TECHNO / NEOTRANCE ***** Martinou – We Orbit EP (Arts Transparent ARTSTRANSPARENT015)
Martinou is a co-founder of the Sewer Sender label from Sweden and has released two albums on Nous’klaer Audio. The debut on Arts’ offshoot Transparent is filled with tripping nebular tracks. “Hollow” opens with velvety bounce over humming elves and “In Stasis” proceeds with interstellar tribal built on ambient pads. “Dont’ Fall” continues in a gentle and entrancing manner, being well paired with “Towards Nothing”. Worth of several spins, sounding like a stripped version of the UTE output from Norway.

TECHNO / INDUSTRIAL *** Yuji Kondo – Wave Existence (Void +1 Recordings V+1026D)
In recent years it has been quiet around the Japanese techno wunderkind Yuji Kondo. Now the artist known under various guises is making some noise on Turin’s Void +1 platform. November marks his appearance on the label sampler and a new EP, “Wave Existence”. Intense and loud tracks tell us about Kondo’s well-kept shape. Though in the first two tracks, the noise and broken beats go overdrive. My favorites are “Null Ascencion”, which adds experimental angle and chiptune bits to rhythms, and “Contact Sequence”, an efficient minesweeper. The last two are ruthless yet fascinating workout for dark techno corners.

TECHNO / DEEP TECHNO *** Shinedoe – GEMS (Music That Moves MTM 010)
Amsterdam’s Shinedoe celebrates a little jubilee with the tenth release on her home label. Emerging as an artist about twenty years ago, Shinedoe has been regularly providing good club material.  The title of this four-tracker is not too justified, when the things start happening only with the funky slam “Gold”, built on helicopter rhythm. Scintillating, chord driven “Alkebulan” provides further joyous moments, while the preceding two versions of “Stand Up” remain inside the ordinary.

TECHNO / TRANCE **** YUOA / Joanna Jago / Astatine – Soulmates (Deployment Strategies DS 004)
Tripping tracks with fruity bass lines, under a veil of mystery from Portugal’s Deployment Strategies.

BASS / ELECTRO **** Wonks – Scratch Robotics (Zoitrax ZTX060)
Plenty of bass and breaks on the debut by Wonks. The five-tracker makes the first half of two EPs released by Zoitrax label in Bristol. The tendance is towards laid back yet colourful textures, whereas the chord-bolstered and humming “In-Built” is not far from IDM or even Detroit. My favourites are “Medjool”, with traces of dub and vocal ornaments by Nadia Meuthia Ramadhani, and “Injekt 2ml”, pinned by weaving rhythm to ‘exploratory electro’. A nice wonky and heady session by the artist from Bedford.

TECHNO **** Syncom Data – We Are Here (SD Records SDD32)
Abandon your Birkenstocks because the Syncom Data operatives Deejay Raoul and Nukubus are moving on a rough terrain again. The original “We Are Here” is sluggish and distorted, loaded with drum effects. Psychedelic notes appear in the uptempo sweeper “Tunnel Mix”, where it’s raining hi-hats and Nukubus emits strange noises through a gas mask . The instrumental version keeps the pace and stays in the same circuit. Quality as always from SD.   

TECHNO *** Init1 – Codes (Audio Magnitude AM10)
Audio Magnitude from Spain presents its tenth release by onboarding the techno artist Init1. The Frenchman has amassed a set of tools for heavy material across four tracks. Led by thundering and varied percussion, the mid-tempo session lands close to Subhead’s monsters (“200″ and 400”). With strong industrial touch, the EP looks for more abstract beats in “404”.

RAVE / EBM /ACID *** XTR Human – Sledgehammer (Wie Ein Gott GOTT16)
“Eins, zwei, Polizei” meets “Hyper Hyper” is the initial impression of “Sledgehammer”, a pounding hands-in-the-air track by XTR Human from Berlin. Tongue-in-the-cheek or not, the remixes are of different type. After an industrial take by Dancing Plague, Personal Offence comes with an acidic power surge. Kris Baha version begins with breakbeat motives, before admiring the summer solstice in a 303 trance camp.

JUNGLE / BASS **** Unsyncopation – Retrograde (Unsyncopation 001)
Fresh-sounding debut from UK, representing the new wave of broken beats processing. Relaxed rhythms are mixed with female vocals both in the opener “Seduction” and “Thrown To The Dogs”, the latter getting extra emphasis from harsh stereo effects. “Retrograde” continues with non-invasive textures, all that being moderately old school with modern twist.