Ilian Tape Germany 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Deetron's been turning out serene house and techno for many a year but he changes tact here and presents Soulmate on Ilian Tape. It's an EP with a wide array of influences and kicks off with 'Path' which is bright, melodic, electric house music with cow bells galore. 'Zoom' is tightly coiled, loopy, dusty, turbocharged tackle with a warming intensity and then 'Screen' pairs more balmy and blissed-out chords with hurried beats and layers of FX and percussion. Last of all is the best of the lot - 'Blade'. It's a tribal, percussive cut that cannot fail to sweep you off your feet.

Review: "Drone Destructing Body Slams" says Ilian Tape of their next genre-defying offering, this time from the long-time Swiss underground mainstay that is Deetron. More normally known for this smooth and seductive deep house and techno sounds, here he presents Soulmate which is about much more edgy and textural techno stompers. 'Filter' comes as two mixes. The Body Mix is a turbocharged cut with dense layers of grime, synth and percussion and powered by some Shed-style piano stabs. The Broken mix cuts looser and has broken beats down low while 'Drone' gets the head up with its brighter synths swirls up top. The loopy, rusty low end is no less physical however then 'Bourg' brings some celebratory energy with its light chords and rousing sense of joy throughout.

Review: Neapolitan duo Fireground have been on a rapid ascent since debuting on Tresor in 2021, and following their Recreation 12" earlier this year they return to Ilian Tape for a second round of immersive, high-pressure techno soul. Compared to a lot of the dark and dystopian sounds infiltrating the faster reaches of the modern techno scene, Fireground have a strong sense of uplift which comes through in abundance on the likes of 'Memories', as harmonious, dubbed-out pads and thunderous drums collide for maximum positive response. If you need to inject some energy into a techno dancefloor, these tracks will achieve results beyond your wildest dreams.

Review: Fifteen years after first starting out, Munich's masterful Ilian Tape is still finding plenty of fresh new ground to explore in its niche world of scuffed-up and broken-beat techno. The latest to do so is KW, who nails the vibe perfectly here with futurist loops 'Source Mag', hefty minimalism on 'Rats Mixing', deeper linear techno on 'ZFGT0505' and a rhythmically playful thinker in the form of 'One Day.' A superbly stylish and perfectly functional EP, as ever, from this crew.

Review: KW has long been a talented producer who has operated in the shadows. He emerges from them now with another EP on Ilian Tape only six or so months after his last standout effort. Altgr is another fine one that opens with 'Midnight Run', a skittish flurry of breakbeats and snares, grumbling bass and kinetic energy that never lets up. 'Paste' is just as rhythmically inventive, this time lurching backwards and forwards but with more pensive pads and 'Copy' keeps up the leftfield inventions that make this return so welcome. 'Lastmin_Res' closes out in head-spinning fashion.

Review: Since he started producing music, Berlin-based American sound artist Jake Muir has been obsessed with sampling. His 2018 album "Lady's Mantle" was based on manipulated chunks of vintage Californian surf rock, and its follow-up, 2020's midnight symphony "The Hum Of Your Veiled Voice" was sourced from a wide variety of old records, and inspired by the work of experimental turntablists like Marina Rosenfeld, Janek Schaefer and Philip Jeck. On "Mana", Muir looks back to a misunderstood musical movement. Around 1995, a group of New York producers and DJs - including DJ Olive, DJ Spooky and Spectre - pioneered a genre-dissolving sound by unifying hip-hop techniques with ideas pulled from dub, jungle, ambient music and industrial noise. Badged "illbient", it was a short-lived genre that felt like a high-minded psychedelic cousin of the UK's trip-hop. Muir uses illbient as the springboard for "Mana", utilizing a selection of samples to inform his frothy drones and foreboding atmospheres. He ushers the material into 2021 by diverting it through his own contemporary worldview, attempting to recreate the hyperreal fantasy histories of Japanese RPGs (think "Dark Souls" and "Final Fantasy") and nod to sensual, tactile soundscapes of European industrial labels Staalplaat and Soleilmoon. The result is a magickal, sensory journey that's as physical as it is representational.

Review: Those renegades at Ilian Tape are back once again with another forward-thinking album of fresh and potent techno, this time from Packed Rich. His long player "depicts the journey of an individual traveling through a field of energy that connects different locations in space," we're told, and along the way, it warps space and time to leave you spellbound. Punchy broken beat drum programming, hyper-real synth lines and cosmic colours all bring this record to life. It's a psychedelic mix that sometimes sounds like an MPC jam amongst the stars, at others like you're in freefall through the cosmos and sometimes laid back, stoned as can be gazing off into the heavens. Lush.