Techno | Minimal | Tech-House 411 Items

UK techno producer Blawan and Italian hardware aficionados The Analogue Cops have reunited as Parassela for a corporate culture-skewering new EP, HFFKEM (Hedge Fund Festivals Kill Electronic Music).

Positive Centre marks the 5th release on his In Silent Series label with 4 tracks of weighted mechanical workouts that feature his honed atmospheric style with brooding scenery and sharp percussive accents. Isolated Loop takes a crunched and spat out growl of an acid synth and blends it with ever developing drum machine patterns as a weaponised techno tool. Tension Arm builds on this with sharp percussion piercing over a hard edged bassline and atmospheric scenery. Idle Roller is a deep, sub-aquatic rhythm journeying to parts unknown with subtle switch in rhythm keeping the momentum going through this textured sound world. Sum Tolerance fractures open with stretched sounds of otherworldly instruments, sludge laden beats and humming bass pressure.

Batongo’s journey into the world of editing continues with discoveries of new landscapes, like with “Calypso”, where tropical echoes and liberating screams invoke your most primitive dance moves.

Razor-N-Tape bring out the big guns for their remix package of the Los Angeles Afro-Latino funk band Jungle Fire.

Drumcode has become a label synonymous with some of the most-cutting edge and forward-thinking techno over the last 20 years. Their artists include both emerging and established names, and one of those well recognised is Enrico Sangiuliano. Now announcing the very first concept album of his career.
Biomorph is born. A very special concept album designed to take the listener on a journey of evolution. A musical adaptation describing how biological and technological advances over numerous generations of time have all started from the same first step in our own biological journey.
Divided into 4 parts, Organisms opens with atmospheric tones, gradually blending complex textures and timbres to begin the evolutional process. The beginning of this section combines full sounding arrangements before stripping it all back to basics. From here it dissolves into the atmosphere. Organisms then progresses into a break-beat influenced, down tempo track using synths to add complexity to the straight, broken rhythms.
Galactic, futuristic elements are found in both tracks in Cosmic Forces. Upbeat, groovy, electronic synths resonate, before 'Hidden T' brings the tension to get things pumped up with stratospheric swirls and twirls to lay down one of the most mind meltingly deep drops.
Metamorphosis is mysterious, its opening beat is a deep and piercing tone that sends the listener into a sensory awareness of their surroundings before breaking into a fully charged, techno track, with Enrico's trademark sounds and textures.
All evolution has an ending.
Two Probabilities shows the positive, starting out evocative and emotional, with a gentle harmony, gazing towards a 'New Dawn'. On the other side of the spectrum lies the negative. This is influenced with a rhythm that articulates the beat of death, mathematical, cold and metallic in texture, it shows the unsustainability of its nature, with a hectic, anxious break beat influenced ending.

One of Brazil's much loved exports Wehbba brings us his first full EP this March.
A no nonsense 4 track offering, and all thoroughly road tested by Adam, they have gained much support from long time Drumcode fans. Eclipse, delivers a low end rumble along with a modulating synth line. Reigning high throughout the track, is the undeniably catchy and unique synth. Leaving this track one to be recognised on dancefloors all over the world.

Coming in hot off their latest Watergate Mix Adana Twins deliver their first EP stemming from the mix itself putting what could be the standout track off the compilation: their remix of Patrice Bäumel’s ‘Roar' front and center. Taking the hugely successful original which could be considered as much a tool as it is a peak time bomb, the duo twist the initial anthem into a climactic, euphoric ride by adding their signature percussion and shimmers of melody while utilizing the original’s spine tingling tension to create an absolutely massive and memorable dance floor experience.

Flipping to the B-side, Adana Twins present ‘Aufstand der Massen’ where they dive into the ethereal corners of dramatic Techno reminiscent of the ‘Jupiter’ EP from early this year creating a flawlessly executed trip into enchanted territory. Having already been in constant rotation of heavy hitters like Solomun and Tale Of Us is proof enough that Adana Twins have a hit on their hands and now it’s time for you to have it too.

Helena Hauff cracks through the ice with Qualm, her new album for Ninja Tune. Titled after the German word “Qualm” (kvalm) which translates as fumes or smoke, this murky feeling runs through the album’s intended lo-fi production quality and translates Hauff’s sound as electro with an uneasy feeling of doubt, worry, and fear, especially about one's own conduct.

Widely regarded as one of the leading lights within the darkened expanse of modern EBM DJs and producers, Helena Hauff has consistently throughout her DJ sets and records created an entire universe of dystopian electro, acid and post-punk techno. Having already racked up releases and mixes for PAN, Blackest Ever Black, Dark Entries, Bunker, and Werk, by this point in her career it would be easy for Helena Hauff to take a step back when locked in the studio and knock out ten or eleven tracks of crunchy loops and distorted acid b-lines. Yet Hauff does exactly the opposite, submerging herself in twelve tracks of raw electronics, that then emerge above ground to soundtrack your own street-level science fiction.

Having spent some proper time with Qualm, we'd say it’s probably the most cohesive and enjoyable record Helena Hauff has put out yet. Treating her productions with the same vigour as her extensive DJ sets, Hauff lays the blueprint for each track with a crushing drum beat that plays on while she searches out new and inventive ways to build up vast blocks of tightly built acidic electro, all put right by her modus operandi of jamming on her collection of machines. In her own words, Qualm is about “trying to create something powerful without using too many instruments and layers”.

Hypnotising yet cutting throughout, Qualm is like a nightmarish vision of the day to day ambience of the Kowloon walled city that is created after dark.