DJs: Most Charted - Techno - Most Charted In June 2012

Review: There's some po-faced minimalism to be found on the third offering from Avian. A debut appearance from AD/S heads straight for the monochrome thud of a pounding kick, offset by very delicate cicadas of percussion and just a faint whisper of melody. Sigha gets a cheeky soca kind of snare into the mix on his version, which creates a bizarre carnival techno flavour. That leaves it to Ventress to get slightly broken on his remix, breaking up that thudding kick and sprinkling some haunting magic in the shape of distant, forlorn pads, creating the most atmospheric cut on the 12".

Review: ** FLOORPLAN REPRESS ** It's fair to say that this was one of the best Robert Hood moments in a while! Just two tracks but boy do they hit hard - "Altered Ego" is more brakey than the usual Hood bombs but he's kept the inimitable chords, all wailing and weaving their way through the beat. The real heat is on the flip however, where the nostalgic, rave-infused piano keys of "Confess" make for a certified classic! Is it Hood who influenced Shed on this sort of beat or the other way around? Who cares, it's bloody amazing!

Review: This release proves again that it's the producers operating at the fringes who often make the most rewarding techno. Lakker are Dublin duo Dara Smith and Ian McDonnell, who for years ploughed a furrow that was inspired by Warp and Rephlex and which resulted in releases that embraced noise, high speed break beats and electronica. So when Lakker decided to focus primarily on techno, they brought with them their previous musical experiences. Unsurprisingly, their debut vinyl for Berlin label Killekill won support from Surgeon and Aphex or that James Ruskin signed their second release to Blueprint. Lakker's past is audible on "Evening Lemon" as detuned, manic piano playing and the sound of kids in a playground bubbles to the surface of a glitchy offbeat backing track - only to give way to a beautiful, dreamy synth. What's more interesting is their application of their left of centre thinking to traditional techno structures. "ED" is powered by crunchy, off beats and shards of glitchy percussion but it's the ghostly, filtered synth that lead it from the outer limits to the realms of the dance floor. Likewise "BKRO" starts with echoing, dubbed out drums and kicks low in the mix, as Lakker let the ghostly textures and melodic undercurrents occupy centre stage. Indeed, if there is a recurrent theme on Arc, it's the use of texture and sound design as a means of seduction and nowhere is the recurrent theme on Arc and nowhere is this more evident than on the title track. There, a dense, lumbering nouveau techno backing provides the backdrop for eerie Aphex-style synths that linger in the background, gradually get closer and then eventually dominate the arrangement as the beats lose their intensity and the electronic melodies prevail, arcing upwards the sublime.

Review: Although his Modularz imprint has been receiving significant attention for its dark, textured take on techno functionalism, Developer's Archive imprint is an opportunity to showcase his own material on limited vinyl only runs. While the beautiful marble charcoal pressing would, in the hands of other labels, be to distract from below par music, there's nothing of the sort in evidence here, with the same intricate approach to sound design as contemporaries Silent Servant and Shifted. "Sangre Por Oro" takes a firm, yet ghostly stomp and foregrounds bleached out, ascending chords, while "Horns From The West" is an apt summation of its mood, with its Mariachi inspired melody and rolling drums. On the flip, "The Truth" goes for hypnotic key stabs shrouded in delay atop a rumbling rhythm, while "From The Womb" begins as an expectedly claustrophobic experience, with its muddy vocal snippet and shackling industrial rhythms, but slowly opening out with lighter hints of melody and gaseous atmospherics.

Review: It seems like you can't move at the moment for erstwhile drum & bass producers experimenting with techno forms, and on this release it's the turn of George Levings, better known to most as Commix, though arriving on Boddika's Nonplus label it isn't quite techno in the strict sense of the word. "Birdhouse" certainly displays some of the rolling rhythmic tendencies and atmospherics of his more familiar genre, but its 130bpm thump has as much in common with Blawan's brooding industrial clatter in tone than anything out of the Metalheadz handbook. The much more languid "DBPLT01" on the other hand lets itself open out slowly like an inky blackness spreading throughout clean water, creating a sinister and all encompassing murk which echoes Kassem Mosse's releases on the same label. In short, another genre smashing essential from Nonplus.

Review: After the success of the first release, Tanstaafl returns for their second wax adventure, this time with the musical renegade DJ October at the helm. October has entered a new phase of production for the TANSTAAFL series and has focused himself firmly on a reduced, stripped and effective formula for the floor. His productions are heavy, smoked out narcoleptic dub infused journey's, and his latest 12 offers more or less of the same opaque vibe but with his sights firmly set on the floor, with one foot in the past and the other in the future - drawing from his usual Detroit, NYC and Chicago influences. So we kick off 2012 with a future classic, 'Singularity Jump', which douses you in synthesized Saxophone hooks, chopped vocal samples and a meaty Juno Hip-House inspired bass-line. 'Planet Of Minds' is more of a inner space affair very much inspired by acid and dub. Successfully combining the two, October injects more of an airy feel into the mix and delivers a moody cosmic acid jam that will not fail your dancing feet or tripped-out mind. Definitely one for the later hours... This is going to be an anthem, hands down, so get it before it's gone for good.

Review: Shifted's identity has remained somewhat of a mystery in 2012, but crucially, he does not come from the small coterie that has dominated UK techno over the past twenty years. Like the signature image he uses, a grey, shadowy creature creeping through a snowy forest, his infiltration of the sound has been stealthy and understated. In many ways, his lack of connection with techno, his automatic outsider status, has allowed him to effect an entrance into a hitherto new terrain. Like his releases on Mote Evolver and his own Avian imprint, Crossed Paths tingles and fizzes with an atmospheric sensibility that monochrome techno often lacks. All of this is made possible by his distinctive sound design; intricate and subtle, yet at the same time both functional and multi-faceted, where all of these divergent paths cross, you'll find Shifted.

Review: It would be easy and unforgivably lazy to lump Claro's work in with the great unwashed of deep/dub techno. While Reform Club does sparkle and shimmer with epic strings, ghostly reversed chords and dreamy synths, it's the interplay between these elements and Stewart's unpredictable rhythmic dalliances that make his third album so rewarding. "Reformed" is a case in point: glassy percussion and sensuous string passages suggest an adept take on classic Detroit techno, but the underlying, resonating bass depicts an artist highlighting flaws and imperfections. In a similar vein is "It's Getting Late", where evocative chords unfold over a quirky bassline and the raw, Aardvarck-esque beats and breathy melodies of "Scriptease". But it's the tracks where Stewart appears to be sharing his own personal experiences that have the greatest impact. The atmospheric, chiming synths of "Still Here" has the same underlying sadness that Stewart articulated so beautifully on Metanarrative and the whistling sounds and serene ambience of "Quiet Life" elevate Stewart to the same level as great musical storytellers like Mark Hollis and Ian Curtis. The fact that be can bare his soul and document deeply personal topics without resorting to words makes his voice all the more powerful.

Review: The UK techno veteran Ben Sims twists and teases his machines to the point of exhaustion on Air Rage Part 2. "Machine Funk" sees Sims deliver a more upfront, slamming approach, its tunnelling, filtered riff swirling above the terse metallic framework, while the title track takes the prize for most intense cut. Powered by hissing percussion and propulsive drums, it's the grinding air raid siren that powers in overhead that makes it so memorable.