Solar

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RDF, Truck

Some people out there are getting all fancy and shit with their track names, trying to inject some sort of highfalutin air of supreme wankery into their music. Not RDF. They make an evil, 18-wheeling, 16 tonne track of the most corrugate dread-house and slap on a handle that sums it up in one syllable: 'Truck'. Heavy weaponry for harsh terrain!

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Marcellis, Because

To be honest I wasn't in the most able frame of mind when I picked up Marcellis' six track, double pack 'it's-not-an-album' extended player a couple weeks ago. Then again maybe the three nights of cocktails and techno was just the thing I needed to get me into the frame at all. Not having many other touchstones of reality other than the basic senses, I purchased I Am Woman just kind of knowing that I'd regret it deeply if I didn't. Having listened to the album numerous times since then, every time I'm left a little bit more in awe of these six tracks. 'Because' swells with soulful strains of Motown pushing through loosely aligned percussion and a pained yet joyous vocal stretching out from the past. It updates itself with a cool-handed synth arpeggio winding its way through the groove, worming its way into your subconscious. 

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Palms Trax, Late Jam (Willie Burns' Dance Remix)

I don’t know much about lobsters but one thing’s for sure: you name your label Lobster Theremin and you better be bringing some heat to the table, otherwise people going to be making lobster jokes about your enterprise and that ain’t right. Luckily for the aforementioned imprint their crustaceous skills saw them front the considerable talents of a shadowy producer who goes by the name Palms Trax. The Equation EP marks the first outing for the Berlin based producer and it’s a bit of a stunner. Vintage house sounds abound - and no we’re not talking chords-by-numbers obvious Nervous type jams. I mean New Jersey baby. Nu Groove style. This shit is banging.

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Son.sine, Upekah

The New Zealand techno scene has never been much of a going concern, but it has turned out some incredible records. The community has always been small, the parties not as frequent or as frequented as would be ideal, but there is a deep love of quality music. With its first release in 1997, Simon Flower's Nuture label captured the country's most accomplished producers over a period of five years. His own tracks alongside those of producers like Micronism, Clone and son.sine still stand the test of time today, evidenced by Styrax and Delsin both re-issuing old Nuture records this month. For their part, Delsin are re-pressing son.sine's hugely sought-after Upekah EP. The title track is without any hyperbole, one of the most beautiful, desolate moments in the canon of techno ever committed to wax.

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Vakula, Fifth Experiment

Emerging just five years ago, the Ukranian producer Mikhaylo Vityk is without question one of the finest purveyors of house and techno in the world. His tracks are often imbued with a lachrymose finality, whether that's applied to his deep, aquatic house tracks or the harder, often dub-tinged techno he makes. His debut album You've Never Been to Konotop is a true artist album and essential listening if you've never encountered his work before. Actually, it's essential even if you own everything he's done. This track however, is taken from his new EP on the Bandura imprint. Just your typical, mind-blowing deepness from the Ukranian master. 

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Saine, Traces

One of the most sublime new releases I've heard this year, Saine's Halftone EP is full of wondrous, plaintive tones and gentle, undulating rhythms. Leading track 'Traces' already has you with its light patter of piano keys and modulated synth chords before the kick even drops. It unfurls gradually, extending graceful limbs; a ghostly vocal reaches out from the past. Glenn Astro & IMYRMIND provide a stunning, wide screen remix of 'Traces', its ambling, Floating Points-esque vibe shimmering like pitch melting on the hot highway. 

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Mount Kimbie, Break Well

So I guess this is about the time all the armchair music critics are lining up to fight, fuck and fall-out over the latest offering from Mount Kimbie. Personally, I bought the album blind - along with a copy or two of Boards of Canada’s new one, because I knew that whatever Dom and Kai were going to do, it was going to be amazing. There are no doubt numerous threads about the pair not adhering to the strict principles of the hardcore continuum or some such shit like this, but it’s all a load of soapy toss bollocks if you ask me. Wanting an artist to keep releasing the same material time and again is like asking someone to keep re-using the same bathwater. Anyway, ‘Break Well’, with its long, teasing intro and far-too-short middle passage is one of the highlights for me off the album. Due to its short length I can only hope there’s an extended edit on the 12” release; if not I’m going to get chopping and make one myself.

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Benjamin Damage, Delirium Tremens (Robert Hood Remix)

When life gets so infuriatingly complex that you feel the need to literally smash everything down to a molecular level and start all over again, I find that a sturdy soundtrack to this process is needed. I'm not talking about some flouncy, limpid, singer-songwritey shit that someone penned with the last vestiges of their dignity and then attempted to cry themselves to death over. No. I'm talking music to demolish buildings by. Detroit stalwart Robert Hood provides a perfect example here with his brutalist take on Benjamin Damage's 'Delirium Tremens', aptly released on the 50 Weapons imprint. 

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Low Key, Try Me Baby

He may have been known for the most part as a purveyor of classic, Detroit techno, but Claude Young was on a massive house tip for the first part of his career. With unforgettable releases on DOW Records as Dub Street Posse and under his own name with Terence Parker, his early material still sounds impossibly fresh some twenty years later. This one, under the name Low Key is just one example of his prowess. 

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Kyle Hall, Measure 2 Measure

Torch-bearer for next-level, Detroit vanguard shit, Kyle Hall puts his jewels up and issues his debut long player, The Boat Party. As expected of the young producer, it delivers on many levels. It's filled with the crude, intense energy of youth; ideas pushing further but barely staying together, in the process creating something alchemic. When it comes down to it, the focus on the album will be largely aimed at two tracks: 'Crushed' and 'Measure2Measure', both warehouse filling disco/house bombs and worth the price of admission alone. That's not to say the rest of the album isn't good, just that these two tracks will be in the crates of so many DJs this year that they will become as inescapable as the passing of time. Here's 'Measure2Measure'...

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Willie Burns, Run From the Sunset

 Willie Burns has always done his own thing; his tracks take at-times interesting steps but sound all the more unique for it. His latest for Creme Organization seems to refine some of the quirks in his work to produce a 4-tracker of off-kilter heavy-weight techno. Ranging from the euphoric velour rush of 'Pong in a Tracksuit' to the bleep 'n bass-wise 'No Answer', every track will slay a dance floor when dropped at the right time. 'Run from the Sunset' is one for the early hours, daylight crushing the cover of night from your eyes. 

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Dinosaur L, Go Bang!

Record Store Day for me this year was all about three things. The first was GZA's Liquid Swords getting a 4X12" reissue with instrumentals and a chess set. Yes, a fucking chess set! The second was a clear vinyl reissue of Dinosaur L's 'Go Bang!' with the Francois K. and Walter Gibbons mixes taking up a side each of the record. The third thing was the fact that I was on a stag do in the country for the weekend and completely missed my chance to empty my wallet to purchase either of these items. Needless to say that GZA was snapped up in an instant (though I may yet succumb to the as-of-yet rather reasonable discogs prices for this) but after a bit of searching I managed to find the Dinosaur L. If you don't know, Dinosaur L is one of a slew of monikers adopted by Arthur Russell. The man had a voice like an angel (a somewhat disturbed angel, but an angel nonetheless) and when he turned his remarkable talents to disco, shit got magical. This is the Walter Gibbons mix but to be honest I really can't chose a favourite, because Francois Kevorkian's mix is its own special wonder. I very much doubt this is ever going to leave my record bag.

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Minilogue, Atoms With Curiosity That Looks At Itself and Wonder Why It Wonders

We've long known that Minilogue are no strangers to the mystical, fantasy-world of contemporary Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style techno. But where our favourite unicorn riding Swedes have in the past toyed with the concept of fauna (on the Animals LP), this time they're going for a flora vibe, calling their latest album Blomma (that's 'flower' in Swedish). What's the difference? Well, by the sounds of it Messers Mullaert and Henriksson have been ingesting some seriously vivid botanicals, because Blomma is only about a couple of broken synapses away from a full lysergic meltdown. Atoms With Curiosity... for example is a stop-motion acid trance prance through the rainbow meadows of dragon-breath valley, with a slight touch of ritualistic Andean pan-flutery. If its 18 minute length gets you a bit worked up you can always relax over the epic E De Nån Hemma? which has apparently been a big hit at Sea World in San Diego, with many of its killer whales involuntarily ejaculating for its entire 45 minute duration. Obviously the tank cleaners are loathe to play the recording any more than once a week.

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R-Zone, Smile Little Zoe

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that R-Zone is the latest in a long line of pseudonym's for the multiple-personalitied producer Danny Wolfers. It was the spelling of the title of one of the tracks on this EP that clued me in, the same 'houz' popped up on his Seaside Houz Boyz EP in 2011. Wolfers has adopted this new handle in order to put the music first, rather than have people buy a record because of the preconceived hype around a producer. Obviously I'm hardly championing his cause by outing him here, but the only reason I looked into who the producer was on this three track EP was because the music was so damned good. 

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DJ Sotofett feat. Madteo, There's Gotta Be A Way (Vision of Love Club Mix)

I'm imagining that if David Lynch had a bit of a lost weekend and ended up watching Party Monster on repeat for several days, he'd start formulating a few ideas about the follow-up. It would be centered around the hungry ghost of Angel Melendez as he wanders club-land purgatory, searching for Michael Alig and figuring out how to squeeze the life from his body. The only thing is, every club he enters is the same, and for the duration of the movie, Madteo's sexually sinister tones play out over DJ Sotofett's 'There's Gotta Be A Way', mocking the vengeful spectre and just generally scaring the shit out of the audience.

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Vernon, Body Fluids

I don't want to think, I just want to hear those drums, that beating in my brain, that noise, that feeling of rising and falling as those wild hats flange and make their way throughout the room. Those rude, primitive, mechanical rhythms take me back to the future, back to jack. 

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K Hand, Out Yo Mind

Kelli Hand is a true veteran of the Detroit house and techno community. Releasing since the early 90's, she has released 7 albums, around fifty singles, almost as many remixes and has her own label, Acacia Records. I've got releases from her that are dark, brutal techno, sexed-up disco, vocal house, proper electro; she's a hugely underrated yet accomplished artist. Her latest EP is on London lable Third Ear Recordings and is four cuts of bumping house music for the club. Out Yo Mind has those big tribal drums that Hand loves to use, a few expertly placed samples and a ton load of funk.