Techno News

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4 banging warehouse tools by Earwax.

Korean artist and musician Jin Won Lee (이진원), otherwise known as Gazaebal, began his career in New York. Working as a sound engineer, alongside such illustrious artists as the Wu-Tang Clan and Janet Jackson, led him to develop a keen ear for dexterous audio design, melodic flair and catchy rhythm. But his true interest lay in uncovering the unique textures and synthetic qualities of electronic music. From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, Gazaebal focused on developing himself as a producer, synergising a uniquely potent take on club music, releasing three albums and appearing on numerous collaborations.

An established figure in the realm of contemporary art, Jin Won Lee is well-known for his hybrid, highly technological practice. In 2008, together with Jang Jaeho, he formed The Tacit Group, a collective for computer-coded art. Presenting works that manipulate audio and visuals in real-time through programming, the group has performed at the FAMS Choice selection, Lincoln Center in New York, at the Seoul branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, among many others. As a solo practitioner, he initiated in 2023, a project that examines sound as abstracted vibration. brings together Jin Won Lee’s decades long investigations into sonic experimentation and the physicality of noise.

Outside the avant-garde, Gazaebal has enjoyed mainstream success, collaborating with Big Hit Productions founder and BTS songwriter Mr. "Hitman" Bang on remixes and arrangements for K-POP albums. They also formed the two-man group Banana Girl, with Gazaebal focusing on composition while Bang handled vocals, achieving a big hit with their 2000s track ‘Butt.’

Another crucial figure in Gazaebal’s life is his wife Nine who operates as his agent and business partner. Initially released in 1999 on Nine’s independent imprint dmstrax, the titular track ‘Talk’ first appeared on techno@kr, a compilation CD of Korean electronica. Together, they co-founded G Records, which was partly absorbed into Bighit Entertainment in 2005. Appearing as the inaugural record on Bighit, the original version of 'And So On' – featuring Bang’s vocal production – was not available for re-release due to licensing difficulties. But thankfully the multitrack was well preserved. Utilising these components, Nawon Ha (AKA Korean-but-Amsterdam-based artist Naone) re-imagines the song for Betonska Records.

A combination of un- and self-released material, Talk is an album that firmly belongs to the millennium while sounding utterly outside of space and time. A cosmic trance trip that draws on rock’s steely drive, wiggy acid basslines and warbling dub, the record is presented as a mix-friendly mini-album, with the 6 tracks ideally tailored to DJ-level quality and loudness. As much suited to the psychedelic rave scene of yesteryear as they are to present-day dancefloors, Gazaebal’s productions are defined by his idiosyncrasies. Melding the sheen of tight production and pop sensibilities with a flagrant DIY spirit, his music assuages the high-commercialism of the 2000s, resulting in a style that’s as definitely punchy as it is precise

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The first split EP on Gated takes in some tough acid house from Glasgow-based brutalizer Krokakai and some old-school breaks from the ever-eclectic Liðvarð.

First up, Krokakai’s experience as a DJ and party-starter comes to the fore, with two deeply trippy acid chuggers. The Artificial Horizon label boss takes no prisoners, pushing rubbery acid lines and spaced-out atmospherics in the aptly named Doubleplus Acid, before taking it a step deeper with Lost Acid.

Denmark-based Liðvarð, meanwhile, goes for the early 9'0s hardcore jugular on another literally-named track, Quadcore Hardcore, all piano stabs, vocal samples, Amen breaks, and hands-in-the-air breakdowns. Rave Research is even more genre-fluid, somehow combining dub, downtempo, old-school hardcore and IDM into a rolling beaty pleasure. Kosmosis ends the EP with a little snifter of tense ambient, a perfect comedown after all those highs.

This marks Liðvarð’s third outing on wax, following a sought-after release on Occult Research in 2014 and an album on Mystic & Quantum last year.

Detroit based producer & DJ 2lanes is happy to announce the evolution of his digital label ‘AUTO SHOP’ into the physical world with its first release; a new alias called OVERTONE SERIES. A collaborative project between 2lanes and fellow Detroiter Jonah Baseball, recorded over many sessions during early lockdown.

The "Shuffle Shack EP" has 4 tracks that span psychedelic deep house, dance floor stomping soul, and rejuvenating sunrise downtempo moments. The record also features performances from Jonah’s father David Gray, Los Angeles based singer Jia Pet and Ji Hoon - who was featured on the B-side “Impish Desires” on 2lanes breakthrough record on Portage Garage Sounds.

Blinding tracks from Joey Anderson, Qu, Nicuri and new artist Art Gallery.

Exchange Place is the DJ collective that includes Nicuri himself alongside Joey Anderson, DJ Qu and a producer by the name of Art Gallery. The name makes reference to a district in Downtown Jersey City, just across the river from Manhattan, which is where the crew is primarily based. They released a 12-inch under the name Exchange Place with DJ Qu's Strength Music label back in 2010, and have DJ'd occasionally as a group around New York City. The new EP, Immaculate Inception, includes one track from each of the four contributors.

Succeeding the two first release, Eupasia returns with another work carving the label's distinct sound excursions. Half Techno and half Electro infused, with a hint of Minimal, Tooth and Nail sets the tone of the newest alias Worm Class by André Leiria. A 4-track EP ready to be thrown straight into the darker rooms, padding them with heavy basslines and bright, sleek drums.

MIXWORKS new release manufacturing in Detroit!

First ever vinyl pressing of Haruomi Hosono's full album N.D.E. Featuring Goh Hotoda, Yasuhiko Terada, Yasuaki Shimizu, Bill Laswell & François Kevorkian. Big TIP!

Ever since his days as a pioneer of Japanese electronic music in the 1970s, Haruomi Hosono has constantly pushed forwards musically. The 1990s was a particularly fertile decade for the Yellow Magic Orchestra co-founder. Following two decades spent creating and releasing innovative electronic pop, imaginary sound worlds and inspirational ambient music, Hosono established the Daisyworld label to showcase cutting-edge ambient, techno and electronica, while also embarking on a wide range of often overlooked collaborative projects.

N.D.E. - , one of the headiest, psychedelic, evocative and gently mind-altering albums in Hosono’s vast discography, is one such project. It formed part of a run of albums that saw the Japanese producer embrace contemporaneous influences – think Spacetime Continuum style ambient techno, DJ Spooky-esque illbient, weighty ambient dub and the ‘ambient house’ antics of The Orb – in his own inimitable, far-sighted style.

He was ably assisted on N.D.E. by an undeniably impressive roll call of collaborators, most notably no-wave hero turned ambient explorer Bill Laswell (who Hosono subsequently worked with on joint album Interpieces Organisation), NYC DJ/producer Francois Kevorkian, and fellow Japanese ambient pioneer Yasuaki Shimizu.

With such a stellar cast-list, it’s perhaps unsurprising that N.D.E. has achieved cult status over the years, despite being near impossible to find outside of Hosono’s native Japan. Remarkably, it never received a full vinyl release, with only five of the set’s cuts appearing on an ultra-limited sampler. Now Rush Hour is putting the record straight, delivering a DJ-friendly, remastered version that spreads that album’s seven tracks across two slabs of vinyl.

N.D.E. remains an impressive, unearthly and otherworldly album. Its unique and distinctive sound makes use of multiple nods to Eastern musical culture – think Tabla rhythms, heady violin courtesy of guest musician Arun Bagal, and transcendental synth sounds – but also throbbing techno grooves, Pete Namlook style ambient electronics, spaced-out dub rhythms, bubbly melodies reminiscent of Warp Records Artificial Intelligence-era IDM output, trippy tribal drums, and immersive electronic dream-scapes that recall the greatest exponents of Japanese new-age ambient music.

Highlights are plentiful, from the Test Department-at-dawn brilliance of Bill Laswell co-production ‘Edge of the End’ and the sunrise-ready, dew-fresh dreaminess of ‘Aero’, to the surging ambient techno hedonism of ‘Strange Attractor’ – a near cult cut that remains a timeless slab of hallucinatory dancefloor excellence – and the slow-motion space-dub of Francois Kevorkian collaboration ‘Teaching of Sphinx’, whose oddly processed sounds and low-slung bass subtly reference the Orb’s earlier remix of YMO’s ‘Tong Poo’.

There’s also the impeccable, pleasingly experimental ‘Spinning Spirits’ – all addictive Indian rhythms, punishingly distorted bass, raw electronics and paranoid aural textures – and the sparkling bliss of ‘Heliotherapy’, a woozy chunk of sun-bright electronic hypnotism that encapsulates everything good about Hosono’s mid-90s productions.

Excited to present you the first output of Jungle Bridge records. Vol.1 : Flibustier was produced at sea by french producer ITARIMA, as he was working on the engine room of a cargo ship.

With his authentic and unique style, he deep dives us into four acid adventures each accompanied by immersive and unique soundscapes. Each track is dance floor compatible and will set the crowd’s mood.

South African-born, Amsterdam-based Lee Ann Roberts served up plenty of fresh techno in the last 12 months. It has taken her to the top end of the Beatport Hard Techno chart and to labels like Octopus Warehouse Series as well as her own NowNow Records. Fans of her tough sounds include Charlotte de Witte and Ken Ishii, while Lee Ann herself has played festivals like Caprices and BPM. Now she kicks off a new year in thrilling fashion.

The monstrous 'March Of The White Fireflies' is built on earth-shattering kicks drums and run through with edgy synth lines. The whole tune has a dark, dystopian atmosphere and muffled vocals add to the intrigue as the drums march on into ever more shadowy realms. First to remix is Glasgow's Frazi.er, a leader of the Scottish techno scene with his standout sets at mega-events like Terminal V amongst others. His tracks are as powerful as his DJ sets as this remix proves. It is an explosive rave tune lacerated by machine gun synths and flat-footed, insistent kick drums. Industrial textures and late-night paranoia all infuse this most peak-time weapon.

Next comes a remix from Charlie Sparks, an up-and-coming young artist notorious for his high energy sounds on labels such as NineTimesNine, COUP and Märked. His remix adds a little swing to the drums, but there is no less urgency in the synths. The scuffed-up kicks bring texture while the pulsing sonar pads add a sense of intergalactic space travel as lashings of acid light up the whole track. Brussels-based Jacidorex is a neo acid pioneer and runs a label of the same name. He has made everything from drum & bass to techno on labels like Molekül, Acid Night and Rave Alert and offers a superb remix here. His take on the original is sleek and stripped back but full of techno potency. The percussion is twisted, the synths corrugated and the groove unrelenting.

Radio Slave returns to his Rekids imprint this October with the perfectly balanced ‘Acid Dip’ single.

The titular track on ‘Acid Dip’ sees Matt ‘Radio Slave’ Edwards in particularly strident form. Riding a broken, stuttered-kick rhythm, ‘Acid Dip’ is a jabbing, insistent slice of UK techno shot through with hardcore and, whilst not skimping on raw power, still maintains the hypnotic nature that inhabits much of Edwards’ work.

On the flip, ‘Armani’ takes off down a dubbed-out, futuristic Italo-infused house workout that, throughout its eleven minutes 28-second span, shows a more dense, layered side to Radio Slave production.

Another triumph of a single from one of modern electronic music’s most consistent talents, Radio Slave’s ‘Acid Dip’, is released 15th October via Rekids.

After his L.I.E.S. debut, DJ Slugbug offers up a four track ep for the Russian Torrent bootleg label.
While the title track is a massive electro cut sure to scorch floors. The three remaining cuts explore more tense and moody territories that explore more industrial and downtrodden house vibes that wouldn't be out of place at Medusa's back in the day.

Mirror Zone proudly presents its upcoming release. We welcome Sun Genam & Altjira to the family with their debut on the label. Presenting a sound spanning between rhythmic tribalism and dreamy soundscapes that will give the listener an altered state into the unknown.

"Time is circular, not linear, quantum. Through observer effect, we all play part in and affect creation, affect reality”

American producer Dustin Zahn readies the next release on Rekids Special Projects this April with four vigorous cuts entitled 'Take The Throne'.Dustin Zahn has been flying the techno flag for two decades, releasing on labels like Rekids when not helming the Berlin-based Enemy Records, a label which has released music from artists like fellow US techno stalwart Ambivalent, ARTS boss Emmanuel, and Innervisions' producer Yotam Avni. Zahn is also respected for Train Wrecks, his weekly podcast series inviting members of the house and techno community to discuss a wide variety of music and industry related topics and stories.The release opens with the thumping kicks and sci-fi melodies of 'Take The Throne' before rolling into the dubby tones, infectious claps and rattling white noise of 'Decorum'. The atmospheric 'Nameless Midnight' then follows, packed with echoing synths, tantalising effects and a twisted vocal sample that weaves throughout, arriving at the final track 'Subtle Flex' where escalating synths meet syncopated percussion.

Already an established artist since his early minimal and dubbed-out techno productions around the beginning of the millenium, recently re-emerged Exos is now picking up the thread. Building on his strengths also on his first EP on Figure, the icelandic beatsmith carefully hones his sensibly arranged and richly layered tracks, which then are detached to play about for the pure pleasure of following their constant evolution. This is intense listening - we are treated to a dive in the deep end of techno and may only come up again with more clarity and focus, simply from having been lost in the groove for what felt like a moment outside of time.

white vinyl repress

jamesjamesjames hovers somewhere between Y2K house and super-sugary PC music, creating a unique and sexy sound that just feels expensive. The Melbourne-based artist has built a large following with poppy earworms and pounding house, and now joins Shall Not Fade's Classic Cuts series for a full EP of hits.

james2007EP starts with the anthemic "It's Not You, It's Me"; pairing the rumble of jungle breaks with melancholic, airbrushed vocals that show their SOPHIE influence, it's an eye catching opener. "My Purple iPod Nano" has a sound palette which will transport you straight back to a 00s club night, teasing a climax that stays just out of reach with pumping synth stabs and a kick drum that packs a punch.

On the B-side, "Orange Tesla" is a high-pressure roller that centers a pacey melody - sure to be a 3am dancefloor energiser. The record closer, "I Dunno Her", brings back the emotive edge with spaced out pads and glittery little ear candy moments overarching the still-racing beat. Ballad-like vocals that are barely perceptible add depth. This EP showcases jjj's talent for catchy and clever hybrid music, which is sure to make him one to watch.

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After being part of the various artists "Sentence Two", Tham releases his solo EP on the SNTS' label Sacred Court.

For one more time we collaborated with our friends at Aufnahme + Wiedergabe to bring back the classic first five releases of Thomas' highly influential Welt In Scherben project.
The classic first five 12inches were released from 1998 to 2000.
Remastered in 2019 for the special Vinyl release by Thomas himself and cut with high precision by Andreas at Schnittstelle for the best result for your listening pleasure.
Also included for the first time on Vinyl is the I-1 Remix.
A manifest of EBM-Techno and beyond.

Fifth release of Bipolar State on its BSR label in collaboration with Pacific State and the contribution of Kaiser.

Returning to his home base, Rotterdam based electro-techno mainstay Conforce presents a heavy pack of angular, experimental approaches on his latest offering into the Delsin databank.

Boris Bunnik's accomplished machine language has traversed deep and dubby soundscapes with punchy, club-focused fare alike, since 2010's Grace EP he has found a regular home on Delsin and it's always exciting to see what he comes up with next.

Where Conforce has commonly housed Bunnik's more melancholic, introspective work, the sound palette on Sins Of Synthesis is more tipped towards darker dimensions. The shadow of braindance looms large, guiding the music towards twitchy pattern manipulation, alien textural design and dissonant harmonics.

Bunnik's signature sense of melody can still be detected around the edges, from the distant, hazy pads of 'Charlatan' to the lingering chimes of 'Fragile', but this is a pointed new direction for Conforce and it's leading somewhere very interesting...

This is a post-detroit-epos full of dark atmosphere and hard bangin' grooves. Ultra-phunky hard-techno-themes full of pure energy.

Deep dark techno tracks on the stabile force Lockertmatik. The replay worthy tunes are dark and gritty, like a sweaty Berlin techno basement and keep going, morphing and teasing. Proper stuff! (limited supplies!)

2023 Repress

"Scars cannot be obliterated. Scars make us who we are, Scars remind us how we got hurt but also that we can heal.
I learned that on the street."

Program and mood recorded on the streets of Berlin and Madrid.
Mastered by Joel Krozer in Copenhagen at 6BITDEEP.
2020 to eternity.

Out of Luke J Murray’s murky folds of sonic intrigue comes a new project — Liquid DnB-Like Ambient Grime 2. Don’t let the irreverent name throw you off the scent, as Murray distills his many bold ideas and lifelong soundsystem obsessions into four maverick club jigsaws that rank among his most incisive productions to date.

Murray has been leaving a breadcrumb trail of projects around respected corners of the actual underground, donning masks and crossing swords in the likes of Grimescapes, 1-800-ICEMAN, Roadman DSP, NONEXISTENT, Stonecirclesampler and Superior London Pulp. Whether solo or in collaboration, Murray takes a sideways look at rave legacies through the prism of ambient, noise and street level avant-garde — it’s no wonder his work gets released by the likes of YOUTH, Industrial Coast, NoCorner and Downwards.

On Liquid DnB-Like Ambient Grime 2, you won’t hear any liquid DnB-like ambient grime, but that doesn’t mean those genre touchstones didn’t factor into the creative process. As Murray himself writes:

“This new alias and project/track titles are massively inspired by my teenage years onwards buying drum & bass (Equinox, Autonomic, Exit Records, Soul:R, Sublogic reissues), dubstep (Hyperdub, Vex’d, Hotflush, Tempa, Skull Disco, Tectonic), techno (Ostgut Ton, Frozen Border, Sandwell District, Downwards, anything from Hard Wax or Veto) and drone/post-punk gear (Blackest Ever Black, Mordant Music, Preserved Instincts) from Eastern Bloc, and working for Finders Keepers Records while flyering all over the city. Massive shout out to all of the 00s MCR crews, DJs, promoters and pals all pushing the underground sounds that influenced this record, and to the memories of this time spent charging around with my best pal Zach ‘Tropical’ Altass — this record is dedicated to you.”

Traversing the murky terrain Murray maps out on this 12”, you can make out those reference points through the mud-splattered windscreen. The track titles are as indicative as they can be in the circumstances, but don’t expect faithful genre studies when you listen to ’02 Garage Mix’, ’06 Dubstep Mix’, ‘2011 Techno Mix’ or ’22 Grime Mix’. For every slab of sub-tooled low-end there’s an errant blast of noise-caked breaks, a creeping backdrop of ambient malaise or strangely incidental speech snatches. Holding on to the cavalier attitude which defined the fringes of these genres when they were fresh out of the lab, this is a love letter to the persistent innovations that have taken place wherever Jamaican soundsystem tradition has collided with technology-driven developments in dance music.

If you dare. Lynxes completes with Sloth a smattering of releases on the Berlin-based label. Vacuum is set in dark environs and picks up raving energy quickly with multiple layers dedicated to the iridescent journey before the unexpected breakthrough that longs for a ride into the unknown. Disstress follows steadily with ace tones and a punching clout that guides along the path. Alerting strikes of lightning will make your blood run cold along the right lines on Coping. Lydia Eisenblätter, head of Leipzig's OAM records and figuring prominently within the German techno scene, turns to the end with a Distress remix on a fast and floaty acid track. Hang in there!

Maara’s out to make mischief with the wryly titled ‘Hear Me Neigh’.

Whether that title’s in reference to a certain equine dissociative or purely a love letter to our majestic, four-legged friends, well, we’ll leave that for you to decide. Either way, the prolific prog house luminary lends her Midas touch to four equally deadly traxxx.

Following last year’s ‘Fancy Feast’ EP comes another proper dose of heads-down hedonism. It’s an eagerly-awaited return to the Kalakari fold, and true to form, opener ‘The Horse Track’ comes hurtling into the first furlong at full pelt. Big equestrian NRG packing some seriously rugged heft and neighing samples aplenty. Then, bringing more of that insistent throb, ‘Juicy Tracksuit’ is no less alluring or propulsive, albeit while channelling some Y2K aesthetic.

There’s more of that turn-of-the-century flex on the next one too. Evoking Love Parade circa 1999, ‘God Save The Bender’ deploys scything hard trance flourishes while opening a portal to the fractal realm. And finally, ‘Sheela Na Gig’ lands dripping with more of the seductive appeal that has become Maara’s hallmark.

REPRESS OF MAENAD VEYL’S DEBUT ALBUM. LIMITED GATEFOLD AND SPLATTER VINYL EDITION. Veteran producer Thomas Feriero graces us with his first album in years and his debut LP as Maenad Veyl.

Hosted inside a sleeve designed with Tomaso Lisca are twelve tracks made of the same contained abrasion we fell for on his EPs for Death & Leisure, Veyl and Pinkman. A full-on workout devoid of fillers, ambient interludes and other mindless garbage, ‘Body Count’ is as relentless as the name suggests.

Originally comes from Košice, Slovakia, but after he first visited the iconic Rotterdam techno club Perron in 2014, he decided to move to the Netherlands.
Now operates from Rotterdam, but travels as much as he can to Bratislava, Slovakia, where he collaborates with fellow DJs from Slovakia and Austria in various collectives such as KOHM, aMT or Anacle – experimental, synthetics created adventures with the sound of a modular system, live recording and rough edits, filled by drum lines.

Analog or Digital – he has no longer any preference.
Hypnotic repetitions are essential substances for Michal’s production as well as performance. His inspiration comes from different kind of music therapy techniques. However, always within the framework of a techno subgenre. Live improvisation and adaptation during performances on stage is a key element in all projects where Michal participates, as he believes it makes the creation more organic.

After releasing an ambitious album with a three piece project Anacle “The Pornacle Prophecy” last year on Mai Lei Bel, Michal is delivering his debut solo 6-tracks EP “Moonshaft” which takes you to the adventurous trip where techno and electronica meets experimental with IDM. Despite the prevailing feeling from his darker techno background, the whole EP sounds pretty subtle and shows what a diverse production Michal is capable of.

White Vinyl

Green Clear Viinyl Repress

As one might expect from a record called 303 101 EP, this is a collection of Acidic techno cuts made with the legendary TB303 and the SH101 machines. This time around it's an unknown artist(s) affair.

box-set clear / vinyl / 180 gr

The Stone Techno Series returns with another exciting compilation. This time alongside a new festival that celebrates forward thinking artists from 9th to 10th of July at Europe's biggest coal mine complex under the UNESCO World Heritage Zollverein. The project is exceptional at its core, bringing back excitement and inventiveness to the genre.

The project functions as a multidisciplinary ever-evolving experiment that brings different aspects together. Sampling, creating and releasing music made out of million years old inorganic materials which shaped and defined the Ruhr Area like nothing else. "Auf Kohle geboren - born on coal" stands for this region and the so-called "German Wirtschaftswunder".

The Stone Techno project wants to embrace the history of "the Ruhrpott" while looking into the future as well. Techno Music stands for upheaval and modernity, while coal is the symbol of the Ruhr Area. This unique project will lend audibility to the ongoing process of transformation in the cultural and natural history of this region. Science and museums crossing paths with contemporary electronic music culture.

The Stone Techno project is not shy of its obvious significance. World-famous Ruhr Museum and The Third Room collective mark a first of its kind of long-lasting collaborations between a techno brand and a cultural institution.

This time the project is conceptually going one step further: Before the final backfilling of the mine at Zeche Zollverein, the acoustic atmos

Third and last episode of Eternal series, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Attic Music. Four talented Italian artists, as well as old friends of the label, are involved for the closing chapter of the trilogy: Wrong Assessment, Synthek, Conrad Van Orton and PVS.

The Second Ep On Acronym's Stilla Ton Features A 3 Track Techno Ep By Himself. Serious Psychedelic Techno From Sweden To Tibet.

New York techno luminary Adam X debuts on Pinkman with 4 tabs of extra-strength acid specially designed for peak-time club sets. Opening in typically thunderous fashion, the overdriven kick of A1's aptly-named Laying It On Thick sets a tone that doesn't relent for the duration of the record. No-nonsense and straight to the action, Adam X's distinct approach to crafting dancefloor hits shines throughout as multiple 303 refrains weave through stripped back drum patterns for unforgettably hypnotic results. While A2's Trailing Effect drops the tempo a couple of notches, its head-scrambling acid psychedelia would take any bustling dancefloor on a trip long into the early hours. The three remaining tracks give no let-up, fostering a frenetic energy that just can't be contained. In the game since the very beginning, the Sonic Groove label-head has dedicated years to his craft and they're all on display here with slick, classy productions that punch through the speakers to move bodies and minds.