Polegroup At Juno Download

Review: Christian Wunsch offers up three distinctly different interpretations of techno for Oscar Mulero's label. "Planetary Alignment" is a dense, soaring groove, led by thundering claps but also containing half-heard, murmured vocals, as if Wunsch is trying to drop subliminal messages into the arrangement. "Seismic Waves" is more sinister with a pulsing bassline unravelling over a skipping rhythm and waves of lapping percussion, its repetition unflinching. Finally, "Pole Shifting" marks a more radical departure as a dubby groove underpins dreamy synths that intensify gradually, while at the same time the rhythm becomes more ponderous and introspective. Like Reeko, Wunsch is pushing the boundaries of techno and coming up with some stunning results.

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: 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: Spanish producer Reeko impresses with a killer three-tracker for Oscar Mulero's label. "Cyberpunk" starts off with a high-paced, pulsing electronic rhythm featuring snappy percussion, which midway through veers towards jarring, industrial riff-led intensity. The end product sounds like the soundtrack to a chase scene in a sci-fi movie. Despite its title, "Dystopic Futures" is less frenetic but still sees Reeko test the limits of techno acceptability with repetitive metallic jabs. Finally, the title track features the bassy menace of Orphx, but is combined with an evil filter that could only be the work of this maverick talent.

Review: Reeko's reputation as a hard techno producer takes something of a battering - in the best possible way - on Momentum. The title track starts with ticking percussion and a squelchy, cavernous rhythm, but rather than intensify, it leads into a mellow, filtered denouement ending in textured ambience. "Miracle" maintains and builds on this approach, its beats softer and its chord sequence sounding like it would be more at home on a deep house release. Reeko reverts to type on "Indonesian's Dream". There, tight rhythms play out over dense, dubby beats, but the inclusion of dreamy, Detroit-style pads shows that for this release at least, Reeko is leaving his banging sensibilities at the studio door.

Review: The producer behind Polar Angle probably won't win any prizes for track titles, but in the world of underground techno, such small issues don't matter. All that counts is that SCMWY-01" is a rolling, dense affair, supported by dense claps, while SCMWY-02 opts for an alternate approach, favouring more tranced out chords and grimy beats. But neither track can prepare the listener for SCMWY-03". Its thundering drums come hurtling in over a high paced groove, like a juggernaut veering out of control, while the fourth installment is the hardest track of them all thanks to its searing, aggressive drums.