The Elusive Man - Not Forgotten

SpaceTime: 2023

I guess if there was one benefit of FireScope shuttering doors, it forced me to start exploring some of the label's featured artists elsewhere. Not that Darren Nye was an exclusive to the B12 print, indeed release just one EP with them during their expansion beyond being Steven Rutter's outlet. It was a significant step for Mr. Nye's own career though, in that he launched his self-release label shortly after, SpaceTime. I remember bookmarking it almost immediately, but never returned, letting it sit fallow in the massive folder of Bandcamp pages I've saved for future reference. And in that time, Darren's built up a ridiculously robust discography of music, well over one-hundred releases across various singles, EPs, albums, and such. Not just under his own name either, including aliases like PlanktonWarrior, SpaceTime (gotta' name something after the label, I suppose), and, naturally, The Elusive Man.

This alias was the one Darren mostly operated under for SpaceTime, saving his real name for contributions to other labels as he did with FireScope (including a couple items on Neo Ouija just this year). Best I can tell from a skim, this is the outlet for his more traditional takes with Detroit techno, but no way I'm gonna' sift through all his aliases and releases to confirm it. I don't think it matters much where you decide to dive into Mr. Nye's catalogue, as it's relatively consistent throughout. As for why I chose Not Forgotten for my jumping point, I'll let you guess. A). It was the most recent release when I did finally buy something. B). The album's title coyly reminding me that I had, in fact, not forgotten to properly check out SpaceTime. C). The cover art is blue.

Anyhow, as with so many FireScope releases, I don't have that much to say about the music that you couldn't read from so many other reviews of this style. Darren seems quite comfortable sticking to his retro-future techno strengths, such that he can crank these out after any ol' jam session. Maybe there's some items in his discography that get more conceptual or experimental, but Not Forgotten isn't that release. This is exactly as you'd expect from someone influenced by latter-era Artificial Intelligence, which is perfectly fine if you're in the market for that.

Even in particulars, we're hitting familiar beats. The more ambient intro InsideOut, though not so ambient with an actual bassline. The chipper, jazzier broken-beat offerings (Nothing Else, Just In Case, titular cut). The easy cruisin' session (Say Anything). The slightly more menacing electro cut (Clouded Memory). And outright genre dalliance in closer Ace Time Continuum, its almost purely jazz trappings bringing to mind another Continuum's own explorations into such sounds. Just needed a saxophone thrown in rather than those spacey synths, but the organ licks are smokin' regardless. I don't know jazz slang very well.

Could I have picked out a stronger representation of The Elusive Man's oeuvre than Not Forgotten? Probably, but it's a nice appetizer as is.

Sensurreal - Never To Tell A Soul

Beam Me Up!/Frame Of Mind: 1994/2000

We're pretty much at a point where nothing remains outright obscure anymore, so many musical artifacts of yesteryear easily available should you be savvy enough to look for them. I'm not even sure if Sensurreal's debut would count as one such item, what with having ties to Speedy J's first label Beam Me Up!, established when the Dutchman was going from strength to strength. The fact it only existed on his print may not have helped its fortunes though, Beam Me Up! only surviving a few short years. And while Jochem had enough scene clout to have his records released across many labels, this side-project of Gerd and Dirk did not, Never To Tell A Soul remaining an obscurity for many decades.

Now that much of Gerd's back-catalogue is easily available through his Frame Of Mind Bandcamp, there's no excuse to not at least give this one a listen-over. At least, if you've a hankering for some more mint early '90s techno-trance hybrid music. Maybe sliding closer to the realms of ambient techno on occasion? I'm sure that was part of the reason Mr. Paap gave a green light on this record, music following in familiar territory as his Ginger and G Spot albums. Or just wanted to do a solid for some fellow countrymen.

As this is an album from that Cambrian explosion of musical diversification that was the early '90s, you bet Never To Tell A Soul is rife with sonic experimentation. It never gets so overt as, say, The Orb's Orbus Terrum, still keeping a one foot firmly in techno's domain. There are periods where you can hear Gerd and Dirk having perhaps a bit too much fun in the studio with this, primarily on a few interstitial doodles. Or, in the case of the digital re-issue, extended intros and outros of their centrepiece tracks. I guess they were originally edited to fit on the CDs? Regardless, for every sublime bit of nifty beatcraft and melodic techno (dang, does Hardfall ever hit wonderfully at its peak), a little naff slice of obtuse sound experiment and bizarre loop choices creeps in too. Wouldn't be an 'IDM' record from this era if it didn't have that, right?

Right, so perhaps that's why the vinyl version of Never To Tell A Sell focused more on dancefloor functionalism, four extra tracks not on the CD being featured. Essentially doing their own brand of Detroit techno, with that slightly European melodic sense without ever dipping too close to trance's territory. And because you can add any ol' thing to a digital release, we get even more bonus tracks after that, including an outright banger in Anything You Want It To Be which sounds way out of time and place compared to everything else on this collection. Man, so nice everything ends on the Soulstar Mix of Hardfall (the single version, essentially), reminding you why Never To Tell A Soul earned its unheralded gem status all these years after.

Arctic Hospital - Neon Veils

Lantern: 2008

The wonderful thing about techno is how regional flavours emerged even as certain aesthetics dominated at a global scale. Yeah, you can say that about any music, but you'd think a genre that had such regimented roots in Detroit wouldn't have evolved much beyond that. Yet the Germans developed their own take, the UK had their say, various other pockets of Europe would add their voice, and even areas as far reaching as Africa and South America managed unique variants.

Then there's Japan, wherein a mega-rush of industrialized capitalism created a hyper-tech vision of the future wholly unique to their cities, outpacing nearly every other metropolis in the world. In doing so, their brand of techno came off not so retro-futurist or functional as other strains, but something almost jubilant even in the face of cyberpunk dystopia. Ken Ishii was the breakout star, of course, but many other folks came up through this vision as well, inspiring others to follow suite. Even those who weren't Japanese by descent.

Actually, I'm not sure whether Eric Bray isn't native to Japan, though I highly doubt it. Still, with his second Arctic Hospital album Neon Veils, he found a foothold with the launching Lantern, a sub-label of Tokyo print Plop, which he made his home for as long as he kept making records (Going Sun his last one). And why not? His brand of techno definitely fits that Japanese mould, ever evolving with layered sounds and percolating rhythms you could imagine soundtracking some Robot Carnival homage. It sure wouldn't slide in Europe, the folks over there still absolutely enamoured with minimalism. Maybe a little Detroit, when his tracks stray closer to electro, but man, there's just so much spacious sound-design in Mr. Bray's production too. It's like he's showing off cutting-edge technical marvels as much as making dancefloor tools. The sort you'd see at, oh, I don't know, a tech-fair with mecha and animation.

Even the tracks that don't immediately grab you will win you over in due time. Second cut Encompass takes a while to get its electro boogie tech-house bounce going, but man, once everything's layered and shuffling along, such a fun ride. Or Placement By Air, tripping on broken beats throughout, but still sucking you in with subtle sine waves and dubby treatements. Not to mention In Your Image, seemingly stumbling lost in the technical weeds before finding its footing, soon enough looping along with synth leads and pads as close to trance as this album dares. And these are the 'weaker' cuts? Dang, how dope is the rest then?

Pretty darn dope, I'd say, whether as fun techno tools are lovely headphone fodder (seriously, that sonic space!). Neon Veils isn't reinventing the techno pistons by any large stretch, but it's being done so astoundingly well, it's criminal so few seem to know of it. But hey, it was 2008, and Ricardo Villalobos had a new album out. Much more Very Important than some unknown on a far-flung Japanese sublabel.

Jamie Myerson - Moonshot EP

self-release: 2019

Though I can't say I was completely blindsided by Mr. Myerson's newfound, unrelenting commitment to cranking out atmospheric jungle cuts, it does feel a bit singular regardless. That's totally on me, my initial exposure to him skewing closer to his jazzy and downbeat efforts as heard on Ovum Records samplers. That his breaded-butter would actually be this lane was honestly not on my radar. And yeah, he's shown some diversity in this comeback as well – just gander at the lone EP I've thus far reviewed from him, The Influence Of Stars – but spacey d'n'b seems to remain his primary focus. Heck, he dusted off another ancient alias – JLM Productions – just to release more of this stuff on Spatial, a sub-label of ASC's Auxiliary.

Okay, all that sorted/confessed, which Jamie single am I checking out now – there's, just, so many to choose from, right? Right, so why not go back to the start, at least of his comeback, a duo release of Layers and Moonshot. At least, I'll assume they were simu-released, since they both have the same Bandcamp dates on them. As for why I settled on Moonshot over Layers, I thought the latter sounded too similar to The Influence Of Stars to warrant another purchase of space-synth noodling, so went with the one with some actual beats. Still not quite d'n'b though. Guess Jamie wasn't sure if there'd be as much interest in it again just yet. Ah, such innocent times, half a decade ago.

Since we are at the Myerson Relaunch, we're also in synthwave influenced sounds that initially caught my attention after I discovered he relaunched his career at all. Thus opener Universe 25 goes more cinematic, a slow orchestral build with requisite synths reminding us that It Is The Future – The Future Is Now, or however your '80s pulp sci-fi tag line went. The pace picks up with a dub techno groover in follow-up Diegesis, though featuring enough melodic momentum keeping it this side of interesting. Then the titular cut considerably ramps the action up, about as brisk a pace I've ever heard Jamie do that doesn't involve an Amen Break. It's almost, dare I say, trance, though more in that space-synth vein much of synthwave cribs from, but wouldn't quite call it an Outrun track. Finally, closer Kami is a fairly standard electro house track, building well enough for the three-plus minutes it runs.

Jamie would explore these sounds a little more in subsequent releases (mostly the ones featuring artwork similar to Moonshot, care of Julianne Elizabeth). For every one that features steady beats or ambient soundscapes though, it seems we're getting thrice as many d'n'b sessions along side it. And hey, that's great if you're down for that sound – Mr. Myerson remains most excellent at crafting atmospheric jungle. Just don't be surprised if I end up digging into EPs along Moonshot's avenue, as I feel there's interesting talking points to be had there.

Rockers Hi-Fi - Mish Mash

Warner Bros. Music: 1996

Seems ridiculous it's taken me this long to pick up something from Rockers Hi-Fi. As the kick-off artists of the seminal Ambient Dub series from Beyond Records, you'd think they were a shoo-in for top spots on my Want Lists. And indeed, their albums are reasonably cheap on most second-hand markets these days, so hardly difficult in procuring something from their lengthy history. Ah, that may be the kicker though, the bulk of their music coming out under this handle, whereas I was introduced to them by their original name of Original Rockers. That disconnect has always kept them out of my mind as O.G. Ambient Dub artists, even though that's complete and utter bunk.

And it's not like I couldn't have grabbed their first album as Original Rockers - Rockers To Rockers. After all, it got reissued under their upgraded handle of Rockers Hi-Fi a mere two years later once they jumped labels. Yeah, but I wanted the Original Rockers, because, um, purity of memory, or somesuch (original tracks with original uncleared samples too, heh).

Whatever, I'm here talking up their sophomore album, Mish Mash, because I spied it among a Discogs seller's wares while browsing other material. Just because it isn't Original Rockers doesn't mean I can't enjoy some downtempo dub jams. This even has Going Under on it, Glyn and Richard's stab at trip-hop, and their earliest collaboration with future running MC Farda P. And it got a big ol' remix package done by Kruder & Dorfmeister, the far more famous duo who cannot be denied having drawn influence from the Rockers' brand of dubby downtempo vibes. Granted, many future downtempo dub doods would be influenced by them – it pays to be among the first setting the template.

Mish Mash though... Well, it is a bit of a mish-mash of an album. Absolutely you have the reggae inspired tunes, including an eleven-minute opener in The 8th Shade. They also try getting fancy in their sampling, a gentle harp melody quietly playing in Uneasy Skanking before erupting with one of those distorted bass leads. There's even some dabblings of acid jazz with Now I Deliver and 90 Degree Fuzzwalk, including spoken word lyrics from Phoebe One (apparently a London MC of some note). Cool, but as mentioned, all kinda' rambly from an album perspective too, lacking something heavier to stand out from the quickly overcrowded downtempo scene of the mid-'90s.

So I was quite surprised and thrilled to hear Mish Mash go down more techno roads in the back end of the album. Aw man, do I loves me some '90s tribal reggae dub techno. While I wouldn't put Rockers' efforts above those of PWoG and Bandulu, cuts like breakbeaty Paths Of Life, deep groover One With Another, and jungly Queen Of The Ghetto (Ghetto Defendant) are worthy companions to that specifically niche style. Not so much the funk-sampling Copycat (Follafashiondropoffaconkatree) though, but I had to namedrop it here just so you could see how ridiculous the track's subtitle is.

Issakidis - Karezza

Kill The DJ Records: 2013

In some ways, wrapping up that massive Speedy J dive on the Collabs series was perfect. Here I was, finishing one artist's discography, all the while introducing me to a couple others I may never have scoped out otherwise. Obviously I already knew of Beyer and Liebing, but discovering Gerd in those bundles has been an illuminating experience, a treasure trove of material I likely would never have known about. Like, I could have stumbled into it via some other avenue, but it felt more poetic doing it this way: concluding one Dutch techno producer's catalogue, beginning the journey of another.

And so I was hoping such would also be the case with George Issakidis. His collabs' with Jochem were already the most interesting of the bunch, and when I found out he was formerly of The Micronauts, it only intrigued me further. Unfortunately, his Discoggian data revealed precious little. A smattering of singles, a brief stint running a label, then seemingly capping his career off with this lone album of Karezza. Well, I feel like I'd be doing him an injustice if I didn't at least give this one a review, and isn't it handy it can be had for a reasonable penny on the Discogs Marketplace.

Not gonna' front: this was a bit of a challenging album to digest. Interesting, sure, but one that needs more time to marinate in my mind than the short window I typically give myself with these now. I figured I'd be in for some weirdness and abrasive abstraction, but so long as it was coupled with impossibly groovy house and techno, I was up for it. Well, I got that, but dang is it ever hard to describe exactly what it is. Perhaps that's why it didn't get much attention? Who knows a decade later.

Okay, let's give it the ol' college try. Opener Hiva Oa mostly drones over a digital trip-hop beat with bubbly, burbly synth sounds. Second track Summer Solstice ka-lumps along with industrial clank and more atonal noise blasts. Santa Rosa de Lima takes a turn for the Balearic, in a slightly warped way, but at least features some nice strumming sounds and backing pads. Hold My Hand, the clear centrepiece of Karezza at a near fifteen-minute runtime, gets into the muck of tech-house minimalism and digital distortions. Its something that I really shouldn't like, but somehow find myself drawn into. See what I mean about ol' George? Music making that's blunt and off-putting, yet strangely hypnotic too. Like being in the midst of a wicked bender, barely hanging on at the club bar, mesmerized by all the stimuli surrounding you.

The tracks following go more conventional techno, or at least as conventional as Mr. Issakidis' production style will allow. There's also an element of electro sleaze oozing through the seams, which is cool if that's your vibe. And if not, here's an ultra-choppy melodic blast in closer In Love (Dzir Mix), like a drunk-off-his-tits Axel Willner.

Scott Grooves - ITMS (Is This My Sound)

Natural Midi: 2022

I honestly can't remember what prompted me to scope out Scott Grooves again. Though I've liked the music I've heard from him, he hasn't been high on my 'must get everything!' list of artists. Whenever I felt an itch for Detroit tech-house, I tended to drift towards DJ 3000 and his Motech roster. Granted, I haven't really returned to them either for a spell, so maybe I was just feeling fallow for anything in this vein. Could be, or perhaps the cover art of this EP caught my eye when it popped up in my Bandcamp mailing list that continuously sends me notifications.

It's definitely more distinctive among the rest of the Natural Midi releases, a portrait of the man himself drawn by “Chris The Artist”. Most items from this label tend to be minimalist and vinyl friendly, easily ignored when sifting through endless emails. With its slightly cybernetic style, however, I can imagine ITMS drawing me in for a closer look. At least, its the only reason I can think of why I checked it out. Either that, or I just had a random thought of “I wonder what Scott Grooves has been up to?” and this was his latest release at the time. Yes, that long ago now. Time flies when your rate of reviews slows down.

I also get a sense of Mr. Grooves releasing something a little more definitive here than his usual output. The chap's put out a lot, much of it serving more as techno tools or artistic indulgences. Right before this, for instance, he release a four-part mini-series of dialog pieces called Spoken Art, not to mention some forty-five tracks initially exclusive to tape called Machinik. He can be a bit all over the place, is what I'm saying, which is wonderful for satisfying one's muse, but be a bit daunting for those just looking to dabble in a discography. So if going to the source isn't quite enough for you (re: scoping out Pieces Of A Dream), then a tidy EP offering a potential look into his sound seems appropriate enough.

Though honestly, I'm not so sure how accurate this sound is to the grander Scott Grooves lexicon. I've heard some deep, minimalist material from him before, but opener Cookies & Cream is real deep, very loopy, barely bloopy, and just a little synth-sinewy. Fine as a first track, I guess, but doesn't really get the mood movin' either. Gettin Started is aptly titled, then, as the pace picks up, even if we're still in relatively deep Detroit vibes. H.O.W. (Horses On Woodward) has more a shuffly, suttery rhythm going for it, and at eight-plus minutes long, more free-flowing jam with the sparse synths used. The vibe's just as deep too, but feels better earned than the previous two. Meanwhile, closer Driven is a fairly straight-forward loopy rhythm workout – nothing too fancy, but if you needed a simple transition track in your Detroit techno set, this will do the trick.

KEDA8 - Inertia

Intellitronic Bubble: 2022

Releases like this remind me why its so important that I maintain a wide variety of musical styles for my regular rotation. It's all the difference in having something sound fresh and vital upon first play-through versus just more of the same in a run of similar sounding CDs. As I've been so immersed in Suntrip Records' neo-goa for the last little while, getting back to some acid electro and techno is a godsend to my ears, at least a month since I covered any. Yet for as wonderful as KEDA8's Inertia currently sounds, I can't help but suspect, had I listened to this shortly after, say, that run of Intellitronic Bubble compilations, it wouldn't have as much initial lustre.

Which would have been a shame, because this is a darn good album, perhaps one of the best outings from this label I've heard yet. And that's saying something, considering the high pedigree most of the releases I've thus far scoped out have been. When you consider most of the artist albums I have reviewed off Intellitronic Bubble are from established names like Lee Norris, Mick Chillage, Devin Underwood, and Kenneth Werner (not to mention Futuregrapher adding his mastering touch to everything), the fact this near-unknown in KEDA8 dang nearly outshines them all in his debut is something special indeed.

Okay, Xander Brown isn't completely new, having quite a few releases already under his belt on his Bandcamp page. For some reason though, none of those have been added to Lord Discogs' tomes. Dang, does someone need to bulk-buy his Bandcamp catalogue and do the deed for him? Hmm, it's only ten releases for a fifty spot. Hhhmmmm.....

Right, I wouldn't be even thinking of this if I didn't think his music's not worth digging further. Besides, it's not like I'm hearing much on Inertia that I haven't heard before. Intellitronic Bubble prides itself on being apologetically retro with its sound, sometimes almost to a fault (that Floating In An Acid Can record, for an example). KEDA8 though, is just so damn good at this.

Like, right from the jump in Mirage, if those vintage Detroit vibes don't hook you, then I have no clue how you've been a fan of techno in any fashion. Then Nail Acid gets right into the ganky muck of back alley acid, while Precept gets about as proper electro as the Belleville Three ever did. And then Xander follows that up with trance! Okay, Prism and Proto Acid aren't really trance, but with that much melody coupled with 303s drenched in reverb, I'll allow it. Yes, I'm acting as the acid trance arbiter.

Some dubby leftfield tracks (Whale Dub, Being), something a little twee (Yuki), and something lowridin' (Auro) round things out for a tidy nine-tracker. And now I want more from KEDA8. Moar! When's that next Bandcamp Friday again...?

(note: while writing this review, I learned that Árni Grétar, aka: Futuregrapher, died from a car accident on New Year's. It's a terrible loss for everyone involved in these labels, Árni not only giving shine to many talents on the fringe of techno, acid, electro, and chill-out, but often providing wonderful mastering jobs for them too. He will be missed)

It's Thinking - Hyperion

Prime/Frame Of Mind: 1994/2018

Whoa, did I just fly through a whole bunch of “I” albums? And who is this Hyperion? No, no, It's Thinking is the name of the group – yes, I know it looks weird, to say nothing of naming the EP something that would make more sense as an alias. Then again, Lord Discogs lists at least thirty-six (36) Hyperions within its tomes, whereas there's only one (1) It's Thinkings. Right, I doubt there were a pile of Hyperions already floating about when this was released, thirty years removed and all – plenty of time for dozens more to crop up. What would one (1) more matter? So props to this Dutch team for thinking this far outside the box in coming up with a grammatically confounding handle when applied to a typical English sentence reviewing it.

This is another Gerd project, and up to the point of me covering his collaborations with Speedy J, the only one I was even remotely familiar with. Not that I was aware of it in that time, and truthfully, there still may be some other alias of his that never realized was him floating about my music collection. Fairly sure I covered all those bases though, so It's Thinking remains it.

As for the particular track I've heard from him, Dirk-Jan Hanegraaff and Mark Ripmeester, it was Afterglow as heard on that Excursions In Ambience compilation that included such luminaries like FSOL, HIA, PWoG, Banco, The Orb (sorta') and a few others. Man, and to think It's Thinking was about the most obscure thing on that CD, perhaps only rivalled by John Selway's Psychedelic Research Lab, and now I have an EP from them. Yay artist discography Bandcamp uploads, and all the legal hurdles they cleared to do so.

Since Afterglow is the only track I have, I naturally picked up the other single in the It's Thinking catalogue, follow-up EP Hyperion. Gotta' explore d'em deep cuts, yo'. The track is a pleasant floaty affair in the vintage Detroit techno vain, though utilizing a standard breakbeat for its backbone. I also love how none of the synth leads are quite aligned to quantized perfection, giving it that real live jam vibe. Imperfections reminding you there's human souls behind the machines. Onto the other tracks, then!

Frame Of Mind is basically Jam & Spoon's Stella, though stripped down to Detroit functionality and less outright Balearic. Love Without Sound gets closer to the seaside resort feels with subtle vocals and effects invoking sunrise in Ibiza. Plus, it's just downright groovy with its rolling rhythms and cascading synths. Funky Finger goes about as deep as you'd expect of a B2 cut on a record with so many shimmering leads, but even it gets in a few bright synth stabs for its back-half.

A charming little gem of a retro EP, Hyperion is. I'd expect nothing less from Gerd's extended discography by this point. Shame it took me thirty years to 'discover' more of it.

Arctic Hospital - Going Sun

Lantern: 2012

Bought with the same bundle as that ultra-obscure early '90s techno compilation, in case you care. I bring it up as proof-positive that, even if the old standard of rummaging music shops becomes a bygone activity talked about in reverent tones along with our sensible fashions of the time, we'll always have the Discogs Marketplace. Unless it closes down. Or shipping fees becomes so stupidly expensive, we'll have to resort to a bay of buccaneers forever after. Eh, streaming options? Oh, you never know when that bubble will burst (and it will too).

Anyhow, the point I'm getting at is Arctic Hospital is another artist I likely wouldn't have have found any other way than a trawl of Discoggian saleable items. It's over a decade since Eric Bray was seriously active with the alias, or any other project for that matter (so sayeth Lord Discogs). If there was ever any hype behind him, it's far in the rear view by now. Given the scant number of individuals claiming to have a copy of this CD, I can't imagine there ever was. His Soundcloud is sporadically updated, but it's clear Mr. Bray's prime music making days are long behind.

Which is a shame because, dang, if this artist wasn't a sweet, unexpected find. I'll go into his other stuff at a later date, but this was the one that drew me in. Yeah, cool cover and all, but when I listened to a couple tracks, my instant thought was: “Hey, this sounds like The Field. Boy, it's sure been a spell since I last heard anyone try sounding like The Field. Kinda' makes me fond for that brief period of electronic music when a ton of people were trying to sound like The Field. Those endlessly loopy, dubby, shoegazey techno loops... good times.”

Seriously though, that's about the easiest review I can give Going Sun: if you like The Field, you'll like this. Not that Eric doesn't throw his own little spins on the formula. The titular cut has fun with screwing with time-signatures, such that the loops almost trip over themselves just when you expect things to lock in with spectrum-pleasing repetitiveness. Except even that soon settles in its own way. Friend Amplifier twists around piano house loops, Colorstream inches closer to the realm of whatever neo-trance was supposed to be (shoegaze prog?), and The Folding Tree gets joyous and full of soul as vocals are heavily filtered through so many layers of dub. Only dud I can find on this album is the closer Natural Parade, if only because Eric's tinkering with time signatures and drum loops actually do trip over themselves whenever there's a transition. Interesting as a sonic experiment, but after following the deliciously smooth, loopy music that came before, more of a stumble taking us out.

One miss out of six ain't bad though (yes, these are long tracks too). Considering I'd never heard of Arctic Hospital before this chance encounter, I'd call that a win!

Various - Galaxies: An Excursion Through Technospace

Havoc: 1993

I came across this while perusing Lord Discogs' tomes for Human Mesh Dance material, and almost instantly, a wave of weird nostalgia hit me. Of a bygone era when garish CGI cover art and track lists filled with utter unknowns were common place. When techno was still finding its way in a post-rave world, unsure whether to go harder, trancier, or minimal. Where such a CD would cost you $30 at the local record shop (because 'imported'), a total gamble when that was, like, half your monthly allowance, dude, for something you really didn't know would be good or not.

Initially I was gonna' pass on this from the Discogs seller, not willing to pony up that kind of cash for a single disc anymore. Then I thought, wait, I totally would have back in the day, when such money was worth more than it is now. Screw it, let's take that Excursion Through Technospace!

And yeah, this was worth it, at least where my interests are concerned. I'm always down for unearthing obscure electronic music capturing the early '90s freedom on non-genre conformity, and this collection has techno-trance acid-rave to spare. Absolutely some of this will sound dated and simple, but you can't help but fall sway to its retro charms as well.

Specifically, Galaxies was meant to be a label showcase for Havoc Music, one of Human Mesh Dance's earliest prints. Taylor Deupree, the man behind HMD, would go onto more success with 12K, but we all start somewhere, and the sound of techno-rave was the fresh hotness in New York City back then. Along with Taylor, this roster included early works from Dietrich Schoenemann (those who know, know) and Jason Szostek (partner in crime with John Selway behind the Serotinin print). Plus an assortment of way-underground names like Virus Crack Team, Hydraulic Clownhead, Lunik, and City Of God, because a good compilation can't be carried by just a handful of dudes. Okay, it can, but better having a little variety in there.

Yes, there's surprising variety here. It may not seem so at first, the initial clutch of tracks doing hard acid techno and ravey breakbeat. Then things get way deeper on Lovechild (Rise), downright trancey with Video Hallucination, deep trancey on Circuit, then... deep house on Human Mesh Dance's own Heaven (Recovered)? Huh, wasn't expecting that. Nor hearing the sort of synth pads expected from a Pete Namlook work on Prototype 909's I Don't Want To Grow Up (the Havoc 'supergroup', if you will).

Something more tribal from Axon (Flux (The Tribal Mix)), something weirdly Balearic in a warehouse rave sort of way from E-Sop (Dream Is A Shadow Of Something Real), and back to chant-riffic jazzy breaks in closer Io from City Of God. Yeah, that FSoL influence could be felt even on the Eastern seaboard. Very well-rounded finish, all said, and quite a spell from the bangin' acid homage to E' Dietrich opened things up with.

Various - Fabric 73: Ben Sims

Fabric: 2013

Quite the time skip here, going from 50 to 73. What's remarkable is this is the first item out of Fabric's '70's block I've tackled. I've been close, what with doing Sandwell District's Fabric 69, but I've even done one in the '90's, Daphni's Fabriclive 93. For a time, that was the biggest gap between editions!

Makes sense that more in between will get filled though, volumes finding their way onto the cheap-o markets as time wears on. There's been items here and there throughout all of Fabric's history that I've nabbed on a pauper's budget, and now that the original run's concluded, more from its latter years will emerge. Will they be from heralded names like Sasha or Skream, or less known ones like Call Super or My Nu Leng? Time will only tell, but I can offer this little spoiler: the '80's will also get some coverage in this round of Fabric On A Budget, thus filling in every single numbers block in some form! Well, unless you also include the two '100's. I won't if you won't, though.

Ben Sims getting tapped in late 2013 for a Fabric seems about right. A stalwart of the techno scene since the '90s, he was one of the few chaps that didn't jump on the minimal bandwagon the same way so many others did. In fact, he found something of a comfy home getting in on more of a Latin and tribal take with tech-house, all the while filling in the gaps with the vintage bangin' bosh old school Drumcode resolutely held true to. As the tide of tastes turned with the 2010s, Mr. Sims found himself a perfect companion to the Berghain sound. I'm actually kinda' surprised he never got tapped for a set on Ostgut Ton as well, but seeing as how many of the club's jocks would regularly rinse out Ben's tunes, I guess that's close enough.

Anyhow, this is a pure bangin' techno set through and through. Just relentless, pounding bosh, tracks dropping one after the other in rapid success, never pausing for a single breakdown. Oh, there's periods where the bass will cut out, feigning a brief bit of tension building, but Ben lets the tracks speak for themselves, for as long as he allows them to anyway. What's most fun about this set is Mr. Sims doesn't even portend any pretension of fancy DJing, mixing seldom more complicated than a hard crossfade. And nor does he need to, these tracks uncomplicated and straight to the point, each unique from the other without ever clashing in tone. Man, after so many years of minimal's homogenized aesthetic, how refreshing was it to hear something like this? Oh, probably not that much by 2013. Can't forget that time jump I just did within Fabric's history.

And there isn't much else I can say about this set. It starts more on a tech-house tip, but soon enough, we're in the good shit, riding it out until the end.

Various - Fabric 50: Martyn

Fabric: 2010

Come to think of it, Fabric was being a bit ballsy in handing their half-centennial volumes of both Fabic and Fabriclive to upstart genre heroes like Martyn and D:Bridge. Sure, it'd be safe enough dropping another round of Fabric friendly tech-house or jungle, but no, there's plenty of new sounds making waves in the underground and abroad, and we're gonna' make sure folks know about them in our fiftieth editions.

Why do we place so much prestige on '50', anyway? '10', '100', and '1000', sure - adding another zero demarcating a whole new series of numbers is a pretty big deal. '50' though, is just half way to one-hundred. Is it because many fiat currencies rely on certain amounts for easy distribution, '50' being one of them? Honestly, in my neck of the world, '50' spots aren't terribly common, seemingly rarer than '100' bills. Is it an age thing? Maybe, but still only regarded important in relation to the century mark. Okay, that's enough rambling to confuse the Hell out of whatever A.I. bot is scarping this review.

Choosing Martyn for Fabric 50 isn't that far out of leftfield as it may have seen at first glance. Yeah, he was something of a post-dubstep hero in ye' olde year of 2010, one among a clutch of producers taking it down more interesting roads than whatever the North American bros were vomiting out. Mr. Deijkers was never strictly a dubstep guy though, having come up through the D'n'B scene on Marcus Intalex' Revolve:r print. He just kinda' jumped on a bit of a bandwagon when the UK bass scene was blowing up, had his fill of doing his own thing with it, and was just as quick to move onto other things, mostly house and techno (as many early dubstep heroes did).

While the full transition was still a couple years off from Fabric 50's vantage point, even here you can hear him testing the waters outside the familiar confines of future garage sub-genres. There's a couple Ben Klock remixes, a Redshape remix, and a Levon Vincent acid track (Air Raid). Heck, even his own Vancouver owes more to dub techno than whatever London broken-beat genre he's forcing it into. Small surprise it mixes in from 2562's Flashback, a chap who was already paving the way into such post-dubstep genre fusions that sadly didn't last much into the following decade.

It's this little tug-n-pull of what I'm sure folks expected of Martyn and what he actually wants to do that creates something of a disjointed set. It's good overall, don't get me wrong, just seems a little muddled in where its destination is. Does it want to showcase all the various facets of UK bass music as it existed in 2010 (the Afro-beat stuff, the bleepy stuff, the funky stuff, the soulful stuff, the dubby stuff), or does it want to steer us away from all that (the techno stuff)? For sure its eclectic, but feels rather rambly in the process.

Various - Fabric 44: John Tejada

Fabric: 2008

I've sure come a long way around to finally spot some shine on John Tejada. Dude's been in the game for over two decades (lot's of dudes like that at this point), and have even come across him in a couple random Balance sets over the years. More recently,contributed to the resuscitated Cottage Industries series, but I know I've seen his name plenty from dang near every corner of clubland. So it goes when you're a producer having releases on such Very Important labels like Kompakt, Poker Flat Recordings, 7th City, Touched, and oodles more. The usual assortment of tech-house luminaries have rinsed out his tunes, but Mr. Tejada's works have even found their way into David F'n Guetta's mixes (of course it'd be a track called Sweat (On The Walls) ...that's gotta' be a CB4 reference, right?). You can imagine, then, my slight disconnect associating ol' John with the worst of mid-'00s electro-sleaze while also thinking him more in line of melodic IDM wonks like Plaid.

I shouldn't be thinking of his more modern works though (or some of his pre-Poker Flat material, for that matter), at least with regards to what he brings to the Fabric series. I'm sure he was tapped for a DJ spot based on his run of singles throughout the '00s that brought him the most prominence. Based on this set, however, I get the sense John's far more comfortable behind the producer's console rather than the turntables (or whatever software used to construct Fabric 44). I'm sure he's toured some clubs for a little extra scratch, but Lord Discogs lists this as his first real commercial mix CD - the Backstock releases were more compilations of music from his own Palette Recordings print.

Actually, I think Mr. Tejada's most cozy rinsing out his tunes, as Fabric 44 features seven tracks he had a hand in (about half-and-half solo and collab's). John's also quite the fan of Shed here, at least three more cuts featuring Mr. Pawlowitz in some fashion. Also-also, this is the sort of techno set that includes tracks with titles like WAX10001, Equalized001, M Track 1, and Huba (Plaid's 15 Years Lost Remix). Lots of 'faceless underground techno', is what I'm sayin', even if the producers involved are some of the most popular chaps around.

Cool beans, then. A real rinse-out of real techno for the real heads, right? Maybe, kinda'? I was incredibly leery at Fabric 44's start, about as bloopy minimal as this stuff could get in 2008, but things do pick up into more traditional Detroit minimal. Ah, the Berghain sound is on nigh. Overall though, this set has the feeling of Mr. Tejada just playing tracks rather than building any kind of narrative, which only furthers my assumption he's more suited as a producer than a DJ. Still, any set that includes classic Orbital (Fahrenheit 303), contemporary Spooky (Candy), and obscure Pete Namlook (!) can't be all bad.

Various - Fabric 34: Ellen Allien

Fabric: 2007

Yeah, yeah, I know. How has it taken me this long to cover anything from Ellen Allien, and finally only doing so by way of a discounted Fabric CD? She's an intriguing figure, no doubt, carving out her own niche and brand within a heavily male-dominated Berlin techno scene. I'm sure if I take a full, proper plunge into her discography – albums, mixes, art – I'll find plenty of golden nuggets to gorge myself on. Still, there's always that lingering caveat that keeps me hesitant: '00s' 'Berlin' 'techno'. You know the era I'm talking about.

I'm not saying Ellen was just as guilty in steering that scene into the dry, minimalist waffle that turned techno into such a pretentious chore to trudge through. If anything, she was an outlier to all that, going more brashy electro during minimal's rise. It was the omnipresent sound whether you liked it or not, however, and being heavily involved in that region's music scene, she too eventually fell sway to what you were 'supposed' to be doing with techno at any given time, personal preference be damned. At least, that's my impression of her career in the years surrounding this CD, and in a way, her Fabric set kinda' confirms my assumption.

Before I get into that, let me once again throw some shade on the 30s run of Fabric mixes. Yep, yet another CD in this era that's been reduced to bargain bin lows. I'm now missing only two out of this portion of the series: Steve Bug and Robert Hood. I almost want to get them just for completist sake, but nay, I'll wait to see them on the cheapy-cheaps. Bug I could see happening, but not Hood – that one's been hailed as being good, actually.

The first half of Fabric 34 is the sort of set I was hoping to hear: an eclectic ride through various forms of house and techno without ever sounding too much like a mixtape in the process. A little vintage Larry Heard acid, a little retro-future Detroit cool groove (Estroe's Driven), a little propah' Detroit dubby freshness (Don Williams' Orderly Kaos), and even a little neo-trancey melodic charm (Artificial Latvasmäki's It Is Now Either). Yes, all the kinds of techno I've no problem hearing from the mid-'00s. That second half though...

Yeah, I didn't care much for this stuff back when, and time hasn't been kind to it either. Roman Flügel has earned his stripes, but Mutter is every cliche of wanky, plinky-plonk minimal you can imagine. Even that's more interesting than the utterly uneventful Plastikman rub of Heartthrob's Baby Kate, a tune that really didn't need going more minimal. There's also seven minutes of Thom Yorke warbling over stripped down electro beats, in case the big, bold, artiste sign in this portion of the set wasn't clear enough. I know Ellen isn't the sort of lass to bang out anthems, but this portion of Fabric 34 is pure navel-gazing tedium.

Function - Existenz

Tresor: 2019

David Sumner didn't need to join Sandwell District, already having a modestly successful career in techno for nearly a decade. It certainly gave him a significant boost in profile though, and when the conglomerate disbanded, he had plenty of buzz going for him in where he'd take his Function project next. A proper debut album on Ostgut Ton apparently, which was probably the most obvious thing he could have done at the time. But hey, fair play, the Berghain label about the hottest thing around, and a long supporter of the Sandwell sound before it truly took off. Following that, he did a collaborative work with Vatican Shadow, then got all chummy with Speedy J's boutique vinyl label Stoor.

Which I'm sure was fun for a spell, cutting lathe records live and all, but hardly anyone's ever gonna' play those. Sometimes you just want to make some music that will actually get heard. He must have had a fair bit of material percolating in his head during those Stoor years, as when he finally did emerge from that, he dropped nothing less than a double-LP on one of the longest running German techno prints in existence, Tresor. Hey, is that where David got the title for the album? Mm, yeah, no...

Anyhow, this is a dope-ass album. Overstuffed a little, y'say? Well, if you prefer some styles of techno over others, there's a small argument there. Like, if you just wanted a collection of clubbing tools, then the more experimental pieces like Ertrinken, Zahlensender and Alphabet City may not be up your alley. Or you're so absolutely done with Berghain minimal, you never want to hear it ever again, then sure, you could leave Vampir on the floor. Having a Robert Owens feature strikes you as nothing more than a decades old nostalgia gimmick? Fine, you can skip Be, if that's how you feel. All are valid reasons to critique Existenz, but personally, I'm all for the diversity.

Primarily though, it's that vintage Detroit retro-future techno that dominates, the first disc with the downbeat options, CD2 featuring stronger rhythms. Sometimes it goes trancier (Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Distant Paradise), sometimes housier (Growth Cycle, Be), sometimes electroier (Kurzstrecke, Nylon Mood), sometimes vintage Detroitier (Pleasure Discipline, Golden Dawn, Interdimensional Interferenc), and sometimes even ravier. Yes, the breakbeats in No Entidendes pushes that one into rave territory to me – nothing robotic about those drums – while Downtime 161's about as blatant a 'feel the gurn for a dozen minutes' tune as I've ever heard. See, something for everyone!

While this album is half a decade old now (!), I do hope it helps prove the modern LP format is better served offering diversity rather than a run of tracks mostly doing the same thing over and over. Not that I mind having a few items in my collection that do so (oh hi, Planetary Assault System!), but for a couple decades there, too many techno records seemed to forget that.

John Shima - The Empty Lands

FireScope: 2022

Seems the label B12 built has gone relatively quiet as of late. This album from Mr. Shima came out some eighteen months ago, and FireScope has only seen two more items released since. The ambient leaning Origins from Kirk Degiorgio was the lone record out from the print in 2023, itself a year ago, to say nothing of drawing a blank for this year thus far. While it feels premature assuming Steven Rutter had to scuttle FireScope or something, it can't help but seem like the label's best days are behind it, their brand of retro-future IDM and vintage, bleepy ambient techno having enjoyed its mini-revival, now done and dusted. Maybe it'll see another flurry of action again, but if not, t'was a solid run of six years.

If FireScope is truly mothballed, it feels appropriate John Shima would have one of the label's final releases. His Elements Unknown single was the first to break from the initial B12 run, even introducing the sci-fi style of cover art that was as much a part of the print's aesthetic as anything musical. I'm always for symmetry in my narratives, and even if this is mere coincidence, it's nifty seeing the FireScope saga end similarly to how it began.

Actually, listening to The Empty Lands, I kinda' hear why the label's fortunes may have diminished some. Don't get me wrong, this is still music I generally enjoy, but it cannot be denied Mr. Rutter cultivated a very specific style to his print - techno that sounds like vintage B12, for the most part. That's cool and all for a while, but when there hasn't been much evolution from that, it can grow rather samey-sounding. Save for die-hard collectors and completists, incentive to keep splurging on records lessens when it seems like you're just buying the same thing again and again.

If I were to take any of Mr. Shima's tracks from The Empty Lands and replace them with something from Elements Unknown or The Lonely Machine, would you be able to tell the difference? At their core, the sounds in play are mostly the same: crisp electro rhythms, smooth sci-fi pads, melancholic melodic leads conjuring vistas of metropolis inhabited by machinery and automatons. John's shown he can go other ways with techno on recent EP's like Tokyo Nights or CPU Modular 1. This is just the FireScope stylee, and you're gonna' get more of it.

And I'm fine with that, really I am. I like the FireScope stylee, and if this truly is about the last of it we'll get to hear, I may as well enjoy it while it's there. Kemx and Desolate have fun little echoing synths that sounds like robots singing. Depart, Desolate, and Mettle are surprisingly chipper compared to how moody the rest of The Empty Lands goes. Sayaka provides the obligatory reflective tune. All solid stuff, just stuff I've heard before, and doing little to distinguish from the rest of FireScope's catalogue. Seems a common refrain from me, lately.

Dub_Connected - Electronic Music

Liquid Audio Soundz: 2001

Amazingly, astoundingly, incredulously, this is the first electronic music album I've gotten that's simply titled Electronic Music. You'd think with a music collection of some two-thousand plus items, it'd have come up more often. Yet I've far more records simply titled Genesis than I do Electronic Music. Hell, in the 'E's, I have eight variations of Earth, three Eternals, three Everythings, and somehow three Elephants. I'll grant an electronic music artist titling their album Electronic Music may be a little too on the nose – even as early as the '70s, synth wizard Synergy had the good sense to name his debut Electronic Realizations For Rock Orchestra. And who knows, maybe there are several out there that I simply haven't stumbled upon. Some early-ass compilation series, right? I dunno', just figured it would have come up at some in my music gathering endeavours than another collection of dubby techno tracks from a Gabriel Le Mar side-project.

In case you missed my first Dub_Connected review, here's the recap: ol' Gab' was gettin' real busy at the turn of the century, releasing mucho music across several aliases and collaborations. Saafi Brothers was probably the most well recognized of the lot, having an all-star cast of artists on hand, but he was making inroads on all forms of dubby jams among other works too. Dub_Connected was the one that went just a little more techno than others, with a compilation of works released in Vol. 1 – Mind The Gab! This is the follow-up, billed as a proper album since its all fresh material mostly exclusive to this release.

That said, a good chunk of Electronic Music does sound like the leftover tracks from those earlier sessions. Not so much opener The Soul Takes A Flight, a brisk, smooth groover with a little vocoder action, the sort of track I could see Swayzak playing at peak hours back in the day. Following that though, we're deep in that gritty, dirty, dubby techno stylee folks would sooner associate with Bandulu or Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia, though with heavier emphasis on dub music's Jamaican roots. Which hey, I'm all for – it's what got me into those acts in the first place, and given the utter dearth of such jams out there, I'm glad Mr. le Mar had his stab at it too.

Then things get really interesting. No Vemba practically sheds all roots influence and aims straight for the streets of MegaCity District Detroit. After that, Tribal Sunset gets deep in the thumping minimal techno vibe while throwing some extra stank on d'at bassline, while Auto Mobilee gets as minimal as I'm sure Gabriel could ever allow. And just in case this hasn't been Detroit enough for you, closer Something Happened Here Last Night takes us out in fine electro or a moonlight setting fashion.

So an album of two halves, where despite coming in wanting the first, I left more satisfied with the second. As a good LP should.

Synaptic Voyager - Disconnect To Reconnect

Frame Of Mind: 2024

So I got into Gerd. Okay, 'got into' is maybe a stretch at this early stage, having only sampled a bunch of his releases thus far. I liked what I heard though, so sprung for a bunch of his stuff from back in the day. During that bout of Bandcamp digging, I came into contact with his Frame Of Mind print. A newish label that started out as a means of re-issuing his back catalogue, it's expanded to include other artists with rare material from the '90s, some of which never saw the light of day.

This here Synaptic Voyager seems to be one such act. I can't find much info about them, simply credited to Paul Baines and M. White (7), neither of whom have much Discoggian presence. A lone Discogs comments claims this comes from Sheffield, material recorded to DATs and sat in limbo for decades. I can believe it, as the techno on here is about as retro as you'll ever hear inspired from the Detroit Holy Lands. However, that scene was already moving onto its minimal phase, so this stuff would have come off rather dated all too quickly. Yes, even retro futuristic electro-jams were old hat as the '90s took form. Unless you were one of the O.G.s or Belleville Three, you had to evolve or be left in the dust.

Fortunately, three decades is plenty of time removed from all that scene pressure, letting folks who made some techno jams back in the day have their efforts re-emerge from the ether without preconceived judgment. Or heck, they maybe could have at any point, but it's nice having an established veteran like Gert-Jan Bilj give you that all-important seal of approval, hitching to his wagon and all. The first Synaptic Voyager record, State Of Play, came out a couple years ago to good response, and now we have Disconnect To Reconnect, coming out to... Well, I assume good response also, but this is so new (one month old as of this writing!), maybe the underground buzz is still burbling to the surface.

And yeah, this is techno as heard straight from the source, many years removed from its creation, with just a token amount of modern mastering. Second track Ne Plus Ultra will definitely get your Rhythim Is Rhythim triggers flaring (not to mention a little Frankie Knuckles), right down to those choppy strings. I'll give it this though, they certainly sound better here than they ever did on Derrick May's 'classic' single.

Oh, what the heck: this album's all kinds of awesome for the nostalgia feels. There's just no denying vintage Detroit techno continues to hit a sweet spot of basic body movin' goodness and earwormy bleeps, bloops, acid, and basslines. These tracks truly shine, however, when they're allowed to stretch to double-digit jam session lengths, just free-flowing over ever-shifting loop layering and knob twiddling. Eh, what's that, you didn't get the awesome extended versions with your black crack? 'Tis a shame, that.

ReKaB - Counting The Days

Intellitronic Bubble: 2020

Does this mark the end of another run of box-sets? Granted, these 'two-for-the-price-of-one' double-discers from Intellitronic Bubble aren't really box-sets, and I did skip the first volume featuring Metamatics and Futuregrapher. Still, I grabbed three out of the four, with ReKaB's Counting The Days at the end of this run. Counting to what? Whenever I finally got around to a review of his 'debut' album, I wager!

Yes, like a few other artists in these double packs, this counts as ReKaB's first full-length – heck, it's even paired with G-Prod's debut in the same pack, Space Time's Bubbles LP. Unlike that French electro duo, James Baker, the man behind ReKaB, hadn't been releasing much music prior to putting this out. In fact, of all the featured artists in these collections, Mr. Baker is basically the rookie of the roster, rubbing shoulders with scene vets like Lee Norris, Mick Chillage, and Devin Underwood. Well, this chap must be an exceptional producer for getting shine like that, even if its on CD2 of a double-pack deal.

That said, I wasn't expecting Counting The Days to be so mellow. I don't know why I would have come to that assumption. The styles of electro I've heard from those other Bubble albums being grittier and more menacing, perhaps? Still, the tracks of his I heard off the label's numerical compilations were rather mellow for electro as well, almost dipping into ambient techno as heard out of the FireScope camps, so I should have gone in ready to chill out on some future-city patios.

Only eight tracks make up Counting The Days, and while about half of them do stick with the relaxed side of robot music, there's some nice and surprising variety sprinkled about too, usually within the longest tracks no less. Space Echo Dub is, as amply titled, a spaced-out session into the dubbier side of slowbeat techno. If that don't get your Silent Season triggers flashing, I don't know what will. Unless you have another label doing the loopy, dubby techno thing as your primary reference point. That'll do too.

Elsewhere, the spritely synths and bright melodies of There Maybe Times has me vibing more on synthwave than electro. Ark goes as menacing as ReKaB will allow, a pulsing throb of a bassline the only rhythm offered while ominous synths and tones permeate the atmosphere. Then there's the trance track Drifting. Or neo-trance, if you must. Or melodic techno, if you will. Or hypno-house, if you choose. Or hypnotic-melodic tech-house, if you wear five different sets of socks per day. I'll keep calling tunes like this trance, thank you very much, but I'm sure we can all agree its a wonderful little space groover.

So another dope artist out of the Intellitronic Bubble camps. Now I gotta' get more of ReKaB's music. Which means I'm probably gonna' splurge on more items from the label. And now the sister label, Móatún 7. *sigh*... Bandcamp Fridays can't get here fast enough.