Bestsellers This Week

Review: Gerd Janson's Running Back open their 2013 account with a label debut from evergreen producer Oliver Ho under his Raudive alias. Ho's garnered something of a chameleonic reputation over his 15 year recording history, demonstrating little interest in focusing on one sound or genre. Most recently seen fronting the spiky three piece band The Eyes In The Heat, Ho returns to the Raudive name that scored a great History Clock 12" for the four track Traffic EP. Fitting in snugly on Running Back, expect muscular EBM and house workouts with the detuned pianos and manipulated vocals of the title track likely to garner considerable attention.

Review: Sebastian Kramer's debut Redshape album, The Dance Paradox, was an ambitious work, with the German producer making reference to Carl Craig, Moodymann and deep house producers like Chez Damier. Its follow up, Square, has a smaller range, but its tighter focus means that it sounds more like Redshape himself than those he takes inspiration from. All of the elements that have made the project so respected are present here: "It's In Rain" teems with crisp drums and the brooding, humming bass, grainy and crackling, that has become the project's staple - the inclusion of an astronaut sample adds some levity to a sound sometimes seen as ultra-serious. "Starsoup" sees Kramer strip away the layers and focus on the groove, with a bleepy bassline and noisy, broken beats prevailing, while "Departing" is a fantastically hypnotic, expansive deep techno workout. One of Redshape's other sides is audible on "Moods & Mice". Like some of the material on The Dance Paradox, "Moods" features lazy drums and warm synth lines. He explores this theme further on "Paper". Like Paradox, it sounds like Redshape has hired a live drummer and he she/he freeforms their way through textured sounds. So while Squares is a deft distillation of Redshape's nuances, it also features a left of centre take on hip-hop, with Space Ape chatting over the loose, mid-tempo drums of "Until We Burn".

Review: The enigmatic Paula Temple returns to techno with a vengeance, supplying R&S with the surprising (and quite shameful) first release from a female artist! Colonized sees the hark back to their techno roots by supplying the seminal imprint with some with hard hitting industrial-edged techno in the manner of recent releases from MPIA3 and Blawan. Temple however is not by any means a new name, with her first release coming via Chris McCormack's Materials label in 2002, receiving rapacious support from Claude Young, Dave Clark and Jeff Mills whilst she has also released under the Fragile X and Jaguar Woman names. The Colonized EP sees Temple move away from the faster and melodic stylings of her previous work, and delivering two slabs of brutal industrialism instead. Though there's a bullish brutality present, Temple does show moments of reflection and serenity, particularly in the title track, which Perc reworks with gravelly rhythmic mechanics and metallic textures.

Review: Scottish hotshots Clouds drop a killer release for Tiga's label. "Those Cracks In Your Face, Do They Hurt" is a highly effective peak-time affair, its concrete weight but deceptively lithe beats and growling riff underpinning squelchy acid licks, a churning filter and the kind of pitched down vocal that featured on 'Losing Control'. Taken together, these elements makes for an utterly modern, smart referencing bomb. Truss delivers a grinding, broken beat take on "Those Cracks" but it can't compare to the other Clouds track here, "Krafterah". It's also based on a stepping rhythm, but the eerie chords and segue into straight 4/4s will seduce anyone who likes techno raw and unpredictable.

Review: It's been nearly three years since we last heard from former 'next big thing' Rex The Dog (aka producer Jake Williams). His career has stuttered somewhat, following a string of well-regarded singles on Kompakt, Kitsune and Compuphonic. This, though, is an impressive return. While hardly groundbreaking stuff, there's something irresistible about the Moroder-on-pills groove and Jamie McDermott's spinetingling vocal (think Anthony Hegarty meets Sylvester meets Donna Summer). Yes, it sounds like a modern update of "I Feel Love", but its been lovingly rendered by Williams. It also sounds like a big hit in the making.

Review: After the success of the original Southside EP last year, Bok Bok has called upon his mates to rework some of the lead cuts with results that stretch across the board. Sir Spyro has some filthy bass at the forefront of his playful reworking of "Silo Pass", while the horns get teased in the appropriate places to great effect. Vjuan Allure instead focuses on dry beats working around a UK Funky template, with only scattered effects left to fill in the gaps. Bok Bok's own remix of "Charisma Theme" piles the tension on high with dread strings and a snappy dispersal of percussion. L-Vis 1990 gets jacking with his take on "Reminder", leaving it to Helix to delve into a funky techno rut to conquer "Look".

Review: Russian producer Nina Kraviz gets remixed in three radically different ways. KiNK's take on "Love or Go" is a mellow affair, with dubby drums mixed with a resonating bass and a warm acid bleed leading into a sensuous breakdown. By contrast, Steve Rachmad puts the focus on the dance floor for his reshape. The Dutchman's 'Jack' version is powered by heavy drums and Kraviz' vocal contribution sounds like it has been taken over by a montone robot as an atmospheric filter pushes it into an epic breakdown. Rachmad's 'Scorp' version is far heavier and more stipped back, with tearing acid lines unravelling over metallic beats and the robot reduced to intoning what sounds like 'techno, techno, techno'.

Review: "It's like painting with buttons and sliders... Melting and dripping, seeping yourself liquid into the machinery." So said Darren Cunningham when discussing the creation of R.I.P, his long awaited follow up to Splazsh. It's a compelling image that works in practice too. R.I.P creates microcosmic sound worlds within each track: "Holy Water" for instance tumbles in on itself in a melange of shimmering sinewave droplets, while the pitchshifted waves of "Tree Of Knowledge" seem to inhale and exhale like a living being, crumpling inwards on itself to repeat the same motion ad infinitum. And although it uses much the same, occasionally abrasive sonic building blocks as Cunningham's been developing for many years, the pastoral tones of "Uriel's Black Harp" and the Alva Noto styles of "Jardin" make R.I.P a surprisingly graceful album. It may not be techno as many will know it, but Cunningham has never made techno in the traditional sense anyway - and it's clear on listening to R.I.P that he's only just beginning to realise the musical forms that have been swarming inside his brain for years.

Review: Launching late last year with Seawash at the helm, Delsin's dedicated Electronica series gathers pace with their second release What I Feel, a label debut for Herva. The Italian producer, Herve Atse Corti, has already established himself as somewhat of a talent for crafting soundscapes informed by house, techno tropes with what was once called IDM on last year's Meanwhile In Madland album for the Bosconi label. The four tracks here sees Herva develop that approach further; lead track "Paranoid Thinking" displays a dizzying mastery of layering heavily textured sounds in a rhythmic manner that replaces the necessity of standard beats. "Crocodile Tears" pairs crackling samples with clicking, squelchy percussion and reconstituted piano sounds, whilst "Gorilla's Machine" is lopsided approach at Border Community techno, caked in tape dirt. There's echoes of Actress's techno deviations in final track "Snow & Clouds" which pleasingly shifts the direction of it's rhythmic momentum throughout.

Review: Sun Storm sees Niels Luinenberg return to the precise, electro-influenced sound of last year's Traces album for Delsin, with a title track combining a clean acidic bassline with rougher atmospherics in the background. It's joined by album track "Challenger", a more sinister production with sprawling pads and spiky, high-pitched strings. Given Luinenberg's relatively clean sound it comes as some surprise that the raw techno-leaning, hardware based Karenn duo comprised of Blawan and Pariah have been approached to remix the similarly icy "Onkalo", which previously featured on Traces; however, the pair's the snare-heavy rework acts as in interesting contrast to Luinenberg's original, isolating some of the original's melodic elements and caking them in industrial grit.

Review: Jeff Mills said nearly a decade ago that techno is being made for an aging audience. Regardless of whether this is true or not, what happens when the artists themselves start to get older - can they maintain their relevance? In the case of Mark 'Claro Intelecto' Stewart, the answer to this conundrum is simple; go back to your roots. The Manchester producer may have settled down, but creatively, Second Blood shows that he's as dynamic as ever. "Heart" marks a return to the first Claro Intelecto album, Neurofibro or the more understated sections of its successor, Metanarrative, with an atmospheric, ambient soundtrack gently unfolding, populated by muffled, half-heard vocals. The title track sees Stewart pick up the pace, but although the underlying bassline has a dark, resonating edge to it, the tempo is sluggish and the chords flutter about in a way that suggests the producer is seeking to tease out new directions for his sub-heavy techno. "Voyeurism" has no such ambitions, but sounds all the better for it; like the best tracks from the Warehouse Sessions series, its bass plays the central role, a fathomic, all-encompassing series of tones that steers the plaintive melodies on an irresistibly evocative path. Sometimes to stay ahead of the curve, you first need to take a few steps back.

Review: One of the more driving cuts from Robert Hood's epic Motor: Nighttime World 3 from last year, "Drive (The Age Of Automation)" finds itself getting a welcome single release. The original is about as Detroit as you can get, where a moody motorik bassline gives way to suitably sci-fi synths, combining a musical take on Detroit's automotive history with a Blade Runner aesthetic. Token artist Phase obviously revels in the opportunity to provide two brilliant reworks of the track; the "Nocturnal Mix", which isolates the original's bass stabs and incorporates them into a rolling juggernaut rhythm tailor made for the warehouse, while the "C-Box Mix" opts to keep the melodic elements but pare them back with the producer's trademark sharpness.

Review: Making his second appearance on Throne Of Blood after last year's Inside Job, veteran producer Brendan Moeller returns as Beat Pharmacy for Tricks of the Trade. "Sometimes I'm Happy" is a laid back trip through trilling sounds, dubby piano chords and thick bass, while "Jive At Five" takes things up a notch with its twitchy synths and skipping beats. Analogues Anonymous takes things on more of a late night classic NYC deep house tip albeit with a considerable dose of dark atmospherics, while the largely beatless "Holy Stain" lightens the mood with its drifting chords and analogue chirps. Digital bonus "Magic & Luck" is probably the most floor-focused thing here, a stripped back tool filled with abstract tones and percolating textures.

Review: The "Jupiters" remixes are finally available on digital format and this time it's a strictly UK affair, with Happa and Jamie XX on remix duties! Happa's re-interpretation of "Jupiters" is a thumping beast of a track, where a startling bass drum churns its way across a militant percussion - violent hi-hats and snares all round, coated graciously by the most ominous synth stabs to have ever appeared on a Four Tet record! Jamie XX's take on "Lion" is a calmer, sub-heavy parade of swinging drums and mutating bass lines, growing in ferocity with every new bar.

Review: After a barn-storming 2011, the dense, bristling techno of Xhin returns to toy with your senses. This four track EP for Token delivers just what fans of his recent LP will be looking for; dark- primal rhythm tracks with enough vitality to keep from getting dull. The unforgiving broken stomp of "The Realm" is enough on its own, let alone when it has great rips of tone and melody pulsing over the top. There's deeper moments offered too, in the spacious sound bath that is "Elliptic", but really it's the smack down of the other three tracks that will deliver the goods for existing fans.

Review: Daniel Avery was one of 2012's most refreshing success stories; his Fabric mix and two EPs for Erol Alkan's Phantasy Sound may not have slotted comfortably into any of the current flavours of the month, but they shone through thanks to their singular approach to techno. "Drone Logic" was one of the highlights of his second Phantasy release, where an old school progressive house bassline is chewed to pieces by bursts of electronic feedback, and this single release sees Factory Floor's Gabe Gurnsey provide a fine remix that sounds remarkably restrained for a member of the inheritors of Throbbing Gristle's throne; like Avery's original Gurnsey keeps things mid-tempo but strips everything back to basics, with a simple analogue arpeggio which adds an early industrial quality.

Review: Danny Wolfers is stuck in a groove right now, a hugely prolific production groove which has him tossing out new material on a seemingly weekly basis for all manner of labels. Hot on the heels of that Nacho Patrol 12" for Simonetti and a under the cover album for Blue Moon Safari comes this this three track debut for the equally relentless Unknown To The Unknown label. The Star Gazing EP makes for a wondrous display of Legowelt's talent for implementing those trademark melodies within various rhythmic frameworks; in the case of stand out track "Visions In My Mind", it's a hypnotic disco jacker lent no small degree of melancholy by the titular vocal.

Review: On Danceteria, conventional house music gets brought down an alley and buggered senseless. The title track features the unusual combination of chiming bells and fragile, lithe percussion fused with dark keys and a brooding, junglist bassline. It makes for a tune that is both high on subtlety and force. "Run Interference" is somewhat more conventional thanks to its 'working the house' vocal sample and mid-tempo groove, but Primitive World slips back into experimental mode for "Cotopaxi". There, doubled-up claps provide the impetus but despite this, the rhythm is understated. It's just as well because the surging acid line that follows in its wake is powerful enough to annihilate a batallion of troops.

Review: Soul:R boss and all round drum and bass legend Marcus Intalex's Trevino moniker has been used previously by Kaye on a split release with Instra:mental for Martyn's 3024 label, but the two tracks on this purple ten inch are much more in line with Al Bleek's material for [Naked Lunch], adopting a rhythmic poise and sound palette that leans heavily on the mid 90s bass heavy techno sound of LFO. "Buried" is the deeper of the two, building nicely from sparse percussive beginnings into a fully formed procession of warm, kaleidoscopic chords and bubbling analogue undercurrents. Those craving something darker will revel in the heady jacking brilliance of "Derelict" which betrays his D&B history via the deviant bassline twist.

Review: Dutch producer Gert-Jan Bijl aka Gerd's Time & Space is one of those 90s techno tracks that manages to evoke feelings of euphoria and foreboding. Unearthed by Gerd on a DAT tape during a spring clean, its mixture of turbo-powered hoover bass and the lost innocence of the vocal samples casts it in the same mould as Suburban Knight's classic "The Art Of Stalking". The 2011 remix is more jacking and makes a play of eerie, nightmarish chords instead of the purring bass, while Dutch colleague Duplex opts for a different approach. Remaining true to the original version, both his Southside and Northside remixes are powered by the kind of pre-hardcore nocturnal bass that will give you nightmares. The latter just about shades it in the spooky stakes with Duplex messing with the original vocal sample.

Review: Fat City Record's recent Producer#2 compilation was a superlative assimilation of Transatlantic beat makers with established acts like Harmonic 313, Mike Slott and Dabrye next to rising talent such as Mono/Poly and Darkhouse Family. Dbridge's "ZX81" was one of that compilation's highlights, a staggeringly slo mo drum and bass track infused with downtrodden soul with the warmest of white noise basslines. It's no surprise Fat City picked that track for this remix EP with two very special treatments. Berlin's Shed reworks the track into a broody sub bass dub techno monster replete with the most glorious of soaring synth breakdowns. Next up is an equally consummate remix from Ramadanman. The Hessle Audio man gives "ZX81" a shot of energy, a rolling percussive rhythm cloaked in sublime bass drops and screaming keys.

Review: With numerous vinyl, CD and cassette releases over the past 20 years, Orphx are true techno veterans; Boundary Conditions marks their third release for Adam X's Sonic Groove label, and sees them continue to blur the lines between techno, industrial and noise music with stellar results. "Outcast" begins with a tunnelling bass pulse, slowly giving way to savagely distorted synth blasts, gradually building to a frenzy of broken noise. "Vanishing Point" is similarly beautiful in its abrasiveness, coating its simple beat with distorted drum rolls and delicate tones, while "Periphery" takes a gentler approach letting its textures and rhythms unfold and breathe in more cavernous surroundings. Once again the duo prove why they are one of techno's most enduring outfits.

Review: With Steve O'Sullivan's back catalogue getting re-released, it is timely that attention also shifts to Mark Ambrose. The UK producer was one of the most innovative in the UK tech-house scene, and as "Shooting Stars" demonstrates, he is the master of creating bassy, murky grooves. Based on a tracky rhythm and vicious snares, when the tripped out bassline kicks in, it's hard to imagine any speaker system being safe. The remixes are of a high quality too; Ambrose's own version imbues the arrangement with a disco undercurrent, while Ben Sims toughens it up and adds eerie acid lines. Best of all though is fellow traveller Aubrey's take, with its rumbling bassline and visceral 303 licks.