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Dublin's Minos makes his debut on DBA with a rich spread of rollers covering the techno and electro diaspora backed by a Claude Young remix. His influences are techno, IDM and metal, from Downwards to Jeff Mills and Drexciya via Slayer. Originally from a live music background, he was converted to techno after hearing Mills play at the now sadly defunct Twisted Pepper in Dublin, and the Sorry I'm Late EP will leaves little doubt that it's Detroit's own brand of high energy, sci-fi sounding techno that inspires his work.
Minos has steadily been making moves in Dublin's fertile underground scene for the past few years as both a DJ and producer. He first released music as Urizen on BRW Records and is a part of Dublin collective wherethetimegoes with a number of other local artists. Never one for sticking to the same method, his production setup utilises both analogue gear and software to create music that continues to build on techno's history while looking to the future.
Claude Young Jr. is universally acknowledged as one of the most respected producers and djs to come from the legendary home of techno, Detroit. His best known studio mixes include: AX-033 Claude Young 'Thoughts Of Phutura' (the only official mix compilation for Jeff Mills' Axis Records) and his legendary Claude Young DJ-Kicks Mix for K7!

Adam Arthur's tunes like "Down Down Falling Down" are pure somnambulist groove, a uniquely bizarre form of hypnosis that drifts through the dream state into our realm and back, deeply interdimensional. The loose and dirty power of "When I Touch You" still surprises me every time I hear it, the most gentle yet powerful and compelling sleazy house song I can imagine. Many of his sides are represented here, including his experimental formless ambient side in the shape of "Tearing the Television Sky" and the digital bonus track "The Forbidden Creature". "The Bard's Tale" closes the EP and balances his hypnotic dream state logic with Azerbaijani Mugham music in something that feels like it would be equally at home on Livity Sound. Live the dream with his debut release on Interdimensional Transmissions.

The bird flew high through the city between the tall, towering buildings. It could not see the mess which lay down below amidst the streets for it was surrounded by the deep blue glow of the morning light and the mirrored reflections of the city skyscrapers which stood tall like monsterous dinosaurs atop the sprawling landscape. There was not a cloud in the sky today as the smacky dove left London for the last time. It would travel south above the sea to a place of warmth far, far away.

Originally released on Axis records! This story takes place around the year 3216, in which space travel is something completely contemporary. Humanity is going too far in pushing Mother Nature's boundaries, and now the planet is in danger. Only one person is capable of saving Earth from destruction. Our protagonist travels to other planets to see if there is anything that can aid him in calling the downfall of our home world to a halt. The fragments on this disc are actually snapshots, made in between traveling, amid the rushing realization that a resolution to save the planet must be found. Quickly. DJ Surgeles has a longstanding professional relationship with Detroit legend Jeff Mills. Connected through music, DJ Surgeles learned the insides and tricks of Jeff. Many conversations and meetings over the years led to this new concept, The Escape Velocity. DJ Surgeles has also collaborated exclusively with Jeff Mills on the concepts Something in The Sky and Strmrkd, and produced a special Axis Records 10 year anniversary release, The Bells: DJ Mix back in 2007. I wanna thank Jeff Mills for making this album happen.

Jackson Ryland comes in focused and ecstatic with his first vinyl release under his technoid alias JR2K. Jackson is based in Washington DC as one-half of both Superabundance and Rush Plus. He’s recently released on Peach Discs and Pleasant Life, showcasing his knack for presenting energy as a delicacy. JR2K “Walking Backward” is another illustrious highlight in the savvy DC producer’s already-accomplished underground career. Played on Hör Radio by Kush Jones and supported by Peach, Ciel, Clarisa Kimskii, Ryan Elliott, CMD, Davis Galvin, livwutang, Furtive, Golden Medusa, Lychee, Miley Serious, and Jialing!

The A side opens up whooshy and hard with “ExoGeni Approach”. This illustrates perfectly what I love about Jackson’s style(s)...it sounds like the sickest mid-90s techno track, full of energy and movement while taking in the atmosphere with repose. After the rollercoaster intro, the acidic up-ticks, lush synth layering, and perfectly crunchy closed-hats sink your ass straight through the dance-floor to tumbling free-for-all in the green-screen collage of your daydreams. Wake up…A2 “Call Back” splashes you with a glass of refreshing water…you still got hours at the party, and you’re coming up on some healthE shit…time to get back to that business of dancing your soles and soul away to this driving monorail of euphoric acidic techno. Choo choo choose your own dance destiny, baby!

Don’t expect too much of a breather on the B-side though. “Sun Anthem” brings the solar modular beams on top of a delightfully delayed kick with swinging hats. Sounds like funky lasers, if light had mass and it could creep into your skull and massage the worries right out of your brain folds. The record ends with the titular track blooping, stomping, and clapping all over the dance floor. The end shows just how much of an auteur Jackson is, how he can put his special, funky je ne sais quoi on dance music that will shake you down hard and fast. All four tracks have something unique, but they all proudly say that dance music can be simultaneously defiant and sophisticated, banging and subtle. Cop this slab–don’t sleep!

Armenian artist Davi delivers his third EP on Damian Lazarus' label Crosstown Rebels. Following, Lie Machine, Two Suns In the Sky and Gates Of Babylon, Davi's latest EP displays a more driving sound than his previous releases, leaning into big basslines and pacey percussion.

The title track kicks off with head-nodding drums and sporadic, quick-fire claps while a gnarly synth line winds through the soundscape. A heavily pitched-down vocal adds a psychedelic feel, building tension that's apt for a teeming dancefloor. On the flip, Mirage feels like a dip in the Balearic Sea — warm, rippling and radiant. A thumping kickdrum shapes the mood, meandering between a low-strung bassline and distorted vocals. A potent blend of dark and bright textures.

Armenian-born DJ, producer and musician Davi has followed an upward trajectory over the last decade, releasing on celebrated labels like All Day I Dream, Crosstown Rebels, Radiant, and Rebellion and many more. Support from the likes of Damian Lazarus, Bedouin, Audiofly, Sebastian Leger, Hernan Cattaneo, Nick Warren and John Digweed

Total turns 21 this year, and Kompakt’s venerable compilation series couldn’t have asked for a more auspicious coming-of-age collection. If Total 20 was consolidation against the odds, the Kompakt crew producing for a dreamt-of dancefloor in an uncertain future, then Total 21 feels abuzz and alive with possibilities. Significantly, it’s the first Total in some time that’s streamlined down to a single disc; this makes Total 21 even punchier than usual, a joyous, reflective, and always thrilling 75-minute audio scan of the world according to Kompakt.

As with every instalment of Total, there’s a deft balancing here of Kompakt regulars and new blood. Of the latter, there’s a first appearance by Kollmorgen, remixed by Patrice Bäumel into an astral torch song; Amsterdam’s Nicky Elisabeth, offering up Roman FLÜGEL’s pulsating, arpeggiated remix of “Celeste”; and Captain Mustache swoops down into view, Play Paul in tow, with the dream-like electro lift-off that is “Everything”. Jonathan Kaspar also drops by with a new track, “Von Draussen”, a stealthy and lethal floor-hugger with prowling bass.

Elsewhere, there’s the lead track to Michael Mayer’s astonishing recent EP, “Brainwave Technology”, which not-so-gently spears the tech-futurist babble of AI, transhumanism and posthumanism, soundtracked by one of Mayer’s typically lush, glimmering soundscapes. John Tejada reaches back to the heyday of glitch and dub techno with the gorgeous “Spectral Progressions”, while the brothers Voigt & Voigt, on “Nicht Mein Job”, seem reinvigorated by the interwoven patterns and funky minimalism of the Profan days. Not to be outdone, Jürgen Paape kicks Total 21 with “La Guittara Romantica”, a chiming and lilting lullaby for woozy late-night reflection.

Throughout, it feels as though Kompakt are taking a moment to both breathe in the dust of the past and look forward to a bright future. Perhaps that’s why, on “Fasson”, Sascha Funke seems so confident, with pinprick melodies bouncing around a hall of audio mirrors, or why THE Bionaut returns with “Blue Sky Motor Lodge”, a song so moistly melancholy, so enduringly lovely, it’ll make you weep tears of joy. Robag Wruhme gets a little delirious on the ticking, twisting “No”, and then GUI Boratto mops everything up with the bubbling, bumping glam-stomp “Wake Up”.

That’s not all – spring for the digital and/or vinyl edition and you’ll get a new cut, “Happy”, from Michael Mayer, and Marc Romboy & C.A.R.’s “I Am A Dancer”. But however you choose to play it, now Total’s turned 21, it’s your duty to throw it the celebration to end all celebrations. Let the party begin, and don’t forget to bring a party favo

Astral travel with Cybotron into the meta-narrative of the Parallel Shift, a new sonic fiction that raises many questions about military science of the near-future and the possibility of other worlds.
Descending backward through the rhythms of time, the Skynet module retracts from the hyper-structural society of 2100, edging toward the mid-century modern age teetering on the brink of what was then the frontier of “the future”. The system boots the Infiniti process, morphing into a cosmotechnic vessel coursing the superhighway of burgeoning general intelligence, seeking data from just before “the overshoot and collapse.”
R&D methods, rhythmanalytically applied, dissect the aftermath of an industrial society that burst through the ecological capacity of Spaceship Earth. Fractal visions of war and innovation spike and recede from and into the surfaces of reality being bent and guiding the eyes, ears, touch towards a laboratory in the year 1961. A nuclear expert, Don Lewis, receives orders to decrypt the mysterious black dodecagonal disc known as Fortec and the extraterrestrial biology unearthed in Roswell. He joins a team disassembling Fortec and studying the recurrent dodecahedral patterns linked to the human nervous system.
Through dismantling and probing, the team cycles through a saecular search devoid of finite conclusions, limited by Earth’s intellectual and technological prowess. One 1960s night, Lewis, while meddling with Fortec’s cyborganic innards, accidentally electrifies himself. His cyclotron and missile experience guides him to circuit-bend Fortec, stirring the entity from a mechanical slumber. Lewis and Fortec communicate in resonances, until it drifts back into a tranquil stasis.
The US Defense and contractors, unbeknownst to them, observe this breakthrough. They later permit Lewis to exit military service as the Air Force forms the Foreign Technology Division. Concurrently, MJ12 evolves into CY12, delving into second-order cybernetics. Lewis clandestinely keeps working on Fortec fragments, transitioning from military engineer to musician, pioneering the LEO module, a fusion of Fortec’s essence and audio engineering.
He shares his insights with Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi, aiding the creation of the iconic TR-808. Meanwhile, Fortec branches out, coining “Cyberspace” – a collective illusion of liberty unshackled by physical, political, or spiritual bounds, anchored in the equitable distribution of The Golden Ratio across realities. Yet “Cyberspace” morphs into a chaotic truth reservoir, spilling over into deception.
The Parallel Shift manifests in the perpetual “Now,” a collapsed event horizon where past and future are ensnared in a relentless present, unfurling along a dissolving timeline, overseen by a monolithic simulation under ceaseless watch…
— The Rhythmanalyst aka DeForrest Brown, Jr.

The Label Crowd is back with a new release that's not to miss. Crowd004 is here and it's packed with four explosive tracks from rising techno star 'Luc'. If you're looking for the next big sound, this EP delivers in every way. Luc's unique style is on full display, blending raw energy with cutting-edge rhytms that are sure to lift up the dancefloor. From the intense opener "I Don't Get Down Like That" to the commanding "Do As You're Told," each track hits harder than the other. On the flip side, "The Cold" takes you deep into a dark, mesmerizing atmosphere coming with an OG vocal feature, while "Freak" keeps the energy sky-high, making this 12" heavyweight vinyl an absolute must-have. Dropping on August 30th, Crowd004 is set to make waves in the techno world. Whether you're spinning it at a club or vibing out at home, this EP is the real deal. Don't miss out--pre-order your vinyl now and catch "Do As You're Told" streaming on all platforms. And for those who want to experience it live, join us on August 31st at Denver's Club Vinyl, where Fjaak and Luc will be lighting up the night to celebrate the release!

Amazingblaze returns to home label KNTXT with an exhilarating new release that shows another subtle evolution in his style. His Touch The Sky EP features four standout new tracks that are sure to make a global impact.

Amazingblaze emerged as a pivotal tastemaker in the new school scene, marking his debut on KNTXT in 2022 with his Venture EP. Last year, he further solidified his presence on the label, with the release of two EPs and a remix of Charlotte de Witte’s single ‘High Street’. He has been obsessed with music since a young age and that shows in his productions which blend the inspirations of his youth with plenty of fresh contemporary style. His releases consistently aim to leave a significant mark on the club scene, and this latest EP is no exception. With powerful grooves and emotive synths, it sets the stage for another impactful experience.

Amazingblaze on his new EP: "Touch The Sky is a blend of emotions of early trance with the shape of a modern look. From start to finish it's catching you with pleasant pressure and doesn't let you go. Really proud of this one!"

Charlotte de Witte adds: “Amazingblaze is back and I'm just obsessed with these four tracks. They're all masterpieces, representing his very unique and distinctive sound. I'm very proud to be able to welcome him again on the label and continue to be a place he can call home.”

Opener Touch The Sky is a high speed and fresh techno sound that is laced with euphoric trance synths and a heartfelt vocal. It is sure to get hands in the air and dance floors locked into its spell. Kaleidoscope ups the ante further with more scintillating hard techno drums and flashes of synth that will chime perfectly with strobe-lit clubs. A spine-tinging breakdown features angelic vocals before the drums kick in and power things to the next level. Thank You, God Always is more straight up with hard edge drums and synths that spray about the mix with bright rave energy and futuristic soul and last of all is Habits, an urgent and high speed wave of lush trance techno with a classic vocal stab and more celestial voices drifting up to hypnotic effect.

This is another big release from Amazingblaze that shows he has plenty of new tricks up his sleeve.

Quiet Husband announces debut full-length album

'Religious Equipment' is set for release on 22nd November via Drowned By Locals 'Religious Equipment' is Richie Culver's debut full-length album under his Quiet Husband alias, and is set for a 22nd November release via independent Jordan-based label Drowned By Locals.

'Religious Equipment' drills deep into the gritty depths of industrial techno and noise, pulling no punches with a set of tracks named after opiate blockers or substitute drugs like Methadone and Subutex, which serve as sonic stand-ins for suppressed urges, blurring the line between resistance and surrender. Fresh from his live assault at Berlin's Atonal Festival, the album draws on the brutal, repetitive rhythms of techno, while spoken word passages — including one featuring his mother — cut through the chaos with a deeply personal narrative. From the gates of hell to the empty solace of noise, 'Religious Equipment' paints a harrowing portrait of addiction and substitution, where noise becomes a proxy for silence, and intensity replaces numbness. Accompanying the release is a text by curators Charles Teyssou and Pierre-Alexandre Mateos, which reads as an art piece in itself, mirroring the tracks' exploration of coping mechanisms through fragmented moments of self-reflection, despair, fleeting euphoria, and the endless substitution of one void for another:
It's still early. I cherish these moments with myself. The light is low, I 'm with my book, my map and my can of Coca Cola. It's a moment of pure intimacy, when we listen to ourselves under a microscope. My anxiety turns to delight. It's like the emptiness of a prison administration. The drab corridors of the operating theatre. Public transport season tickets. The taste of the rosemary-flavored aperitif cookies distributed on intra-European flights. I am a lost man… I want to hang myself to the pinacle, in the halo of death, where the self forms its empire. I am a lost man. My solitude is heavy in the nakedness of absence. Tear is linked to intoxication.
Hey. Read Message. How's it going, bro? Two people and I'm yours. Give me a specific time. So I can get organized. Zig Zag Hypergrid. Attack the sun. 0.8. Our existence is an exasperated attempt to complete being. 0.8.
To escape the cruel joy that emerges as soon as the evidence of my misery appears. I'm in a cul de sac, a night of torment where all possibilities are exhausted, where the impossible is rampant. Faced with the impossible, the exorbitant, unmistakable void. My desire is democratic. It wins by default. Drifting as a revolution of everyday life. I have no desire for money or property, or large new cars, or overexpensive homes. I am repugnate by sport, red district, root beers, ultravisible uban spectacle, crass appetite and buying on credit. Let your eyes plunge into the fixed stare of the satyr. I have been in my room for many long nights. My friend called it a desert of desolation.
Would you know accelerate? Beyond the prompt turbo car? I need your bag. Learn then how to substitutes. Dexterity for speed. There is nothing more profound, more mysterious, more pregnant, more insidious, more dazzling than a spoon squared by a single flame. Fibers, pathways, circuits, humming with junctions, messages and messengers Synaptic connexion with neurons, millions, trillions. I could see a new world with my middle eye, a world I had missed before. I caught images behind images, the walls behind the sky, the sky behind the infinites. Its liquid infrastructure... information rushing, it is a revelation.
There are happiness in slavery. Flashing blue and pink light in electric orgasm. The sexual frenzies of factory. I am reloading the same page. I am rampant slut, a golem from the darkroom. I said I have 24 even if I am 43. I pretend I am serbian slut. An Italian aristocrat. A gangstacore booty. But I am just a lost man. Human organism was driven by the avoidance of unpleasure or pain. A primary masochism. Its legal to torture and murder people with entertainment. I am ready to be escort. I can't afford my lifestyle anymore. An unlocked door in the prison of identity. It leads into the jail yards. My brain is the product of telegenetic engineering. An hybrid collapse created by meta-viruses. A prostituted holes flood by cum-pictures and sounds. I am feeling miserable even with this strange serenity, this cool challenge to the world, this smiling and beautiful death in life, or life in accepted death. Oblivion. My fuel banish melancholy, begets confidence, convert fear into boldness, make the silent eloquent and dastard brave. Easy the way that's leads to Avernus, Easy the way… Boredom is waiting for Madam Death.

Track list - Methadone / Kratom / Klonopin / Antabuse / Subutex / Temazepam / Suboxone / Naltrexone / Buprenorphine

Videosphere, the debut album by Kompakt’s latest signing, the London-based artist Lake Turner (aka Andrew Halford), swoons into focus with “The Sunbird”, a teasing drift of lilting, ambient tones, riding out a submerged piston-pulse rhythm. Across its brief 109 seconds, it manages to traverse evocative terrain – something mythopoetic, something both humble and grandiose, a glimpse of the other behind the sky’s curtain. “I wanted to conjure up something resembling an ancient ceremony or death procession,” Turner nods. “Like a hymn to the surroundings of a faraway hill.” It’s both sky-bound and earthen, a ritual incantation to call in the music of the spheres.

The debut album 'Pyramids' comes out worldwide on limited double, green vinyl (including download code).

Pyramids. Jagged teeth pushing through immaculate skies. The ever-changing light. The expansive sense of freedom. The wide open spaces. The textured landscape seen from above. Mountains. Watchful and immobile for thousands of years, weathering seasons, transcending change.

It's December 2016. I've left the London madness to hit the reset button and compose new music in a tiny village in the Swiss Alps. I'm over 10,000 feet high, it's minus 15 degrees and the snow is scintillating under a rich blue sky. I turn around and suddenly this gigantic pyramid-shaped peak is towering over me, staring me in the face. Mind blown. Senses overwhelmed. Perspective. Lightbulb moment. I have my album concept.

I wanted to put into sound my cathartic experiences of the mountains. Every track title was chosen before composing. The title would be a catalyst for visual memories, narrative and overall vibes. I continued developing the tracks on occasional trips to Switzerland, but mainly back in the gritty habitat of London's Hackney Wick. The urban-nature contrast had an impact on the music too.

I use a lot of found sound, stuff I have collected over the years, and a lot of resampled guitar sounds and textures. I love imperfections in sound. Detuned synths. Distortions and glitches. Rhythmic flutters and percussive frenzy. 'Manual' cut-ups. I love moving to house and disco and getting lost in the more melodic side of techno. I love polyrhythms and melodic counterpoints. I love the energy and rawness of a live rock band. I channel all this to create my own sonic palette.

Artwork by Jimmy Turrell, graphic artist and video director who combines a love of handmade collage, drawing, screen printing and painting alongside digital techniques. He has worked for Universal Music, Nike, Lexus, Levis, MTV, The New Yorker, Intro, Capitol Records, The New York Times, Green Peace, Beck, The Prodigy/XL Recordings, Channel 4, The Guardian, GQ, The Times, LA Times, Newsweek, Getty Images, Adidas, Sony Music, New York Magazine, Wired, Glastonbury Festival, and Vanity Fair amongst others.

The cult techno outfit "Teste" digs up and re-transmits sonic archives forming a new 2xlp for L.I.E.S. Full story below.....Artwork licensed from legendary NYC street photographer Richard Sandler in appropriate fashion....lp comes with a giant newsprint poster as well. Teste was still-born by the mid-90’s and with the ensuing Ptsd I had become a Shut IN working on the Amiga Computer for Audio and Video and completely immersed in grisly, depraved art-house cinema. This release pays homage to that time in NYC when I frequented Mondo Kims daily to rent the trashiest films I could find. Things like Richard Kern’s “Fingered”, Nick Zedds’s “They Eat Scum”, Makavejev “Sweet Movie”, Merhige “Begotten” all the classicks! The 42nd Street Mind forever! In retrospect I can’t believe they gave me a membership card! Wish I still had it! Micro Budget, Discontinued Formats. All of the tracks on this release are sourced from decaying tapes (vhs, 4-track, DAT, MD) some of which were encoded to early digital formats to add another layer of artefacts and grit. I can emphatically proclaim these ideas have taken three decades to come to fruition at my present Partner in Teste (Goner) Berlin Facility. One chapter closes and another unfolds! One day it’s 1992 playing absurd Teste gigs in a Sports Bar (Tailgate Charlie’s!) in scenic Hammer Onterrible opening up for Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials! You could just feel the love in that room! Referred to as the “Toilet Incident” by unsuspecting attendees. From that debacle another unfolded in an infamous “final” appearance at the Pure Party in Glasgow Barrowlands 1994 -which proved an unceremonious demise to the first incarnation of Teste… Details like most things from that era are foggy… No insta stories or tweets! Just instant cameras that didn’t always make it out of the rave! After the Teste fallout then embarking on another Techno adventure for an extended stint in NYC from ’95-97. This proved a pivotal time to say the least. Huren becoming a solo entity and the lasting shockwaves with Zhark which was a New York label in those days. Also in retrospect I can say I experienced the end of the NYC of old right when the “NO Dancing” by-laws were coming in. R.I.P Strange?, Sonic Groove (Manhattan),Liquid Sky/Temple, Save The Robots, Soundlab, Tunnel, Twilo, Limelight and others that slip the memory banks… All I knew of NYC when I got off that Greyhound the first time in Port Authority in 95 after an 11 hour drive was from movies. I thought the city was like what I had seen in Abel Ferrara films “Driller Killer”, “King of New York’ “Bad Lieutenant” or the Schoolly D, or Wu-Tang Clan videos! Turns out I wasn’t too far off in a way as this was the era of the Club Kids depravity. Upon reflection my formative clubbing years had an element of Crime in them as I’ve been in the proximity of two very well known serial killers. First in the 80’s when I attended a club Paul Bernardo used to Frequent in Ontario and later on the Limelight NYC with Michael Alig. Definitely casts a sinister tinge to some of the memories. Curious coincidence the party I performed at in NYC was called Killer… And I myself was almost murdered in 2012 but that’s another story…

Originally released on Axis records. Moonlight Serenade Year 3036, the Third Empire of Human spans hundreds of star systems, only accessible by a faster-than-light spaceship. No other intelligent beings have ever been encountered, not until a light sail probe enters a human system carrying a dead alien. The probe is traced to the Ursea, an isolated star system in a thick dust cloud, and an expedition is dispatched. After a search that lasted thousands of years, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. The mission's objective: learn everything there is to know about the extraterrestrial intelligence. DJ Surgeles has a longstanding professional relationship with Detroit legend Jeff Mills. Connected through music, DJ Surgeles learned the insides and tricks of Jeff. Many conversations and meetings over the years led to this new concept, The Escape Velocity. DJ Surgeles has also collaborated exclusively with Jeff Mills on the concepts Something in The Sky and Strmrkd, and produced a special Axis Records 10 year anniversary release, The Bells: DJ Mix back in 2007. I wanna thank Jeff Mills for making this album happen.

Total turns 21 this year, and Kompakt’s venerable compilation series couldn’t have asked for a more auspicious coming-of-age collection. If Total 20 was consolidation against the odds, the Kompakt crew producing for a dreamt-of dancefloor in an uncertain future, then Total 21 feels abuzz and alive with possibilities. Significantly, it’s the first Total in some time that’s streamlined down to a single disc; this makes Total 21 even punchier than usual, a joyous, reflective, and always thrilling 75-minute audio scan of the world according to Kompakt.

As with every instalment of Total, there’s a deft balancing here of Kompakt regulars and new blood. Of the latter, there’s a first appearance by Kollmorgen, remixed by Patrice Bäumel into an astral torch song; Amsterdam’s Nicky Elisabeth, offering up Roman FLÜGEL’s pulsating, arpeggiated remix of “Celeste”; and Captain Mustache swoops down into view, Play Paul in tow, with the dream-like electro lift-off that is “Everything”. Jonathan Kaspar also drops by with a new track, “Von Draussen”, a stealthy and lethal floor-hugger with prowling bass.

Elsewhere, there’s the lead track to Michael Mayer’s astonishing recent EP, “Brainwave Technology”, which not-so-gently spears the tech-futurist babble of AI, transhumanism and posthumanism, soundtracked by one of Mayer’s typically lush, glimmering soundscapes. John Tejada reaches back to the heyday of glitch and dub techno with the gorgeous “Spectral Progressions”, while the brothers Voigt & Voigt, on “Nicht Mein Job”, seem reinvigorated by the interwoven patterns and funky minimalism of the Profan days. Not to be outdone, Jürgen Paape kicks Total 21 with “La Guittara Romantica”, a chiming and lilting lullaby for woozy late-night reflection.

Throughout, it feels as though Kompakt are taking a moment to both breathe in the dust of the past and look forward to a bright future. Perhaps that’s why, on “Fasson”, Sascha Funke seems so confident, with pinprick melodies bouncing around a hall of audio mirrors, or why THE Bionaut returns with “Blue Sky Motor Lodge”, a song so moistly melancholy, so enduringly lovely, it’ll make you weep tears of joy. Robag Wruhme gets a little delirious on the ticking, twisting “No”, and then GUI Boratto mops everything up with the bubbling, bumping glam-stomp “Wake Up”.

That’s not all – spring for the digital and/or vinyl edition and you’ll get a new cut, “Happy”, from Michael Mayer, and Marc Romboy & C.A.R.’s “I Am A Dancer”. But however you choose to play it, now Total’s turned 21, it’s your duty to throw it the celebration to end all celebrations. Let the party begin, and don’t forget to bring a party favo

At the very coalface of the UK rave/breakbeat/techno/call it what you like scene since the 1990s, Jerome Hill is something of a hidden treasure amongst the plethora of DJs and producers to have dropped both bangers and bloopers over the ensuing three decades. With minimum of fuss and fanfare, Hill has steered record labels like Super Rhythm Trax, Don’t, Fat Hop and Hornsey Hardcore to revered acclaim, as well as firing out a consistent stream of releases for imprints such as Matthew Herbert’s Accidental Jr, Exalt Records, and I Love Acid, to name but a few.

Surprisingly, ‘Flow Mechanics’ is Hill’s debut album after a production career that kicked off in 1998 as one half of Groove Asylum. And its collection of unabashed acid and rave bangers is a perfect fit for the Hypercolour label, whose personnel over the last few years has included Luke Vibert, DMX Krew, Shelley Parker and Gary Gritness. Tracks produced directly for club play; the album features 8 cuts destined to fit in cross-genre sets.

With pumping electro cuts such as ‘Deafening Lull’ and ‘Knob Jitter’, four to the floor acid stompers like ‘Walk The Plank’, the mutant garage of ‘Brought Up Badly’ and the house groover ‘Stax Had The Funk’, ‘Flow Mechanics’ is a joyous romp through rave’s sound palette, replete with playful samples and skits (featured on the vinyl LP version), and a mischievous demeanour that affords the listener an lively album that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Local Action is proud to present Cyclorama, the long-awaited debut album by Ariel Zetina.

A resident DJ at Chicago’s iconic Smartbar, a long-standing Discwoman family member and a key part of the city’s dance music and Lgbtq+ communities, Ariel has established herself as one of the most exciting electronic artists operating today - through releases such as 2020’s acclaimed MUAs at the End of the World and 2017’s Organism, and her meticulous approach to DJ mixes - as recently evidenced on Sestina, her 2020 contribution to Mixtape Club.

Written across 2021 and honed this Spring, Cyclorama is Ariel’s most impressive and all-encompassing work yet, showcasing her as a producer, vocalist and also curator, pulling together an ensemble cast of her peers in Chicago (Cae Monāe, Mia Arevalo, Dannn) and some of the most exciting names in contemporary club music (Violet, Bored Lord).

Conceptually, Cyclorama draws heavily from Ariel’s background as a theater writer and producer. Popularized in 19th century German theater, a cyclorama (or cyc) is a large curtain, placed on the back wall of the stage. This creates an illusion of extra depth in the background, and often is used to represent the sky. In Ariel’s words, “I imagine all the tracks on this as the lights and action projected onto the cyclorama. The whole album is like the cyc, a representation of the sky. Or an imagined sky. An imagined dancefloor. An imagined theatrical production.”

As well as drawing conceptually from Ariel’s background in theater, the album draws on a personal level from Ariel’s journey as a trans woman of color - most directly on Cyclorama’s three vocal tracks, ‘Gemstone’, ‘Slab of Meat’ and lead single ‘Have You Ever’.

On ‘Have You Ever’, Ariel collaborates with Cae Monāe, a dear friend and fellow trans woman of color. “‘Have you ever been with a girl like me before?’ and all the lyrics refers to the fear and anxiety that cis men who are attracted to trans women feel, and also any woman that doesn’t fit the mold of a stereotypical woman”, Ariel explains. “Cae and I - and many trans women - have been in so many situations where society tells cis men they cannot be with trans women and this explores that and gives power to all trans women in this situation. The techno reflects that, as well as the “Spell my name” section at the end, showing the true power of trans women.”

On ‘Slab of Meat’, Ariel delivers a hypnotic solo vocal performance that builds in intensity with each line (“I am treated like a slab of meat both emotionally and sexually sometimes, especially one left in the freezer on the back burner. Why did you bring this meat home from the market? For what? You’re wasting meat!”), while ‘Gemstone’, a collaboration with Mia Arevalo, continues the empowering themes of ‘Have You Ever’ in a different context:

“[‘Gemstone’ is] a call for trans women to take time with your transition because it will all happen eventually. As two girls who have started our transition almost a decade ago, I think we have both seen that we have always needed to take our time to take our time. Reminders not to rush or compare yourself to other girls. I love the metaphor of gemstone months representing different periods of transition. I’ve been so many different women in recent years, and I'm excited to continue my journey.”

It’s immediately followed by album closer ‘Tropical Depression’, the title of which is a reference to Ariel growing up with tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes affecting her hometown of Jacksonville, Florida as well as her family in Belize City:

“This track for me is about living day to day and continuing while dealing with my really intense clinical depression. The sample comes from “Why can’t you let me go?” but is supposed to be transformative and not necessarily legible. How we hold on to our trauma and depression like a protective shell. This is an attempt to deal with it in a different way.”

The Cyclorama album cover, directed by Dylan Bragassa, stars Ariel alongside Monāe and Arevalo in an imagined theater production. In Ariel’s words, “a theoretical performance starring only trans women of color - I wanted an ensemble shot to represent the ensemble nature of this album! Love how Dylan combines so many ideas to create a very unique image that asks so many questions.”