Juno Recommends Techno February 2021

Review: The fourth multi-artist EP from blog-turned-record label Innate takes the imprint's inherently warm and far-sighted sound into new intergalactic directions. Offering a quartet of cuts from established producers and rising stars, all inspired by dreams of cross-cosmic travel and the alluring weightlessness of deep space. 004 explores the love of stargazing electronics in much greater deapth.

The A-side is all about melodious and spacey electro with Dutch legend Aroy Dee making a rare appearance away from his acclaimed M>O>S Recordings label. "Leegte" A1 is impressively immersive, cloaking a jaunty bassline and lo-fi beats in sumptuous aural textures and glassy-eyed chords. Accompanied by Innate label regular Gilbert, "Furthest Planet" A2 is a deep roller whose lilting lead lines, shimmering electronics and tumbling acid lines are little less than life-affirming.

On side B, the sound subtly shifts towards the multi-coloured, sci-fi shimmer of techno. Newcomer Jonski, (aka Bristol electro producer Zobol) drops "Venusian Surface" B1 - a classic interstellar jam full of vivid chords, echoing synth squiggles and alluring leads that rise above a classic tech-funk bassline. Last but not least, effervescent Welshman DJ Guy (Unthank/Other World Music) slams down an energetic techno stomper in "Aphelion Orbit": boasting brilliantly breathless drum programming, illuminated by the celestial shimmer of accompanying chords. A perfect conclusion to Innate's most action-packed release to date.

Review: Nail is back on 89:Ghost with more of his sublime trippers delights as Smoke. This is the UK tech house don at his deepest, eking out a perfectly fluid strain of dub-inflected grooves to take you further in and farther out. Lead track 'DBSDUB2' is awash with gorgeous chords and strung out soul licks, all underpinned by a simply perfect groove. 'BAQDUB' uses a more broken thread of percussion to accentuate the rhythm, while 'HOTARU' keeps things more tightly clipped without losing that shimmering veneer. 'BAUCH3' is the more ambient of the cuts on this 12", taking the aesthetics of the other three and jettisoning off into pure dubbed out bliss.

Review: During the 1990s, techno talent Being put out some essential records on the late great andrew Weatherall's Special Emissions label. He also produced for Lord Sabre on works as Two Lone Swordsmen with Keith 'Radioactive Man' Tenniswood and collaborated with Claude Young, so his credentials are unquestionable. Here he distils all that into a moody techno record with machines that brim with soul, rhythm that are full of invention and warm, cavernous grooves as good for home listening sessions as they are club workouts. 'Space Again' is an epic Detroit cut, 'The Akward' is ace new age business and frankly the whole thing needs your attention.

Review: Ambien Baby's Isla label is back at it with a new release from Dosis, and it's a hot one. Steeped in noirish electro and minimal wave moods, the lead track 'Confusion' strikes a mood somewhere between vintage Dopplereffekt, Front 242 and Doxa Sinistra with Spanish vocals. 'Copas' is more evocative, using an electro template to express a melancholy which stands apart from the gutter-dwelling creepiness found elsewhere on the EP. 'Sombras' strikes a balance between the two extremes, whereas 'Delirio' submits to a more pure machine-rooted abandon punctuated by a tough rhythm, and does so in style.

Review: Belgian superstar Amelie Lens launched her latest label Exhale with a deathly offering of techno across 15 tracks. Now a sampler from the compilation makes its way onto vinyl with no letting up from start to finish. Paris-based Francois X stands out for his tune 'Clarity Bell' which is mechanical and hard hitting but also elastic and inviting. Grace Dahl' 'Vermilion Empire' is all retro future cosmic battle sounds, DYEN's 'Fantasy' is a brilliant happy hardcore update with evenly pitched up vocal and Mehen wrecks your head with 'Broken Whisper.'

Review: Andy Vaz's Background Records has been treating early 00s minimal die hards of late with a run of choice reissues. It was great to see the Smyglyssna getting another outing, and likewise this crucial slice of stripped down surrealism from the mighty Baby Ford. 'One For Sorrow' is a party rocker through and through, with a bubbling bass pulse that hooks you into the groove while the strange vocoder flexing over the top tries to throw you off. 'Rainstorm' uses the subtlest threads of static noise to create a subliminal sense of atmospheric interference around a crisp beatdown, and 'Woody' uses a simple melodic loop to create a mystical energy you could lose yourself in for days.

Review: Strap in for a super sweet ride through tuneful techno and soulful machine sounds on this double 12" from Prince de Takicardie. It manages to be both fresh and futuristic but also nicely tinged with the old school values we all love. 'The Birth Of Love' could be an old Two Lone Swordsman cut thanks to its gorgeous leads, while 'Dramatic Battle' is a more dense and jacked up techno cracker. 'The Pirate's House' reaches into electro territory with its super speedy grooves and warped melodies and 'Open That Door!!! (Sex Waitting mix)' then gets nice and sleazy.

Review: Since vinyl copies of Shinichi Atobe's debut album Butterfly Effect are still in demand, DDS has decided to offer-up a new clear vinyl pressing of the acclaimed set. It remains one of the mysterious, publicity-shy producer's most magnificent and fully-formed works: a singular musical vision that was released some 13 years after his then sole single, 2001's 'Ship-Scope'. Like much of Atobe's work, it offers a particularly atmospheric musical vision where ambient, off-kilter electronica, deep house and dub techno explorations come together to create one distinctive, otherworldly whole. Butterfly Effect has long been revered in certain circles and listening to this new pressing it's easy to see why.

Review: After years DJing and co-running the excellent 50arc parties, Helen Copnall makes her debut appearance on Miles Sagnia's Atmospheric Existence, laying down a refined strain of deep-diving techno with the kind of delicate but driving energy we've come to expect from a truly great, unsung UK techno label. 'Lotuses In A Sea Of Fire' revels in a dubby swirl of processing, as languid keys melt into each other and rippling textures ping out across the feathered but insistent percussion. 'Cedars' is arguably the pick though, deploying a vivid and densely packed sound field ranging from modular bleeps and textured rhythms to dub chord shimmers and low frequency mantras. It's brain food as well as body music, like the best techno should be.

Review: When he made his debut in the summer of 2019 with the rather good Simple Minds EP on Marginal Returns, Sohrab had the look of a techno artist with bags of potential. This belated sequel for Undersound Recordings only confirms that first impression. For proof, check opener 'The Fool', a bouncy and otherworldly chunk of futurist techno in which Middle Eastern style synthesizer melodies and intergalactic electronics rise above bubbly acid bass and Motor City techno drums. It's the EP's most ear-catching moment, but there's plenty to set the pulse racing elsewhere across the 12", with highlights including the fizzing, subtly EBM-influenced thrust of 'Resolution', and the breakbeat-driven ambient techno psychedelia of 'Digital Bliss'.

Review: Pan Pot's Second State label strides into 2021 with a big new slab of techno from Joyhauser. It is a direct to dance floor three tracker that launches off with 'Think People', a techno tune as frazzled, high impact and hard hitting as you could wish for. The drums are monstrous, the kick swing low and the whole thing will fry your brain. 'Molly' is more stripped back but not less high impact as it barrels forwards on a surging groove with sleek synths peeling off the beats. Michael Klein remixes 'Think People' to close out on another powerful techno groove.

Review: In a bid to make the first release on their freshly minted Philoxenia label stand out, Neu Verboten and Luigi Di Venere have turned to the invaluable experience of Steve Marie, a Paris-based Corsican producer known for his heady blends of techno, EBM and trance. It's a smart move, because Ho! hits home hard from the word go. Marie first offers some retro-futurist flavour in the shape of the bass-heavy, 1990 bleep and breaks style weight of the acid-flecked title track, before combining his EBM and neo-trance fascinations on the chiming and creepy 'Devil Inside'. He retains the deep bass and razor-sharp TB-303 motifs on laidback and angular electro number 'Romanee Conti', before puffing his chest out on trance-inducing, faintly foreboding late-night throb-job 'Trancia'.

Review: Porter v Brook was a classic welterweight boxing match up in 2014, and Porter Brook the producer brings a sound that is just as powerful and action packed as was that world title fight. This Groundwork release is the second on the label and is techno workout of the highest order. 'True Belief' is an eerie broken beat with misty sound design and grainy synths, then 'Deliverance' again locks you in a mystic world of churning synths, lo-fi textures and cavernous grooves. Closer 'Avec' is the sound of a warehouse in decay, a post-apocalyptic landscape once all human life has left and the machines are starting to take over.

Review: There is something faintly unsettling about Forest Land, the debut album from Greyscale Mood Series regular Altone. Musically, the ten showcased tracks are rooted in dub techno and feature many musical elements associated with the style - think deep sub-bass, echoing, reggae style piano riffs, ambient electronics, field recordings and incredible sound design. Yet none of these tracks sound like "dub techno by numbers", something we attribute to the producer's frequent use of off-kilter, unorthodox rhythm patters and metallic, almost industrial percussion sounds. In other words, it may be as atmospheric and - at times - meditative as other dub techno releases, but it's also a whole lot creepier too. An album well worth further investigation.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: Aubrey's status as a pillar of underground UK techno comes into focus with this reissue of a 1995 classic from the Solid Groove archives. 'Ginger Biscuit' is a riotous party starter, riding a funked up loop and feverish percussion to make for techno perfection. 'Long Player' is a trippier affair awash with heavy reverb, pads and submerged acid bleeps. 'Shimmer' goes even further out with some shimmering dub techno chords riding elongated filter sweeps for pure eyes closed transcendence. 'U Be Dick' seals the deal with a micro-dub excursion that nudges towards house territory with soaring synth strings to boot. Seminal stuff.

Review: Modern dub techno technician Mohlao has a hardcore following who snap up his every single release in quick time. He now lands on Sweden's Hypnus with a pair new tunes and a version that are as warm and cavernous as you'd expect. 'Cut' opens up on rolling, gooey pads with static fizzing about the airwaves. 'File' is more roomy still, with autumnal pads and instant bell chimes emptying your mind. A scape version strips back the drums to make for heady ambiance and Dorisburg remixes it into a more propulsive club cut.

Review: Miami's Blkmarket Music are back with T.A.O. which is a collaboration of label chief Taimur with fellow NYC transplant Amo and Ostara. On the A side, we have the evocative breaks of 'Ready Set Flow' reaching near psychedelic moments in the vein of '90s rave legends Rabbit In The Moon, while 'Sevn' ventures further into ominous territory, beginning in half time grey area d'n'b style before lunging straight for the jugular in intense 4/4 impact. Proving there is more variety in the trio's repertoire is the UK style street sound of 'To The Moon' on the flip, with its skippy beats and infectious keys, followed by some trippy afterhours microhouse on 'Shadow Of The Maze' reminiscent of Amo's releases on Vatos Locos and Dissonant.

Review: Two Canadian veterans unite here: acclaimed DJ/producer Colin de la Plante aka The Mole, with dub techno expert and BLKRTZ chief Scott Monteith aka Deadbeat. They both cut their teeth on Montreal's techno scene in the early noughties and released music on homegrown imprints such as Wagon Repair and Cynosure. The now Berlin-based pair present an album of 10 tracks here, taking in low slung house ('I'd Rather Be Lonely'/'For All That Was Lost'), dub ('Keep On Goin''), hip hop ('Return To The Towers'/'New Stone') and smoked out sound collages ('Ciao Uncle G') which were all created during the 2020 lockdown.