It's Good To Be Differ-Ent - DJ Bone (Don't Be Afraid)

Title: It’s Good To Be Differ-Ent

Artist: DJ Bone

Label: Don’t Be Afraid

Cat Number: DBALP002

Genre: Techno

A1: Inhabit Tense

A2: Marvel Less

B1: Met Allergic Flew Antsy

B2: Compute Her

C1: Drum Addict

C2: We Have U Surrounded

D1: Motive Hate Shun

D2: Fasten 8 Shun

E1: Gem In Eyes (feat. DJ Bone)

E2: A Calm Bliss

F1: Laser Eyes
F2: I M Differ-ent

DJ Bone and his Differ-Ent alias go head to head on this, his first album since ‘Out of Knowhere’ in 2007. It’s a piece of work which, if we take it literally, sees the funk of DJ Bone in collision with Differ-Ent’s darkness. The tracks are extremely well produced and are as cohesive an album as the genre is likely to produce, taking into account the overriding focus on dancing. Bone adds something extra to his productions which is noticeable, but still in the ether. Predictably, most of the pieces here are what you would expect them to be, no nonsense floor-based techno, but they have another dimension which gives them a subtle edge. The electro present, ‘Compute Her’, ‘Motive Hate Shun’ and ‘I M Differ-Ent’ is excellent, particularly the last track, coming off the back of two largely ambient, beatless compositions, rounding off the melancholic tone previously set. The bittersweet atmosphere is also evident on ‘Fasten 8 Shun’, ‘Gem In Eyes’ and ‘Drum Addict’. This is something that Bone is particularly good at; the ability to create light from darkness, and vice versa, in broad, cinematic sweeps.

Kinship - Artefakt (Delsin)

Title: Kinship

Artist: Artefakt

Label: Delsin

Cat Number:122DSR

Genre: Techno

1: Kinship

2: Tapestry

3: Entering The City

4: Somatic Dreams

5: Fernweh

6: Return To Reason

7: Tapeloop

Artefakt’s singles have always hit my sonic g spot. Just the right amount of momentum, underpinned by a throbbing, dead serious analogue undertow, it’s like they listened to ‘Acid Eiffel’ alone in a dark room for a few hours and everything coalesced within a diorama of emotiveness.  Because, as functional as their music is, they get everything right in the way you knew you would if you had the wherewithal. ‘Kinship’ is a concise, measured statement of that sound, (something obviously influenced by that of the majority of artists who used to record on Prologue, where Artefakt got their start); which unfolds like a typical Artefakt track over the course of an album. The momentum it builds being critical to the duo’s identity, as well as something which conspicuously works at rehabilitating your soft spot for trance.

Silent Pattern of the Tortoise's Walk - Voiski (Sheik n' Beik)

Title: Silent Pattern of the Tortoise's Walk

Artist: Voiski

Label: Sheik N Beik

Cat Number: SNBV009

Genre: Techno

1: 5^th Dolphin Transmission

2: Let Down Disco

Voiski is one of those artists who doesn’t, on first listen, seem to be doing that much different to the rest; but further examination of his sonic palette suggests otherwise. He’s got a way with sound, which is, on the one hand richly subtle, tactile almost, and on the other powerfully honed to a fine degree. Both tracks here feel sparse but are layered and dense. The more I listen to the title track the more I like it, but then it ends. It’s ‘Let Down Disco’ however, hewn from a rich seam of synthetic italo and sped up to surf the wave of today’s warehouses that really hits the spot.