Another month and another round-up of some of the best techno, house and electronic music released in August.
Psychedelic Budz – Faerie Stomp EP
Strong 4-tracker from Ciel and D. Tiffany’s new collaborative project Psychedelic Budz. You get two moody, techish mixes of the title track, one a relentless dark roller, the other an absolute feast of layered metallic percussion. The EP is nicely rounded off with a pair of decent remixes from Ludwig A.F. and Adam Pits too.
Robert Hood & Floorplan: The Struggle/Save The Children
Label: M-Plant
Lead track ‘The Struggle’ is Hood alone and it’s a powerful statement. Consisting of a driving acid line, tight techno beats and a sample from the speech given by Tamika Mallory following the murder of George Floyd, this should tear up any dancefloor when we return to the clubs.
Wheats & Gene Farris – Freak
Label: Kaluki Musik
This collab between UK house producer Wheats and Chicago don Gene Farris is a tight balance of spooky tech noises, synth pulses and raw beats that all add up to a dance floor winner.
Crazy P – Magnetise (PPF’s Magnetic North Dub)
Label:
Crazy P and Chris Duckenfield are a match made in, if not heaven then somewhere pretty nice, as this Duckenfield re-rub of Crazy P’s ‘Magnetise’ demonstrates. It’s a proper journey of a track, a nine-minute trek through dub disco, which drops a tasty conga-led breakdown before it evolves into a shimmering cosmic disco bomb.
Gianluca Pegoiani – Numero 5
Label: Rebirth Records
Picking up lots of DJ support at the moment, this is one of those genre-transcending records. You get a superb conga groove, endlessly cycling chords, a well-engineered breakdown that doesn’t overstay its welcome and a general rolling techno feel that is both nostalgic and simultaneously fresh. Big tune.
See Thru Hands – Connectivity – Skream Remix
Label: Sprechen
UK label Sprechen release nothing but brilliant dance floor music, ranging from boogie, Balearic, disco and house and have done themselves proud with this five-tracker. The original sounds like Robert Palmer in his mid 80s pomp if he was jamming in Ibiza with good drugs, but head to the Skream remix for a deceptively catchy house groover with lush chords that really do the vocal melody justice, creating a mini-summer anthem in the process.
Man Power feat. Amy Douglas – Flashing Lights/Acid God
Label: DFA
Nice slice of acid house from Man Power featuring a high-level vocal performance from uber-singer-songwriter Amy Douglas on the ever-reliable DFA imprint.
Forest Drive West – Terminus EP
Label: R&S
A drum and bass EP that might appeal to the more adventurous techno DJ, lead track ‘Impulse’ is all rolling, relentless machine breaks on a bed of distorted vocal snippets and machine clash audio; absolutely pounding. The other three take a similar dark approach, combining future breakbeat science with dystopian backdrops.
VA – TOOMUCHISTHEMINIMUM
Four tracks of carefully designed dance floor chaos from Peder Mannerfelt, Repro, Darc Marc and Uncrat. Peak-time dark-room music.
Albums
Kelly Lee Owens – Inner Song
Label: Smalltown Supersound
With ‘Inner Song’ Kelly Lee Owens has created an electronica/techno album which bears repeated listening and that comes with moments of substantial dance floor heft as well as quiet, brooding introspection. Includes an appearance from avant-garde hero John Cale.
Various Artists – discotech – [4blm]
Label: discotech
A parade of tech house heroes including Silverlining. Peace Division, H Foundation, DiY, Nail, Pure Science, Grant Dell, Terry Francis, Gideon Jackson, Toka Project and Da Sunlounge contributed tracks to this compilation. The music comes from the late 90s/early 2000s golden age of UK tech house and most of it has never been released digitally before. All proceeds going to NextGenMovement who focus on empowering youth and fighting racism in Nottingham.