Back catalogue: Techno (All)

Review: The work of 1990s German electronic group Neural Network is titularly apt for the times. The mood around public-facing AI like ChatGPT and DALL-E has aroused much anxiety and curiosity of late, and they're only the tip of the iceberg. Surprisingly enough for new listeners, though, they'll find that the work of Neural Network - renowned for their contemporaneity with the likes of Biosphere and Autechre - is serene compared to the current mood of AI furore. These 'Excerpts' highlight the bulk of their work made between 1993-1995, which, unlike their former albums, didn't gain label / distributor traction at the time.

Review: Nitechord is an anonymous "ambient-tech duo" that impresses with this fine debut, Lume, which is a meditative exploration of the calmness and mystery of the night as distilled through mid-tempo rhythms and atmospheric whispers. These sounds were first submitted as a raw, uncredited cassette demo in 2002 and have hardly been changed from that state but for the mastering. Tracks like 'Reflect' and 'Near' blend shimmering guitar loops, sub-bass and subtle twangs over dancefloor beats. 'Dim' breathes with layered drones, while 'Absent' offers mournful serenity and last but not least, 'Carry' blossoms into orchestral harmony. A sublime soundscape.

Review: Acoustic instruments played by Charlotte Bill, "disarranged" by Nigel Ayers, Nocturnal Emissions' Imaginary Time is as much of a landmark as it is a total obscurity. The album title itself references a theory prevalent in some approaches to special relativity and quantum mechanics, a representation of time also used in certain cosmological theories. It's not made up, or unreal, but expressed via imaginary numbers. We can understand where Nocturnal Emissions were coming from with this record back in 1997, then. A strange, beguiling percussive experiment that's at once linear and yet pretty obscure. Here presented with two incredible remixes - Gesloten Cirkel's pounding but fun techno take on things, and the misleadingly-titled 'Revolutionary Industrial Trance mix', a slow building amalgamation of drums and vibe - this is strange yet totally accessible business.

Review: The young but auspicious Amplify label is back with a four fearsome techno EP. Normal Stage is at the buttons and heads out on a warm and dreamy dub techno vibe that soon soothes your soul. 'FV2' is another eight-minute plus dub excursion that quickens the pace but is no less smooth and supple, while 'FV3' brings some airy and organic melodies up top that drift about with a curious charm. 'FV4' shuts down with the most masterfully empty dub of the lot - a wide open space in which to lose yourself and all your woes.

Review: Ever reticent contemporary ambient techno artist Nthng shares 'Two People', their latest EP to hit the shelves. Building on their always wordless sound - one native to a certain "mysterious" corner of the techno world, one that implies that words are insufficient in capturing both breadth and depth of sound - 'Two People' is a minimally stirring EP, one that relies on the bare associations of just two visual indicators of theme: snow, unity. Imprinted on the planar white surface shown on the front cover is a lowercase trace of the title track, which, in sound, hears a vocal recollective of a baby's gurgle, and a lonesome pad lilt that only ever so much as teases a movement, ghosted by the absence of (and so haunted by the promise of) a beat. When beats do interpellate the scape, they do with the textural quality of stalactites, breaking and dropping to the floor in step on both 'Echo Trak' and 'In Statik'. Nthng's filtrated percussion and long-release tails serve to dust the surface snow off many ambered, glaciered memories, preserved in the unspelunked caves of an antarctic psyche. Closer 'Don't Be Scared' plods forth, steppers style, with the stridency of an epiphanic polar walkabout, its swells contrasting to the many radiophonic FX peppering the mix: they give the sense of the odd "do you read me?", grounding the far-yonder miracle pads in telecommunicated reassurances from the outpost.

Review: Russian avant-garde sculptor namesakes Naum Gabo, AKA Jonnie Wilkes of Optimo and mastering engineer James Savage, drop their inaugural album, 'F. Lux.' The pair delve deep over eight tracks of cavernous ambiance, pummeling industrial techno and barren, windswept synthscapes, which are perfectly alluded to by Scottish painter Andrew Cranston's surreal artwork. In turns introspective and oppressive, the pair ditch their usual stylistic sensibilities for something altogether more longform and enveloping, allowing for full immersion in the cavernous soundworld. Highlights include opening wormhole 'Aora' and the deeply tense grindhouse resonances of the aptly named 'Hebust Cometh'. Wicked and bad.

Review: Istanbul born, Berlin and Copenhagen based artist Nene H (real name Beste Aydin) had amassed a hardcore following for her slew of early releases. She then finally came good on all her promise with a debut album that blended bass, techno and plenty of her own cultural heritage. Ali arrived in 2021 but only now lands on wax via Incienso. It's an album that processes personal grief and mourning with melancholic melodies, moody grooves and introspective soundscapes that allow for deep thought processing. At times psyched out, at others manic, and always alluring, it's a real triumph.

Review: Nitechord is an enigmatic ambient-tech duo that makes a striking debut here with Lume having previously released only two remixes. It was a demo tape from 2022 that impressed the Past Inside the Present label with its raw allure and it is that work which appears here nearly unaltered but for mastering from James Bernard. The opener unfolds with atmospheric guitar loops anchored by a steady kick and bass, 'Near' brings a hint of twang to expansive guitar tones and in 'Dim,' layered drones and melodies rise and fall like petals. Add in the suspensory sounds of 'Absent' and 'Carry' which blooms into a full orchestral swell and you have an immersive, introspective suite of sonic bliss.

Review: There are few borders to NTHNG's sounds. His debut album 'It Never Ends' made a big impression back in 2017 as it mixed up dub, deepness and techno and he has since impressed with plenty of lo-fi sounds and ambient bliss-outs on labels like Lobster Theremin and Lobster Sleep Sequence as well as dropping his more raw techno Delsin. Here he is in soundscaping mode again but also drops some slick electro, downbeat and Balearic sound on There Is A Place For Me on Transatlantic. It is a cosmic work of widescreen design and immersive effect.