Techno (All)

Review: Jimmy Asquith is in fiery form on his first EP of 2020, the appropriately titled "Rave Til Dawn". The EP-opening title track is almost insanely weighty, with a loved-up and glassy-eyed Asquith combining bombastic, hardcore style breakbeats, pounding kick-drums, warehouse-ready rave riffs and a handful of suitably wavy female vocal samples to devastating effect. Elsewhere, "Down" is a pounding slab of slamming peak-time techno, "Crush" sees him go to town with ravey stabs and layered techno-funk drums, and "LCD Steppin'" offers an attractive blend of sweaty, proto-jungle breaks, sustained sunrise-ready chords and more wide-eyed vocal snippets.

Review: The latest release on Steve O'Sullivan's revitalised Bluetrain label offers up a trio of cuts from the archives. All were produced during the mid-to-late '90s period when O'Sullivan first launched the label and used the now familiar alias. The A-side features a superb, dub-fired "Alternate 1997 Mix" of O'Sullivan classic "Midnight Creeper" in which deep space electronics flutter away atop crunchy machine beats and a booming, sub-heavy bassline. Over on side B O'Sullivan is in collaborative mode, first joining forces with Ben Sims on the deep, warm and hypnotic techno pulse of "Where's Burt? (Extended Version)", before hooking with Wis on the sparse, dubbed-out peak-time brilliance of "Echo Freak (No Lightweight Stuff Edit)".

Review: Carl Finlow, aka electro main-man Silicon Scally, originally released the Boot Loop EP on Billy Nasty's Electrix label back in 2013 - an aeon ago in real terms but a blink of an eye to any electro devotee. Such is the quality of the music that it's well deserving of a repress, not least given the fearsome appetite for this kind of electro now compared to seven years ago. "Conduit" and "Hashtag" are quintessential Finlow cuts, wriggling and writhing with snappy sound design riveted to the machine funk rhythm section. On the flip, Volsoc's "Orange Problem" mix of "Conduit" slips a few more melodic elements into the mix, and Radioactive Man flips "Hashtag" into a gnarly, noisy workout bowling in from leftfield.

Review: Like its predecessor, the quietly confident "Don't Rush To Grow Up" EP, this second single from Anetha's Mama Told Ya label is a multi-artist extravaganza. Niki Istrefi handles side A, first offering up an insanely fast and weighty techno stomper full of minor key melodies and galloping drums ("No Ordinary Love"), before joining forces with Anetha for the hypnotic techno-meets-trance thrust of "One More Cartoon, Please". Side B belongs to Hadone. The Brussels-based DJ presents two ear-catching workouts: a solo voyage through high-octane IDM/electro pastures entitled "Hiding My Machine", and a clandestine, trance-inducing techno workout made alongside Anetha rich in alien electronics, thrusting arpeggio bass and skittish drums ("4pm Snacks").

Review: Miles Sagnia has a deep-rooted backstory in the UK underground techno scene. Under his own name and as Miles Atmospheric he's produced consistently compelling techno for labels like Finale Sessions, FireScope, Aesthetic Audio and Applied Rhythmic Technology. Such associations point to the soundworld Sagnia inhabits - a harmonically balanced strain of deep-diving brain food that favours expressive musicality and inventive programming over rigid functionality. Having previously appeared as Miles Sagnia on Ornate back in 2010, he returns to the label as Miles Atmospheric with three cuts that explore melancholic moods through artful interplay between beautifully rendered synth tones and intricate drum machine excursions. These tracks still move with purpose and presence, but the end goal is more cerebral than physical - a perfect fit for the immersive experiences Ornate has always strived to promote.

Review: Having allowed pal Hubble to handle the first vinyl release on his Hellium imprint, Maayan Nidam is rightly at the controls on release number two. What we get is a trio of untitled tracks, beginning with an A-side excursion that tends towards the more aquatic and opaque end of the deep techno spectrum - all gentling pulsing ambient chords, fluid electronic motifs and a kick-drum driven groove so deep it could well nestle at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. He opens the B-side with a more angular and off-kilter chunk of modular techno (think broken rhythms, melancholic chords, distant percussion hits and undulating acid lines), before rounding things off with a more spacey-sounding slab of deep sci-fi techno.

Review: London-based producer Nite Fleit has been busy over the past couple of years slinging out rough and ready club cuts with bags of personality on labels like Unknown To The Unknown and Planet Euphorique. Now she returns to Steel City Dance Discs, the Australian label that provided her first break back in 2018, with a new EP, with some rabble rousing rave busters that span styles, gleefully cherry picking the feistiest ingredients to make surefire bangers. "All New Low" is particularly fierce with its massive monosynth bassline grind and ear-snagging sample hooks. Elsewhere there's plenty of electro punishment waiting - don't sleep on B2 belter "Little Monsters" in that regard.

Review: Swiss producer Dan Piu is a true techno veteran, with an expansive catalogue that reaches back to the early '90s. His return to form in recent years has been a delight, with classic tracks and new productions alike resurfacing for a new generation of heads to fawn over. Following recent drops on Childhood Intelligence, Ovnie and Common Dreams, Piu rocks up to Hizou Deep Rooted Music with some stellar machine musings. "Quantum Computing" is a warm and soulful house groover with rich layers of synth work at its core, while "Robots In Rage" takes a more angular approach with skittering techno rhythms and plenty of analogue synth wriggles. "A Machine Will Never Do X" is pristine electro, and "F#UK The World To The Core" completes the set with a sumptuous ambient techno trip oozing sophistication and vintage atmospheres in equal measure.

Review: V2A is a brand new alias from one of electronic music's most storied studio sorts, '90s progressive house producer turned in-demand mastering engineer Gordon Pohl. The "Rodarte EP" is typical of his 21st century releases, sitting as it does somewhere between lo-fi slowed-down techno, off-kilter IDM and hazy ambient techno bliss. While some of the tracks could entrance the right dancefloors - see the sparse, hypnotic minimalism of spaced-out opener "Eins" and the slow acid pulse of "Drei", which includes a rhythmic element so distant you'll think one of your neighbours is doing DIY - it seems designed primarily for maximum immersive impact in a home listening setting. That's particularly true of closing cut "Vier", where rhythmical pulses underpin long, drawn out chords.

Review: Last year Nacho Varela and Cruz Vittor debuted on All Day I Dream via "Have A Name", a warm and melodious chunk of deep house/tech-house fusion that ended up on the label's excellent "Summer Sampler" compilation. This single is therefore their debut "proper", with the similarly inclined titled track "Underworld" - all wavy male vocals, crispy tech house beats, gorgeous chords and summer breeze melodies - being accompanied by two remixes and even more picturesque and string-drenched bonus cut "Naturae". The reworks come courtesy of labelmate Lost Desert, who beefs up the beats and gives the track a more enveloping feel, and Volen Sertin. That version is bigger, beefier and a little bolder, too, with echoing percussion hits and even toastier musical elements riding a chunky house groove.

Review: Sardinia's Dusty Kid was riding high in the minimal tech house scene of the late '00s, not least when releasing his career-best LPs on Boxer Recordings. Now he's returned to his 2009 opus A Raver's Diary to give it a first vinyl pressing on his own Isolade label. This is music that will take you right back to the era, all psyched-out synth patterns and rolling grooves for the big room beatdown. "Lynchesque" is from the same school of pitch-sweeping freakery that made Marc Houle's early records seminal, while "Klin" and "Cowboys" both bring a more melodious tone that will be giving people some strong nostalgia hits for sunkissed Ibiza terraces. Timeless club tracks of the highest caliber.

Review: Where does electronic music lead you? To the inside, to a calm and warm place where sound resonates with your body in quiet bliss, or to the outside where the rhythm wants you dance, even without moving? "WTMCT" gives an answer to these questions that is complex yet extremely easy to understand in an immediate sentient and emotive way.

Menelaos music is unusual and unlikely both with respect to the structure and arrangement of tracks, and the materiality and spatiality of the sound. And yet these sounds convey an immediate sensation of familiarity and ease, of beauty and relaxation. Menelaos utilizes loudness and extreme dynamics in a thoughtful and intriguing way to accentuate strange runaway sounds while maintaining the continuity of the flow of the tracks, which is Ambient to the core. This is a rare art in our time, where hypercompressed and superoptimized glossy sounds dominate most of Ambient, drone and even deep listening music.

In this aspect the album follows and refines the subtle production skills of seminal electronic artists like Jan Jelinek or Terre Thaemlitz a.k.a. DJ Sprinkles. What is genuinly special about Menelaos music is the natural and seemingly effortless fusion of challenging experimentalism and a warm and soothing organic sound-design. This shows exemplary in the collaborative tracks with trombonist and bass trumpet player Achim Fink, a founding figure of the Cologne jazz and free improvisation scene of the eighties. Achim is uncompromisingand in times disruptive play merges perfectly into Menelaos serene soundscapes.

This way "WTMCT" became a genuine album. It tells a story. It invites deep exploration but it does not demand it, thus transcending common notions of how Ambient or Electronica should sound. Text: Frank Eckert

The Album includes also some warm sampels (my live with the wave vol 1+ 2) from the Detroit legend Mike Huckaby to whom i very thankful.