Collection: Techno/Minimal/Tech-House

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.

Berlin's heroic selector Hunee has started his own imprint named Lifetones, and it's inaugural release is the Archipelago EP by Hydromantic: a collaboration between Junior Boys' Matthew Didemus and German producer Martin Maischein (Sandbenders) that combines 'fourth-world acoustic rhythms with divergent techno futurism' to explore timbre, rhythm and space. From the tropical electro funk of the title track on the A side, to the hypnotic polyrhythmic minimalism of B side cut "Paranormalisation", which is followed by even more reductionist fare in the form of the off-kilter effort "Drip By Drip" - this is an impressive debut and we very much anticipate what the label has in store next.