Juno Recommends Techno June 2019

Review: While Robert Hood's Floorplan records have always been exciting and on-point, they have somehow got even better since his daughter Lyric joined him in the studio in 2015. The pair's latest gospel-sampling release is particularly potent, with both cuts sounding like peak-time anthems in waiting. We're particularly excited by A-side 'So Glad", a killer mixture of thumping techno grooves, dreamy deep house pads, looped piano snippets and brilliantly cut-up gospel vocals. That's not to say that the B-side is much weaker, though; in fact, with rasping preacher vocals, bustling Chicago house beats, mind-mangling organs and insatiable drum fills, it's arguably even bigger.

Review: First released back in 1997, breakbeat-driven techno jam "Love" remains one of Luke Slater's most rush-inducing moments. Here the classic has been given a new lease of life via a swathe of fresh reworks. Fittingly, Slater provides cuts under two of his more familiar alternate aliases: an ultra-dreamy, glassy-eyed breakbeat take as The 7th Plain and a thrusting intergalactic techno revision as Planetary Assault Systems. The other revisions are all superb, too. Burial serves up an ultra-deep, super-dusty 4/4 interpretation full of his usual crackling samples, Lucy re-imagines it as a bouncy techno slammer, Marcel Dettmann gives it a clanking, metallic techno feel and Silent Servant offers up some carnival-ready drums and rising symphonic strings.

Review: Released on 1989 on Canadian imprint Big Shot Records, the "Blow Out Dub" of Landlord's sole single, "I Like It", cannily combined Bleep and bass style heavy sub business with the kind of bounding riffs and warehouse-friendly piano stabs that were popularized by early Inner City records. It's aged rather well, as this 2019 reissue proves. It feels like a current club record rather than one made 30 years ago. It comes backed by a fresh remix, with The Maghreban offering up an epic journey through rave-style breakbeat madness that builds, drops, builds again and then goes crazy over nine sweaty, mind-altering minutes.

Review: Some 20 years after "If" first hit stores, Jeff Mills has decided to get his old pal Terrence Parker to remix it. He's done a rather good job, with both versions making great use of Mills' ghostly original chord sequences and two different variations on the mesmerizing, seemingly drifting scat-style vocals that was arguably the track's most memorable feature. The A-side "Vox Soul Mix" includes new vocals in the original style by Marachka, whose haunting but soulful improvisations brilliantly rise above metronomic techno drums, spacey effects and those now famous chords. The similar sounding "Original Remix" is a little tougher and weightier, with tooled-up percussion (check the restless hi-hats) underpinning Anna F's original scat vocal and Mills' ethereal, ambient style chords.

Review: Benjamin Brunn and Dave Wheels are old studio buddies, having worked together on and off since 2006. "2000", though, is their most ambitious joint project yet: a collaborative album for Sushitech that offers up breezy, melodious and cheery fusions of heady dub techno, gentle electronica, chugging sofa-friendly haziness and glitchy late night hypnotism. It's an interesting blend but one that certainly hits the spot. Highlights include the horizontal pulse of "Orainge", the wonderfully hypnotic after-hours throb of "Iratamoto (Version)", the bold and sun-kissed undulations of "In The Club" and the pie-eyed warmth of "Waldeck".

Review: West Midlands techno legend Surgeon is said to have produced the material on the Raw Trax series at Amsterdam Dance Event last year, with only a PIN Electronics Portabella synth and a TR-909 drum machine. Road tested extensively during his live show over the last several months, this series is "a return to the pure essence of techno" - and that statement rings true throughout this 12". In this second volume you'll hear familiar sounds from Anthony Child that throws back to the seminal days of his eponymous EP, Pet 2000 or the Basictonalvocabulary LP: all conceived during his legendary House Of God residency back in the early 90s. From the fierce and strobed-out adrenaline of "Raw Trax 10" and "Raw Trax 5", to the brutalist overdriven thud of "Raw Trax 7" with its grinding acid bassline, and the hypnotic minimalism of closer "Raw Trax 6", this 12" is packed with proper purified Techno bangers by one of the genre's very best.

Review: AE Recordings turns its attention to Oculus, who they describe as a "titan of the Icelandic techno scene", famed for his live sets that have kept bodies moving for the past decade. He commits some of his sounds to wax here, maintaining the otherworldly emotional lilt that often comes from the scene orbiting AE and Thule Records, but with a bolder sound palette than some of the icy dubbed out artists he rubs shoulders with. "Nostalgia" deals in powerful, swooning chord progressions, while "Rydgad" pings a set of metallic percussion around a sturdy but crooked low end groove. "Morph" takes things deeper, while "Flod" offers up a classy take on the minimal techno aesthetic, with added sound design trysts for good measure.

Review: MDA Analog's scant discography points to just a few essential items from the mid 90s and one 12" in 2004, but those records made enough impact to now be highly sought after. Having returned earlier this year with the welcome reissue of "Shine", now they're turning their attention to "Pride", another 1996 jam that originally appeared on Nova Zembla. "Pride 2019" does a fine job of updating the original into a slower, funkier house framework, while the original "Pride 1996" has a pleasing rowdiness to offset the melodious harmony of the synth work. "Choose To Live" is a new production that applies a full-fat frequency range, from powerful basslines to swirling chords up top, while "Running Away From Home" creates a heady brew of hi-tech soul for astral travelers.

Review: D. Tiffany's Planet Euphorique is back, following up some great freak outs by the likes of Nite Fleit, Reptant and Big Zen, with this retroverted trip by Ambien Baby: comprised of the label boss herself and Dan Rincon aka NAP. "Tack" is their sophomore effort after debuting on local tape imprint Isla last year, and as you'd expect, it borrows from house and techno's yesteryear, reinterpreting it with a modern edge as heard on the warped tunnel vision of "El Kesh" (which calls to mind the late German innovator Christian Morgenstern's finer moments), the dystopian electro funk of "Stab Me" and its unashamed Detroit influence plus closer "Sacrifice", which further explores Sophie Sweetland's love of intoxicating breakbeat sounds.

Review: Paul Woolford has spent a good chunk of his downtime over the last year or two making Special Request tracks in his pants. So much so, in fact, that he's created enough material to fill four albums, all of which will be released this year. "Vortex" is the first and is, in Woolford's own words, high on "bangers" and low on "conceptual guff". In practice, that means lots of gut-busting low-end frequencies, trippy analogue electronics, razor-sharp rave-style riffs and bustling rhythms that variously touch on electro, early '90s progressive house, breakbeat hardcore, slamming Joey Beltram style techno (see album highlight "Fahrenheit 451") and metallic, delightfully mangled drum and bass ("Fett", whose wonky electronic undulations hark back to early Woolford classic "Erotic Discourse").

Review: Despite being active as a DJ, producer and remixer since the 1990s, Paula Temple has never released a solo album under her given name (her most recent, an abstract electronics set as Fragile X, was released way back in 2006). "Edge Of Everything", then, is big news. The live performance pioneer is in fine form throughout, giddily charging between symphonic creepiness (orchestral style opener "Berlin" and the more picturesque "Nicole"), intense dark room techno slammers ("Futures Betrayed", "Quantum Unfolding"), experimental interludes (the manipulated voices of "Don't Use Your Eyes Now"), retro-futurist psychedelic techno ("Raging Earth") and noisy, industrial-influenced dancefloor workouts ("Cages").

Review: Deep, Detroit influenced techno.

Review: The latest missive on leading Rome-based techno label Danza Tribale comes from the mighty DJ Red, one of the residents of the fabled Goa club. As a leading light in Italy's techno scene, Red has years of killer releases behind her, and she demonstrates her incredible instinct for trance-inducing rhythmic workouts in fine style here. "The Prophets Smile" is a masterclass in understated submission, creating a tactile environment out of unrelenting beat programming and artful atmospheric sound design that takes on an organic quality to offset its cyclical nature. "Moon" is a more mechanised construction that uses interwoven synth lines to keep things moving, and it's just as accomplished and engrossing. Italian techno veteran Lory D steps up for a remix of "The Prophets Smile" that keeps things chilly while working a more pronounced beat into the track.

Review: After a six-month hiatus, synth-wielding proto-house and boogie badman Jex Opolis returns via a first ever appearance on well-regarded Dutch imprint Dekmantel. Interestingly, the Good Timin' boss has mixed things up a little here, seemingly drawing as much influence from mid-'80s European synth-pop as NYC electro and synth-powered electrofunk. A-side "Earth Boy" is particularly good, with Jex Opolis layering waves of sun-kissed electronics and cheery synth-pop melodies atop a rolling electro rhythm. Those after something altogether sleazier should check the two flipside versions of "Desolation", a throbbing affair that sits somewhere between Bobby O's forgotten productions for the Pet Shop Boys, UK Hi-NRG and life-affirming Italo-disco.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: Following on from his killer album on Organic Anaolgue, HVL presents an EP for movers, with work that draws together a refreshing variety of styles on an upbeat selection.

Review: Blackhall & Bookless have been pursuing a fantastic strain of house and techno via their Jaunt label for many moons now. They're back and celebrating 10 years with a series of fantastic remixes that highlight the scope of their artistic vision, and that of those close to them. Inland leads in with an oceans deep version of the label bosses' "Spirit", which is smartly followed up by Jonas Kopp's equally submersive take on Hiver's "Itria". Jasper Wolff and Maarten Mittendorff lets the swooning "Meandering Rivers" by Kaelan burst its banks and fill out an expansive landscape, while Stojche pings Gian's "The Exchange" out into an electro-speckled cosmos.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: MDA Analog is the brainchild of Colin McGraw, and first came to light in the mid '90s in Belgium with a seminal self-titled released on Nova Zembla. Now, after years being coveted by devout techno diggers, the project is back in action with a new label, MDA Labs, seeking to present classic and sought after tracks as well as new unreleased gems from the vaults. "Shine" is an original MDA Analog track from 1996 that comes on joyful and invigorating with its bold lead synths and hopped up beats, while equally classic track "Paris" appears here in a newly mixed form. Brokn Mind's edit of "Shine" is a slightly clubbier twist on the original, and "Good Morning" completes the set with a rampant slice of technicolour techno for the fist-shaking masses to get delirious to.

Review: After a 2018 dalliance with ESP Institute, Andrea Mancini AKA Cleveland returns to John Talabot's Hivern Discs imprint with his most expansive and ambitious release to date. Stretched across two discs, the tracks that make up "nDSi" are notably more starry and spaced-out in approach than some of the Brussels-based producer's previous releases. There's much to admire from start to finish, from the sci-fi electro shuffle of "Polar" and deep space techno bliss of "Noord", to the sparse analogue notes and off-kilter IDM rhythms of "6IX". Other highlights include the breezy, Space Dimension Controller style ambient techno of "Govlin" and the broken computer vibes of bleeping closing cut "NDSi".

Review: Grenoble-based producer Binary Digit previously plied his trade on Seven Hills offshoot Zeitnot, so it's little surprise to see him popping up on its parent label. "Never Owned A 303" is the Frenchman's most expansive EP to date, with the six included tracks varying in tempo and intensity while making extensive use of razor-sharp synth riffs and mind-altering, TB-303 style acid lines. Highlights include the metallic, Syclops-goes-techno clatter of "ZE7U II", the "Braindance" influenced dancefloor madness of "Virtual Modular 2 Tape", the sprightly acid-electro bounce of opener "Acid Racing Head" and the DJ Funk style ghetto-acid rush of "I Never Owned A 303".