Sorry for being late with this one, but better late than never they say! I hope you might find something you like across these thirty-one albums and EPs. Also, instead of a Q4 post, I'll be doing my yearly roundup for 2023 in late December!
Various - The NID Tapes [The State51 Conspiracy]
This is a compilation of tracks taken from archive tapes that were recently rediscovered by Emptyset's Paul Purgas. They were recorded in India's first electronic music studio, the NID between 1969 to 1972. The studio was outfitted with a Moog modular system and tape machines by David Tudor while on a stay in India.
What's above all striking here is the markedly loose and free-spirited feel that is very different from the meticulously composed early electronic music that came out of the classic European studios of the 40s and 50s. Instead, the NID Tapes evoke people playfully engaging with the studio, just casually seeing where this improvisational dialogue with the machines will take them. This ethos makes for some really interesting results, especially on the S.C. Sharma tracks entitled "Dance Music" that almost sound like 60s proto-techno.
Knopha - Kwong [Mood Hut]
"Corundum (feat Voision Xi)" is a gorgeous interlude with seductive organ chords, wide layered vocals and a dark and melodic bassline. "Corondrum" is an equally stunning house version of the same source material, with chopped vocal snippets, warm delay throws, a dubby bassline and slick plucked stabs. Two pieces of joy.
Roll Dann - Livro de Família [Hayes]
The latest EP on Lisbon's Hayes label delivers on the label's ethos of smart and playful modern techno slammers. "Irmaos no Cais" opens with compressed reverberant chords that drop into a massive booming reverb rumble. "Cinguenta Sengudos" hones in on a great rolling and thrusting groove, while "Castanha" goes a bit deeper with dark filtered stabs over slick drums.
Catherine Christer Hennix - Solo for Tamburium [Blank Forms]
Solo for Tamburium is an eighty-minute live recording of looped and overdubbed revolving drones that endlessly cycle through new variations and interpretations. A journey towards the cosmos.
Vorm In Geluid - Volume 3 [Will & Ink]
This new project by Amsterdam mainstays Malin Genie and Yaleesa Hall has the feel of a studio diary, presenting quick and loose live jams. Volume 3 focuses on dubby hardware excursions with gooey basslines, rich filtered chords and loose drum machine programming. This is unashamedly loopy stuff that opens with little fanfare and sticks to its basic arrangements, putting the focus on the live tweaking of the machines.
Roseen - Motor [Frameworks]
This one’s a sleek purist techno two-tracker. "Motor" is deep and rolling, with a dubby low-octave chord sequence that slowly opens up over the course of the track, supported by classic 909 drums and phasing sci-fi pads. "2 Hours Left" centers on a buzzing raw synth sequence that is filtered and twisted in all sorts of motions, ending up somewhere in between a hoover and a 303.
Shackleton & Wacław Zimpel - In The Cell of Dreams [7K!]
Sam Shackleton has long looked towards the cosmos. His latest collaboration with musician Wacław Zimpel and vocalist Siddharta Belmannu aims straight for the great outside with grand sweeping vocals, droning synths and alien instrumentation, adorned by subtle FX and processing.
Altinbas - Reshape [Fuse Imprint]
Classy and lean detroit techno fare on the new label of Brussel's legendary Fuse club. "Hunt" is a darker track with discordant chords, while "Sphaere" calls back to the style of mid-90s Kenny Larkin with dry, wooden drums and a simple melodic three-note riff. My favorite is "Reshape" though, a deep and uplifting track with a pulsing bassline and liquid filtered chord sequence. The loose and swinging 909 programming adds additional peaks and throughs in energy, culminating in classic sizzling and saturated 909 rides.
Keith Fullerton Whitman - A Stable Environment [Going In]
A Stable Environment is a sublime, hour-long drone piece that conjures the sonic imagery of a fantastical and serene underground waterway with gently flowing samples of water and slowly shifting and drifting resonances. A purifying listening.
Amir Alexander - Chasms [My King Is Light]
House veteran Amir Alexander makes an appearance on Thomas Melchior's My King Is Light label. Fittingly, he delivers extended minimal house tracks with light, careful drums and a large emphasis on melody and emotion. "Chasms" is a fifteen minute long track that converges around a mourning, reverb drenched sequence. The drums are loose and jammy, with a bouncy bassline, swinging hats and satisfying clap fills. Later on, pitched-down RnB vocal samples, a short piano sequence and dramatic pad swells add to the track's mournful melodrama.
Overloook - DROOGS014 [DROOGS]
Two killer techy drum & bass tracks in the style of mid-90s Source Direct. "Tarot" kicks off with misty pads that drop into heavy sliced and filtered breaks and a mean distorted 808-style bassline. "Detour" has a more modern and steppy rhythm with a killer snare, nocturnal pads and classic Photek-style Kung-Fu movie stabs. One of the best homages to golden era drum & bass I've heard in a while.
Thurlow Joyce - Lemon Citrus [NAFF]
On Lemon Citrus, Thurlow Joyce delivers two extended and proggy dub techno drifters for the A-side. Priori's "Definitely Canadian House Remix" on the b-side is a dubbed-out vocal house track with a warm bassline, lush chord swells and echoing vocal fragments that is both melancholic and cozy.
Phil Berg - Raid [SK_Eleven]
Phil Berg is known for his skillful modern techno DJ sets. On his latest EP Raid, the title track comes in with a teethy lead sequence, swooshy background pads and funky, driven 909 drums. "Y-Axis" has a hypnotic, bell-like sequence that forms a call and response pattern with a stabby, string-like sound. Glistening pads add drama in the background, while the drums consist of a delay-drenched clap pattern and rapidly panning open 909 hihats. Closer "Sinara" is a deeper track with a slightly melancholic vibe that still packs a punch.
Rod Modell - Ghost Lights [Astral Industries]
Rod Modell aka DeepChord's latest on Astral Industries showcases his ambient side with one long (split into four parts) luminescent atmospheric scene.
Carlton Doom - Fine EP [Hypercolour]
"I'll B Fine" stages a bizarre duet between a pitched-down vocal sample and a guttural bandpass-filtered formant bassline. The result is a strange, but addictive earworm. "Cesspool" is a dark track with manic breakbeats, a brooding bassline and nervous, atonal stabs. The last track "I Miss You" is a more emotional number with trance-y arps and haunting strings.
Chlär - Dance Instructor [Nix]
The killer track on this EP is "Vital Force", a funky and uplifting banger packed to the max with various sonic ingredients. There's thick, galloping drums, a saturated, driving bassline, cheeky cinematic string stabs, a rhythmic vocal sample and stabby synth chords. "Galvanizer" on the flip isn't shabby either, a darker track with an energetic rolling tom bassline and a manic detuned sequence.
Purelink - Signs [Peak Oil]
Purelink just know how to nail this kind of hazy late-night ambient dub. Signs is the musical equivalent of a warm, gently flowing body of water, chock full of pillowy rhythms, meditative basslines and warm, enveloping padscapes. A varied palette of incidentals and noises keeps things interesting in the background.
Orbe - El Bosque de la Niebla [Semantica]
El Bosque de la Niebla channels the vibe of its foggy cover art with droning sci-fi techno tracks that are driven by rolling and rumbling basslines, hypnotic sine-bleep sequences, noisy backgrounds and nicely programmed 909 drums. For the grey days.
Hoavi - Phases [Gost Zvuk]
Hoavi's latest is a strange mini album of loopy structuralist experiments in percussive synthesis. These tracks make do without traditional drum sounds and center around murky and noisy synth patterns that also serve as the primary rhythmic elements. My favorite is "Phase 8", a disorienting, but addictive number who's rapidfire percussive sequences are almost tripping over themselves as they keep moving in complex criss-cross motions.
Alix Perez & Headland - Hellion [1985 Music]
Hellion is an album of dark and noisy neuro drum & bass exercises. Everything is notched, phased, flanged, filtered and compressed to the point where only a fuming substrate remains. While there is little change in direction across the album, it remains captivating as Perez and Headland keep finding ever new ways to destroy and warp their sounds.
Barker - Unfixed [Smalltown Supersound]
After a string of influential "no-kick" techno records, Sam Barker flips the script and goes heavy on the kicks with this new EP on Norway's Smalltown Supersound. Still, Unfixed has all the classic ingredients of a Barker record with its agile percussion, lush, filtered chords and smart background ornamentation - now underpinned by chugging, yet nimble kicks and basslines that are distorting and modulating with immense vitality.
Xades - Qlu [Banoffee Pies]
This single's original track is a lush, vocal-driven ambient-pop track with just the right amount of exuberance. The two remixes by Berlin underground favorite DJ Kate Miller and producer Syz strip the track down for the dancefloor with more clubby and functional remixes.
Elizabeth Parker - Future Perfect [Trunk Records]
Somehow, they keep on unearthing yet more forgotten pioneering women electronic music composers. Elizabeth Parker was a part of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop from the 70s up until its ultimate dissolution in the mid-90s. Future Perfect is the first anthology-compilation of her work. Despite the fact that the material almost entirely consists of commission work for the radio, there is a stunning amount of musical personality at display here, with the many pieces ranging from classic bleepy 50s sci-fi sound effects to gorgeous, Vangelis-like soundtrack work.
RVSHES - Mantis 12 [Delsin]
RVSHES is the new collective project of DnB explorer DB1 and grime-techno don Logos. On this EP for Delsin Records’ Mantis series, they hone in on lean and surgical techno steppers with a psychedelic edge that revolve around synthesized FM drums and clanging percussive synth patterns. Meditative and hypnotic tracks that are simultaneously abrasive and smooth.
Tammo Hesselink - Beam [Nous’klaer Audio]
On Beam, Tammo Hesselink goes deep with an album full of subtle and atmospheric techno steppers. The overall mood remains consistent, but moves through different takes on a similar theme. Opener "Function as Foils" is soft and balming, while "Don't Forget" is darker and tougher. "Sorry About That" is glassy and atonal, while the closer "Etseled" employs rapid percussion, bubbling noise figures and uplifting pads.
Seba & Paradox - I'll Wait / Amara [Paradox Music]
Seba and Paradox are back with another EP of atmospheric breakbeat gear. "I'll Wait" is wide and sweeping, with shimmery pads, melodramatic vocal swells and a cheeky bassline that alternates between a distorted 808 and a classic reese bassline. "Amara" recalls classic atmospheric jungle with heavy, rapidfire breaks and jazzy keys and pads.
Windowseeker - tranquil flutter engulf my heart [3XL]
3XL has been putting out some of the more interesting ambient out there lately, and this one's no exception. Far from any kind of "wallpaper-ambient", tranquil flutter engulf my heart goes all out on heartfelt, trance-y melodrama. The highlight is "crumble crack dawn song" with its emotive supersaw arpeggios, mourning bassline, siren-song vocal chops and glassy streams of noise.
Cocktail Cool - Just Listen [Chiwax]
Just Listen is classic deep tech-house in the best tradition of labels like Plastic City. The title track has all the right ingredients with a deep, burrowing bassline, lush chords and pads and properly swinging house drums. My favorite here is "Succession" though, a ten minute deep banger that keeps building and building with a killer bassline and seductive vocal throws.
Colleen - Le jour et la nuit du réel [Thrill Jockey]
On her latest album, Composer-producer Colleen hones in on simple sequenced Moog motifs that gently cycle around themselves, drenched in thick layers of warm analog delay. Le jour et la nuit du réel finds joy in its simple back-to-basics approach.
Teqmun - Organic Oscillation [Flippen Disks]
Organic Oscillation is an EP of nimble techno-IDM hybrids. Breaks-y rhythms cycle through bursts of carefully synthesized percussion, while gently fluttering arp fragments and soft chord swells fill out the space above.
John Wall - Stult [Self-Released]
John Wall is a veteran composer of experimental computer music. Stult consists of three short and dense exercises in digital sound sculptures that are bent and transformed at a breakneck pace, with sounds constantly morphing between plastic, glassy, metallic and even wooden textures. Nonetheless, there is a strong sense of composition to these tracks, since the timbral transformations always seem to follow logical and pleasing patterns. Although alien at first, this kind of music can end up making for an intensely satisfying listen.
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