Back catalogue: Techno

Review: Electronic icon Jeff Mills links up with fellow Detroit talent Rafael Leafar for this one on his own Axis, and it is yet another sublime exploration of the cosmos through the medium of techno. Leafar brings all his next level multi-instrumentalist skills and strong love of jazz to the duo and when combined with Mills' ability to speak through his machines, it makes for a unique record. The icy percussion rolls deep, taking you into another dimension each and every time while the noodling sax brings sombreness and soul. Big, splashy cymbals, dark chords and a real sense of mystery and intrigue keep you utterly locked throughout.

Review: Milan's Radko first appeared a few years back on Enfant Terrible with the Cherno PPP / Brutalista ?(7') and finally resurfaces with this full-length for sublabel Gooiland Elektro titled The Dirt On Caligula. Described as darker, harsher and more daring, the album takes you deeper into their industrial sound. Opener 'Hip Dork' is a contorted kind of techno derivative that lunges straight for the jugular, while the paranoid and dystopian atmosphere created on 'Manfria' sets the scene in dark ambient style before unleashing a barrage of electro beats. Over on the flip, the gloomy vocal cut 'Leper Colony' takes influences from darkwave, ending with the punishing and abrasive grind of 'Volga' which is pitch black.

Review: We are honored to release 'A Boy Alone', a double LP set from Manchester electronic music pioneer Eric Random. Best known for his early recordings for New Hormones and Les Disques du Crepuscule and collaborations with Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks), Cabaret Voltaire and Nico. As an original member of The Tiller Boys with Shelley, Random injected a healthy dose of Krautrock into the dour Manchester post-punk scene in 1978/79 before going solo the following year. Random's first 7" "Subliminal"/"23 Skidoo" was released in 1981 via Les Disques du Crepuscule and explored ominous sonic surrounds. That same year also saw the release of a second 7" single on New Hormones, "Dow Chemical Company"/ "Skin Deep". Both tracks offered bubbling, rhythmic sound patterns, and were the first to feature other musicians that would become know as The Bedlamites. Consisting of Lynn Walton on vocals, Ian Runacres and Andy Diagram of Dislocation Dance, and bassist Wayne Worm, aka Wayne Sedgeman. Their debut 12" single "Subliminal Seduction"/"Bedlam-a-Go-Go" was released in 1982 through Plurex, mixing arid funk textures and sparse melodies. That same year the group contributed proto chill-out track "6.55" to Plurex compilation 'Hours' and the highly filmic track "In Cassette Conference" to the Touch cassette package 'Feature Mist'. In 1983, Random spent several months in the Himalayas with a group of musicians from the Kulu Valley and studied non-Western instruments such as tabla. On returning to Manchester, Random convened a new group of Belamites including Walton, Sedgeman and drummer Graham Dowdall aka Dids of Ludus. They released the 12" single "Mad As Mankind"/"Dream Web Of Maya" in 1984 on Cabaret Voltaire's Doublevision, embracing electronic, industrial and dub styles. In 1985 they contributed the soothing "Pure Power" to Food Records' "Imminent Episode One" compilation. Our reissue also includes 4 unreleased bonus tracks from Eric's archives recorded between 1981-1984. The whole set adds up to 115 minutes of sinister, somnambulant Random music. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. Each copy is housed in a gatefold jacket designed by Eloise Leigh featuring a spread of ephemera, photos with liner notes by James Nice of LTM.

Review: RBI's biggest claim to underground stardom yet is her new experimental jungle-techno-ish album Disseminate. It's said that earlier cuts like 'Proximity' did some justice to her sound, but it's artists like her who really require a lot more time per vinyl side to really demonstrate their own talents. On this LP, strangely garbled classical instruments are heard interspersed with filtered junglism and no less odd breakwork, with airy and roomy cuts like 'Vault Ultra' and '100o10o1hz' proving RBI as one of experimental dance music's foremost greats - unafraid neither of rhythm-driven bangers nor curiously weird skits.

Review: Ten year anniversary? Has it really already been ten years since Recondite's sophomore album 'Hinterland' came out?! Recondite almost single-handedly was responsible in many peoples eyes for the resurgence in techno during the early 2010s. After beating down the doors of Ghostly International for many years, the fans finally get their wish in the shape a new, shiny reissue. Coming on smokey black vinyl this time, nobody has a reason to not have this record in their collection. Included are legendary tracks like 'Stems', 'Clouded' and 'Leafs'. Many think that not only is this the best Recondite album but one of the best techno albums of the year 2013.

Review: Red Axes have always operated in their own little niche within underground electronic music. The Israeli duo has plenty of genuine guitar-playing skills which they bring to a fine grasp of synth work and a love of acid, wonky grooves and psychedelic colours on labels like Disco Halal and K7. Now they step up to fabric with a new album that also post-punk and new wave flourishes to tracks recorded as live jams in their home studio. It's packed with energy and mischief and is another superbly singular offering from the duo.

Review: Following a string of well-received EPs on Planet Rhythm - five in total since 2021 - Red Rooms returns to the storied Dutch imprint with his hotly anticipated debut album. What's on offer is, by and large, full-throttle peak-time techno, where clandestine aural textures and short melodic motifs ride weighty, locked-in basslines and breathless, kick-drum-driven grooves. It's a formula that the Berlin-based producer has not only mastered magnificently, but also excels at delivering. Highlights include the rave stab-sporting big room panic of 'No Turning Back', the alien drum-funk of 'Transcendency', the ghostly and intoxicating allure of 'Unidentofied Objects' and the slipped Robert Hood-style minimalism of 'Cypher'.

Review: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Regis's soot black slab of deadly techno aka his Penetration LP, the whole thing has been remastered by Simon Shreeve and cut at The Exchange. This new limited edition repress comes with all new artwork, too. The album is pretty definitive of the loopy, hard edged techno of the time and it was another 20 years until Regis offered a follow up after plenty of time as part of British Murder Boys and Sandwell District. Each of these tracks still kicks with serious force, from the bulky sound of 'Get On Your Knees' to the backlit glow of 'Penetration.'

Review: Blake Reyes is an alias for Italian artist Luca Vertulli and on this release for Jeff Mills' Axis Jazz collection he presents an extended double pack of hi-tech soul of the highest calibre. Recorded between Bologna, Milan and Rome overseen by Mills himself, Vernacular takes us deep into the heart of Reyes' vision, leading with the standout track 'At Night'. Anna Bassy's vocal sits front and centre on the original version of the track, but the B-side offers up alternative versions which let Reyes' assembled players shine through. Sides C and D offer up further excursions into hidden possibilities from the project such as the epic synth symphony of 'Sound Manifesto', mirroring the warm, instrumental charm of Mills' own Millsart releases and recent collaborations with Jean-Phi Dary.

Review: Lukid & Tapes combine their scuzzy sounds once more as Rezzett for this new and sonically fucked up outing on The Trilogy tapes. It's lo-fi music full of perfect imperfections and dusty sound sources, cruddy rhythms and distant cosmic noise that sounds both as if dug up from under many layers of ancient soil but also somehow sent back from the future. It is now a decade since this pair made their first outing but their sound remains fascinatingly original. For loose genre references, imagine breakbeat hardcore, 90s jungle, granular Detroit techno and raw Chicago house all chucked into a blender.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


Lukid & Tapes combine their scuzzy sounds once more as Rezzett for this new and sonically fucked up outing on The Trilogy tapes. It's lo-fi music full of perfect imperfections and dusty sound sources, cruddy rhythms and distant cosmic noise that sounds both as if dug up from under many layers of ancient soil but also somehow sent back from the future. It is now a decade since this pair made their first outing but their sound remains fascinatingly original. For loose genre references, imagine breakbeat hardcore, 90s jungle, granular Detroit techno and raw Chicago house all chucked into a blender.

Review: 2020 marks the 30th birthday of Network Records, a label that did arguably more than any other in the early 90s to champion both US and UK techno. As part of their celebrations they'll be reissuing some key singles and albums from their catalogue, starting with this 1991 compilation of key Derrick May productions. Now stretched across two slabs of wax rather than one to guarantee a louder cut, "Innovator" contains a wealth of vital early Motor City techno classics, from the acid-powered insanity of "Nude Photo" and the rushing, piano-heavy rush of "Strings of Life", to the thrilling sci-fi futurism of "Wiggin" and the deep techno warmth of "Hand Over Hand".

Review: Eternally prolific Wighnomy Brother Robag Wruhme is back with another album of his otherworldly, achingly delicate minimal tech house from way out in East Germany. Wruhme's music has always stood to the side of the standardised scene, and so it goes on this new one for Tulpa Ovi which passes through a variety of shades of 4/4 without ever sounding like anything else. Sometimes the composition his fragile and beautiful, elsewhere there's a looming creepiness pitched squarely at the night. Wruhme remains gifted in the art of embedding his music with the richest of feelings and they come through in abundance across these eight new pieces.

Review: Robert Armani is a Chicago-born techno artist who has been an influential figure in the scene since the early 90s. To celebrate his 30-year career, Armani's classic tracks such as 'Ambulance,' 'Hit Hard,' and 'Watch It' have been remastered and compiled in a collector's edition via Traxmen. These tracks defined the hard-hitting and exhausting sound of Chicago's techno, with its unique palette of samples (vocal one-shots, spitty drum machines) conveying as ever the culture of inhumanly capitalist overwork endemic to America's historic cities. Lead track 'Burn It Out' says it all. Chicago is the birthplace of the IWW, while Chicago house and techno is the mirror image of said workers' struggle, reflecting the relentless pulse of burnt-out machinery and debt peony through work. To do this, Armani uses the sounds of whips cracking, kick drum pistons clanging and and conveyor belts chugging, all while urging us to "burn it out".

Review: Robert Armani's legendary Traxmen label is responsible for some of the finest music to have come out of Chicago over the last three decades. He now celebrates that milestone with his 30 Plus Years Remixes Series across all formats. It is a real must have for collectors with his most celebrated cuts remixed, remastered and pressed up to a double vinyl album. There is high octane techno - what else - from UK stalwart Mark Broom, dark and loopy minimal tackle from Spain's Paco Osuna and tripped out icy melodic techno head wreckers from Ken Ishii amongst many more.

Review: Detroitish Italo vibes soundscapes from Marzahn Berlin!!

Review: Peaktime zoneouts from Rodhad and company; Crimson Rubeus is the first compilation on WSNWG to be curated by the techno titan, and hears eight rising bubblers of the scene contribute to a well-rounded octagonal sonic prism in double LP form. All circulating for months in demo form and as fixtures of Rodhad's sets across Europe, every track here - from the snappy synaptics of Nastia Reigel's 'Limit Y' to the non-duped beffudlery of O (phase)'s 'Exiting The Delusion' - drips with an aural crimson rouge; truly a hematophage's dream. Rodhad does the almost impossible here; squeezes blood from the stony style that is hypnotic techno.

Review: Marc Romboy is a techno titan who has been serving up the goods seemingly forever. Much of it has come on his own Systematic label which is where he has commissioned this series of remixes of Music Made For Aliens. The double album is packed with new school inventions starting with Toto Chiavetta's remix of 'Intelligence' which is the sort of patient, emotive main room cut to make a devastating impact. Elsewhere the likes of Bawrut remixes 'Blanc Triangles' into a slithering and brightly coloured synth workout and An On Bast remixes 'All Worlds, All Times' into a gritty and heads-down stomper. Josh Wink shuts down with his usual style amongst many other highlights.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corners of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent working condition***


Multidisciplinary artist Seth Horvitz aka Rrose returns to their own EAUX label here with a new album, Please Touch, which comes after their Lotus Eater collaboration with Lucy and a number of influential EPs on the likes of Sandwell District and Stroboscopic Artefacts over the years. These potent, stripped back and synth-laden techno cuts explore new vistas while building on what has come before. Rose has studied with West Coast avant-garde trailblazers at Mills College and feeds their sounds through "elaborate webs of interrelated audio processing" which means a change in every element of the music has a knock-on effect on all the others. It means this is music in constant mutation.

Review: Multidisciplinary artist Seth Horvitz aka Rrose returns to their own EAUX label here with a new album, Please Touch, which comes after their Lotus Eater collaboration with Lucy and a number of influential EPs on the likes of Sandwell District and Stroboscopic Artefacts over the years. These potent, stripped back and synth-laden techno cuts explore new vistas while building on what has come before. Rose has studied with West Coast avant-garde trailblazers at Mills College and feeds their sounds through "elaborate webs of interrelated audio processing" which means a change in every element of the music has a knock-on effect on all the others. It means this is music in constant mutation.

Review: Norwegian online magazine Monument presents its second release titled The Scandinavian Forest. As expected, they've tapped some of the hypnotic techno genre's seasoned experts to deliver their take on deep and atmospheric dancefloor sounds. Highlights come from Dutch dub engineer Roger Gerressen with the heady greyscale minimalism of 'Angsalvor', the ever reliable Sebastian Mullaert will cast a spell on you with the arcane trance induction of 'Unwind' and rising Bavarian talent Polygonia hands in the strobe-lit frenzy of 'Stellar Rain' which will push you into mental overdrive.

Review: Tresor dig deep into the vaults for a reissue of one of Robert Hood's many seminal releases. This one comes under his The Vision alias and is an impressive 30 years old in 2023. It came originally in the year he left his Detroit hometown and the safety of the Underground Resistance label and head to New York with Jeff Mills. The music is fast and furious and funky as you would expect, with funky techno drum foundations and mind melting details up top. It set a ridiculously high standard and hasn't aged one single bit. All hail Hood.