DJs: Most Charted - Techno - Most Charted In September 2012

Review: The trans-Atlantic pairing of Kyle Hall and Funkineven inaugurated their Funkinevil collaboration with the much anticipated plate Night, probably the first of many twelve inch shaped emissions to surface in the coming year. Setting the tone with the dextrously smokey "Intro", this twelve inch essentially pairs off the rugged, flatulent sounding DJ tool that is the title track against its smoother B Side counterpart and fans of either producer will need little additional persuasion to indulge here. The way that the percussion is almost spat out of the speakers at you on "Night" is just one reason why the track lives up to their new name, with the intermittent distorted chants of "evil" voiced throughout making for a neat reminder. In contrast, "Dusk" lets in more of the boogie infused swinging Eglo lightness, the moment those keys rise through and align being a mere shade short of sublime. "After Dusk" proves to be a fitting final act, all too brief but allowing Underground Resistance Timeline band leader Jon Dixon centre stage to show off his keyboard skills.

Review: Robert Hood is techno's undisputed minimal master, but previous instalments of Nighttime World - especially the jazz-fuelled inaugural release in 1995 on Cheap - have afforded him the opportunity to go off script and indulge his conceptual whims. Will he do the same again on Motor? The answer is a resounding yes. Inspired by Julien Temple's 2010 documentary Requiem For Detroit?, which charts the fall and decline of America's former car manufacturing hub, the album is full of references to the effects of man's interaction with technology. If Kraftwerk's shimmering Man Machine was a testament to the benefits of humans harnessing technology, then Motor is the gloomy riposte, emerging from the rubble of a shattered metropolis to tell this sad but compelling tale and crucially, to offer some hope for the future.

Review: Frak continue their charmingly idiosyncratic assault on our techno affections with this killer induction into the Sex Tags operation - a label some would argue is directly influenced by the mysterious denizens that operate under the Frak name. Paying homage to the imprint upon which so many Frak releases have flied under the radar of wider appreciation, the Borft EP brandishes three supreme cuts of electro leaning acid techno that allude to no higher design than perfectly fitting the sweatiest moments of your desired club land experience. The deliciously rugged third track is a particular vintage Sex Tags tool and there is the added bonuses of a particularly smudgy remix from DJ Sotofett which is executed in a manner that's almost heavenly.

Review: Now exclusively helmed by Boddika now that his Instra:mental cohort Jon Convex has moved on with his own Convex Industries imprint, Nonplus enters a new phase of its existence. Those worried that the change in management will mean a dip in quality should rest easy however, as the veteran Canadian producer Basic Soul Unit is tapped up for one of his best releases to date. There's no bells and whistles with these tracks; "Swept Up" revolves around a raw breakbeat and rugged analogue one-note bassline, giving way to a wash of pulsating filtered chords and deep melody, while "Mindstorm" utilises muffled percussion and a sludgy but frenzied acid line, but there's no denying the craftsmanship on display. Not many producers can create techno that's satisfyingly deep and has industrial rhythmic tendencies, but this release positively nails it.

Review: Dusting off his CUB alias for his first solo release since last year's In A Syrian Tongue on Blackest Ever Black, Karl O'Connor returns with a typically relentless pair of techno missives. Leading with 2010's "C U 1", O'Connor utilises dry, stripped back syncopation with a tribal menace and tumultuous industrial abrasion to create one of his typically simple but heavy hitting productions. On the flip, he provides a "Funk Mix" of the previously unreleased "C U 2" which is credited to O' Connor's Ugandan Speed Trials alias, maintaining the same sense of rhythmic power, but going more explicitly heavy on the abstract outburst of raw analogue voltage. This probably goes without saying, but this is a must for anyone who is even remotely serious about techno.

Review: A new Full Panda release has landed. These guys have been putting out some deliciously leftfield techno since 2009 and it's always great to see a label which proposes new ways of delivering a genre. This collaboration between Yuka and Stanislav Tolkachev starts off with "Element X", a perplexing frenzy of melting bass lines and squawking melodies which mould to create a strange journey into outer space. "Chlorum" gives the impression of a chemical substance both in name and in tone, where filtered, tinny sounds are moved forwards by a hefty bass drum. There's no mercy over on the flip, with "Self-Renewal" and its militant use of reverbs, delays and growls; but things turn truly bizarre on "Hexapoda", another medley of phantasmal melodies and disjointed beats. Impeccable arrangements from this otherworldly label.

Review: After Hakim Murphy and Ike Release inaugurated the Innerspace Halflife project earlier this year with a sublime debut on the former's Machining Dreams imprint - they now grace Aroy Dee's ever excellent MOS Deep label with a further enthralling journey. Even if the aforementioned Cosmology EP passed you by, you should be familiar enough with the respective solo endeavours of both producers to be suitably excited by "Wind". You won't be disappointed either, with the track unfurling from its icy origins into a monstrous arrangement dominated by the fluctuating acid bassline and razor sharp hi-hats, while the soaring chords that intermittently spread expansively over proceedings add brief moments of Utopian calm amid the relentless jacking pressure. This is complemented by a solo Ike Release cut in the shape of "Phazzled" which adopts a more atmospheric tone as ever present clouds of analogue fx add a hazy sensation to the strident drum programming and woozy chord arrangements - quite aptly described by MOS Deep as "classicist house with a future perspective".

Review: Brandishing an obscure name reminiscent of some forgotten audio format and accompanied by little to no information as to who was responsible for the music, MPIA3's arrival earlier this year via a 12" for Avian cut a swathe through the sea of mysterious techno thanks to its overdriven 303 heavy potency. A swift return to the imprint impeccably curated by Shifted and Ventress is afforded here, arriving on clear red vinyl and printed A5 insert and sporting two further examples of MPIA3's undeniable craft for no-nonsense techno. "Ely" is perhaps the more unhinged of the two, swiftly launching into a hammering 4/4 refrain cloaked in a raw, gated bassline which occasionally descends into full blown acidic chaos. The superbly titled "Squatter's Dog" is slightly slower yet equally well malfunctioned, practically bleeding sparks of bright green electricity.

Review: Perc Trax is notorious for delivering colossal levels of four to the floor power and this latest slab of techno wax stays true to their policy. Truss is back again for the label and begins with "Ganymede", a sweltering beat filled with metallic synthesizers which fit suitably within the skeleton of the track, a spawn of the now familial relationship between techno and so-called UK bass. Skirt takes care or remixing the original and transforms it almost entirely, reducing the clanging sounds to form a squelching, neo-acid piece with a pounding bass drum. Label boss Perc takes care of the second remix and comes in all guns blazing, with a skippy, shot-like sound leading the way for another cavernous mutant bass to smother its way over the half-step beat. Lastly, the swampy drums and melodies on "Hackney" are contained without allowing them to be released into another raucous techno pummelling. Who knows what could happen...

Review: The legendary Mote Evolver is back with another ferocious slab of UK techno. Label favourite Psyk gives us a blow to the head as soon as the needle touches down on title track, "Distane". Repetitive keys swing back and forth with mighty force; followed by "Isolate", another triumphant techno bomb filled with muffled static and a feverishly hissed percussion. For the B Side, Psyk takes us further down the bouncing rabbit hole on "Rdmn", and completes his rave injection with "Main", an almighty, stripped number worthy only of a gigantic dark room filled with bass bins.

Review: The sporadic Paranoid London imprint returns with another single from the outfit devoted to championing acid tracks with old school production values. The A-side features "Paris Dub 1", a bass heavy example of understated 303 manipulations complete with snappy 808 percussion, which is complemented by an instrumental version on the flip for those who like their acid pure. Rounding out the 12" is a cut recorded and improvised entirely live at Manchester's Warehouse Project in 2008, but sounding like it could have been lifted from the mixer of an acid party from Chicago in '85.

Review: Here's something a little different from the always-impressive Cottam. Having dazzled with his murky but quietly uplifting deep house productions, he steps back in time to his early days as a producer of woozy, darkroom techno. According to Cottam's blurb, these two tracks were produced some years back and recently discovered in a dusty corner of his hard drive. "The Long Dark Journey" is particularly good, sounding like a paranoid take on the darker work of Sheffield duo Crooked Man. "Untitled" is slower but no less effective, coming on like a smacked-out trip into some dark, German basement.

Review: The ever-dependable vinyl arm of the Dutch deep techno stable Field Records continues apace into its eighth outing with four carefully selected inner space travellers perfectly suited to the hazy end of the party. Artefakt kicks off with a brooding jaunt through interlocking 4/4 grooves and luscious Detroit pads, while Mark Du Mosch opts for a more punishing tone to his fuzzed out techno. Steffi locks in for a smooth and focused bath of deep house, while Area Forty One switches things up with a refined and textured take on electronica propelled by a prominent broken beat.

Review: Samuli Kemppi is back with another powerful cluster bomb on the Komisch label. The man's been responsible for some seriously weighty doses of techno and right from the start, "Escape" picks up from where he left off as Basic Channel-like chords and a hypnotising dub beat fuel the track from beginning to end. For the first of the B Sides, Kemppi chooses "Hostile", a menacing bass drum creating the path for another portion of early morning 4/4 antics; and finally, "System" slows the pace down to form a sludgy, mutant bass surrounded by cascading hi-hats and eerie melodies.

Review: Serge spans a wide range of sound on the three-track Tarifa EP. "Agua" is a real big room minimal groove, but instead of using bursts of white noise, he lays down screeching, grating riffs that sound like claws scraping across a tin roof. "Wind At Work" seeks inspiration from a different form of minimalism and its bleepy tones are reminiscent of Sleeparchive. However, the more impressive track on this release is "Mir's Mind". Consisting of raw, stomping beats, rasping percussion and a hypnotic chord sequence that's on a loop for over ten minutes, Serge's production is reminiscent of early Force Inc releases.

Review: Having taken some 12 years to reach its 20th release in fine style with that Neil Landstrumm/Matt Whitehead double header, the Don't imprint overseen by Jerome Hill swiftly (for them) usher in their next release which features two sublime 1988 New Beat classics from Zsa Zsa Laboum and HN03. Laboum's "Something Scary" is perhaps the archetypal New Beat track, commencing with a sample lifted from the dodgy 80s B Movie "The Entity" and displaying some excellent percussion and a powerful and obscure acid line - it still sounds excellent some twenty four years later. On the flip is the R&S classic "Doughnut Dollies" from New Beat icon Eric Beysens under his HN03 moniker features. It's grubby industrial arpeggio sounding equally vibrant today - especially pitched way down to -8 like the New Beat guys used to do!

Review: Developer continues his fine run of form with this EP for Gynoid Audio with four tracks of typically driving yet intelligent techno. "Tiburon" opens on a decidedly mechanistic tip, as factory line rhythms drive forward gaseous textures, while "Shade" is decidedly chunkier affair, with shackling hi-hats playing off against deep organ drones. On the flip, "Bodega" fills its rhythmic gaps with shrill bleeps and electro-acoustic tones, but it's "Formu" that's the real powerhouse of the release, as pounding kicks go head to head with undulating sheet metal chords.

Review: The artist otherwise known as Marcus Intalex has been making serious waves over the past year with his techno leaning Trevino alias, and following releases on Martyn's 3024, [Naked Lunch] and The Nothing Special, he steps up to Appleblim's Apple Pips for his biggest release to date, swapping linear 4/4 for something altogether more interesting. "Indulge" is a particularly Drexciyan number complete with breakbeat rhythm and dystopian pads, while "Under Surveillance" is a significantly moodier cut which combines the atmosphere of early dubstep with a jagged electro bassline.