Back catalogue: All genres

Review: In a future where memory can be imprinted onto energy to control behaviour, a resistance discovers Vibracid, a technique that erases manipulated memories, restoring self-determination. That is the conceptual backstory to this new EP from CALAGAD 13, an enigmatic producer who has been making music for more than 20 years. Here, he blends hard techno and electro into fiery dance floor explosions like 'Triumphator' with its unrelenting drum breaks and machine-gun style synths. The EC13 X-Ta-6 mix bumps even harder, then 'Alto Voltaje' brings distorted texture and low-end darkness. Elsewhere, 'Colosal' is a fast-paced electro workout and 'Aire Fresco' (Vbrcd remix) brings bright flashes of visceral acid.

Review: Dom Angas has come a long way from his Moving Shadow singularity 'Can't Punish Me', which soon saw(tooth) an enviable career in techstep well underway. The nominally double-taker artist now issues 'Reimagination', throwing back to another shadowgraph from the MS era, 'Imagination'. This tune appealed best to the dystopian rollage crowd: there's no drop, but rather a straight barrage of hyper-crunchy cybergoth Reesework and parched beats. His new 'Reimagination', from now, continues to channel the mood but this time with added hope and angelics, shortly before a forget-me-not VIP of the original track reveals a wicked Star Trek sampling darkside version: "There are times when I find myself transfixed by a shadow on the wall, or the splashing of water against a stone. The hours pass, the world around me drops away, replaced by worlds being created and destroyed by my imagination."

Review: Three Es would be some trip, and EEE also symbolises guaranteed good times in the club. The mysterious label and eponymous artists keep on rolling out essential tech and minimal cuts that are smartly designed and authentic, but also with anthem potential. Maybe that's why each one is a one-sided 12", to really allow the tune room to shine. In this case, dusty drums with a hint of garage swing and shuffle are paired with melodic baseline motifs and colourful synth patterns. It's a good time groove with plenty of heart.

Review: 'Vibrations' by Toronto house music producer Reagan Grey taps into the pulse of the early days of the Local Talk label, back when classic house and garage ran the Great British show. Made with Christie Nelson (Soul Candi) and Sean Jones, the record spins four deep, stand-ho hums round a well burnished loom of beats, as a deep, soulful house sound rings outl though Grey has toughened the edges out to suit less satiable systems, both social and sound. 'Love Will (Vibrations Mix)' is the rawest regent of the lot, its offbeat organs and plosive drum machines spitting out like unfiltered speech. A smart, instinctive grip on what makes the UK-and-beyond deep house sound tick.

Review: Paris-based Local DJ rolls through with five cuts of slick, low-slung machine funk for the tenth release on Undergroove. 'Fonkey Kong' leads with slapping snares and sticky bass, setting the tone for a set rooted in deep house with a serrated electro edge. 'Hoax Machine' and 'Fire In The House' follow with swagger-both primed for smoky, red-lit floors-while 'Electro Police' brings a more clipped, syncopated bounce that teases out the tension. Closer 'Space Goofs' leans into the weird, rounding off the EP with detuned synths and murky propulsion. It's a playful but precise batch from an artist clearly dialled into his own take on the groove.

Review: Paris-based artist Alex infuses his latest 12" with emotional clarity and cinematic weight, charting two personal chapters across a vivid stylistic spectrum. 'Colors in the Rain' unfolds slowly, stretching over nine minutes with plush chords, detuned synth spirals and muted percussion - evoking a kind of romantic unease that teeters between beauty and disorientation. It's club-ready but drenched in feeling, moving with the pacing of a memory. On the flip, 'Drama Major' leans further into a kind of pop-noir introspection: melodies rise, fragment, then reform with aching insistence over blown-out kicks and heavy low-end. Mastered at Dubplates & Mastering and distributed by Yoyaku, the record is technically pristine, but its emotional core is what lingers. Club music, yes, but made from the same raw material as heartbreak. Alex doesn't just score his own past here but offers a blueprint for others to make sense of theirs.

Review: Belgian label Music Man Records continues its deep dive into local club history with a standout 12" drawn from a wider retrospective on Destelbergen's legendary Boccaccio club. This release centres on the early house and techno that defined its Sundays-an alternative narrative to the better-known New Beat story. The A-side opens with Steve Poindexter's 'Computer Madness', all skeletal drum patterns and jacking minimalism, before UK crew Age Of Chance explode with 'Time's Up (Timeless)', a proto-rave anthem remixed into cut-and-paste chaos. On the flip, LFO's self-titled 'Leeds Warehouse Mix' drops like a techno blueprint-bleep-heavy, bold, and unmistakably northern. Closing the set is Alice D In Wonderland's 'Time Problem (Techno Speed Work)', a hyper, squiggly take on acid techno that feels like a high-speed trip through late-80s futurism. With selections curated by Olivier Pieters and Stefaan Vandenberghe, this 12" captures the rawness, friction, and thrill of a scene that still resonates across Europe's underground.

Review: US techno standout Selective Response, hardened in the depths of the Los Angeles underground, is admired for his driving, no-nonsense sound. To that end, he delivers a fierce collection of tracks here for Backspin that echo the Hardgroove energy of the early 2000s. With sharp percussion, rolling basslines and relentless momentum, this is rhythmic techno that bridges the gap between foundational legends and new-school innovators. 'Hells Bells' is a big wall of dense, rhythmic energy, 'Inner Heaven' lights up with squealing, glassy melodies that bring euphoria and 'Power Hungry' gets down and dirty. 'Purifier' is a zoned-out closer with a hallucinogenic back-lit glow.

Review: German electronic nerd and tactile techno master Skee Mask returns to Ilian Tape, the label run by the Munich-based Zenker Brothers, with a fresh batch of his club-ready throbbers. 'TR Nautila' rides on uneven drum breaks with claps loud in there mix, until they aren't, and a stumbling bassline that underpins a morph into jungle-adjacent madness. 'Panic Button' has springy sounds and sludgy low ends, precision-tooled drums and a celestial backlight that pushes and pulls you emotionally. 'MD25' has an industrial clang and clatter that evokes being lost in a strobe-lit warehouse and 'LCC Rotation' is a freewheeling percussive gem with moody pads for all-out assault in the club.

Review: Berlin duo Dole & Kom, once known as Studio 54, have long embodied a shadowy, hypnotic take on disco house - less glitterball, more backroom haze. This early reissue from 1997 catches them at their most druggy and mesmerising, feeding 70s disco samples through crunchy 808s and looping vocal edits that stretch time rather than chase it. 'First Contact' sets the tone with thick low-end and saucer-eyed repetition, while 'Git Down Saturday' strips the funk to a skeletal pulse, filtered into late-night oblivion. 'Sid & Rachel' and 'Toni & Stephanie' feel like disco fiction - untold stories imagined on the dancefloor, locked in groove and reverb. Less homage than haunted mirage, this is the sound of vintage New York retold through 90s Berlin hardware, spun out for heads who prefer their nostalgia smoked and slowed.

Review: Bobby Donny's ongoing ACE series of vinyl releases has thus far delivered some genuine deep house treats. This is particularly true of the Dutch label's sporadic, compilation style EPs, which tend to showcase tracks previously released on digital-only EPs. There's plenty to set the pulse racing on EP number four, with highlights including two fine collaborations between label founder Frits Wentink and fellow Amsterdam scene stalwart Malin Genie (the sub-heavy peak-time bounce of 'Ambrosia' and the techno-tempo hypnotism of 'Exopaq'); the ultra-deep two-step house shuffle of 'Comet (Deep mix)' by ZZ Banks; the Italo-house influenced colour of Clovis Chilwell's 'Don't Let The Night End'; and the deep, hazy and dubbed-out brilliance of 'Slow Burn' by Rico Scott.