Review: First appearing on the outskirts of Dresden's Uncanny Valley with a release for its dancefloor focused Shtum offshoot, Polish producer Chino dives deep into a sonve ravine here with Autostrada. Bursting through the speakers with a raucous electro fidelity unmatched by most, all sounds here are rough, raw and super-powered in delivering a cross section of electro at its most hairy; be it the skittering punk riffs of the title-track to the spooky, neon-lit soul of "Carabo Cruise". Hardcore EBM and brutal new wave pumps like a beast in "Dyscyplina" with reverberating splashes of dub electro in "Alwernia" exploding on impact and richoetting everywhich amidst a barrage of stargazing synths and rock 'n' roll snares. Superpunk.
Review: Uncanny Valley hits the magic 50 mark with this diverse four-tracker. It starts with Chino's "Forbidden Voices", a tough analogue banger, replete with spiralling acid and bruising metallic riffs. Johannes Albert's "Vision Utopia" also draws on steely sounds, but on this occasion, the focus is on staccato percussion and brooding synth lines. Lake People, who has released on labels like Permanent Vacation, also drops an electro-style jam, "Roaming The Streets", but it's deeper and more reflective than Albert's contribution. RVDS rounds off the split release with "Moon Operator", a slinky, stepping workout that spirals off to the cosmos with some gloriously trippy 303 lines.
Review: Dresden label Uncanny Valley's big name supporters include the likes of Jimpster, Steve Bug, Scuba and Ripperton, which gives you an idea of the kind of leftfield-leaning deep house and techno to expect from this 10th birthday compilation. Big names may be in short supply but quality certainly isn't, with the album's 18 full-length tracks ranging from RJ's floaty, dreamy opener 'Nie' to the acid throb of Iron Curtis's 'Ensuite', and from the jazzy bruk beat-isms of Lake People's 'Roaming The Streets' to the psychedelic small hours deepness of Charlotte Bendiks' 'Pasco', with a DJ mix from Conrad Kaden tying the whole collection together nicely.
Review: To celebrate notching up 50 releases, Uncanny Valley offered up a septet of colour-coded EPs featuring never-heard-before cuts from its growing roster of artists. With that campaign finished, they've now collected together all of those tracks on one suitably epic compilation, All Colors Are Beautiful. It's a pleasingly positive, life-affirming and kaleidoscopic collection all told, with the likes of Lauer, Jules Etienne, Johannes Albert, Cuthead and Basic Soul Unit taking it in turns to deliver cheery, synth-heavy cuts that variously join the dots between deep house, nu-disco, synth-pop, proto-house, jacking acid, crunchy electro, Motor City techno, ghetto-tech and glassy-eyed late-night sleaze. The results are uniformly excellent, making this one of the most essential compilations of 2020.
