Lakker

Review: To celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, Blueprint has delved deep into its back catalogue. "Post Traumatic Son", a collaboration between label owner James Ruskin and Karl O'Connor, features three times in remixed form, with DVS1 dropping a deep take, Robert Hood turning the track into an angular, metallic jacker and Marcel Dettmann remodelling it into a grainy Berghain stomper. In as much as dance floor tracks like "Son..." and the coruscating, gnarly rhythm of Outline's "Encounter" have defined the label since the start, so too does its more abstract work. A shadow of textured sound looms over Ruskin's "Correction Centre A"; Samuel Kerridge's "Operation Neptune" is a trip into the world of grungy electronics, while Lakker's "Static & Amp" fuses haunting vocals with a hissing, humming groove.

Played by: S-File, Shadow Dancer, Juno Recommends Electro, Dave Clarke, Systemic, Posthuman, Da GobliNN /Remuted, Heartthrob

Review: In its original form, Killekill was a party that embraced all sorts of electronic music, and the label has opted for the same approach. It doesn't seem to bother Nico who runs Killekill - he previously worked for Shitkatapult - that the imprint's first steps have displayed an almost schizophrenic disregard for the kind of micro-genres that defines electronic music. In fact, like Svreca from Semantica and Micky who runs [Naked Lunch], he seems far more interested in what constitutes a great tune, irrespective if its tempo is 100bpm or 160bpm and regardless of whether it was fashioned in downtown Detroit or a windswept Dublin suburb. Following the wild techno of Alex Cortex's Raw, comes Megahits, a three-installment vinyl release that sums up this approach. It begins almost innocuously, with Bill Youngman's "The 2", a downtempo, jazzy piece that suddenly veers into rude boy half-paced jungle bass. Despite being a Berlin label, UK culture is represented again with the curious blend of ragga vocalsand twitchy acid lines on Affie Yussuf's "Onna Roll", while Radioactive Man serves up his typically party-friendly electro, replete with tonal bass licks on "Addict" and Neil Landstrumm returns to techno territory - albeit a less distorted, noisy one - on the dark, ravey bass of "On The Pussers". There are also nods to contemporary European techno - the most notable being the grainy, dense rhythms and searing acid of Cassegrain and Tin Man'scollaboration - US producers are represented with the murky jack of JTC's "Crush Arbor" and the frightening synths, predatory bass - which has echoes of Suburban Knight - and hyperactive rhythms of DJ Stingray's "Ego Assault". Killekill also proves itself again to be home to the outsider, featuring the punishing beats and menacing synths of Lakker's Autechre-eqsue "Darcdub" and the spectacularly depraved "Furfriend", a stripped back groove powered by a bombastic bassline and featuring a deadpan pervert talking about taking drugs and how he likes to come on people's faces with his "fat cock". Electronic music may have become a smaller place thanks to technology,but as Megahits shows, Killekill's world remains as colourful and occasionally disturbing as an LSD-drenched peek through a kaleidoscope.

Played by: Paul Mac, Lifecycle, Jamie Behan, Systemic, Forest Echo One, GUTTERS

Review: The reason why Dublin-based duo Lakker has attracted a lot of attention is due to the fact that they sound genuinely different. As "Mustard Crying" demonstrates, they are unafraid of dropping a track consisting mainly of beats that sound like someone falling down a flight of stairs and loads of noisy feedback. "Ciar" is only slightly more palatable and revolves around a sludgy bass and walls of screeching noise. But Lakker also have a softer side and even thought they frame it against an itchy, scratchy minimal groove, "Summer Rains" has a fragile beauty to it, its eerie synths feeling like steam rising from the ground after a brief spell of rain on a hot day.