 20 years. As with the publicity-shy artist's recent debut on Misstress Recordings, the four cuts showcased on this EP combine crunchy, distorted and sometimes extremely lo-fi techno and electro beats with dubbed-out electronics, deep space motifs and subtle nods towards vintage rave culture. There's much to admire throughout, from the soul-flecked deep techno crunchiness of 'Poison' and hypnotic, early morning brilliance of 'LX', to the fractured techno minimalism of closing cut 'Moderno'.

Review: Skee Mask, who only recently was found out to be called Bryan Muller, comes through with his second LP to date, making a wonderful follow-up to 2016's Shred. Compro is, ironically, comprised of a much more explorative palette of sounds, with many corners of the album veering off into otherworldly ambient, often through a striking new-age sensibility. The most impressive element of this album is its flow and evolution across its 12 tracks, sounding a lot more like one single-minded thought rather than a collection of disparate dance-not-dance tunes. The quality of the recording is noticeable, too, with tracks like "Rev8617" or "Via Sub Mids" sounding professional, both in vision and style. Through an intricate collage of breaks, samples, polyphonies, and subtle electronic manipulations, Skee Mask has truly mastered his own art, and is giving a new direction to the wider 'UK rave' sound. BIG.

Review: Hard to believe, but it's 25 years since after the emergence of Steve O'Sullivan's dub moniker, and now Lempuyang has the honour of presenting the first full length album of all-new material. Over the span of nine tracks, Steve takes us on a version excursion, exploring a mixture of dub rhythms alongside a healthy dose of wizardry to work the floor. Featuring collaborations from Hidden Sequence, Another Channel, and vocals from Prince Morella. Strictly for connoisseurs - and yet utterly essential!

Review: There is a great selection of reissues of Future Sound of London's back catalogue going on right now. It goes all the way back to 1988 when they first started chaining the game with their forward facing electronics and mix of rave, breaks, hardcore and ambient into something utterly fresh. It still resonates today, hence these reissues, and this one is a 25th Anniversary edition of Accelerator. This one was, at the time, seen as the group's most "commercially-minded" album but that takes nothing way from its visionary sonics and immersive sonic landscapes.

Review: Dutch dub house engineer Roger Gerressen released his superb Monoaware EP four years ago, and as part of Sushitech's 15 year celebrations it receives a much needed repress. The Irenic chief's distinct brand of hazy and hypnotic house of the understated kind is prevalent throughout the EP's six sublime tracks, all dialed into generous amounts of delay and long trails of reverb that add to its overall foggy aesthetic. The second track is definitely the more upbeat option to move the dancefloor with its funky and polyrhythmic groove, while the after hours option is undoubtedly the fourth track - a back room dub which gets deep enough to keep the heads down.

Review: After a slew of teasers out earlier this year, Deepchord (Rod Modell) eases ever deeper into his overarching chordal masterscape, continuing the 'Functional' theme expressed in his music in recent years. Functional Designs is first full-length LP from the producer in five years, and the teaser 'Strangers' promises more musical development than ever before heard from the enigmatic Detroit producer. It might be best describable as 'progressive dub techno'; airier and more breathable than his early, more subdued works, we're thoroughly impressed by the movement from percussive resonances ('Strangers') to fully ambient finites ('Drassanes').

Review: Peter Kersten, better known as Lawrence, is the veteran deep house producer and gallerist who many of you may know as chief of Hamburg's Dial Records and who made external outings previously on Japan's Mule Musiq where he released several lauded long-players. His latest one comes courtesy of Berlin's Sushitech entitled Earthshine, a 3XLP featuring 12 tracks written and produced by Kersten over the last five years. All in all it's a diverse selection put together by one of the scene's most highly regarded artists.

Review: Deadbeat and Sa Pa are pleased to present their first collaborative album on the anniversary of BLKRTZ's 50th release, and defer to Albert Camus to describe the "Whys" and "Whats" of it:

" I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

Review: This is the third full-length album by veteran Swedish producer Ola Obergman who has been producing since the turn of the millennium on respected imprints such as Skam, Borft and Futhur Electronix. A heavy collection of 808-based fusion in classic Pariter style, Mirror Counterpart is a cohesive effort featuring some truly impressive productions; from the early proto-house sound of the title track, to the Detroit influenced hi-tech soul cuts on the second disc - 'Indeterminacy' and 'Stellar Triangulation' respectively - going into 4/4 robot funk on the second disc with 'Alice Matter' and 'Uncertiny Principle' being the highlights. Superb.

Review: The Sushitech 15th anniversary celebrations have been a long and winding trip back through the imperious tech house label's dub-soaked back catalogue, and it finally comes to rest on this gem from 2017. Marco Rhauderwiek's sound is pure Sushitech, all billowing dub techno blooms and heads-down, late night beats, but the presence of Paul St. Hilaire takes the music to another level entirely. The legendary veteran of Rhythm & Sound and so much more dub-techno crossover business since, the man like Tikiman has a voice synonymous with this style, and he sits beautifully in Rhauder's elegant groove sculptures. Highly prized since its original release, it's a show-stopping release which beautifully draws a line under Sushitech's moment of reflection.

Review: While Daniel Avery's earlier LPs were deemed by the artist to be dissociative exercises - either working in dance or ambient escapism - his new album 'Ultra Truth' faces up fearlessly to life. Through mega washed out and blurred breaks and, it's the sonic expression of Avery "staring into the fire" of life, however dreamy and indistinct the experience of it may be, and living mindfully, completely in the body he finds himself housed in and controlling. Of course, dance music is embodied music, so we're more than blown away by this representation; Avery pulls it off by going in a direction we've not heard him move in before.

Review: This archival release on Organic Analogue digs back into the prolific '90s period of Swedish techno maverick Jean-Louis Huhta, aka Dungeon Acid. These days he releases on iDEAL, Fit Sound, Borft and Klasse Wrecks, but he cut his techno teeth on labels like Hybrid, Svek and H. Productions. Clad in artwork details by Swedish graffiti legend Nug, Wormhole Of Time comprises unreleased cuts and long out-of-print jams spanning many of Huhta's aliases. The release also comes with a zine featuring photographs and an interview reflecting on Huhta's multifarious life in music.

Review: Detroit legend Jeff Mills' returns with an exciting new LP, and as always, there's a deep concept behind it. Mind Power Mind Control explores various techniques used for mind control, the deceptive techniques devised for such purposes and its power over people. Similarly, the music on offer here is incredibly hypnotic - this is a Mills album after all - with each track's complex sonic tapestry sure to entrance you. All of The Wizard's idiosyncrasies are on offer: immaculately programmed 909 rhythms underpin majestic strings and sublime tones, all delivered with his trademark style of futurist minimalism. While less dancefloor oriented than some of this revered DJ's previous releases, it's awe-inspiring nonetheless. Essential listening.

Review: Mark Broom is a techno veteran, but just because he enjoys that sot of status doesn't mean he has lost his edge. He proves that here with a hefty new record on Radio Salve's mighty Rekids. It bangs from the off with his signature heavy drums defining each of the tracks across all four sides of vinyl. '100% Juice' is peak time tackle with incendiary hit hats and loopy synths, 'Slush' is a head melter with more warped lines and elsewhere 'Wonky Workout' does exactly what says on the tin. There is a brilliantly unsettling and eerie vibe to 'Boxed In' and straight up dance floor fire in 'Wiggle Me This.'