Oscar Mulero At Juno Download

Review: Having been producing and DJing in his native Spain for over 20 years, Oscar Mulero is one of the lynchpins of the country's techno scene. Barely a year from his last long-player, and Mulero arrives with Black Propaganda, his most impressive statement to date. Following the delicate, bit crushed ambience of "The Dirt", the album travels through a number of dark, minimalistic techno structures, from the cavernous echo of "Instant Widespread of the Dirt" (which sounds like what you'd imagine Villalobos and Mills would sound like together), through the hypnotic emissions of "Intentionally False" and the insistent pulse of "False Statement", before winding up with the title track, a crystalline piece of razor sharp sound design. Highly recommended.

Review: Oscar Mulero revisits last year's Black Propaganda with some help from some of contemporary techno's biggest names on this essential remix EP. "To Convince For The Untruth" sees Stroboscopic Artefacts boss Lucy take the original's cavernous surroundings and sharpen them up with bitcrushed hi-hats and subtly a rumbling noise floor, while Developer's take on "Disinformation" straightens out the original's breakbeat acid tendencies by soaking its furious synth lines in reverb and hooking everything together with a rolling 4/4 kick. Finally, Shifted's take on "Intentionally False" keeps the measured pace of the original but transplants its thick, bulging frame for a threadbare structure littered with subtle detail.

Review: Spanish producer Oscar Mulero always brings an experimental edge to dancefloor techno, and Like A Wolf is no exception. "In A Silent Way" starts off life as a solid dubby rhythm, but gradually Mulero raises the intensity levels, turning it into a jarring industrial workout, but adding airy atmospheric textures to offset the austerity. "Horses" makes no such concessions, featuring noisy beats and a recoiling bassline from the outset, but "Like A Wolf" sees him revert to an unpredictable approach. Underpinning the evil acid licks are heavy break beats and the kind of eerie sound textures that wouldn't sound out of place on an Autechre album.

Review: Ranging from bone-crushing industrial rhythms to more serene tracks, The Structure is a diverse release, yet each contribution shares some characteristics. Oscar Mulero's "Sound Mirror" is built from dense drums and broken beats, but even at its most intense, with evil horn stabs seeking to conjure up the apocalypse, he allows some light in via deft filtering. Christian Wunsch's "Mutation" is a more straightforward techno track, albeit one that breaks down to the sound of eerie chords and haunting strings. Exium's "Repeating Future" appears to take inspiration from the spacey ambience of Pete Namlook before veering into a stop-start, understated rhythm, while Jose Pouj's "Structure" offers up panel-beating drums and wispy atmospherics.

Review: Spanish techno power clique Oscar Mulero, Reeko, Exium and Christian Wunsch load and fire part six of their Seleccion Natural series out of Mulero's Polegroup canon. The previous five blasts came from Reeko's Mental Disorder, Christian Wunsch's Tsunami Records and Mulero's native Warm Up Recordings. Reeko's "Lynx" is a hi-octane power-trip of scratchy industrialism and gunshot snares jacked with a ferocious pace, as is Mulero's "Reverberation" only to a more bleepy and streamlined effect, with obvious fidelity toward Surgeon, Regis and Jeff Mills. Had Wunsch's booming "Sleep Cell" not been released here, it could easily hold its own among the factory-made releases of Perc Trax. Exium proceed with break-beat drums in "No Sign Of Weakness" which aggressively lends itself to a trove of over-driven bass squelches, piston pushing white noise and a tribal ramshackle of percussion - cabalistic techno at it's most dangerous.

Review: The Dynamic Reflection team deliver another storming release of pounding techno with "Hate is Love." This time it comes from none other than label boss, Paul Boex and his biggest influence, the ever active Oscar Mulero.

Recent releases for his own Warm Up Recordings label have seen Mulero kill dancefloors the world over.

Now, he comes to Paul Boex's imprint to open this release with a remix of the Dutchman's "Hate is Love." His version flies straight off the mark with a pounding beat and frantic, high pitched synth stabs. It effortlessly builds tension and drama as it progresses before a breakdown lures all the sound beneath a still driving 4/4 beat. Inevitably though, Mulero reinstates the noise, turning "Hate is Love" into a true, peak time smasher. I suppose we can expect nothing less from this man by now. Following the Spaniard?s remix is Paul Boex?s original. Still a thumping techno track, the original effort feels more reserved than the remix due to in no small part, a beautiful soundscape that lingers in the background throughout the entire tune. It gives the track an epic feel, taking you on a wonderful, dream-like journey of moods and atmospheres. Returning to some highly energised techno, Boex delivers the jacking "Cybersluts" next on the schedule. Synth jabs, FX, jaunting basslines and the customary driving beat make this a full body shaking, sub-human alien. "Iron Curtain" is even more alien, spacing wailing synths far out into the depths as high end percussion snaps in the foreground. A truly futuristic sound palette emerges on this techno wig out, proving that Boex can go blow for blow with his inspiration, Oscar Mulero.