Review: Morbeck's label unleashes the seventh instalment of its Golden Circle compilation. Opening the release is VTXODVI's pounding Frankfurt Trax-style "Remembrance of You", while Stefano Morretti keeps the intensity levels up with the rave stabs and insistent percussion of "Lighting Up The Night" and label regular Under Black Helmet also mines the 90s for inspiration with the crystalline hooks and pounding kicks on "Summer Snow". While the focus is on the dance floor throughout, each contributor to Golden Circle brings something different to the compilation, including Nebula's combination of break beats and tripped out synths on "Rezystor" and Morbeck's collaboration with Schwan, the acid-peppered, banging "Same But Different".
Review: Julius Laura?onis aka Under Black Helmet first appeared on the techno radar back in 2015 with Mute. Now Code is Law has commissioned four new remixes of that debut track. First up is label owner M?rbeck, with an interpretation that sees swirling, acrid chords unfold over tough, kicking beats. Fast-rising Dutch producer Remco Beekwilder is next offering up a frenetic, buzz-saw bass and eerie, string-laden reshape of the track. Farrago opts for a more subdued version, stripping the track back to a dubbed out groove featuring hypnotic vocal samples and acid belches. Rounding off this fine remix package is Vril's stepping, electro-funk reshape, which resounds to crisp 808s and powerful snare builds.
Review: Code Is Law chief Moerbeck is back with more austere expressions in greyscale techno. His last release on the label was four years ago so he certainly gets straight down to business on this one. It begins with the 12 minute long track "Think In Waves" which means a lot to the artist as he claims to have produced it last summer on an Akai MPC live on the beach! You can even hear the crashing waves and seagulls in the background. Indeed it is not as brooding as his previous work and is instead full of soul and emotion. "Mint" is definitely something more familiar of the artist - a menacing rave monster which will pummel you into submission, and ending with the greyscale warehouse belter "Tesla" to hammer the message home.
Matt Morra - "Resort To Violence" - (6:40) 136 BPM
Stefano Moretti - "UNT1" - (5:41) 136 BPM
Review: Berlin's Code Is Law label bring us a 10-track collection that explores several different shades of techno. Antonello Teora's 'Mental Wealth' starts us off in melodic, proggy territory, things take a turn for the more glitchy and experimental with End Train's 'The Poem' and Aviron's 'AV112', Glos's 'Post Patch 1.1.2 Arrow Far' is pure Detroit, while Kill Ref's 'Square Rhum' brings a dose of acid and sets us up for the second half, where pounding dark room cuts from Matt Morra, Stefano Moretti, End Train & Burden and SDB go straight for the jugular, only Pablo Weser's 'Lobos 11c' offering brief respite from the madness.
Matt Morra - "White Steel Window" - (5:46) 135 BPM
Review: It's time to batten down the hatches and lock up your daughters as the third Golden Circle compilation lands on Code Is Law. SDB's moody, building banger, "Dissociate" sets the tone, while label regular Stefan Moretti keeps the pace going with "CK", a low-slung, droning affair. Although End Train's "The Whisperer" is more spacious, it still resonates to a clanging metallic rhythm and deranged vocals. It's only a temporary reprieve however, and soon enough, Rommwick, who featured on the first two Golden Circle compilations, blazes through with the distorted kicks and nightmarish synths of "Kolloq". Despite being hard-edged, Golden Circle 003 is never senselessly so, and Irregular Synth's "Multiple Personalities" is a master class in acid techno.
Review: Following on from the first instalment of Golden Circle, issued earlier this year, Moerbeck's label returns with a second volume. Some of the same artists feature again, and
Antonello Teora kicks off this new compilation with the break beat-led deep techno of "I Feel You". There's also a 90s techno style workout from Hadone and a pulsating, electronic disco collaboration, "Break Bitch", from Stefano Moretti and Under Black Helmet, all of who featured on the first instalment. In what is clearly a family affair, label regular Sawlin delivers the noisy broken beat techno of "Ausrasten" and WYAD drops the droning, visceral rhythm of "Authority".
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