Peter Van Hoesen At Juno Download

Review: After a relatively quiet two-year period, Peter Van Hoesen returns with a new long-player - but will he fall victim to the 'difficult second album syndrome' that plagues so many artists? The Belgian producer's last EP was called Transitional State, and the title sums up the approach on Perceiver and the general direction that Van Hoesen has been heading in for the past few years. Listen to even his recent dance floor-based releases on Komisch, Ostgut and Time To Express and you'll hear glitchy slivers of percussion amid the punishing, merciless basslines. Van Hoesen has emphasised this abstract side to his sound on Perceiver. "Objects from the Past" and "To Alter A Vector" unfold in slow motion, with textured sounds floating over lurching rhythms, breaking occasionally to allow the dubby beats come to the fore. In between balancing the functional and the abstract, the album also presents a third way, and it results in the most impressive track on the album; "Nefertiti Always Beyond" boasts nickel-plated drums and Peter's trademark sub-bass, but there is something looser about the arrangement. What it may lack in precision it compensates with a sense of punky energy, its rhythm spasming like a Magazine song trapped in the body of a relentless techno arrangement. It's the centre piece in a perception altering album.

Review: Anyone who had Peter Van Hoesen down as having a one-track mind will be surprised and impressed by State. The Belgian producer does his usual techno sound on "19 Continued", but the bass is more epic and reminiscent of 90s Detroit techno than post-noughties European music. "Admonition" is a nod to his solo and Sendai abstract work as infectious bleeps and tones unfold over a complex mid-tempo groove, while "Transitional State 2" is like a halfway house for his abstract and techno experiments with a recoiling bass and a robotic interpretation of UK funky's shuffle acting as the adjudicator. On "Transitional State 1" he regains his usual techno poise. The rhythm is fractured and less linear than usual - but the bass is as murderous as ever.

Review: One of the greatest things about Berlin club Berghain is that once you make your way past the autocratic glare of the door staff, you are free to act as you want. There are no rules and everyone is treated the same. This sense of egalitarianism may be fleeting, but the club's residents have succeeded in applying a similar aesthetic to their mix CDs. Well-known producers appear beside unknowns, while artists lauded for a particular sound veer off into new, uncharted territories. This approach is audible on this sampler for Marcel Fengler's forthcoming mix. Belgian producer Peter Van Hoesen is known primarily for his bass-heavy, heads down warehouse tracks, but on "Axis Mundi", there's a palpable change. Van Hoesen's usual deft production touch ensures that the arrangement features razor-blade percussion and a lithe rhyhtmic sensibility, but "Mundi" is all about the woozy, trancey melodies filtering their way to its centre. Likewise, Jonah Sharp and Move D's "The Labyrinth" marks a departure of sorts, with the duo's tasteful, jazzy keys teased out over a rough, glitchy backing track. Vril's "UV" is the most obvious sign that Fengler and Ostgut want to maintain the same egalitarian approach as Berghain: this artist, who hasjust two EPs to his/her credit on Giegling, drops a slamming, dubby techno track that simultaneously challenges the bass power of Shed's Wax project and the loose, echo chamber tones of Modern Love. Like Berghain, once they past the litmus test, every artist is an equal.