Tags: Experimental Techno

Review: Impressive reissue of sound designers and masters of field recordings Ultra-Red. These unique sounding tracks were first released on the legendary Fatcat label some 20 years ago and kept as secret weapons of DJs like Ricardo Villalobos, Craig Richards and Miss Kittin over the years. Here we have the two long, uncut versions that were never released before. Limited copies!!

Review: This is the thirrd release by the amazing Italian producer Ivan Iacobucci for the Perlon label. The previous two were so well received, this next one was destined to come out sooner than later. Perlon fans know what to expect from their label of choice and Ivan delivers the goods. Those addictively quirky and fonky jackin' minimal techno jams. The title track is that and then some! We especially like the sexy jam 'Waiting For My Love'. Expect the unexpected when you flip over the record as 'Close the Door' is a full-on acid banger that combines high energy techno into what sounds like a video game soundtrack theme song! Closing things out is the wild sounding 'Fear & Madness in the Desert'. We are smiling at the thought of someone playing out these corkers to audience. Expect to see WTF typefaces everywhere!

Review: The righty much venerated Kelly Lee Owens has tracks from her recent Inner Song album remixed on Smalltown Supersound here. Loraine James opens up with a take on 'Wake Up' that is all broken beats and abstract electronic sounds. 'Re-Wild' then gets a Breaka remix which layers in plenty of UK continuum vibes, skittish perc and bass heavy drums. Last of all is 'Corner Of My Sky' as reworked by Coby Sey, and it is a busy drum workout for tribal dance floors that will pin you to the ground.

Review: Just a week after dropping its first release - a fine reissue of a 1993 techno classic - VIL is back with another superb EP. Pop Panic's People on Earth is an experimental and leftfield take on techno with freewheeling rhythms built from strange sound sources. The Sound Down version of the title track is all silvery synths and loopy tech drums with twanging metal lines and snaking dub bass. 'Pop Panic (Secrets Inside)' then picks up the pace with a heavily layered and tightly interwoven mix of drums, hits and synths that work your bones loose and 'Pop Panic (Suite 999)' goes deeper, darker and more spare.

Review: Simona Faraone's label, New Interplanetary Melodies, welcomed Feel Fly for an EP that is "inspired by the ancient and mysterious Etruscan culture, whose peoples inhabited the historical-geographical region of central Italy." He hails from Italy himself of course and has written soundtracks for movies as well as great dancefloor tunes. The tracks here combine dreamy melodies with hurried breakbeats, corrugated acid techno jams and 90s post-rave house sounds that carry you on waves of blissed-out pads. It adds up to an EP that feels steeped in ancient ritual as well as having one eye on the future.

Review: Pascale Project debuts on Craigie Knowes with her 'Good People Only' EP, a melodramatic exercise in bubblegum kitsch, dramatized synth-organ hums and eerily quantized vocal recordings. The title, of course, takes its namesake from lead track 'Cafe Crazy' - a dance-pop hybrid soaked in a simple viscous formula: good vibes and electronic fun. The three originals making up its bulk come laced with nostalgic lyrics recalling hyperpop, but also carry retroisms of noughties dance-pop and trance, 'Hang Out' being the post-ironic jubilant highlight. The lyrics are, of course, written and performed by Pascale Project, and what's more, 'Cafe Crazy' comes remixed and refoamed by D. Tiffany with additional vox by NAP (yes, your eyes do not deceive you - a remix on Craigie Knowes! What?!)

Review: DJ Life's music will invigorate any dancefloor you care to test it on. The Welcome label head DJ Life was also out on Program Earth back in summer and now heads over to the excellent Craigie Knowes for there more high class electronic trips. 'Whomnp' kicks off with a paced progressive techno mind melter that is wired up with screw synths and sci-fi motifs, while 'Frayed' has more psychedelic colours twisting and turning their way over filtered vocal fragments and supple drums. 'Transmission' closes down with stomping drum funk that is again lit up by some celestial melody.

Review: Just in time for Valentine's Day, System 108 from the Netherlands marks eight years of business with Eight Years Of Love Pt 1, a superb 12" packed with fresh house sounds from across the spectrum. Simple Symmetry & Lord Fascinator open up with 'The Search Continues', a thumping acid laced tech house cut with indie vocals while Cream Soda bring twitchy electronics and amped up drums. There's electroclash-style rawness from Kovyazin D, Lipelis & Cosmic G explore a more celestial sound that will place you amongst the heavens and Gleb Filipchenkow shuts down with slow, elastic, acid laced gurgles on his 'Mieux La' (feat Ode).

Review: Garage Hermetique unleashes four cuts by Berlin's Onirik and collaborators, all recorded at his Schlesi studio hidden beneath the Schlesicher Tor U-Bahn station. A 'special and chaotic' place, it clearly proved a fertile ground for sonic alchemy, with the 'Good Bye Schlesi' EP traversing a smorgasbord of moods and atmospheres, from the mardy tekkno stomp of 'Rabenflug' to the pensive tone float of the aptly-named 'Ebb & Flow' via the effortlessly sleazy synth gyrations of 'Meier Low Rider' and the nervy Drexciyan shuffle of 'Critical Massa'. Class.