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.