Tresor Germany 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: The definition of a seminal work, Drexciya's Harnessed The Storm gets a re-release from the one and only Tresor. Part of their special editions series offering re-releases of the illustrious Detroit duo's entire catalogue, this album is jam-packed full of Drexciya favourites from 'Digital Tsunami' to 'Under Sea Disturbances'. Individually and as a catalogue, these releases represent key moments within Tresor's long and influential history. And the mythic soundworld of Drexciya is undoubtedly at the height of their iconic output, inspiring generations of artists in its wake.

Review: Since opting to release more music under his given name, DeepChord man Rod Modell has largely stuck to dubbed-out ambience and heady drone soundscapes. His latest full-length is a little different, though, offering up club-focused cuts that mix his usual fuzzy aural textures and dub-fired motifs with up-tempo techno rhythms. By his standards, it's a very forthright set, with highlights including the noise-soaked stomp of "Reiki", the thrusting heaviness of "ITO", the hypnotic slam of "Jade" - where breezy, early morning electronics flutter away above tough drums and a mind-altering bassline - and the boisterous peak-time techno anthem "Scrawler".

Review: 'The Cosmic Memoirs Of The Late Great Rupert J Rosinthrope' is an obscure rarity by a short-lived alias of Drexciya member James Stinson, Shifted Phases, which is now getting the full, refocused reissue treatment by German clubbing giant Tresor. Having remained out of print since its initially tiny release for over two decades, this bubbly yet grim electro album reflects an epistolary concept expressed musically rather than in written form. Rupert J. Rosinthrope is a mysterious character, but these cosmic memoirs hopefully shed at least some light on "his" misunderstood memory.

Review: Given the reissue wave of Drexciya-related material has been trucking for more than 10 years now, it's quite remarkable this masterpiece from the late James Stinson has waited so long to be reissued. Originally carried on Tresor in 2002 as one of the final releases he put out in his lifetime, the one-off Shifted Phases project feels loaded with context not least with the album framed as 'Cosmic Memoirs'. This is unmistakably Stinson's work, veering from rubbery machine funk freakery to the melancholic, back room electro mood of The Other People Place, all presented with due care across three discs by the Tresor faithful and including two outstanding tracks which were previously only available on the CD edition.

Review: The reissue of Surgeon's classic 1999 album Force & Form brings back the unique sound of the Birmingham techno maestro. With every track from Electric Chicken, Movement, to Prowler hearing a thorough remastering job from the one and only Matt Colton, this album is renowned as one of the true inception points of the Birmingham sound: cold metallics, industrial noise, intense rhythms and unrelenting energy. Considered a turning point in the artist's wilfully scalpel-precise career, Force & Form established Surgeon as a true master of techno.

Review: After a five year album-hiatus, the iconic UK artist is back with his highly-anticipated release, Crash Recoil, which has found its home on the equally iconic Tresor. Drawn from the spontaneous experimentation of Surgeon's live sets, Crash Recoil spans eight MIDI-sequenced, hardware-reconfigured tracks, inflected with the artist's signature penchant for raw and rugged sound. The first track, 'Oak Bank', builds up to a throbbing core - a cacophony of driving percussion and side-stepping melodic layers that shift expertly in and out of focus. 'Second Magnitude Stars' moves with a tidal rhythm, like waves retreating backwards across shingle before crashing forwards once again with force. 'We Laugh & Clap At The Circus' is, texturally speaking, a touch lighter and more spacious, yet still replete with a sense of spiralling chaos. 'Leadership Contes' feels closer to ground-level - earthy yet eerie atmospheres meld with drums that seem located in the subterranean. A masterful album from the techno key-player - well worth the five year wait.

Review: Tresor home in on the happy musical 'accidents' of acclaimed techno duo Transparent Sound for this eponymous new triple retrospective album. Containing such neat audio-tools like the drill bit 'Slang City' and the spanner 'Windows To Your Sole', the originals heard here nail that sense of original, minimal, space-invadery, and melodic electro charm that many artists try to emulate, but few can properly muster up. Perhaps it can only really come from having made that kind of music at the time of its origination, which Transparent Sound luckily did.

Review: Tresor dig deep into the vaults for a reissue of one of Robert Hood's many seminal releases. This one comes under his The Vision alias and is an impressive 30 years old in 2023. It came originally in the year he left his Detroit hometown and the safety of the Underground Resistance label and head to New York with Jeff Mills. The music is fast and furious and funky as you would expect, with funky techno drum foundations and mind melting details up top. It set a ridiculously high standard and hasn't aged one single bit. All hail Hood.

Review: Mortiz Von Oswald continues to apply his considerable legacy to intriguing new ideas as he explores the differences and similarities between humans and machines on Silencio. For this new project, the Basic Channel pioneer has teamed up with Vocalconsort Berlin. The original framework of the album was composed and recorded on an array of synths and then transcribed to sheet music to be performed by Vocalconsort in a Kreuzberg church. By merging the source material and the resulting new recordings, Von Oswald and his collaborators present us with a compelling reflection on the tension between organic and electronic, cast in his distinctive style of hypnotic minimalism.