Categories
Electro Review

Ara-u – Black Hole EP

No Static / Automatic – Release: 28th February 2020

Title track “Black Hole” is the one for us. A steady paced slow-building sci-fi electro transmission with a spiraling synth line like you’re on the edge of a black hole.

Categories
Review Techno

Gage – E Anthem

2 B Real – Releases 24th January 2020

The name of the EP’s title track no doubt a tribute to Kevin Saunderson’s E-Dancer moniker. Swirling chords, ecstatic vibes with a melancholic edge. When the present is grim nostalgia plays an important role, the past can look like a futuristic utopia. But this is no cheesy look back through rose-tinted spectacles, the vibe is deep. Bittersweet memories of a future-past that never quite happened.

Categories
Ambient Review

Sign Libra – Sea to Sea

RVNG Intl – Release: February 14, 2020

Pentatonic romplers and en vogue vocal effects from Sign Libra, in this nautically themed offering via the RVNG harbour.

Categories
Review Techno

D-Knox- DAT Rips Vol. 1

Sonic Mind – 20th Jan 2020

Kalamazoo may not get as much of a mention in the mythologies of House and Techno as Chicago or Detroit but in the mid to late 90s it was certainly a place with its own artists and a unique style.

This EP is made from previously unreleased recordings made by D-Knox during that era. As well as Sonic Mind there was Black Nation Records, which is name-checked on the first track of the EP, owned by Jay Denham this is another not unknown but probably undervalued label in the history of Techno.

Categories
Ambient Premiere

PREMIERE: Ali Wade – Teething

Ahead of his new LP ‘Microhumans’, Ali Wade has kindly passed us the wonderfully kaleidoscopic ‘Teething’ to premiere from the album:

If you managed to catch our admittedly sporadic radio show over the years, you most certainly will have heard music from the Frequency Domain camp, a London based ambient label, run by Ali and Paul.

We’ll be reviewing the full album in due course, but in the meantime, stick on a brew and let ‘Teething’ give you a flavour of what’s to come.

Categories
Review Techno

Jerome Hill – The Pob Routine

Accidental Jnr – Release: February 2nd 2020

Like a crisp G&T, Jerome Hill on Matthew Herbert’s label are two things that clearly mix well. Whether Pob is a reference to the 80’s children’s programme, or Posh Spice’s haircut, only Jerome knows the answer…

Categories
Acid Review

Andras – Joyful

Beats in Space – Release: January 31st 2020

Something about acid house gets me instantly bobbing my head like an idiot. Fingers start pointing at some unknown thing of importance in the near distance, daft grin on my face. Listening to ‘Joyful’ resulted in a display of such symptoms, which persisted throughout the 7-track mini album.

Categories
Review Techno

Kovyazin D – Red Line EP

System 108 – Release: January 2020

New Beat may no longer be a new style of music but its revival has been coming on for full force. Moscovite label and event organizers System 108 offer this mighty fine release on wax in a limited run of 300 copies.

Categories
Industrial Review

Esplendor Geométrico – Moscú Está Helado

The death of Spain’s dictator General Franco in the mid 1970s saw the birth of a movement of creativity and hedonism know as La Movida (The Movement). The spirit of liberation and experimentation that was unleashed saw the release of much pioneering music.

Categories
Minimal Wave Review

Elisa Waut – Russia

Originally released in 1982 on a self-released single-sided cassette album this track is as cold as they come. Elisa Waut was a Belgian band, from Bruges, and was centered around brother and sister Hans and Elsje Helewaut.