Back in stock: Electro

Review: The present face of IDM is here heard occupied by dream duo D'Arcangelo and Karsten Plum, whose latest joint effort for Acid Avengers bowls us over with its acid tweezings, pangs, twingings, twangs, thrums and flits-past. The pH scale skyrockets to the point of insanity on Pflum's side, with 'Hornfish Acid' and 'Aroe Acid' jointly corroding the full length of the Earth's core with their snippy but incisive sizzles and 'ows, until we reach a forbidden underworld uncannily reminiscent of Oz - except the faces of the protagonists are horribly twisted into a yellow, illegal-raved rictuses. D'Arcangelo's 'Gawain' does equally as much with its eerie sprung-verbed chroma-chords and muted but moving melodies; so too does 'Walker Two' raise the tempo to silly speeds, coming as a veritable velociraptor of Druqks-y breaks and drill bits, all let loose from the barrel at a surely illegal rate of fire.

Review: Russian label Samizdat follows up its notable first release with a second 12", this time from Genning. It is classy and sophisticated outing all the way with this one as opener 'Stair To The Sky's Rooftop' soon sets you off on a trip to the stars with its slick rhythms and glistening celestial chords. 'Window To The Dub' follows more of a tech house template with loopy drums and bass that rumble up and down and 'Summer Lighting' then zones you out on some lovely pads and frictionless drums. Last off all is 'Mystic Lakes' which takes off on balmy pads and plump, cuddly but dynamic drums.

Review: Jack Bags is back on La Sabbia with volume two of his Panorama Groove series. Once more he flies through a mutant mix of electro and techno in his own singular style. 'Another Acid' is first out of the blocks and layers up gurgling 303s with dark and sleazy vocals over a fat mid-tempo groove. 'Gently Glide' does just that with a more serene atmosphere, silky chords and ice cold drums - it's a super nice tune for late night grooving. Elsewhere are the likes of the grubby 'Ground Control', the Chicago jack of 'In My Mind', twisted and sludgy electro-techno motions of 'Operating Base' and the futurism of the more stripped back 'Underbush'.

Review: It's been a while since we've heard from Moroccan breakbeat favourite and Convergence Records founder Kosh, but he's back with a bang on none other than everybody's favourite Atlantean, underwater-breathing, acid trance house everything kru - Kalahari Oyster Cult. 'The Chopper' EP spans everything from Drexciyan kitsch-lectro to to floaty tech house trance to sillily verbatim breakbeat, ending on a hilarious high note with the timestretching, disc-scratching, stadium-ready rave rampage 'Come On'.

Review: Loud Enough has readied its third outing and this one comes from the amusingly titled Raiders of the Lost Arp. As you can expect from the alias, this is music that leans heavily on arps. 'Funk009 (Otto-Zero-Out)' kicks off with thudding and taught house drums overlaid with rattling percussion and detuned synth hooks. 'Funk010 (Lava P)' hist harder, like an Italo Johnson party banger and then the flip side flips the script as it should: 'Funk006 (Drop)' has a more lively and lithe groove, brighter chords and an uplifting energy. Rounding things off is 'Funk007 (Circular)' , a cosmic looper with the best arps of the EP raining down the face of the gritty beats.