DJS: MOST CHARTED - TECHNO - MOST CHARTED IN FEBRUARY 2014

Review: Off Minor Recordings continues to be a family affair. Launched by Jordan 'Jordash' Czamanski with some solo material under his Crybaby J alias, the label then turned to the evidently sizeable archives of Move D for the excellent EP The KM20 Tapes. Here Czamanski and Moufang team up with Gal 'Juju' Aner for some rare, recorded output from their improvised hardware project Magic Mountain High. The Tiny Breadcrumbs EP begins with the low-end buzz and hi-end hiss of "Suub" which is met by elongated kicks and an octave changing synth tone. It's "Riptide", though, that gives us the first taste of techno musicality associated with the trio, coming in the form of an aquatic synth loop, and later, complimenting pads. Over on the B-side, "Avalanche", with its white-noise impersonating wind sequences is the EP's 'club' track which sees bumbling blips pitched against an overworked 808, while respite from lo-fi rawness is presented as "Don't Cry For Me Argentina (No Compromise mix)", an intelligent slice of hardware crafted deep house.

Review: With a tongue-in-cheek sassiness that speaks of serious producers letting fly with some unabashed rave damage, Neville Watson and Nick Woolfson team up as Red 7 for this sample-heavy pair of old-skool flavoured breakbeat tracks after a couple of outings on Housewax. "Royal Rave" makes all the right moves, from sub-testing bass pressure to delirious chord stabs, filtered breaks and scores of recognizable samples flying about in the mix. Meanwhile "Rubadub Style" gets into that late 80s / early 90s dub sound that owed as much to the Balearics as it did to Jamaica, and once again the sound is reproduced with all the little details intact.

Review: James Ruskin has of course individually collaborated with Mark Broom, as well a forming The Fear Ratio project for Blueprint, and he's worked with Regis as O/V/R, but a solo record from the boss on his own label hasn't been heard since 2009. Throughout the Silt EP, sounds from these collaborations creep in and out of the three productions, while the title-track sounds like something that would fit right into a [Phase] EP. There's a definite Warp, albeit Lakker and The Fear Ratio sonic to the melancholic "Wisdom Of Youth", while the murky slither of "Emotional Erode" is the EP's unexpected, ambient, and rhythmic dub-leaning highlight.

Review: Ostgut Ton return to Fokus, last year's accomplished debut album from Marcel Fengler with a suitably high profile remix 12". Offering a more well rounded and experimental display of Fengler's production palette than the functional techno he's issued in 12" format, Fokus has a definite highlight thus far and it's interesting to see who has been chosen to rework tracks from it. Shed and Dave Clarke are naturally the headline draws here and their respective takes on "Jaz" and "Sky Pushing" are as full throttle as one would expect but it's nice to see Solar One boss Robert Witschakowski get the exposure his work as The Exaltics deserves with a killer throbbing Italo-techno rendition of "King Of Psi".

Review: Sect returns to the heart of the history once more. Chicago's legacy is finally represented on the label by one of the finest producers of this city and sound, DJ Skull. Words can't do justice to the legacy of this legend of house and techno music. For almost three decades Skull has produced of some of the finest dancefloor tracks ever made, be it through Saber (Trax), DJAX, Hybrid, Majesty Recordings, Tresor, or many others. Here the Dark Knight offers four very special cuts that reaffirm his legendary status. The title track combines the most up-to-date techno production techniques with the inimitable Chicago jacking sound. "Promise Of Peace" retrieves traditional house values on the mellower end of the musical scale, while "Reboot" gets back to the straight-up techno, with some nicely understated acid elements; and finally "Big Girls" is informed by both reggae dub and forward thinking techno.

Review: The same week as Answer Code Request's new 12" on Ostgut Ton gets a release, the regular Berghain DJ turns up on XDB's new one for Dolly, of course run by Panorama Bar regular Steffi. ACR owns the A1 with a remix to the EP's title track, with the German seemingly plucking out his favourite loop-section of the original and pumping it full of a solid sounding techno low-end like only the Germans know how. XDB's version is long-winding, groovy and noticeably lighter in comparison, while on the B-side Detroit techno and Chicago house influences are abound, most notably in "Tonik", while "Liberty" is a stomping and very funky house classic

Review: With releases on Dekmantel, Latency, Avenue 66, Syncrophone and more, it's fair to say Joey Anderson had a watershed 2013, and the New Jersey-based producer's profile is set to rise further with a forthcoming album for the aforementioned Amsterdam label. Ahead of that, Anderson is doffing his curatorial cap with the latest release on his own Inimeg Recordings label entitled Exchange Place presents Alphabet Soup. Productions from Anderson bookend the record and in between DJ QU and Nicuri offer some strong representation for the esteemed Strength Music camp. Lead track "She Is Afraid" finds Anderson working once more with Ebony Ugo, whose treated vocals complement the bugged out house backing perfectly. "Alphabet Soul" from DJ QU could almost be a Pangaea production whilst "Navigation 8th Density" finds Nicuri combining taut techno rhythmics with an underlying cosmic sense of light. If you enjoyed Anderson's late 2013 Dekmantel dalliance you will most certainly dig final track "Linguistic Command".

Review: Following a recent (and rare) outing away from his Do Not Resist The Beat!, K209 and Alien Rain labels for the new Deep Sound imprint, Milton Bradley lands his extra-terrestrial alias back on home soil. This fourth Alien Rain 12" is arguably the best release of the series so far, with "Alienated 4A" tumbling through a wormhole of fluctuating acid pulses and a sturdy 4/4 kicks, while "Alienated 4B" shares a similar make up, the acid is coarser and the drums harder. "Alienated 4C" then sees Bradley in deeper techno mode, as ambient textures float around two voices of acid - one high the other low - making for a moody workout similar to his 303-driven productions on Prologue.

Review: An-i is the excellent new project from Doug Lee, a man previously responsible for some superb dancefloor ammo as part of TBD alongside Justin Vandervolgen, as well as working with Lovefingers on more mellow fare as The Stallions. If you were one of the lucky few to grab his Bad News 12" with LIES don Ron Morelli then you'll be ready for the haywire nature of the Kino-i EP. Finding a perfect home on Minimal Wave offshoot Cititrax, the EP sees the Berlin based producer indulge his machine love on three variations of the same track that almost explode off the wax - must check for fans of Nation, LIES, Mathematics. Pressed up on fluorescent 160gm yellow vinyl and housed in a high gloss black and white sleeve.

Review: The Trilogy Tapes continue to slay all in their path, with TTT015 featuring four slabs of suffocating sonics from Oliver Vereker. The pair of records for LIES last year ensured Oliver graduated from Professor Morelli's class of 2013 with honours, whilst the young San Francisco-based producer was also spotted duking it out with Florian Kupfer on one of those blink-and-you-missed-it Russian Torrent Versions platters. If you picked up on one of those records you will know what to expect from Slain, which begins in particularly crepuscular form with the title track, as the ghostly remains of Detroit electro are dragged straight to hell. This sense of claustrophobia remains throughout, with pressure seemingly exerted on each lurching drum beat - the woozy box jam "Marked" is the one exception and our personal highlight.

Review: While Luke Slater is busy as always, his Planetary Assault Systems output has slowed since the release of the all conquering Messenger LP for Ostgut Ton in 2011. For this Future Modular 12", Slater is less visceral and more arpeggiated than previous releases, harking back to a '90s-early-2000s PAS-sound, specifically the A-side's title-track. On the B-sides there's the deep, trippy and linear "Serc", but before that there's a sinister "Riot In Silo 12" that's showered in 909-hi-hats to get through first.

Review: Maybe it's because he is releasing on Modeselektor's label that US producer Truncate has chosen a different approach than usual. Whatever the explanation, Pressurize is full of surprises. The only real dance floor track on the release is "Bipolar", a stripped back, functional minimal techno groove that gets increasingly intense thanks to its grimy acid undercurrent. Elsewhere, Truncate is in more reflective mood. Both "Breakdown" and "Dial 20" are chord-heavy stepping grooves that combine the intensity of Technasia with the bassy power of Shed. Just in case there was any doubt that Pressurize marks a sideways shift for Truncate, the title track is led by dubby chords and slowed down, teased out beats.

Review: As the man behind the long-running Perc Trax label, Ali Wells has had a considerable part to play in shaping the landscape of UK techno. His debut album Wicker & Steel, released in 2011, was only his first full-length in a decade of producing, but the influence both it and the curation of his label had was wide ranging, prefiguring the revival for a harder, more industrial aesthetic in techno which emerged in the following years. The Power & The Glory is Wells' second album, and is a significantly more ambitious statement than its predecessor, combining his obvious appreciation of the experimental noise sound coming from the US underground with the pounding floor-focused rave bangers he's well known for. Quite simply, Wells has raised the techno bar once again.

Review: Stojche (Cvetanovski) has quietly been doing his techno thing with releases on a varied array of labels; from Dogmatik, Subwax BCN, to Liebe Detail. This time he debuts on a label called Grounded in Humanity that's most recognisable name so far is Havantape. The EP names itself after its ambient title-track which sounds like Perc's opener to Wicker & Steel, "Choice", but it's "Paradox" which really rocks the EP with booming beats, clashing hats and sweeping chords. "Mindset" offers something more inline with Detroit techno, and at times electro, rather than a European linearism, which when compared to "Outbreak" is its complete opposite.

Review: The secretive Blacknecks project emerged last year claiming to be the "new, anonymous side project of two prominent UK garage producers & remixers, known for remixing a string of top 40 singles, as well as having their own minor hit in the late noughties." The label's press release for its fourth record sees the tongue of whoever is behind Blacknecks staying firmly in cheek, stating, "following a failed demo submission to Mad Decent (note to Diplo - we can hold a grudge a VERY long time...) Blacknecks decide to self release their crossover mega hit "To The Cosmos, Let's Go!", while further explaining the EP effortlessly showcases their two-step production prowess, by not even needing to call upon it. "To The Cosmos, Let's Go!" opens this fourth Blacknecks transmission and sits alongside "Hot Legs" and what could be seen as a parody of the current vogue for deathly techno titles in "A Wandering Sense of Disillusionment Eats the Soul within this Decomposing Establishment of Pain and Suffering (Bollocks to the Custard, Where's the Suet Pudding edit)."

Review: The Zenker Brothers welcome Italian producer Stenny back into the Ilian Tape fold for a third time, with the Eternal Restriction 12" offering a further refinement on his distinctive blend of heavy bass, loud sonics and rhythmic syncopation. Indeed it's the latter element that binds Stenny's three original productions together, with rough and rugged drums the base from which the Turin talent pulls his productions in various directions. There's a dense, alien hustle to the title track that Actress fans left a bit underwhelmed by Ghettoville would gravitate towards, whilst "Boulders" sounds like it recycles a drum beat from a 90s Armand Van Helden track and buries it deep amidst a dirt encrusted techno thrust. Dario and Marco end the record with a remix of the title track that evens out a few of the kinks without edging too close to being straightforward.

Review: For a retrospective label with a contemporary touch, Chiwax constantly delivers the goods. This time they've employed Dance Mania artist DJ Deeon to provide some crude drums, vocals, and bootylicous basslines. On the A-side we have two tracks, the first, "Happy", sounds like a jacked-up, 909 reshuffle of a Afrika Bambaataa jam, while "The Truth" sees a monophonic tone sequence play out over soul-sleazy lyrics - the "Truthstamental" is the same, only without out the cheeky spoken words. Rolling percussion and computer bleeps set sail on "R U Sure", in a track with snare snaps like Robert Hood with the added nu-skool ghetto house of something Delroy Edwards might produce, while "Gigabytes" slams down the 8-bit techno, hard.

Review: Anyone that indulged in The Overlord, Willie Burns The Trilogy Tapes debut back in 2012, will attest that the creative stars seem to align when the WT Records founder chooses to work with his British namesake Bankhead. That four track release featured some of the most memorable and diverse music committed to wax by Burnett under his Willie Burns alias, and was made all the more special by some of Bankhead's best sleeve art in our opinion. The two Williams pair up once more for the Tab Of Acid 12" and it challenges Burnett's TTT debut in the excellence stakes. The title track is akin to travelling in a time machine to 4am on a Saturday night in Den Haag circa 1994 - real grotty basement acid techno! Providing contrast in a way Burnett does so well, the B-side offers two tracks of a more immersive nature, with "She Left In Spring" an exercise in dubby techno as pensive as the title would suggest.

Review: Arguably one of the greatest tracks Martyn has ever written gets the Head High treatment from Shed. Taken from his landmark album Great Lengths, "Vancouver" saw Martyn throw himself so deep into dub techno territory (a dubstep framework his saving grace), he's lucky he ever resurfaced. This is the second time "Vancouver" has been remixed, with 2562 in 2008 keeping the track in familiar, higher BPM and syncopated territory, but this time it's Shed's turn to flip, reverses, invert and mangle the original's killer stabs, while also adding vocals washes, those Head High drums, and a new, subtle resonating timbre. If not for the Head High remix, this record is another fleeting opportunity for those who missed out in the past to own a great Martyn opus.

Review: Born in Hannover and formerly a hip-hop producer, the mysterious Vril first surfaced in 2010 with an EP of boomed-out dub techno that inaugurated Giegling's now defunct Staub series label and tickled the fancy of Herr Dettmann who licensed "V3? for an appearance on his 2011 Conducted mix for Music Man. Last year's Flux EP for Semantica meant Vril was one of the few artists integral to Giegling that has appeared on a label outside of the Weimar-based operation, and the producer's dalliances further afield will continue with the Vortekz EP for Delsin. The three-track EP arrives hot on the heels of Delsin's 100th release celebrations and sees the label start 2014 with a bang. Amusingly, Delsin have revealed that Vril's material caused some of the expensive mastering equipment at that "well known mastering company in Germany" to crash during the mastering sessions - the first such instance in over 20 years of business.

Review: The brilliant Answer Code Request follows releases for his own imprint and Marcel Dettmann's MDR label to make his Ostgut Ton debut with the Breathe EP, which delivers three cuts of his individual brand of weighty, breakbeat-inspired techno. Each of the three tracks sees him in particularly ravey form; "The 4th Verdict" combines a chugging synth line with minimal Mills-inspired percussion, while "Ghostes" offers a suitably spectral vision of club techno in its cavernous chords and heavy breakbeat rhythms. The title track however must be his most euphoric to date combining headspinning chords with taut drums.

Review: In advance of Lucy's second album arriving, the Berlin-based producer opens up tracks from Churches Schools and Guns for reinterpretation with a roll call of producers on board representative of the standing Stroboscopic Artefacts now has within the techno community. Donato Dozzy, Shapednoise, Eomac, and Milton Bradley all contribute and do a fine job in teasing interested parties with how the original material from Lucy sounds. Shapednoise calls shotgun, twisting the Joseph Heller inspired "Catch Twenty Two" into a hellish soundscape of feedback and ghoulish texture with a sole clacking drum beat to cling onto, which is complemented nicely by a suitably hypnotic take on "The Illusion Of Choice" from Donato Dozzy - a man clearly in something of a remix purple patch. Milton Bradley offers a moment of serenity with his version of "Laws & Habits" before proceedings head towards the post-apocalyptic on Eomac's excellent rework of "The Self As Another". Remix EPs might not be the most rewarding of concepts but this 12" belongs amongst the exceptions.

Review: When it comes to techno, can it get any more serious than a collaboration between Ancient Methods and Orphx released on rock hard Belgian label Token? Well yes, as soon as you hear the music is does. "Age Of Iron" sounds like the sub-aqueous dub of Rich Oddie exchanging blows with an armoury of Ancient Methods percussion, while "Degenerate" is proper, rigid and heads down techno funnelled through a tubular filter. "Kali" features the same type of rolling rhythm, stop-start loops as what's heard throughout Regis' early work, only the frequency spectrums are sculpted to form a musical production, even though this is industrial techno, while "Seven Signs" croaks, clinks, and jangles like shackles scraping against concrete, sounding like something designed for dungeon clubbing - and, we might add, it's worth powering through the sonic malevolence for the drum breakdown alone.

Review: The fledgling Galdoors label launched last year, but has already become a low key outlet for quality deep house and techno thanks to releases from Audio Werner and Junes, both of which contained tracks that the more refined selectors out there regularly pull for. This third release will probably ensure a few more people take notice of Galdoors, with Hessle Audio affiliate Elgato resurfacing with one of his trademark irregular 12" transmissions. On the A side cut "Links", chords, strings and vocal edits roll out over a typically rough low end, while "Sun" is a hypnotic, evolving groove taking you deep and down, delivered in his unique minimalist style.

Review: The hitherto unknown Hank Jackson came to the fore earlier this summer with Deposit, the sixth release on Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter's Mr Saturday Night label, a three track EP that marked him out as an exponent of gritty, mechanical weirdness that wouldn't sound out of place on an Opal Tapes release - "Cole's Lullaby" in particular. With little subsequent information on the Southern Californian out there, the focus remains on Hank Jackson's productions and this new release for Proibito proves to be every bit as distinctive. The stodgy concrete seriousness of the title track's opening moments are offset by the most playful of percussive rhythms, whilst "Sizzler" retains the frazzled distortion that marked Jackson's debut release. It's "Track 3? that stands out for us however; the playful and distorted elements of the other two tracks are present, yet it's distinguished by what might be the sound of garbled duck whistles ripped in several direction simultaneously, lending it a bizarre charm reminiscent of Mr. Oizo at his weirdest.

Review: Spencer Parker's Work Them label continues to grow as an outpost for club ready tools, with their latest release a remix shaped celebration of last year's Radioslave platter Report Myself. In original form the record was a perfect display of Matt Edwards capacity to distil house music down to it's bare essentials, so it's little surprise the label have chosen two remixers who build the track back up and take it in their own inimitable direction. First up is Berghain's latest pin up resident Rodhad who unsurprisingly moulds the track into a slab of hypnotic 9am techno with some truly crafty manipulation of the vocal, and it's complemented well by Bearweasel who opts to indulge his 303.

Review: A new year for Theory sees Ben Sims curating a fifth and apparently final volume of intermittent 12" series The Box which features contributions from Sandrien, Tripeo, MDL and Craig McWhinney. The Box began in earnest back in 2008 and it's storied releases have included contributions from the likes of Phase, Hiroaki Iizuka, Ritzi Lee, DJT1000 which have ensured the series a reputation for fine tuned techno smashers. You will be familiar with three of the tracks here if you checked Sir Sims recent induction into the fabric mix series, not least the 909 heavy opening track "I Left My Girlfriend At The Club" from Trouw resident Sandrien!

Review: For an uncompromising techno label it's interesting to hear the A1 of Horizontal Ground 16 open with an ambient track, invoking memories of Samuel Kerridge's debut. The rest of the unnamed EP, however, delivers long, looping waveforms of slug-shaped techno the label has surreptitiously been delivering since 2009. The three remaining tracks provide some Sigha and Shifted-styled techno, but it's the high-end, shuffling sonics and textural colours that lead these grooves into a supernatural state, offering more than pounding 4/4 beats and easily associable Roland drum machine percussion.