Review: Has it really been fifteen years already for Monika Kruse's Terminal M imprint? Gosh time flies but oh well; let's celebrate and commemorate in style. There's various moods and grooves on offer here. Anna's ?Where Are You Now?? is a dark and tunnelling techno number with enough funk for summertime dancefloors. Pig & Dan are still around and showing off their ever evolving style; this time teaming up with Mark Reeve for some sweet progressive house on ?Daydreamer?. Staying on the euphoric proggy tip also is Henri Matisse with the surefire ?Gear?. The power trio of Luca M, Just2 and Alex Rise gives us the sexy rolling tech house of ?No Obstacles? that you could imagine Richie Hawtin or Carlo Lio smashing out at peak time on the island.
Review: After two stunning rounds that featured the likes of Mark Hand, Lerosa and A Sagittariun, Bristol label Innate returns with another various EP of advanced techno ruminations from emergent talent and established names alike. Perseus Traxx leads in with a dense and expressive body popper that channels a little vintage B12, while Ewan Jansen takes things deep and aqueous with the gorgeous "Sinders". Rising electro star Reedale Rise serves up more of his sleek and refined machine funk on "Coral", and label boss Owain K unfurls a shimmering blanket of melancholic house with the sublime "Teifi".
Review: RISE is on Liondub International and is giving all of us a lesson in how to produce tough, stripped back sonics which carry more attitude than a charging bull. 'Crossbow' is the best example of this, as a no-nonsense drum line penetrates a precisely placed array of gully bass pulls and hair-rising low-frequency pushes. 'Feline' is more classic jump-up, as a potent blast of stabs combine into the type of hands-in-the-air dancefloor action we've come to expect from the genre. Proper stuff.