Limited to 250 coloured copies in a printed sleeve with a photo by the Dutch Photographer Awoiska van der Molen. Channel#9 collects five tracks of free flowing techno from Italy's Ascion. A talent who has graced labels like 3TH and Repitch, this EP balances floor fervour with subtle warm washes and colder echoes. The lulling wonders of "Anhatolia" hark back to a time of dreamlike ambience, that calm turning frosty in the early morning light of "Illusorium." Those arctic currents become knifelike in the jagged thump and bitter acid barbs of "Doubledpang" But the rasp never turns too venomous. "Fraxtile" and "Cybbar" are from a similarly murky place, reducing some of the throbbing pound to allow melting melodies to shift and swirl. Spirited and soulful with just a hint of serpentine.
Deep Sound Channel delve deeper into the waters of ESHU. Following releases from ARC# and Tom Liem comes J&L, the team of Jocelyn Abell and Tom Liem, with a storm of emotions. Brooding, menacing, the tumult of "Uneven Tides" introduces. Steady thuds support flows of warmth, flows countered by piercing coldness in a track that is as absorbing as it is haunting. A sea of veritable tranquillity descends for "Lunar Tides." Soften, staggered basslines are punctuated with crisp skeletal cymbal. New textures come to the surface for the autumnal currents of "Ocean Tides." Churning chords reflect night skies, shifting percussion floating amidst the jetsam.
Once again the dutchman from the north Boris Bunnik (who actually resides in Rotterdam now, but that aside) is showcasing his magic fingers, this time on Shipwrec's deep techno offshoot Deep Sound Channel. 'Hinterland' is a topnotch ice-cold but heartwarming submarine electro/techno album with distant hints of IDM, in other words the perfect soundtrack for the long midwinter nights to come.
Limited to 250 coloured copies. For the tenth instalment of Deep Sound Channel the label is going full circle, back to where it all began. ARC# inaugurated the imprint back in 2013 and now part of the collective, Tom Liem, is flying solo. Well, solo for the opening track. "A Liquid State" is a mellow, melting piece of marshy machine music. Warmth flows as clicks and clacks orbit a soft and soothing synth-line in a track that epitomises the term ambient techno. Acronym, of Northern Electronics and Semantica fame, takes over the controls for the flip. Percussion is folded and refolded, layered into itself into a hypnotic haze. Behind these blurred beats a burbling bass bulges as gentle key strokes scatter for a remix brimming with textures and intensity.
Yeelen is a brand new project forged in the heart of a forgotten past. Joe Drive, of Lux Rec fame, and Maurizio Martinucci aka TeZ aka Pragma have joined forces to sculpt, in their own words, "sonic constructions that transcend the canons of electronic music." A bold statement, but then again this is a pretty bold EP. "Techno tribalism and ritualistic soundscapes" are the bedrock from which this partnership cultivate their sound. Figures and forms of a bygone time are conjured through intoxicating drum patterns, lost lands of dense jungle and windswept hills summoned through loops and samples to ensnare and entrance. Polytheism explored through the prism of a polyphonic synth, mysticism born from machine drums; "Ethnosonology of the future."
