Collection: Techno

intriguingly named Kalahari Oyster Cult deals in music that is just as interesting and this new album from OK EG is no exception to that. Rivulets manages to be both perfectly designed for an indelible impact in the club, but is also nuanced and detailed enough to work in headphones in a range of other settings. It's minimal in design but never cold and abstract - the synths are warm, the drums rubbery, the rhythms lovely and compelling. 'Circular Arc' for example is bumpy and bouncy with a killer bassline, 'Matched Grip' is melon-twisting halftime brilliance and 'Endless River' is a super deep and silky jungle workout drenched in soulful vocal swirls.

NYC experimental producer Neud Photo is up next on EYA's Lonewolf series with a killer five-tracker, 'Echoes'. The EP brilliantly oscillates between various inspirations with a strong machine sound, making for an incredible and haunting journey into electro, new beat, minimal and techno. Beginning with a bang on the compellingly haunting, riveting 'Replica', we hear myriad cowbells, FM "ow"s, and future-gothic vocal samples abound; the track harks deeper dancefloor explorations to come, from the entrancing call-and-response, push-pull structure of 'Lotus Eaters' to the brittler, rippling, more skeletal coldwave closer 'Flash Pressure'.

Tofistock roster member Myki delivers a hat-trick of heaters on their latest and greatest EP yet, 'Eamu'. Whipping up a rave-thunderstorm on the A-sider, 'EEE' is filled with juggling rhythms, crunchy stabs, and silkily sneaky basslines. The elegantly rude B-side, 'AAA', meanwhile, hears samples from the timeless 'UFO' by ESG, not to mention the artist's own masterful trademarks. This boutique toolpack is an essential firestarter and the first in Tofistock's new "sense-floor" dance series.

The superb Craigie Knowles label is often a place to check out some mad fresh electro but for this one, it welcomes Primitive Needs who head off down a progressive techno trip that will remind you of the 90s even if you didn't experience them the first time around. On opener 'Mesomorph' the drum programming is fresh and slick and the synths are searching, as they spray about the mix with a hint of old-school video game charm. 'Rhizome' rides on high-speed tech drums that are coloured by the warped lines and stabs that peel off them constantly. There is a kinetic bounce to 'Hypha Dose' that will make any floor step things up a notch and 'Desert Power' closes with real soulful urgency and hints of trance magic.

Qnete’s back in the building for a third X-Kalay release and it’s an anticipated return for the prominent purveyor of prog. Four diverse but coherently related tracks with pit stops in deep house and electro territory. We open proceedings with a dose of the lysergic sound that has become his trademark since debuting on the label in 2021. Evoking ritual and ceremony, ‘Going Short‘ commences with choral pads that beckon to the altar. A slo-mo exercise in dancefloor hypnosis with trace echoes of bleep. Where ‘Wrapped’ takes a turn toward mellow, ‘Stepperals’, like its A1 counterpart, recalibrates trance tropes into something more chugging and restrained. Another example of Qnete smudging his third eye on a tunnelling, wormhole flex. And finally, the Leipzig native signs off with a nod to the American Midwest. Opening cerebral gates in a way that recalls classic Detroit In Effect, closing track ‘Circuit Friends’ taps into the futurist utopia imagined by Detroit electro’s pioneers.