Back catalogue: Techno (All)

Review: He might be in the autumn of his career but Jean Michel Jarre remains an innovator in the field of electronic music. His last album in 2022, Oxymore, was another pioneering exploration of rhythm and sound that has now been reworked alongside a series of collaborators all picked by the man himself. The nine-track selection brings wholly new perspectives to the originals which he calls "a vibrant collection of musical dialogues." An immediate standout for us is the track with Nina Kraviz which is crunchy, distorted minimal techno, while 'Epica Extension' with Brian Eno is laced up with otherworldly melodies. A great work from a mix of great artists.

Review: RECOMMENDED
The DJ Kicks series has managed to outlast the vast majority of other DJ mixes we can think of - the good, the bad, the populist, and the plain cash cow. Even the mighty fabric compilations have rebranded and rethought, bringing the original legacy, FABRICLIVE included, to a respectful end at 200 outings. Strange, then, to think, that !K7's mighty offering to the world of "What should we listen to at the afters?" has arguably managed to become more relevant as the years have flown by.

There was a time when the series existed at the lighter end of club fare, with some examples barely even matching that description. These days, though, there's often a dance floor heaviness central to the selections, with Jessy Lanza's broken, bass-driven set a case in point. Pointless attempts to describe the music, and lazy track list namedropping aside, this is energy-packed, heads down, futurist stuff packed with infectious percussion.

Review: Troekurovo Recordings is a production team made up of Toki Fuko, Vadim Basov and Evgeny Vorontsov and they have been hidden away deep in some enchanted Russian forests recording music. Now they are putting out the results on this superb double pack. This project started back in 2016 as a live experimental jam and is now an annual tradition made on loads of analogue gear on the banks of a canyon that was formed many years ago by a melting glacier. The locale provides inspiration - from the fresh country air to the meteor showers often visible overhead - for the music making which is strictly "no preparation, no pre-programming - hardware, friends and live improvisation only."

Review: Albert Van Abbe impresses with his new full-length Olodumare Who Is which is an exploration of deep, hypnotic techno with profound spiritual undertones. Drawing inspiration from his diverse cultural background and the Yoruba religion, the album blends dark, atmospheric soundscapes with intricate rhythms and deep basslines while Van Abbe's meticulous approach to production makes for a mysterious journey where each track weaves together minimalist percussion, tribal influences and eerie melodies. The result is an immersive sonic experience that evokes a sense of both tension and release while fusing ancient traditions with modern techno.

Review: Since setting their stall out in 2017, the experimentalists behind Minnesota's Eyemyth label have offered up a range of releases from artists whose music challenges as much as it entertains. "Delicacy Spectrum" - the label's first compilation -takes a similar sonic approach. Flitting between abstract, dystopian soundscapes, growling post-EBM club cuts, lo-fi industrial workouts, ear-bleeding noise compositions and dark, otherworldly sonic explorations, the set bleeds distorted, in-your-face excellence from start to finish. Highlights include - but are in no way limited to - the dubbed-out hypnotism of Bead's "Noxiozone", the pulsating trip that is Cube's "Tenet Version", the wild and apocalyptic horror of Crepuscular's "Second" and the muscular aggression of "Fractal Haze" by Boris Barksdale.

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


It was probably inevitable that Nina Kraviz would launch her own label. Even so, the fact that she's chosen to do it with an eight-track compilation featuring previously unheard material from herself and a mix of veterans (Exos, Steve Stoll, Terrence Dixon under the Population One alias) and newcomers (Parrish Smith, Bjarki) is particularly noteworthy. While Kraviz's own contributions have an unsettling, off-kilter tech-house feel, for the most part The Deviant Octopus is as dark and intense as its' fuzzy sleeve art suggests. That means Berlin-friendly late night techno and throbbing, otherworldly jack tracks aplenty, with occasional lapses into distorted analogue acid. The slowed down vocal mix of "Out Of Control" from the recent Population One LP is a real highlight too!

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


De Niro Is Concerned is the latest compilation to surface on Nina Kraviz's trip imprint - the Siberian artist's label gaining new momentum in 2015 and diversifying thanks to a selection of fresh artists - and it's an exquisite blend of house, techno and straight-up jack-funk. Among others, you have Iceland's Bjarki with the raw and sparse "Revolution", Millsian Detroit sounds from Deniro on Dumans, and Kraviz herself with Exos on the wavey and hypnotic "No Criminals". All in all, a wildly comprehensive bundle of house-techno hybrids for that 3am slot. Raw and diverse, wild and seductive.

Review: Always hot on the steel-hard plates and murky subterranean atmospheres, Public System turns in a haunted double package from the crypt. Spanning hi-octane indus bullets, half-baked mutant salvos and shadow-clad juicers from a host of reputed names and rabid underdogs, this new comp collates ruff’n’tuff joints from gritty techno don Container, genre-unbound explorer E-Saggila, Berlin’s electro arsonist Privacy, acid-spitting hydra DJ Loser x Penelopes Fiance, basement guerillero Yabboq Penuel alias Le Syndicat Electronique, neo-punk beat thrasher Crave, Yves Tumor collaborator and sine-wave crusher Anthem, expert circuit dissector Beau Wanzer, Liquid G as remixed by Mick Wills, Night Gaunt’s Lower Tar, occult machine funk preacher Maenad Veyl, DJ Chupacabras under new guise 110, soundwaves cross-pollinator DJ Richard, vibrant mood-scapist Gavilán Rayna Russom, as well as label boss Myn going ubiquitous with studio fellows Kluentah as Myntha, and R Gamble as Fade Accompli. A much desirable feast of raw, unhinged, all-round spine-tingling jams for the club and not.

Review: Some sonic communities grow even in isolation, in the lonely obsessive moments in the studio as time melts away. Deep inside the Detroit Underground nests a Berlin underground, chasing those resonant shared sounds. DU Berlin draws together some of that love felt through music in the German capital. It's not the wild city of reunification or *Berlin Calling* or tourist-style movies or the easyJet set. This is the side of the city that endlessly romances machines for the sheer joy of it, as The Allegorist titles her track, "until dawn." And with some big names and emerging, ranging from mainstays to veteran agitators, the Berlin DU crew have telegraphed each other through productions and mutual inspiration. The results vibrate and rumble with sympathetic frequencies, but never limited to grayscale or dithered palettes.

Review: 80s Techno Tracks Volume 1 was originally a CD-only compilation put out back in 2019 by the ZYX Music label. It has proved so popular that it now comes on a special vinyl release that packs in eight of the best tunes to feature on the CD. It makes for a fun and throwback listen that very much chimes with the current trend for these sorts of sounds - hi-nrg, eurobeat, EBM, synth-pop, industrial and new beat with a bit of proto-acid house town in for good measure. It is the unmistakable characteristics of the machines that made these tunes that make them so instantly lovable and transportive.