Robbenspierre
Fighting Loneliness EP

R.A.N.D. Muzik Recordings welcomes the return of UK tech house pioneers, the Alien Recordings crew with tracks from A², Stopouts and the late, great Andy Panayi.

DJ Stingray 313's Aqua Team series returns to Micron Audio. Originally released as a two-part series on the ever-innovative WeMe, the records quickly became collector's items. 15 years later, Aqua Team is now back in full force, reimagined as a triple vinyl album of underwater sonic explorations, fully remastered to meet modern cyborg standards. "Serotonin" starts the series off in true DJ Stingray style - pounding drums and 808 bass kicks, airy yet striking arpeggios and haunting vocal loops throughout. "Straight Up Cyborg" is a dystopian journey through cybernetic blips, bleeps and static and progressive build that truly bring the track to life. An aquatic alien bassline, sonar-like leads and hovering snare move swiftly in "Star Chart"; "Silicon Romance" and "Counter Surveillance" are modish tracks instantly recognizable as DJ Stingray 313's unique Detroit sound. "You have a destiny, and now is your time to fulfill it" says the mantra-like sample in "Potential", an entrancing synth loop sure to send listeners and dancefloors deep diving into euphoria. Pounding drums, floor-shaking low-end, running percussion and atonal, ominous samples theme the nefarious tracks "Binary Coven", "NWO", "LR001" and "Mindless", footnoting much darker undertakings in DJ Stingray 313's Aqua Team excursion. Closing out the Aqua Team saga is the strongly-titled "It's All Connected". Thick drums, glistening arpeggios and ethereal strings shine brightly across a wide stereo plane, creating a thundering wall of sound. Aqua Team truly showcases the diverse facets of DJ Stingray 313's signature production, as vast and evolving as the seafloor itself. - Jay Remy

The Ossario EP presents four serpentine and labyrinthine techno tracks produced between 2019-20 by Andrea Bonalumi, also known as Big Hands. The title is an homage to San Bernardino alle Ossa in Bonalumi’s hometown of Milan, and personifies the ethereal and opaque atmosphere of his ouevre.Stylistically ‘Girde Maye/Astere’ embodies the interrelation between his Milanese roots and adopted home of London. Recorded one summer evening in Bow, it includes an original vocal by a Turkish immigrant, spoken in Italian - a paean to an unrealised, borderless world. This is followed by the pendulous, mutating bell tones of ’Modulo’, a fragmented and abstract epic of sublime beauty that defies easy categorisation.On ‘Oscillation’ the producer explores polyrhythms, which also functions as a tool for DJs to transition between tempos. The undulating groove of ’Cariatide’ rounds out the EP, a statement from a talented producer who deftly crafts a soundworld which is at once contemporary and historical.

The first Huerco S. album in 6 years, Plonk’s world does not wholly resemble anything Brian Leeds has made under any alias. His sound palette has broadened to absorb and refine trap’s un-smeared geometrics and drill’s taught rhythms amongst the gaseous bodies and soul-piercing ambience that has garnered such acclaim; Where those previous veins were rooted in the pre-Columbian civilizations of his native Kansas, Plonk reflects the mournful sodium glow of cities at night, street corners that light up with painful moments of clarity you wish would disappear.

Judas on Arts.

Ethereal Logic, the experimental project of in-house producers S.Moreira and Indi Zone, returns with another extraordinary trip, this time accompanying their characteristical exploratory soundscapes with hypnotic tribalistic patterns.