Back catalogue: Techno

Review: Rich Jones is the man behind Operator and he's been making increasingly potent waves with his own label Gnosis Records as well as outings on Singular Records. This outing on Munich's Ilian Tape is a great example of his sound: 'Mall To Beach '80' is vamping chords and hammering hits over hunched up drums, 'Deliberate' cuts more loose but is still a brilliantly loopy workout and 'Wanderer' brings thrilling, high-speed tech that skates on daddy drums and is wired up with electricity. 'Sector Seven' shuts down with more airy and floating rhythms. Sublime.

Review: San Francisco, Bay Area and Seattle-based label From 0-1 shows us that those regions are about more than hip hop, Dirtybird-house and grunge with this new various artists collection. Operator kicks off with the dubby techno rhythms of 'Enceladus Outpost' which has freaky synths squirming about in its midst. Sone's 'Accretion' is just as heavy and stripped back, with synths peeling off the bulky drums and A Thousand Details's 'Treyarch Sentient' bring some Detroit-style synth orchestrations. It's all out intergalactic industrial warfare on U SRD's 'Not Everything You See Is Real' to shut down with a bang.

Review: The third and final chapter of R3volution Records' 3volution trilogy is a powerful meeting point between past and future. Bridging sci-fi-laced techno with 90s minimalism, it features deep sound design and muscular drum patterns that combine for real club potency. UVALL from Tbilisi offers refined, deep rhythms with his cut, then Operator brings seasoned UK innovation and label co-founder Divide delivers precision and weight with global pedigree. Elsewhere, Belgium's PTTRNRCRRNT tunnels through textures with futuristic, conceptual drive. Each track is a standout weapon but together they make for a cohesive, forward-thinking statement from a label closing its vinyl trilogy on a high.

Review: For this new 2xLP mini-record for Mord, British music producer Rich Jones aka. Operator slips off the surgical gloves and wriggles his way into a set of special occasional, crusaders' gauntlets. Only a pilgrim or knight's hand could wrangle this much grit and hate from the techno production process. As we listen, we digest the accompanying, deathly mysterious poem - "the transmutation of the shadow, an ingress of novelty, under austere skies, the spirits of the city awaken" - and we're left to wonder just what collective spirit Jones may be getting at. 'Running From The Man', 'Evasions', 'Bottom Of The List'... it's almost as if the combo of technocracy, urbanism and austerity is too much for the average person to handle, and that there's a latent rebellion in us all somewhere! But despite the prophetic theme and title, Jones prefers to fight fire with fire: his sound design is barky, scientific and at times trancey ('Watashi No Gyangu' has a particularly amazing drone undercurrent to it), suggesting urban denizens must harness, not run from, the means of its own oppression.