Techno (All) charts

Review: Drumcode supremo Adam Beyer has become increasingly more prolific in recent years, signalling a creative renaissance that recalls the undoubted quality of his work in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His first outing of 2024, which follows a quartet of EPs last year, is predictably strong and packed to the rafters with future Drumcode anthems. Fittingly, he starts with 'Let's Begin', where mutilated vocal loops, mind-mangling rave noises and unsettling melodic motifs dance atop a typically thunderous and breathless big room techno groove, before opting for a dirtier, acid-flecked groove, metallic noises and sped-up hip-hop vocal samples on 'Computerized' (hip-techno anyone?). To round things off, he goes darker and denser still on the loopy techno power of 'Red Room', which pleasingly also boasts the same Aisha vocal sample as the Orb's 'Blue Room'.

Review: The big room techno don that is Adam Beyer is back with more potent techno weaponry on his own Drumcode label, this time with part two of the 12th volume of his A-Sides series. His 'Take Me There' is first up in remix form and Carl Cox flips it into a surging peak time roller. Matt Guy's 'Give Me What I Want' is an emotive banger with big synth energy and reverberating vocals while ADHS's '2STEP' hits hard with its flaming drums and trance-y synths. Kaiserdisco then brings dark, stomping warehouse energy to their raved-ready 'Get On The Dancefloor.'

Review: The mighty Drumcode has retained its position at the top table of main room techno again this year. That's through a mix of big parties, big sets from theirs Adam Beyer alongside his associates, and big tunes. The last of 2022 comes from Layton Giordani and is another one that doesn't muck about. 'Digital Age' is a steam train with powerful and immovable drums and frosted synths before a breakdown brings melodic drama. On the flip, 'UFOs & LFOs' brings some big trance energy with bright, flash synths that will get hands in the air. Two more winners, then.

Review: Adam Beyer seems to be in a superb run of late and this is his second vinyl outing in as many months. Desert Queen is pure Beyer, and pure Drumocde - drum-led techno for the main room with sweeping synths and grand vocals that are designed to impact crowds of thousands. The A-side actually brings a touch of trance energy and hard techno funk with its slamming, flat-footed drums, coarse synths and brightly lit arrangements. 'Soulful' then flips the script with a more funky groove that rocks back and forth and has funky basslines and a pitched up r&b vocal that works strangely well in the unusual context.

Review: Adam Beyer's Drumcode is one of techno's most iconic outlets and it deals only in big room tackle for blowing minds. This sub-series no hits volume seven and welcomes new schoolers Marco Faraone, Eli Brown and Layton Giordani for a pair of punchy new cuts. 'Emergency' is a blast from the off with brain-frying synths and big, boisterous drums. On the flip, 'When I Push' is just as driving and driven, with rising synth tension and rolling snares over the solid kicks. Another winning slab from Drumcode, then.

Review: Mighty European powerhouse Drumcode rolls out more of its techno tsunamis here with part one of the 12th volume of its A Sides collection. The boss himself, Adam Beyer, offers up one of the biggest cuts - 'Heading South' is a surging, straight-up techno weapon rippled with deft synths that ever forever on the move. Danny Avila's 'My Crew' (feat Flowdan) is built on a foundation of earth-shattering kicks and rolling bass with hellish stabs and vocal fragments making for an intense atmosphere, and Simina Grigoriu's 'Flight Tracker' is the sort of quick-moving techno sound to lock you into a trance. Add in LAAT's 'The Age Of Juno' (oi oi!) and you have a very useful and high impact EP of contemporary techno.

Review: Here's a big old belter on that biggest of techno fortresses, Drumcode. On this two-track slammer, Adam Beyer and Bart Skils' monster track 'Your Mind' gets revisited by New York up and comer Charles D. After releases on Say What? and Pryda, D is able to show off his skills twice over, on the A-side living up to the billing of the 'Epic mix' of 'Your Mind' by bringing in the big, swelling pads that can fill a stadium and get hands raised aloft. On the flip, the 'Acid Line' version unsurprisingly brings a little 303 action into the mix, and makes sure the undercarriage is a thunderous juggernaut of supersized techno.

Review: The concept of 'life moving fast' is a sentiment we can all recognise, but fewer yet find the neighbouring sentiment - that you are faster than you think, and you can keep up. You have to find it in your heart, which is why you have to make it to the B-side of Layton Giordani's 'Life Moves Fast', his latest for Drumcode, to know it. Philosophising aside, we are urged to "stop to look around once in a while" on the A-side's shifting, maddening tension-builds. The B restores our humanity and mitigates the sense of urgency with a more meditative mover, which fittingly revels in more post-drop stasis compared to the A (though it's still not without its detuned rave stabs and crazy-driving bass hits).

Review: Drumcode and its Swedish founder Adam Beyer have rather become synonymous with big room sounds known as business techno. They don't do anything to shed that tag here with two more epic sounds designed to wash over vast crowds in the world's largest super clubs. Layton Giordani & HI-LO aka Oliver Heldens kick off with 'Rabbit Hole' which is a wall of grainy synth and rolling drums that is simple but effective. Charles D's 'Traction' is another coarsely textured techno roller with splashes of industrial synth and a general sense of subtle elevation.

Review: Fresh from the runaway success of his all-star collaboration with Adam Beyer and Green Velvet, "Space Date", Layton Giordani returns to Drumcode with his first fresh solo material since 2017. All four tracks are formidably floor-friendly in the "big room techno" style that has turned the Drumcode crew into global stars in recent years. Giordani begins with the tribal drums, atmospheric chords, acid stabs and bleeping synth melodies of "New York City To Amsterdam", before doffing a cap to Italo-disco on the electro-techno chug of "Enter The Stratosphere". Over on side B, "Body Language" is an angular, acid-fired peak-time thumper, while closing cut "Black Mirror" sees him fix gated, trance style riffs to a typically throbbing, bass-heavy techno groove.

Review: For his first outing of 2019, Adam Beyer has turned over the parts to his 2014 single "Teach Me" to Belgium's first lady of banging, acid-fuelled techno, Amelie Lens. She subsequently serves up two throbbing, peak-time ready revisions, with the A-side "Main Mix" offering a near perfect blend of booming, kick-drum driven beats, military snare fills, cut-up late night vocal samples and distorted, mind-altering riffs. As the title suggests, the flipside "Acid Remix" sees Lens indulge her love of mind-altering TB-303 acid lines, brilliantly wrapping them around a springier drum track, EBM-influenced melodic motifs and more pulsating, manipulated vocal loops.

Review: Two right legends of techno unite here for the latest release on Drumcode. Label chief Adam Beyer presents 'Restore My Soul' featuring Chicago hard techno veteran DJ Rush, their relationship stretching back nearly three decades from when they both started out in the' 90s. The title track is aimed squarely at the main room dancefloor; a seething, mental groove featuring Rush's stern vocal delivery atop, before taking the energy levels into the peak time on the adrenalised thrasher 'Control'. Over on the flip, you are treated to a rework of the title track by DJ Rush himself in his typically stomping and orotund style.

Review: Some serious peak time weapons for the main room on offer here, from the ever reliable Swedish label Drumcode. Usual heroes of the label such as Luigi Madonna, Sam Paganini and Joseph Capriati step aside for some other equally reliable staples. On the A, side label boss Adam Beyer teams up with Enrico Sangiuliano on the evocative and life affirming "Preset Heaven" which takes its cues from early trance with its amazing chord progression. It is something more typical of the label next, on the pummelling warehouse stomp of "Muzik" by Bulgaria's Timmo. On the flip, there's more trance nostalgia on offer again - this time from legends Pig & Dan on the hypnotic/melodic bliss of "La Bruja" which we could imagine melting the minds of festival crowds well into the new year. Finally they save the best for last with French peak time specialist Julian Jeweil, serving up the furious, tunneling and strobe-lit ultraviolence of "Nasa" which will have your adrenaline going from the first beat. It has been a stellar year for the powerhouse label, with great releases by Moby, Dubfire and newcomer Layton Giordani.

Review: Raton has grown to be a quite an integral part of Drumcode as well as the underground at large and now after previously working on the likes of Ellum Audio he finds himself in the studio with techno bigwig, Adam Beyer. The pair cook up two versions of the same cut here. 'The Signal' (Night mix) is a dramatic cut with an epic baseline and space-age synth craft over chunky drums that are constantly on the rise. 'The Signal' (Day mix) is a much more melodic and light cut but has just as much low-end heft. Both of these tunes give you an insight into how big name DJs like this see techno working in different settings.

Review: Next up from the leading label in the world of so-called Business Techno are a couple of contemporary remixes of some Adam Beyer classics. His Restore My Soul EP was written with DJ Rush and now gets reworked by modern day greats ANNA and HI-LO. The latter, a regular on the likes of Filth on Acid, goes first and flips the title track into a bruising and panel beaten techno roller with coarse drums and peak time intent. Brazilian talent ANNA then offers a more subversive and slow boring take on 'Control' that has twitchy synths and firmly rooted techno drums.

Review: Drumcode's main brain Adam Beyer hardly needs any introduction, but newcomers to the label might be surprised that his outfit has its sights set on putting out single-sided releases at the minute. 'Legend' is Beyer's kick-off for 2023, following up the completion of his own home studio with an inspired production run. An ascendant fast-build to sublime ecstasy, the track characteristically locks into a deep arpeggiated saw line at its drop; an example of Beyer flaunting his ability to juxtapose massive pre-drop space with post-drop minimality.

Review: Techno team-ups don't come bigger than this, as Drumcode's overlord of all things mega-tech Adam Beyer links up with Chicago's agent provocateur Green Velvet to give you your next stadium shaking anthem. This isn't the first time Beyer and Velvet have worked together - you could find them on the 2018 track 'Space Date' for one thing - but there's a sense 'Simulator' will become their calling card as a formidable double act. It's simply huge, catchy as hell and full of all the fireworks you could wish for from a super-sized techno workout, all guided by Velvet's unmistakable voice ducking and diving around the expertly engineered mix.

Review: Layton Giordani hails from New York, and since 2017 he's been nurtured by the Drumcode stable as a reliable source of epic techno for the biggest crowds around. His new release is a short, sharp two-tracker which features two very different offerings from this highly decorated new-wave techno titan. 'Phantom' is a massive, grinding beast driven by full-fat synths, dramatic breakdowns and explosive drops - if you appreciate Drumcode, you know what the deal is. Things get mixed up on the flip as 'Thrillseeker' nudges the tempo up, toys with a nimble rhythm section and pings some tripped out effects and playful sample juggling around the frequency range. It's an intriguing look into the other side of Layton Giordani.