Back catalogue: Techno

Review: Boris Barksdale's Eternal Remorse originally saw the light of day on Portugese label Eye For An Eye as a digital release back in 2018, and now it's getting a vinyl pressing. A physical release feels appropriate for this pointedly dusty release, which leans in on synthwave influences to create a thoroughly dark and gnarly atmosphere. '5.0.5' steps out on a tough, dishevelled rhythm section, with seriously degraded synths falling apart behind the jackhammer drums. '7.0.8' takes the intensity up a notch, hitting with an industrial bite, while 'Sentier' channels even more of that Ministry-flavoured malaise with its disturbing yelps and screams. 'Sramota' has the hallmarks of a mid 80s bedroom beatdown from a blackened soul, 'Take Notes' delivers yet more pounding, percussive punishment, and 'Geezer' rounds things off with a bleak and troubled slab of EBM dragged from the underworld to stalk amongst all nightcrawlers and ne'er-do-wells.

Review: Barnt returns for a weighty, new wavey three-tracker on Kompakt, not quite straying from his trademark minimal tech style, but nevertheless working in novel elements. 'This Is For The Decor Only' is a glistening ambient trance cut, working in detuned leads and melodic 'woahs' (woah indeed), while 'You Know What's Gone' recalls everything from mid-80s body music, new romantic dance, and medieval music. 'Fan' is the ambient closer, revealing the producer's musical talents far beyond that of mere dance music. As Barnt says, he wanted to touch on a "ceremonial, emotional, grand spirit", and he's achieved just that.

Review: Warehouse Music boss Mello Dee doesn't muck around when making his robust, wall rattling house tunes. This time around he tackles a big Basement Jaxx tune and reworks it to his own powerful ends. 'Red Alert' (Mella Dee Panel Beater mix) has gigantic drums and edgy synth loops with the original's ionic vocals loop to insanity over the top. It's pure fire. On the flip, the Mella Dee Holding On mix is more dubby and grainy, with just as heavy drums but a little more movement and no vocal, instead just straight up dance floor action.

Review: David Sabel is Birds Ov Paradise, a sound and visual artist from Goteborg, Sweden, who after a few years away makes a retune to the Hypnus Records label. He makes techno with a soft melodic sheen and psychedelic approach that burrows deep into your brain. 'Osiris' is a track with intrigue and mystery that draws you into the rippling melodic motifs, 'Tammuz' is dubby and warped and deep, 'Adonis' is another cavernous sound with watery droplets and bird calls adding detail, with three further mind melting excursion not he flip including the darker 'Attis.'

Review: Lempuyang's third offering is an outstanding split release between Steve O'Sullivan & Hydergine, label bosses for Mosaic/Bluetrain & Ranges. In 'Binary Riddim' Steve delivers a two-part dub track spanning >13 minutes, seriously heavy in the low end; melancholy strings in the first half, progressing to outright menacing chord stabs in the latter. A versatile track offering something for both warm-up and the dancefloor. Complimenting on the flip are 'Mystic Light' and 'Lunar Eclipse' from Hydergine. Deep, dubby atmospherics meander over a weighty 909 kick on B1. Subtle minimalism a la Terrence Dixon, pitched down on B2. Essential release!

Review: Boss Tracks gets ignited as a vessel for the work of three nefarious cartoon individuals who may or may not relate to three Liverpudlians with a penchant for jacking hardware tackle. John Heckle, Mark Forshaw and Binny are formidable enough on their own, so combined as Phantom Planet Outlaws there's no shock to hear the acid raining down in a most expressive of ways. "Hybrid 1" finds Heckle squeezing atonal hooks out of his gear like a free jazz maverick while Forshaw fires off the whipcrack tones on "Flash Back". Binny meanwhile brings a malevolent twist on searing loopy techno to bare on "The Return" making this a record for only the toughest heads to drop.

Review: First cropping up in 2012, the mammoth A-Sides series from the titanic Swedish techno label Drumcode charges ahead into its 11th installment (can you believe it?) while also managing to split said installment alone across seven slices of vinyl. This is the fourth record of seven in part eleven. Only gigantic-room techno could justify this waxen audacity; the music is braggadocious to boot, with contributions from Nicolas Taboada, BEC, Avision and Cosmic Boys. The tracks here are as dreamy as they are goosebump-inducing, easily seguing between massive transitions and drops to cathartic reesebound trances.

Review: Can a duo be a supergroup? You could certainly argue that Belief ticks that box, given that it's a collaboration between two titans of the experimental electronic music scene: LEX Records stalwart Bryan Hollon (Boom Bip, Neon Neon) and Warpaint drummer (and frequent sticks-woman for hire) Stella Mozgawa. Interestingly, they've chosen not to explore the challenging end of their output, but rather deliver a set of "improvisational techno" that draws inspiration from the early '90s work of 808 State, LFO and the like. That means wiggly TB-303 acid lines aplenty, alternately dreamy, dubbed-out and futuristic melodic motifs, sci-fi sounds aplenty, and beats that veer from throbbing four-to-the-floor energy to sweaty breakbeats and off-kilter post-electro grooves. The results are uniformly imaginative, impressive and entertaining.