Video: Humandrone - Paranoia (Snuff Trax STX006)

In February Snuff Trax will release "My Racoon / Paranoia" by Humandrone, with mixes of Nick Anthony and The Minister. Bleepy acid action in old skool vein as seen and heard in a video by the29nov Films.

Jagdstaffel 66 - Starfighter EP (Creme Eclipse 11)

A new toy for all top guns out there, to be released on Crème Organization's Eclipse series in February 2012. After spotting a teaser of bleepy acid house "Alle Piloten mit in den Tod" on Youtube, a full set of audio clips was now uploaded by the label.
In "Nur die F-104" German vocals narrate about the controversial existence of a troubled jet fighter, "Nachbrenner" transmits the feel of flying at 15,000 km above the Earth, while slo-mo acid eats in "Grössenwahn" and "Pilot Was Killed", the latter sounding like a genuine requiem.
I guess that Jagdstaffel 66 is not really a newcomer, but Rude 66. If you know his track "Die Stärke der vernichtenden Schläge" from the LP "Stalingrad Vol.1", the parallels are obvious.

ZERkleinerungsMAschine / Feindehnungsmeßgerät (Elektrokühlung – EK1)

Rating: 8/10

The first challenge is linguistic: Zerkleinerungs-maschine is a shredder and Feindehnungsmeßgerät some sort of measuring device. So the titles promise serious German engineering that comes in a form of acid and distorted bass.The sleeve sports a writing "Robotron", known as a computer brand in the German Democratic Republic, and the sound is unpolished, like coming from rusty hardware. A-side convulses under direct electric current for a electrolytic Djungle Fever style cut, while the B-side is stomping acid aerobics.

Buy

DUST OFF: Holy Ghost Inc. - Wildlife On One (Holy Ghost Inc HG 010 - 1993)

The year 2011 saw Holy Ghost! publishing an album for DFA, but the history books of techno know another group with the same name. When Tresor signed the duo in mid-1990's, Holy Ghost rose to awareness with the albums "The Mind Control of Candy Jones" and "Art Lukm Suite" plus several EPs recorded for the Berlin label.
Two Brits, Gary Griffith and Leon Thomson, had been in the business since acid house swept over the island and brought out several releases on their own Holy Ghost Inc label.
Largely unaware of the duo's pre-Tresor feats, I came across this EP in a crate-digging session and was not shun off by a techno-naive stance of the release.This is a techno release where the A-side runs largely on breakbeats, while on the flip  "Wildlife On One" reduces the speed for a beatless track with pulsating synths and thereafter "Daybreak Siren" rewards all hardliners with a tight banger - only the sample of a crowing rooster is not needed.

Chris Watson - El Tren Fantasma - The Signal Man's Mix (Touch - TO:42V)

Rating: 9/10

Railway, a symbol of motion, offers ultimate percussion experience as the rhythmic movement can be physically perceived on board. Chris Watson, a founding member of Cabaret Voltaire, decided to use trains as instruments and traveled with his recording gear across Mexico to capture sounds of rails for an album released on Touch.
Two tracks, labeled as Signal Man's mixes, were selected for the vinyl release where ambient fog and touches of percussion are added to looped fragments of field recordings. "El Divisadero - The Telegraph" is a lighter vehicle, like a passenger train, but fascinates with rail-made rhythm patterns. "Veracruz - The Tunnel" on the flip starts with alarm signals of heavy cargo train approaching a tunnel with brakes clattering.
Watson has done two most enjoyable real-life compositions where 19th century pioneer spirit meets backpacker romanticism. The record with neatly designed picture sleeve salutes Ferrocariles Nacionales de Mexico, the entity now in liquidacion after being privatized.

Buy

Nova Scotian Arms - Cult Spectrum (Digitalis Recordings Digiv035)

Rating: 8/10

When at 60 degrees North there was no snow in January, "Cult Spectrum" seemed appropriate music for dark and bare landscapes of the moment. Having released a cassette on Digitalis two years ago, Nova Scotian Arms presents now somber compositions on their first LP for the label.
Painted black in its essence, the album does not ignore some brighter notes. If we just take the opener "Gathering / Composition", that carries sort of Arctic flair with chilly winds blowing over the vastness of frozen seas. Clear and oxygenated drones with classical notes, the track sounds in some parts like Innercity in a close-hibernation mode.

After static drag of "Overcast Strumming (1st Delay)" and spherical flows of "Citadel", a giant of 16 minutes lands with "Emulsion", where initial glimmering of synthesizers is faded out by agonizing drones and meditative guitar riffs, for crawling through the dark forests of consciousness. "Hearse Overdub (Decomposition)" is an exploding outerlude.
"Cult Spectrum" contains semi-liquid substance that is slowly covering everything in surroundings. After being enthused by two Digitalis releases in 2011, the ones by Ricardo Donoso and KPLR, the first arrival of this year heralds another strong season for the Seattle label - a proof is also the label preview for 2012.

Buy from the label

Transportation AAD - Last Train To Lexington (Darkestral 006)

Rating: 9/10

Transportation AAD is in charge for heavy cargo. So far I had associated Darkestral with dubstep and drum'n'bass, but Alex Green's and Paul Laidlaw's seismic debut goes to the extremes in bass dosage. A-side's "Last Train To Lexington" booms and thunders like hell and tells it's definitely not a good idea to cross the rails with red lights blinking when this train is coming. On the flip "U.F. Unk" continues the trip with mammoth beats. Simple, but striking.

Buy

12/2011: Drexciya, Nuel, Ruskin & O'Connor

Drexciya's much-anticipated compilation landed in the first position of the Juno chart in December - although it features only one unreleased track, the fact of having access to the back catalog of Detroit's most prominent electro act deserves full respect. Italy's Nuel abandoned droning techno for a while and released on Seattle's Further Records a mesmerizing album "Trance Mutation". O/V/R Live is a new label that started with a two-tracker by O/V/R aka Karl O'Connor and James Ruskin, the latter really hitting with rhythm hammer. Amsterdam's San Proper was a revelation with two solid and stripped-down deep house tracks on Studio Soulrock. Mike Parker remains true to his trademark drilling sound with a thundering EP "Pulse Trader" for Munich's Prologue and Fit Sound brought to us "Ascender", a valuable reissue by Detroit's Walt J. KPLR's LP on Digitalis, not listed in Juno, belongs also to the very top of December releases.

OLD TAPE: Spiral Tribe - Sirius 23 (1993)

"Sirius 23" is a release by decadent techno vagabonds, united under the banner of Spiral Tribe in the mid-1990's. Seeing free techno parties as a constitutional right, the ST community travelled the lands to set up wild illegal parties and in the sidelines manged to release a number of records, most of them on own label Network 23.
Never seen any vinyls of the Spiral Tribe and also this "Sirius 23" is from a cassette made by a friend, as some of these hard-to-find records were in circulation in Tallinn. This EP offers four tracks of sheer rave madness, more breakbeat-focused on the A-side while on the flip big sound systems would love thunder bass and sloppy beats in "Going All The Way" and acid showers in "Preditor".
Would be great if some readers could share memories about Spiral Tribe, about the group's adventures in the different corners of UK and elsewhere.