Review: For his fifth studio album, Christian Wunsch voyages to the outer rings of modern techno. Bookended with the dense, chilling soundtrack of "Active Galactic Nuclei" and "Galactic Engines", Black Sun teems with intense dance floor tracks. "Gravity Control" and "Binary Computation" both offer hammering rhythms and unpredictable drops. Meanwhile on "Resonance Coupling", the veteran Spanish producer adds in intense, crackling acid lines and sheet metal percussion. "Perpetual Vortex" is a banging analogue workout, with layers of electronic noise building to a wild crescendo. Continuing this multi-layered approach to sound design, "Quantized Spacetime" sees Wunsch fuses a meteor shower of tonal bleeps fused with pounding kick drums.
Review: Concept of Thrill is a project from Pawel Zawadzki, a Polish artist whose music resides at the harder end of the techno spectrum. As this release on Tsunami shows, he has managed to forged an impressive identity. "Tormentum" is a grainy, jacking affair, stripped back but full of energy, while on "Stymulacja", he deploys eerie organ riffs and spaced out, whooshing sounds over a pounding tribal groove. "Insanire" sees Zawadzki shift approach again, this time focusing on the grimy kicks and gained filters of labels like Lost and Blueprint. It's not the last change of direction on Reality, and "Mortalia" marks a move into abstract electronics, while "Indicator" returns to peak-time intensity sounding like the kind of dense, industrial rhythm track that Adam X would drop.
Review: Shadowy techno act Vertical Spectrum presents its latest heads-down release. "Glimpse of Fear" sets the tone from the outset, with a hammering kick supporting layer upon layer of eerie textures. "Magnetic Stream" isn't as heavy, but it does feature a tunnelling groove and tough, grimy kicks. The focus shifts again on "Self Destruct Mode", where Vertical Spectrum conjures up a hypnotic but intense arrangement that borrows from Mike Parker's sense of tonal repetition and Sandwell District's detached, isolated sensibility. Strategic Preservation is also informed by classic techno and "Spherical Decline" has shades of Jeff Mills during his X-102 / 3 phases, while "Subconscious Illusion" is inspired by the nocturnal sounds of Sleeparchive and Samuli Kemppi. All of these elements come together to form an impressively dark release.
Review: Although he's still in his mid-20s, Portuguese producer Fautzi has already released on Soma, Figure and Pole Group. Now he brings his singular take on dance floor techno to Tsunami. Both "Illusion" and "Unheard" are heavy, relentless grooves, the former consisting of tense acidic pulses and quick-fire percussion, the latter revolving around distorted kicks and militaristic snares that are shot off like machine-gun volleys from a sniper's nest. Fautzi reveals his softer side on "Bound", where eerie textures are married to rolling, dubby bass. However, this release is primarily concerned with the harder end of techno; this is also evident on the Christian Wunsch reshape of "Bound", where broken beats are shot like grenade shrapnel over the original track's dub textures.
Review: There's plenty of interest on this three track Charged Particles EP from the Tsunami Records label. Firstly it brandishes yet more highly charged output from the Spherical Coordinates project of label boss Christian Wunsch and Spanish techno icon Oscar Mulero, a collaboration that debuted in auspicious circumstances with a recent EP on Polegroup. Much like that four tracker, "SCXFG 21" sees the pair lock into a deep, throbbing techno groove that perfectly encapsulates their stated intention to create music "heavily inspired by space and futurism, focusing on liquid textures, harmonic sequences and classic drum machine sounds, yet preserving the danceable feeling." In addition, Geophone and Prologue artist Mike Parker ensures the deepness remains with the shuddering textural journey below that is "Currents" whilst Reeko opts for a groaning industrial approach on the excellent "Blueshift".
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you've provided to them or that they've collected from your use of their services.