Back Catalogue

Review: Long Island Electrical Systems come through with their third release - enlisting the clearly quite talented Steve Moore to provide two visions of techno futurism. You might know Moore as Lovelock, the Mindless Boogie artist who delivered a superlative Tubular Bells edit - or as Gianni Rossi, the Giallo revivalist who released an album's worth of slasher horror funk for Permanent Vacation in January. He's also part of Zombi. This, however, might be his best work to date, as "Zero Point Field" effortlessly shifts between dystopian and utopian sensations throughout the nine minutes. This is complemented by the sprawling washes of "Frigia", from which gentle chord flutters emerge to set the scene for the deftest of beats. The ease with which all elements lock to forge one gentle yet increasingly hypnotic pulse is quite brilliant!

Review: Long Island Electrical Systems come through with their third release - enlisting the clearly quite talented Steve Moore to provide two visions of techno futurism. You might know Moore as Lovelock, the Mindless Boogie artist who delivered a superlative Tubular Bells edit - or as Gianni Rossi, the Giallo revivalist who released an album's worth of slasher horror funk for Permanent Vacation in January. He's also part of Zombi. This, however, might be his best work to date, as "Zero Point Field" effortlessly shifts between dystopian and utopian sensations throughout the nine minutes. This is complemented by the sprawling washes of "Frigia", from which gentle chord flutters emerge to set the scene for the deftest of beats. The ease with which all elements lock to forge one gentle yet increasingly hypnotic pulse is quite brilliant!

Review: Belgian/UK label R&S claim that the tracks on Orders could 'only have been made in 2012', but this writer begs to differ. Like Truss's recent release as MPIA3 for Shifted's Avian label, part of Orders sounds like it could only have been created during the early to mid-90s. Like "Ely" and 'Squatter's Dog" from the Avian release, "Crusty Juice" and "Acid Badger" take inspiration from the sound of techno labels like Magnetic North and the pioneering US imprint Synewave. "Juice" in particular is inspired by the output from Dave Clarke's now dormant imprint. Its main focus is a distorted, grainy kick drum, a beat that is so cavernous and malevolent it could have been programmed on Lucifer's own 909. The demented horn sample that rattles in, creating more impetus for the track, could have been lifted from a Djax record, but irrespective of the source, "Juice" has the kind of raw form agression and sense of danger that's rare in contemporary techno. "Acid Badger" is slower, but its intensity levels are the same, with a pounding industrial track covered in layers of grimy acid. At any moment, it feels like a vocal is going to order the listener to 'bang the box', but it never materialises. By contrast, the remaining tracks could only have been made in 2012. The combination of rattling broken beats, distorted, tangled bass and digital noise that prevail on "Ridge Way", "Roly Poly Babs" and the title track are a byproduct of the shift towards more abstract dimensions, but they can't compare to the sheer brute force of MPIA3's 90s obsession.

Review: Following his "Dual Core EP" Raul Mezcolanza is back on Adult Records. This is pure driving techno from the Barcelona producer, with groovy baselines and his trademark funky vibe, plus massive drops in between moments of sheer pounding techno. As well as a Carl Falk remix, two more original Mezcolanza tracks do much of the same.