Back catalogue: Electro

Review: Electro might be trendy as Tik Tok right now but the Dutch label Klakson has been treading its own path through the genre since way before it was so hyped. This new Shapes Of The Roots Part 1 & 2 collection from D Roots is one of its strongest releases to date: eight tracks of proudly analogue electro that explore an array of rhythms and storytelling celestial worlds. Things start frantically with 'Breaking Fakes' and 'Miami 21' then more funky drum patterns arrive next to the squelchy, squirreling synth lines. There is pure dance floor fire in tunes like 'Russian Roulette' and ice-cold trips like 'Alone In The Echoes' all making this such a quality LP.

Review: Given the underground acclaim heaped on Marie Davidson's previous albums - ultra-stylish affairs that blend elements of minimal wave, dark Italo-disco, off-kilter electro and moody ambient - it's little surprise to see her popping up on Minimal Wave offshoot Cititrax. The album's nine tracks are largely sharp, rough and fuzzy, with sparse-but-dense drum machines rhythms underpinning bouncy, delay-laden synth lines, thrusting electronics and Davidson's sleazy, spoken word vocals. It's an attractive combination that guarantees thrills throughout, from the almost claustrophobic throb of "Denial", to the mutant electrofunk bounce of "Good Vibes".

Review: Denial of Service's new album comes after a series of impressive EPs such as 2015's Sensou and 2017's Contour & Shape. The expanded format allows for a more adventurous and expansive sound, however, so across 15 tracks we really hear the producer open up. It is still the machine driven electro-funk sound you would expect, but with a broader array of moods and grooves and influences from IDM, techno and even EBM. There are widescreen cuts that free your mind next to more intense and claustrophobic cuts. Either way, it's a real masterclass.

Review: By the time Biometry was first released in 2004, Der Zyklus has developed from an electro supergroup featuring Anthony Shakir and members of Dopplereffekt, to a solo project from Drexciya member Gerald Donald. At the time, it was hailed as one of Donald's finest moments, and 11 years on has lost none of its' ability to inspire and entertain. Now freshly re-mastered, it pops, whirrs and confuses with a claustrophobic intensity. It's notably less dancefloor-focused than much of Donald's work - a couple of frisky work-outs aside - and gains its' allure from a ghostly mix of wild electronics, melancholic melodies, fizzing textures, intergalactic ambience and off-kilter IDM. As a study in 21st century paranoia, it's unsurpassed.

Review: You will probably know by now that Detroit's Filthiest is Julian Shamou, aka 313 Bass Mechanics amongst many other names. He is a music-making machine who deals mostly with electro on a wide range of labels. It is French crew Casa Voyager who tap him up here for an immersive full-length that finds him expanding his sound to take in moments away from the heart of a peak-time dancefloor amongst plenty of his usual weaponry. There are smooth electro vocal cuts, crunchy and sleazy ghetto cuts and soulful almost jungle rollers for deeper workouts making for his most complete work yet.

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: Malmo, Sweden-based Bolero Record store boss Dip Shim comes correct on his debut album with a sublime series of personal and storytelling cuts that find him digging deep into his reserves. The music is said to draw on his childhood in Spain and mixes up elements of downtempo, electro, techno and house. Across the 12 tracks there is plenty to explore with pensive electro opener 'Enter The Maragrillo' twitchy downbeat acid jam 'One For Regen' and deep space ambient soundtrack 'Bases Didacticas' all making an indelible impact.

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: DJ Panthr is the "shadow self" (or, as we'd put it, alternative alias) of Hunter P Thompson, better known for his genre-bending ambient house and ambient techno releases as Akasha System. 100% Silk describes 'Jade District' as a 'technoid night ride inspired by the fern-shoruded neon streets' of South Tabor in his home city of Portland. It's an atmospheric and fairly accurate description all told, with Thompson combining his usual dreamy chords and colourful sonics with grooves and musical motifs more often associated with electro, acid, sci-fi techno, 'Artificial Intelligence' style IDM and hypnotic dub techno. What unites it all, aside from the colourful stylishness of the whole thing, is a pervasive sense of loved-up, wide-eyed tactility.

Review: Continuing the Above Board label's flawless run of historical compilation projects, San Francisco legend DJ Spun has been invited back to paint another picture of a unique chapter in the Bay Area's rave history, from 1988 to 1994. Compared to the more storied East Coast and Midwest dance music movements, the unique brew of cultural backdrops and influences in SF and the surrounding area led to a particular strain of breakbeat rich in psychedelia, responding to the very different Californian climate. Across two slabs, this second volume takes us further into a lesser told story of rave's early days, featuring cult legends long overdue recognition for their distinctive approaches to electronic dance music.

Review: By now, Dopplereffekt has released so much music that we feel almost guilty in having to introduce it to you. But, perhaps it's a good thing to highlight just what this project is about, and what it has achieved throughout all these years. Founded by Gerald Donald of Drexciya, and now sidekicked with the help of the lesser known Michaela To-Nhan Bertal, Dopplereffekt has been the only real electro outfit to push the genre beyond the confines of its 80s inception. While many other electro projects repeat the same tried and tested formulas on a weekly basis, these two minds have produced some of the most singular and explorative deviations of the style. This new album, Cellular Automata, comes through for Berlin's Leisure System at a time when the scene is in real need of a fresh perspective, and by that we mean the electronic sphere as a whole. These nine tracks cannot be classed as 'ambient' music, there is too much movement and energy amid its pensive waves but, at the same time, it would be difficult to class it as a dance album. There, right in at the core of it all, Dopplereffekt plant their energetic waves of electrifying bass into vast and desolate soundscapes that transport you into a strange and complex world. A planet we'd very much like to visit more often.

Review: Gerald Donald's Dopplereffekt is by all measures one of the most influential electro groups of all time. A bunch of their music is being reissued at the moment including the long overdue debut album.But now comes a new one, Neurotelepathy, their second album and fifth overall release on on Leisure System. The duo of Rudolf Klorzeiger and To-Nhan had a special live magic that always informed the music that made it onto record and that is the case here. The album has a real precision of groove, with wiggling basslines and modulated synth sounds that find them at their very best across these tunes.

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.

Review: As part of Drexciya's latest reissue campaign with Tresor, their most defining album 'Neptune's Lair' here gets a rerelease with brand new cover art from Detroit contemporary artist Matthew Angelo Harrison, not to mention a fresh remaster. Perfectly representing the DIY flair of their original deep-sea electro sound - with rough analogue electronics submerged in lo-fi, as though they're being drowned a Drexciyan merman - we're more than happy to have 'Andreaen Sand Dunes', 'Universal Evement' and 'Surface Terrestrial Colonization' grace our ears again.

Review: Considered by some to be one of the greatest IDM albums of all time (though we'd argue that it's really an electro set), Drexciya's 2002 set 'Harnessed The Storm' has been given the 20th anniversary reissue treatment. Pressed to striking silver vinyl and housed in freshly redesigned packaging, it's certainly an alluring album. It was part of a series of conceptually linked sets the pair recorded in 12 months (most of the others were subsequently released under other aliases after the surprise death of member James Stinson), and it has a typically atmospheric, other-worldly sound - underwater sci-fi electro that twisted standard Motor City tropes into a variety of futuristic directions. Highlights include the fizzing 'Digital Tsunami', the beautiful and widescreen 'Under Sea Disturbances' (a freakishly sub-heavy affair) and the clandestine shimmer of 'Lake Haze'.