Review: Re-mastered for a new generation, Revisited brings together some of UK veteran Aubrey's finest moments. The release starts with the frenetic "Inner Passions Out", a fast-paced metallic rhythm that jerks and jacks in the finest Detroit tradition. "Rapid Fix" is next, with Aubrey dropping the tempo and delivering layered, hypnotic bleeps and menacing drones, while "Behind The Mirror" sees the UK producer match jazzy keys with an off-centre, stepping rhythm - a good decade before this approach became fashionable. The final track shows that Aubrey was ahead of his time in other ways, and "Strange Life" is a driving, toolish affair with mad alarm bells going off.
Review: Two of UK techno's most experienced producers go head to head on this new release on Sims' label. Allen Saei aka Aubrey has been making dance floor friendly yet esoteric techno for nearly twenty years, but "Centrifuge Azul" marks a shift in his approach. Screeching riffs and gritty beats are combined for one of Saei's most visceral tracks to date. There's a similar approach on "Neurosis", but on that occasion, wild acid lines and dark, noisy percussive bursts are combined over insistent filters. "Double Image" is heavy duty material too, with thunder claps and a buzzsaw bass dominating the arrangement. Try as he might, the heavy drums and insistent filtering on Sims' version of "Double Image" can't quite match this intensity.
Review: Efdemin's 2008 mix CD on Curle, Carry On - Pretend We're Not In The Room showed that he was as adept and inventive behind the decks as he was in the studio. A decade later, the same holds true for the follow-up mix, Naif, but this time the boundaries are more blurred. Consisting of 29 unreleased tracks - 10 from the German producer himself and 19 from like-minded artists - the selection runs the gamut, from the hazy, abstract tones of WaWuWe's "Beams" and DIN's noisy "Glide", into hypnotic dance floor techno such as "Laveline", Efdemin's bleep-y collaboration with Konrad Springer, the glorious mid-tempo minimal roller "Watte" - recorded as Sollmann & Gurtler and then 'versioned' by Efdemin and expansive dub tracks from Pom Pom and Marco Shuttle.
Amir Alexander - "The Scent Of My Desire" - (6:57) 123 BPM
Aubrey - "African Song" - (5:50) 125 BPM
Review: Parisian label Popcorn has pulled out all the stops on this latest release, roping in an impressive cast-list of established artists for a compilation style throw down. DJ Gregory steps up first, donning the now familiar Point G alias for an impeccably dusty, delay-laden trip into locked-in, late night deep house territory, before fellow veteran D'Julz subtly references is early 2000s releases on 20:20 Vision via the rolling, bass-heavy tech-house/deep house fusion of "About Time". Amir Alexander's contribution, "The Scent of My Desire", is alternately fuzzy, blissfully melodious and rush inducing, while British techno legend Aubrey serves up a spot of percussion-heavy deep house in the shape of EP highlight "African Song".
Amir Alexander - "The Scent Of My Desire" - (6:57) 123 BPM
Aubrey - "African Song" - (5:50) 125 BPM
Review: Parisian label Popcorn has pulled out all the stops on this latest release, roping in an impressive cast-list of established artists for a compilation style throw down. DJ Gregory steps up first, donning the now familiar Point G alias for an impeccably dusty, delay-laden trip into locked-in, late night deep house territory, before fellow veteran D'Julz subtly references is early 2000s releases on 20:20 Vision via the rolling, bass-heavy tech-house/deep house fusion of "About Time". Amir Alexander's contribution, "The Scent of My Desire", is alternately fuzzy, blissfully melodious and rush inducing, while British techno legend Aubrey serves up a spot of percussion-heavy deep house in the shape of EP highlight "African Song".