Garage | 2Step | UK Funky | Bassline Vinyl LP 108 Items

Canadian born, Berlin based producer Aquarian debuts on Dekmantel Records’ UFO imprint with Mutations I & II, a series of two EPs following his debut album The Snake That Eats Itself and his collaborative records as Aqxdm. The series marks his return to club focused solo material for the first time since 2017.

Originally written as inflection points for his typically boisterous and genre collapsing dj sets, Mutations deftly splices the foundational DNA of his earliest productions — electro, hardcore and broken beat techno – with new and vital influences.

Mutations I: Death, Taxes and Hanger finds Aquarian gleefully contorting mid-2000s dnb tearouts, wrong footed IDM and progressive trance euphoria into thrilling new shapes. Fast techno, hi-tek jazz, amphetamine-addled filter house and breakcore join the fray in Mutations II: Delicious Intent as he pushes intensity levels past breaking point. Whichever the touchstone, the results are clear: distinctly modern, highly-propulsive body music with an unapologetically emotive core.

Montreal duo Biochip return to Central Processing Unit with their new LP Crux Alley. The pair of Melissa Speirs and Julian Kochanowski turned plenty of heads when they first rocked up on the Sheffield label back in 2019 with debut drop Synthase. Synthase found Biochip twisting up Braindance, IDM and electro to their own ends, and Crux Alley is an album which hits similar sonic sweet-spots.
It's clear from the off that Biochip have brought their A-game here. Opener 'Mind Bubbles' has no time for pleasantries, dropping the listener straight into a nocturnal IDM-electro groove where bass dances nervily around shadowy synth pads. 'Mind Bubbles' is followed-up 'Polymorphic State', a tune whose laser-gun synth-bass plumbs even more energy into the pair's Rephlex-indebted sound. It's a hugely arresting way to begin an album, and the bold sonics here align Crux Alley with recent CPU releases like Bit Folder's Silicon Frontier and Annie Hall's Fum.
Other tracks on Crux Alley ease up on the frenzied feel of those opening numbers. Take 'Orbital Rendezvous', a cut which is still full of zippy melodies and keening keyboards but whose contemplative strut recalls the legendary electronic music duo referenced in the track's title. There's also a distinct cyberpunk flavour to this track, and this is brought out further on the vivid 'Dopamine City' and 'Tower 13' - it is at these points where Biochip most resemble the work of fellow CPU act B12.
Biochip record their music straight from the mixing desk, an approach that gives their tracks a spontaneous energy and one which sometimes leads Speirs and Kochanowski into novel sonic terrain. Crux Alley's 'Antagonist Part 6', for instance, is a spiritual successor to Synthase's 'Acid Billy' in how the overload of electronics almost pushes it into industrial-techno territory. Furthermore, while most of the LP draws on the Detroit electro continuum of Drexciya, DJ Stingray et al, 'Neutral Current' obliquely recalls the jazz-tinged house of Theo Parrish - although the wobbling synth chords and reverb-laced drums make 'Neutral Current' sound more like an extra-terrestrial reimagining of the Motor City legend's music.
Biochip continue to mark themselves out as one of contemporary electro's most exciting new acts with the Crux Alley LP.
Riyl: Cygnus, B12, Annie Hall, Orbital, Silicon Scally

A generation younger than the founders of the Teklife crew, DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn, DJ Taye was originally a rapper and beat maker before hooking up with the collective and jumping into the world of footwork production and DJing. However, it was Rashad’s untimely passing in 2014 that was the unlikely catalyst for developing the sounds and ideas for this album. He says, "When Rashad passed away I felt inspired to continue evolving the music that I loved so much coming up in this world. So, I had to do something…make something brand new." 100% committed to pushing further the potential of the footwork template, Still Trippin’ is ambitious in its range and scope. Taking two years to formulate, the record broadens the possibilities of the sound, forcing it to adapt to songwriting, and also revives Taye’s talent for MCing and producing beats to which he can rap and sing. Furthermore Taye definitely ups the ante with his complex and precise drum programming, never losing sight of footwork’s ability to confound. The album features a range of guests that span contemporary music; the eccentric, instructive rapping of Chuck Inglish of Detroit duo the Cool Kids is featured on ‘Get It Jukin’, Odile Myrtil, a young vocalist from Montreal, lends her smokey soul to ‘Same Sound’, Fabi Reyna, the editor of the celebrated women’s guitar magazine She Shreds, sings and plays bass and rhythm guitar on ‘I Don’t Know’ and Jersey club queen UNIIQU3 offers production and rapping on ‘Gimme Some Mo’.Also, Teklife members DJ PayPal and DJ Manny assist on production, and DJ Lucky is a guest MC on ‘Smokeout’. Taye is ambitious in his hopes for the album; "I took this as an opportunity to not have boundaries with footwork. Different approaches to our ‘underground’ sound to make it broader. It’s only underground until it crosses that visible threshold.” This album brings all of this to the forefront.

Milano-Bristol connection Bristol NormCore deliver their 8th release, following up heavy hitters from Katatonic Silentio and Kelan, with this tripped out, hi-tek and deftly future-facing, cyberpunk-styled LP of grime and afx type ambience and rhyhtmics, from the producer known as FFT.

Inspired by a long lost tale from dark and cold northern lands, written many ages ago, ‘Neida‘ is the story of a young boy who one day noticed an eerie call, so peculiar and odd that he could not resist but to follow it. While it resonated through remnants of ancient settlings, the boy had to overcome many obstacles and solve numerous quests, journey through mystical forests, foggy mountains and ghostly villages, battle the forces of nature and lose himself in this adventure. Finally reaching the ocean after an exhausting voyage, a mysterious invisible force drew him closer and closer to it, suddenly entranced in a state between consciousness, floating underwater, lured by the siren of the sea.

Original inner sleeve. Tiny sticker tear on front cover.

Latest and last entry in Comfortnoise’ triple set that started with Com05 and Com06.

Cover shows some wear and a tear on the front! Records have some scuffs and slight scratches!