Back catalogue: Electro

Review: Operative since the early 1990s, Dan Piu is one of Switzerland's most storied deep house and futurist techno producers. His regular EPs are rarely less than excellent, and even those that slip under the radar tend to be solid if not spectacular. The good news is that Piu is in prize form on this Spacebased Recordings released five-tracker. Check first sumptuous, Needs (Not Wants)-influenced deep house number 'Times' - a masterclass in mood and melody - before admiring the bleeping, intergalactic excellence of spacey deep house gem 'Dorsey'. He opts for a more energetic, warehouse-ready early 90s house/techno sound on 'Monitor Body Process 101', doffs a cap to stargazing Motor City techno on 'Flying Dolphins', and showcases a spoken word vocal from Roger Versey on the atmospheric, turn-of-the-90s Nu Groove style brilliance of 'Another Day'.

Review: White Fetish X, the latest release by enigmatic collaboration between Dataintrang and Luke Eargoggle on the Italian label Pareidolia Recordings, is a hypnotic and eerie exploration of the dark side of electronica. The album's six tracks veritably pulsate with a sinister energy, blending elements of EBM, electro clash, and sci-fi to create a truly unique and unsettling soundscape. 'Starting Shift' sets the tone with its menacing EBM stomp and early techno sound, while 'Mann Gegen Mann' ups the ante with its sinister electroclash beats. The title track is a hypnotic and eerie soundscape, with its sci-fi synths and demented, horror-like atmosphere. 'Radiowelt' is a heavy electro track with a pulsing body funk rhythm, while 'Audio Warrior' closes the album out with its dark and evil-sounding but funky bassline. Overall, White Fetish X is a challenging and rewarding listen for fans of dark electronica. Its sinister soundscapes and hypnotic rhythms create a truly unique and unsettling experience that will stay with you long after the final track has faded out.

Review: 'Proceed With Caution' is the latest four-track EP of classic Detroit techno from the city's Filthiest (one more recent alias of longtime genre purveyor Julian Shamou), coming packed as ever with a cleanly modern twist, and incorporating elements of breakbeat and g-funk swagger along the way. Easing up on the layering, and thus to provide extra room for snappiness and sonic aloofness, 'Up In Smoke' clears the air, displacing oxygen with pyrolitic combustions, sputters and snare-drummed bangs. Equally is the bass-heavier 'Check Out The Technique', evoking not just the awe of technique, but the horrors of technicity, in its doomy imitations of authoritarian war brasses by way of a synthetic analog bass riff.

Review: We don't know who is involved in this brand new Diner's Club International project but we do know that they have put together three superb new records, all of which are landing at the same time. We also know they have come from Detroit, specifically Joy Rd on the West Side, and so come drenched in plenty of the swaggering attitudes you would expect. Diners Club International Part 1 fuses electro, ghetto and techno into booty-shaking cuts designed square for the club. The rhythms are infectious, the drums booming and the vocals bawdy, so snap these up before they're gone as quickly as they arrived.

Review: It's no wonder Dopplereffekt named their latest EP 'Inifinite Tetraspace'. For starters, a tetrahedron is a 3D triangular pyramid of equal lengths per side. A sine wave, meanwhile, is in auditory form considered the purest, most basic sound - it is also the graph produced by plotting all the ratio points between two sides of a triangle. The logical conclusion is this: infinite tetraspace might be considered the ultimate form of repetitive sound, carrying on forever, triangulating constantly in all directions, never ceasing. For all its vivid imaginings, Dopplereffekt's dualistic, stereo-effected sound carries on in full force on their latest EP for Curtis Electronix, tetra-scribing four icy, unsettling entities that may only be encountered in this special extra-conscious zone.

Review: If you love a good old game of musical guess who then get your ears around this, the second of three Diner's Club International records that dropped on our laps under a shroud of mystery. All we have been told about the project is that is a collective of artists from Joy Rd on the West Side of Detroit who are keeping the city's rich ghetto tech traditions alive. The tracks on this, Part 3, are all super short but super compelling - elements of juke, footwork and electro make up the bumping rhythms with smart r&b samples and diffuse synth soul all adding heartfelt charm to the irresistible dancefloor chaos.

Review: Introducing Diner's Club International, a new and anonymous collective, we have been told on the low down, that is here to keep clubs bumping. They hail from Joy Rd on the East of the city of Detroit and are here to keep the ghetto tech scene going strong with a vast array of breathless new rhythms across three different records. Their MO is to get in and out quickly with each track - short, snappy sketches packed with attitude, cut-up vocals and spongy drum and bass patterns. As physical as all these cuts are, they also have a real human heart thanks to the warming pads and well-deployed r&b stabs. These are red hot so do not sleep.

Review: If you like acid, and you like it deep, then keep reading. Dircsen has put together an album of just that for Gated across four sublime sides of wax. Helical Structures operates at the intersection of those sounds and more, with a range of different tempos explored from the unhurried 'Fragments' which spits out random hits and has a nice lo-fi edge to the more high pressure acid of 'Helical Structures' with its undertone of bass lead menace. 'Jack In The Head' is a more classic acid cut with nods to the Chicago pioneers and 'Synthetic Rhythm' (Know Where mix) is perfect for both body and head.

Review: Released in 2002 as the Drexciya project was forced towards an untimely finish with the passing of James Stinson, Grava 4 remains a high-point in the legendary Detroit electro pioneers' catalogue. As ever, the magic of the record lies in the balance between experimental, provocative sound design and fully physical, instinctive machine funk. Stinson and Gerald Donald were able to say a great deal within the parameters of their project, and Grava 4 remains leagues ahead of what most people think electro can be. Just marvel at the likes of 'Gravity Waves', which feels like the truest representation of the genre without ever following a pre-existing formula.