Collection: Techno / Electronic

When it comes to hybrid blends of intoxicating world music sounds and contemporary dancefloor rhythms, few producers are quite as accomplished as Nicola Cruz. He's at it again on "Hybridism", the Equador-based Frenchman's first EP for Multi-Culti for almost three years. Opener "Aima" sets the tone, with Cruz wrapping lilting synth lines, weirdo electronics and chanted vocals around a bubbling electronic groove, while "Naeku" makes the most of echo-laden drums, what sounds like an African children's choir and faintly foreboding acid lines. "Drom Tradisie" is an exercise in trippy sounds and layered percussion, "Third Eye Dub" is a darker and moodier slab of techno-exotica and "Kawe's Dream" is a blissful blast of clarinet-sporting musical positivity.

After five years of on-off collaborations and side projects, Aaron 'FIT' Siegel has finally got round to making a new solo record. It's rather good, with startling A-side "Exist On" delivering a brilliant blend of breakbeat-driven turn of the '90s grooves, chunky bass, ultra-dreamy chords and the kind of bleeping top-end melodies more readily associated with the early releases of Warp Records. Title track "Formula" moves even further towards bleep techno territory via deep space chords, thumping techno beats, Kraftwerkian lead lines and the kind of distorted analogue bass found on LIES releases, while "Wayne County Stomp" sounds like a mutated, mind-altering cover of Steve Poindexter's "Computer Madness".

Four highly requested remixes of Jacques Greenes sophomore Dawn Chorus album by Fort Romeau, Big Miz, Ciel and Martyn Bootyspoon. Last years “Dawn Chorus” album showed Jacques Greene outgrowing the limitations of the tempo-defined dance genres he rose to notoriety within. And while his own music grew in scope, Dawn Chorus became his most collaborative work: courting friends and instrumentalists to lend their work to the album. For that reason, Dawn Chorus feels so much richer than his prior, solitary bedroom production and spoke to Greene’s competence as a curator. Inviting friends to contribute original remixes to the Deluxe Edition of the album which speaks to his ability for curation in a whole other sense: building on the album with club primetime house and techno, afterparty warehouse versions from Greene’s friends and family.

Over a decade after the first LiveJam collaboration surfaced - on a strictly vinyl-only basis - an entire cosmos of interconnected artists, labels and releases have spawned off its mystery - a perpetual praising of the shadows that is less and less present within the underground. At its core, it instilled an ethos and a clear aesthetic both for the label’s regulars, and for the wider house and techno spectrum as a measure of quality. The initial collective, led and curated by founders EMG and John Swing, gave rise, together with the Analogue Cops, to the tirelessly anonymous APPOINTMENT project - an improvisational, techno-minded session - and the SPS moniker that includes talented producer Battista, with both sets of crews making a return after a long break from the label. Ten years later and the cooperative expands, finding mutual respect and admiration among two heavyweights of the UK house and techno ecosystem - house maestro, Mr G, for the former, and British techno luminary, Ben Sims, for the latter. Even so, this remains consciously limited to vinyl, and while they now have official support from two of dance music’s legends, it’s been earned through a dogged pursuit of Livejam’s founding principles. Simply, a physical production ethos from conception through to performance.

As you'd expect from someone as experienced as DJ Qu, this two track, single-sided salvo manages to strike just the right balance between dancefloor weight, drive, and the kind of mind-altering weirdness that sounds so good in the early hours of the morning. This is particularly evident on hazy and heady opener "A Lucid", where off-key electric piano notes, weirdo noises, echoing percussion hits and mangled vocal snippets ride a wonky, bass-heavy techno groove. "Tape" is a little less brain melting and a touch deeper, but still makes use of wiggly acid lines, spacey stabs and reasonably robust beats. Like the A-side, it sounds like it is probably best enjoyed in a very dark room at five in the morning.

Punchy techno to vocal electro breakbeat, as well as Chicago ghetto house and 90´s groovy tracks.

Not all types of techno suits the album format, though that's not an accusation you could level at Derek Carr's particular brand of melodic, sci-fi-fired retro-futurism. "Pursuit Part 1" (a second volume will drop shortly) proves this point, delivering a suite of mostly club-ready cuts that can easily be listened to from start to finish in the comfort of your own home. It's full to bursting with warm, melodious, bass-heavy tackle, much of which combines his usual starry synths and deep space electronics with grooves which are far more influenced by dub techno than much of Carr's output. Highlights include the two-part "Not Tonight", the TB-303 powered "Acid Bath", and the glistening ambient/IDM lusciousness of "Nightfall".

Not all types of techno suits the album format, though that's not an accusation you could level at Derek Carr's particular brand of melodic, sci-fi-fired retro-futurism. "Pursuit Part 1" (a second volume will drop shortly) proves this point, delivering a suite of mostly club-ready cuts that can easily be listened to from start to finish in the comfort of your own home. It's full to bursting with warm, melodious, bass-heavy tackle, much of which combines his usual starry synths and deep space electronics with grooves which are far more influenced by dub techno than much of Carr's output. Highlights include the two-part "Not Tonight", the TB-303 powered "Acid Bath", and the glistening ambient/IDM lusciousness of "Nightfall".

The latest drop on Constant Sound's electro branch, Infiltrate, comes from wild-card Bristolian chameleon Borai. When he's not dropping tuff, jungle-hewed rave wreckers for Hotline and Higher Level he's collaborating with October on refined house bumpers or dread-filled noise excursions in Spiritflesh. As if that wasn't enough, here he is turning his hand to genuinely fresh twists on the electro formula - a breath of fresh air in a crowded marketplace. "Flutta" keeps things snappy and decidedly pacey, but the overall mood is really quite light, while on "Rashaba" things get much darker, to an almost theatrical degree. Some of that breakbeat ruffness sneaks in on "Runnin" and then a little garage swing offsets the dubbed out showers of melody and cheeky rave stabs on EP closer "Narroways". Stunning stuff.

1The EYA Records crew continues their trip into a new musical direction with the Lonewolf series, this time offering up a split 12" between two distinctive techno producers. Bladymore Galaxy, otherwise known as Riccardo Buccirossi, brings some effervescent synthscapes to bear on his side of the record. There's an old-skool sensibility to the production - all uptempo drums and layer upon layer of sparkling sci-fi melodics - but there's equally a welcome fresh energy and emotional honesty embedded in Buccirossi's style that makes it so joyous to listen to. Belgian producer Innershades brings a punchier style informed by electro and trance - the perfect sound to lose yourself to as the dry ice creeps around and the sun starts rising over the dancefloor.

The grooves are heavy and dubby but still resolutely house-oriented as William Caycedo steps up to Dungeon Meat with his first EP in a couple of years. "Rock It" perfects the lean and mean groove - just a nasty drum jack and a big subby bassline, and utterly infectious with it. "Lock N' Load" follows a similar trajectory, although functions more as a tool than a standalone track. "Cut I" is a little more bubbly in its demeanour while still following the formula of drums, bass and little else. "Cut II" has a sweet bassline that will hook the dancers in, while "Cut III" keeps the pressure up with its nagging hats and subtle rhythmic fills. This is one for the DJs, but don't be fooled - there's bags of attitude tucked within these stripped back jams.

Amsterdam might be susceptible to grey skies and rain as any other, but cup your ear to the music flowing out of the Dutch capital, and another story emerges. The Mauskovic Dance Band are a prime example of an act who have been dialing up the sunshine over the river Amstel in recent years.On Shadance Hall, their first release of 2020, they concoct a tantalising brew of no-wave, psych rock, cumbia, power dub and numerous other colourful shades of global grooves. No stranger to Dekmantel as one of half of electro-grouping Bruxas, Nicola Mauskovic leads his percussive troupe through a heavy, trippy, disco fiesta with this, their first debut on Dekmantel Records.The Mauskovic Dance Band’s epic sonic journey on Shadance Hall began deep in the Welsh valleys. Partnering dusty drum machines alongside phat layers of congas, assorted bric-a-brac of percussive tools, and distortion-soaked guitars, Mauskovic’s ensemble suspend the tempo and turn up the grooves. on this soundsystem-inspired, post-punk odyssey. The resulting soundsystem-inspired concoctions are a mixture of 130bpmbeats (‘Ventura Phase’), Jah Wobble-influenced bass rhythms (‘Squeeze Dogs’) and Carnival-ready soca-jams (‘Theorie Amerikaan’). Taken back to Amsterdam’s famed Electric Monkey Studio (a favourite for Ghanian great Ebo Taylor and Dutch youngbloods Jungle By Night alike, Mauskovic teamed up with engineer Kasper Frenkel to mix down the record. Here the two acted as Mad Professors, experimenting with the recordings and making multiple versions of each track by creating tape loops, bouncing the audio back and forth and layering the resulting recordings in waves of reverb and echo. In classic dub style, the band ended up with dub edits, rich in space echo, reverb, crush, and dub-goodness, completing the second half of Shadance Hall like a funky palindrome. It rounds off an expressive EP steeped in musical history, bursting with inventiveness, projected at the listener as a maze of influences to get lost within.

The sci-fi concept adventures of Space Dimension Controller land on planet Dekmantel with more of that honey-coated, harmonious future house that continues to make him such a beloved artist. "Planete Contraire" is full of those plush boogie-tinged leads that SDC has made his name on, but there's also plenty of club-ready mechanics behind the melodies to make this work a treat in the warm up hours of a party. "Synths & An 808" is a much feistier affair with a fat Moog-esque bassline and snappy claps to get you bugging out a treat. A record of two supremely executed halves.