Techno Recommendations July 2013

Review: REPRESS: The British Columbia based label Silent Season properly issue Pacifica, the fourth studio LP from compatriot Jordan Sauer aka Segue - an album that seems destined to become this year's Voices From The Lake. Released originally in a highly limited CDr pressing earlier this year, Pacifica now arrives in a deluxe 2LP format that really does the vivid cover art justice! Adopting a pace that's immediately soothing, Pacifica's nine tracks are made all the more welcoming by the rich sense of melody that floats throughout, ensuring that the album has a sense of consistency that rewards the senses many times over.

Review: It's been seven years since his last Unknown Possibilities release on Torema, but Fumiya Tanaka has finally returned to complete the trilogy with this third double 12" release. Those familiar with his deep and dubby, warm and minimal style will find much to get excited about, most notably the hypnotic piano refrain of "What's That Water Called?", and jazzy textures of "Fur Elodie" particularly enchanting. Although several of these tracks appeared on the Unknown 3 CD on Tanaka's own Sundance label in 2008, some of the tracks here appear in different versions, with all tracks remastered by the ubiquitous Rashad Becker of D&M fame.

Review: Paradise sees minimal Detroit techno icon Robert Hood exploring the Floorplan concept in more expansive style. The Floorplan project was founded in the mid '90s, as Hood looked to merge his minimalist approach with elements of house, disco, funk and gospel. Explored intermittently over a six year period, Hood put it to one side and it was a reissue of the Floorplan debut by Rush Hour that inspired him to revisit the project in 2011, scoring a bonafide gem in "We Magnify His Name". Explored in album format here, Paradise is a mixture of all new material and tracks culled from these recent M Plant 12" releases, lending the album a sense of continuity. It's all the more impressive when you consider the fact Hood's been releasing one highly conceptual album a year since 2009.

Review: After compiling one of this year's best mix CDs in Where Dancefloors Stand Still, Terre Thaemlitz' second compilation for Mule Musiq this year will be a retrospective remix package of his own work entitled Queerification And Ruins. The first of the 12" releases features DJ Sprinkles' Ambient Ballroom mix of Oh, Yoko - a folky-ambient project by Rie Mitsutake and Will Long - which first appeared as a B-side to the 2012 single "Seashore". Sprinkles adds a soft-thumping kick drum and tittering percussion to the breathy original, giving the tracks washy synths and wispy tones a delicate structure, while also embedding life inspiring vocals into mix. On the B-side is Sprinkles' Deep Breath Mix of "Exhalation", which was first released on a remix package for Thaemlitz' own Comatonse label in 2006. A little heavier on the drums, claps and percussion than the A-side, its combination of belly thumping tablas, unusual oriental vocals and dream-like synths make it one for the Buddha Bar compilation

Review: Brace yourselves for another descent into the unknown with the seventh release on Ancient Methods self titled label. Resurfacing for the first time since that deadly Ugandan Methods drop with Regis last year, the Seventh Seal arrives on sleek clear green vinyl and finds the now solo operated Ancient Methods project ease up on the ear serrating sonics of those early releases that garnered such critical praise. These four tracks still pack some notable industrial weight however; lead cut "Nights & Bishops" has a certain concrete funk to it, whilst "Kings & Pawns" is a standout, very much schooled in the same class of alien textures as Mike Parker.

Review: The second of three Borderland album samplers features the tracks "Footprints" and "Mars Garden", songs that middle the forthcoming album. "Footprints" delivers exactly what you would expect from a dubby German audiophile and Detroit techno mastermind; rugged, yet finely tuned drums and bleeps that delicately sway in a downtempo ambience of engineered synthesis. On a minimal and trippy tip, "Mars Garden" aligns to a rigid four-four groove, with a funky - and subtly overdriven - bass line, that gives the track a vibrant sign of life, in a pleasantly isolated and jazz-kissed arrangement.

Review: Having firmly established one conceptual series in the shape of Acid Test, Los Angeles label Absurd Recordings have signalled their intentions for further expansion with the launch of Avenue 66 - an offshoot dedicated to "left of centre house and techno". The sense of curation and concept that went into Acid Test lends a certain degree of audience investment with Avenue 66 and who better to launch the endeavour than Joey Anderson. There's a sense that 2013 is the year where Anderson ascends from rising talent of the East Coast Deep House scene to fully fledged star and Above The Cherry Moon highlights his diversity. "Above The Cherry Moon" is the epitome of abstraction, with a jagged analogue lead pulsing with agitation over a thick bass drum whilst Anderson himself and vocalist Ebony Ugo add a further sense of unease with their foreboding utterances. An accompanying remix from Vakula flushes the track with a glistening sense of calm and will prove a set starter for many, along with supplementary B Side cut Auset.

Review: Since his emergence on Wild Oats collaborating with Kyle Hall as NSNT PRJCT, Manuel Gonzales has impressed under the MGUN moniker across a string of releases for the likes of Don't Be Afraid and Will Bankhead's The Trilogy Tapes. His return to the former with Are You Reading This is a hefty six tracks deep, and allows him the space for an expansive portrayal of the MGUN production palette with excellent results. Demented moments such as the rickety rhythms of opening track "Hand Over Fifth" and the unpronounceable exercise in tape screeching boom bap that is "Jijijijij$ijijijiji" sit next to clubbier arrangements like "Proxy" and the almost Berghain-like "Funnel Vision", but it's "Tritan" and "Bean Chirp", tracks with similarities to his aforementioned Kyle Hall collaboration, albeit moistened with wet reverb, dribbling acid and washy synths, that evoke a more classic Detroit style, albeit in his own unique way. Highly recommended stuff all round.

Review: Now firmly established as a label with their own aesthetic and sonic identity, there'd be a sense of expectation attached to a full album from anyone in the Avian camp. That it's the fairly unpronounceable Swedish techno pair SHXCXCHCXSH who've been handed the mantle of first full artist album on Avian only increases that expectation, thanks mostly to the mystery that surrounds them. Not wishing to spoil the sonic surprises within the forthcoming seven track STRGTHS LP, label bosses Shifted and Ventress have elected to precede it's release with this STRGTHS RCNSTRCTNS 12" which features remixes from themselves along with the similarly minded Sigha. Given the approach of all involved, you should have an idea of what expect and indeed, Sigha sinks deepest into the sludgely noirish mire with his take on "LLDTMPS".

Review: Lustrations finds Mike Parker releasing a long overdue debut album filled with his distinctive whirring insectoid synths and overpowering basslines and represents a welcome return to Prologue for the first time since 2011. Undoubtedly one of the more interesting producers in contemporary techno, Parker's quiet obsession with analogue experimentation, fascination with ring modulators and love for the atonal and dissonant works equally well in the album format as it does on those distinctive looking Geophone 12"s he has put out over the past few years. A theme of clarity and hypnotism is apparent when listening through all twelve variations of "Lustration" and together they combine for another superb LP release from Prologue.

Review: A new shadowy techno outfit are on the march with an obtuse name and numerical track names. Possibly a duo, possibly not, the Berlin based I/Y are making some waves with a no-nonsense approach to techno that takes much from their hometown in inspiration, clearly fed on sleepless nights in techno caverns to summon up their own icy sermons. "Yac Intercept" actually has a slight New Beat flavour to it in the disco drum machine patterns, while the synths are pure cold-hearted bleakness. "I/Y 0000.021" meanwhile plies a curious tact with a bouncy groove populated by rapid-fire drum hits that come on both jovial and militaristic in the same breath. "I/Y 0000.022" is a more minimal affair where the beat comes second to the nail-scraping central drone.

Review: Dekmantel return to last year's excellent self titled long player from Mikhaylo Vityk (aka Vakula) under his Vedomir alias for this EP, adding Berghain heavyweight Marcel Dettmann to their ever expanding list of high profile remixers. Dettmann has proved to be quite the versatile remixer over the past few years, reworking everyone from Luke Slater and Skudge, to artists further distanced from straight up techno like Morphosis, Commix, Fever Ray and most recently Trus'me. Here he remixes the rock 'n' roll bass and panning arpeggios of "Musical Suprematism" and the spacey minimalisms of "Dreams". The thick, viscous funk of the latter remix is a notable highlight.

Review: If Scuba's "Adrenalin" was Hotflush's attempt to infiltrate the festival banger circuit, then the lead track on this EP from Dense & Pika is the label aiming for the top of the peak time techno charts. The prospering project of Glimpse's Chris Spero and Hypercolour co-founder and producer Alex Jones, Dense & Pika take no prisoners on "Move Your Body Back" mangling the garbled remains of Liam Howlett's Prodigy presets and throwing them over a thumpingly aggressive techno beat that only pauses to growl out the titular refrain. "Lack of Light" is borne from the same template, yet adopts a more percussive approach. Final track "Backstage Mute" marauds largely in the sub bass area and sounds like the second coming of Fidget house.

Review: Hess unites Detroit and Berlin on this latest missive for Danish label Echocord. "Pashko (Version 1)" is based on heavy beats and a menacing bass that rumbles along to reveal thundering claps. However, it's the chords that prove compelling, welling up and covering the arrangement in a layer of gloom. On the second version, steely drums and bleepy tones provide the basis for a throbbing basslne and Hess' trademark chords. This time however, they have changed in tone from moody to dreamy, with the US producer moving closer to the legacy of his hometown of Detroit. Sometimes, it's impossible to escape where you're from.

Review: Recent editions of the Jack For Daze series from producers such as Roman Flugel or L-Vis 1990 have demonstrated Clone are more than willing to work with producers outside of their usual remit if the figurative shoe fits. The label's Basement Series has however remained resolute in its focus on gnarly, mind warping techno from the underground. Thus, a debut on the Clone Basement Series for Najem Sworb makes perfect sense; the intriguingly named producer from Strasbourg is hardly an established name, yet this is rendered somewhat irrelevant when you come into contact with the four tracks on this Renow EP., Sworb's production style is best described an overwhelmingly rugged take on techno that feels like Mike Parker's Geophone explorations transported to outer space.

Review: Analogue angst laces the new split Chicago Skyway and Isoke EP on Eargasm Recordings. Chicago Skyway's redlining and direction changing title track beats down with brute force, with sampled percussion entering and exiting the mix at will - a drunkish 'I don't give a fuck' vocal adds some extra distorted beef. "Run Coward" is equally careless in its approach to subtly, as brutish kicks and overdriven synths rattle and hum to the roar of more disgruntled vocals. New comer Isoke holds back on distortion, and offers something a little housier in "Rough Shit", however angry curbside vocals are still present. "Haunted" gives the EP respite from up front aggression, with interstellar synths playing as much of a role as crunchy kick drums.

Review: Solar One boss Robert Witschakowski returns to Creme Organization under his universally recognised project The Exaltics with the one sided, etched The Rise and Fall EP which brandishes four of his trademark diverse sonic explorations. It feels like Snake Plisken is trying to escape Eastern Germany on the lead track "Downer" with Witschakowski laying down a thick, noisy slo-mo EBM groove that sees billowing spectral synths duking it out with a growling crud infested undercarriage. The fluttering "Thought Buzz" offers a brief respite before "The Place To Be" locks into the sort of vintage German electro groove that The Exaltics is renowned for, whilst the final title track drags you deep into the sonic mire. Music by the freaks, for the freaks.

Review: Untold's techno-focused Pennyroyal label reaches release number three, which this time comes from Finnish producer Boner M, who has been releasing the kind of high-velocity techno Pennyroyal focuses on for labels like Don't and Antsinplot since 2011. "KopKopKop" is characterized by its rusty nail percussion and scratchy textures, held together with creaky melodic hinges. "Poke" takes things even further into the realms of abrasion, with scratchy electrical pulses sparking between its threadbare beats; "Fakmi" takes things up to a furious 155BPM with an Analogue Cops-style rawness combining with unexpected vocals blasting through the gaps.