Techno (All) charts

Review: French purveyors of the dance, Baraka, do neat justice to their name (you should make a priority of seeing the psychedelic-trip-of-a-film, the label's namesake, if you haven't already) with a fresh four-tracker in the realm of cheeky, aquatic trance-dance. Summoning four local producer/DJ entities for remix duties, two per side, this is a high-concept, well-executed EP drawing on both Apollo-era electrance and tribal geometry tunnel-dives. Von Riu's closing tune is our highlight.

Review: Six releases in and Michigander label head Brian Kage teams up with the legendary French Techno producer, Taho, aka David Jacopin. The electronic music world knows to put respect on the Motor City, but the "Detroit EP" represents a fusion, emphasizing l'accent aigu - not a typo or spec on your screen that needs cleaning. Between Kage and Taho, their production pedigree includes releases for labels like FXHE, Planet-E, Delsin, F.Comm, and more, so it's no surprise the pairing makes for a masterfully produced EP covering the spectrum of Detroit house and techno sounds, with an added deft touch from its French connection.

Review: French Theory dropped this much sought-after and enduring classic Lost On The Way To Destelbergen initially in 2006. It is a new beat anthem that has now been remastered by techno talent Thomas P Heckmann and still bears all the charm it had way back then. The original is a darkened hypnotic groove with stomping drums and sleek, haunting synths that lock you in for over eight minutes. 'Back To Destelbergen' is a shorter version with motorik kicks and then a final 'video edit' closes down. A must-cop 12" for sure.

Review: Kiko & POPOF deliver a new 'minimal' EP that both kicks and pops off. 'Night Sky', however, abstracts the 'minimal' style into something that is actually quite maximal; though duly working in the tech house formula, the sound palette is dystopian and dark. Doing justice to the French pair's long-standing good rep - Kiko has but 500+ releases to his name - it's only natural that we hear something so fresh. Transformer sound FX and sci-fi impacts adorn each transition, especially on Yulia Niko and Mia Mendi's remixes, coaxing out twin states of ecstasy and dread.

Review: Correcciones Calypso returns from a generous hiatus with the fourth edition of its acclaimed edit series, replete with four re-edits that veer from the subtle to the downright brazen. Thomass Jackson and INigo Vontier invite the French duo Youkounkoun to open proceedings with an insane early 80s edit full of big drums and exotic touches that's been blowing dancefloors all around the world for the past years - and definitely resides in the brazen category, despite a lot of work having gone into it. Olta Karawame make their debut on the series with a powerful, compact edit full of ballsy keyboard riffing and a military-sized kick drum that is guaranteed to have heads banging . To complete the release label bosses Thomass and INigo deliver edits of their own with their characteristic sound, giving this EP maximum a value for money factor and entertainment from start to finish.

Review: Joe Lewandowski may still be relatively young, but some of his musical inspirations are undoubtedly vintage - as this return to Skylax Records for the first time since 2020 proves. 'Here I Am' sees the Paris-based New Yorker team up with vocalist STOLT for a trip into moody, turn-of-the-80s new wave territory. As you'd expect from someone with Lewandowski's track record, it's a beautifully authentic and stylish production that adds Johnny Marr style guitars and STOLT's impassioned vocals to Visage-esque electronics and fuss-free drum machine beats. Confirmed retro-futirist Lauer delivers vocal and instrumental remixes that strip out the guitars and boost the raw, alien-sounding new wave synths, while bonus cut 'Casual' is a surging dark Italo-goes-new wave throb-job tailor-made for peak-time dancefloors.

Review: Wave Arising is former Spiral Tribe man Sebastian Vaughan with vocalist Kynsie and they are a duo that likes to eplxore body, mind and soul "through intuitive listening of senses and inner energies by means of music , workshops and gatherings." This is their debut album and is an otherworldly mix of deep grooves and occult sonic landscapes. It has been made from various improvisations and avoids there use of sampling and as an album, this is one that feels very much alive. There are cinematic dub techno workouts, cascading synths and alien sound designs, menacing low ends and moments of majestic melodic beauty such as on 'Ronde Cinetique'. A brilliant debut.

Review: The third album on the Rezpektiva label is a superb album compilation across four sides of vinyl by the "nutty French sonic wizard" by the name of Professor Oz. The eight tracks are devastatingly futuristic even now despite the fact they were all written 1986 and 1995. They are considered to be lost experiments, hence the album title, and have been remastered from the original DAT tapes. They bottle up dusty breakbeats and proto-techno grooves with tribal drumming and trance tinged synth overtones, proggy progressions and acid basslines that will never go out of fashion.