Saturday, November 22, 2025
Friday, November 21, 2025
Track Of The Day: Thoughtforms - Chicago Trance (Thoughtforms)
I’m sure there’s a story behind this track’s title. That said, it does what it says on the tin, minus the Chicago bit. So that’s a 50% hit rate. What I like about it is its speed and intensity. It’s almost chug trance, and is suitably dense in structure. Spoken word is on point too. Could have done with one more phrase, but it sounds good.
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Track Of The Day: Inner Zone - Folded Realm (Space Lab)
I’ve been posting quite a few recent Bandcamp purchases for the last few weeks, and here’s another. Space Lab have been championing this sound for a while now through the likes of Adam Pits, etc. Think Prologue from over ten years ago, and you’re pretty much there with this one. I would call it deep techno rather than trance. You may beg to differ, however. What it is for sure is a very immersive sound which maintains more than a shadow of funk. The remix of this track doesn’t do too much to it, but does turn up the contrast and the colour somewhat. There are interesting Goa vestiges floating around in this tunes’ headspace. Thankfully the good bits.
Track Of Yesterday: Autechre - Rsdio (Warp)
This track from Autechre comes from ‘Tri Repetea’ and closes the album. This is probably my favourite album by them because of its approach to melody and structure. There’s a lot of layering going on, and with layering comes spacial awareness. You can feel the build within each track and, even though it may be obvious what is coming next, you can never be completely sure. Sometimes there’s a tangent to go off on, often not. This album came out after the ‘Anti’ EP, which was a protest against the Criminal Justice And Public Order Act 1994 “which would prohibit raves, defined as any gathering of nine or more people where rave music is played. Rave music was defined as music which "includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats". This album experiments with that approach to rhythm, it’s anything but “rave” orientated though, taking a forensic and detailed approach to the science of patterned and textured shape-throwing invocation. And it’s influence is clear on the likes of the recently-released album by Noumen, whose ‘Oion’ feels like an homage of sorts.
Sunday, November 16, 2025
Saturday, November 15, 2025
Friday, November 14, 2025
Track Of The Day: Olsvangèr -- Goldman's Propeller (Craigie Knowles)
Track Of Yesterday: Genning - Red Lights (Mud Trax)
This is great once it gets going. It spends a little bit of time shuffling around with very little low end, but then the dub flange kicks in and deploys mucho undulation. A very solid, functional mixing track with flourishes.
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Track of The Day: The 4th Wave - Attention Please (Op-ART)
The 4th Wave, aka Steve Paton, aka Steve Paton, throws together some undulating break beat magic with a very live feel. I suppose its that blend of spontaneity and preprogrammed nirvana that makes this track so unique. It has a distinctly British feel, blending an emotive ambience with a more hard-hitting momentum and is one of many similar pieces that has more than stood the test of time. I would love to know who was the first person in The UK to hear Detroit techno and say “Right. Let’s do something like it, only with a strange kind of pastoral emotional content that could only come from the pagan countryside.” If only any thought process was as easy to nail down.
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Track Of The Day: Noumen - Oion (CPU)
This is the first track of Noun’s new album for CPU and it’s a real statement. Tracks like this are made to eternally unfurl, and that’s exactly what this does, with new sonic flourishes at every juncture. There’s so much space between the monolithic groove that almost all life has the chance to be accommodated. This really is the electronic music of the spheres, an imagined soundtrack to the workings of the universe as imagined by a maverick victorian inventor. So many floating textures complimented by light years of interplanetary layers. This track could go on for ever and I wouldn’t get bored.
Monday, November 10, 2025
Track Of The Day: Random Noise Generation - Instrument Of Change (430 West)
Random Noise Generation, aka Octave One, have been around since year zero and, as such, have amassed a considerable back catalogue. Something that always intrigued my was that their very first release, ‘I Believe’, sounds like nothing else they have released since. Their sound having since become recognisable for a deep, percussive groove. Their influence is considerable and I think it’s fair to say that while their sound is economical, they are experts at maximising it. I just plucked this randomly from the shelves and stuck it on as I’m testing my technology in preparation for a long-overdue mix. My copy needs a good clean, but nothing can stop the delightfully dissonant soaring & diving riff that permeates its very being. Lovely stuff.
Sunday, November 09, 2025
Track Of The Day: Joe Seven x dBridge - Possible Future [Exit]
Another incredible piece of future music here. And I’ve got to say that a few of the cuts I’ve featured recently, including this one, have been lifted from 214’s most recent mix. That’s the power of including a tracklist with your set pop pickers. Everybody gets to know who made the music and then they can go out and buy it, making the artist that little bit richer, and then checking out not just the back catalogue, but future releases as well. The bass is a rumbling monster, the spoken word sample comes in for just the right amount of time, and there is a lovely feel of dissonance about the whole record, which heightens as it goes on. We’re under heavy manners with this one folks.
Saturday, November 08, 2025
Track Of The Day: DJ Sprinkles - Grand Central Part I (MCDE Bassline Dub) (Mule Music)
This is all about the bass, hence the name of the remix. I don’t think (checks notes) DJ Sprinkles, aka Terre Thaemlitz has been remixed that often. And, having said that, I doubt whether this could have been better reinterpreted by anyone. An amazing low frequency grind that would raise the dead with an innovative use of the sub bass that threatens that of ‘LFO’ for tectonic shift capabilities. This hasn’t ever been repressed. Now’s the time.
Friday, November 07, 2025
Track Of The Day: VC-118A - Distorted Name (Delsin)
AlthoughI’ve already posted the title track from this monster of a release, I couldn’t ast too long without giving this beast its due. ‘Distorted Name’ again allows VC-118A to reply his singular take on electro. The beats and the superstructure are there, but what makes his productions so interesting is their depth, drive and dirt. The sound is dirty. Everything is frayed around the edges, but together. There’s a feeling in a track like this that sonic decomposition is taking place. However, before it has a chance to fall apart, it’s reassembled by the next beat. This is the soundtrack to the dust murmurations in the asteroid belt, and that of one of those rocks breaking free and finally hurting towards Earth.
Thursday, November 06, 2025
Track Of The Day: Eno & Byrne - America is Waiting (Sire)
Preceded by The Cabs‘Voice Of America’, not by that much though; ‘America Is Waiting’ opens ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’, which means that whenever we played the whole album, this robotic funk barrages the first thing to pummel our often baked brains. It’s approach to sampling is very much reminiscent of Double D & Steinski. Voices become instruments blending in with their accompaniment. Such a great track from such an amazing album. The amount of times I’ve heard this in my head alongside an imagined entrance into Vinny’s old bedroom is incalculable.
Wednesday, November 05, 2025
Track Of The day: Skymaster - Shooting Stars (Offshoot)
What makes this is “the noise”. You’ll know what I’m talking about as soon as it kicks in. Like some primeval behemoth yawning at the dawn of time. Something from beyond the 5th dimension, previously seen in the imagination of H.P. Lovecraft. I remember some things so well they defy description. And so it was that when visiting Fabric for the first time, probably it’s second or third week, I heard Derrick May play this on that system. The beans were very good back then so the effect that it has open me was instant and cataclysmic. It’s funny because the rest of the track isn’t normally the type of groove I’m fond of, but the monster’s groan keeps things effervescent.
Track Of Yesterday: DJ LInus - Who Stole The Soul (P.Weeks & D.Duriez remix) (Brique Rouge Trax)
Monday, November 03, 2025
Track Of The Day: Amfibian - Pa Relax (Jark Prongo Remix) (Touche)
Three posts ago is to blame for this. Drawn into listening to another excellent ‘Abstract Dance’ show from the one and only Colin Dale, I was immediately transported back to the carefree days of the mid nineties when this came bounding in. And it does bound. It’s like trance with beats on steroids. One of the best tracks on Touche, along with Tata Box Inhibitors, 51 Days and Trancesetters. The production of Dark Prongo has that ineffable Dutch strap. Everything seems like it’s riding on a cushion of air. Proper uplifting pill music. It’s difficult sometimes to remember how good the nineties were, then you hear a track like this and it sort of condenses all the positive energy into a druggy sonic symphony. Then the Internet started and it was the beginning of the end. Possibly.
Sunday, November 02, 2025
Track Of Yesterday: E.R.P. - Microcentric (Syncrophone)
It’s debatable as to whether Gerard Hanson has ever made a duff track. I say this as a fan, but also as a student of dramatic music tension, particularly in the electro context. And, while most of the genre’s kingpins have a recognisable signature sound, there’s no one who can match him for a sense of the grandiose. This tune, taken from his just released eponymously named EP is a case in point. It’s excellent and, while not unique in the Hanson repertoire, always feels fresh and unique. This is Hanson’s second release on Syncrophone, the previous one being ‘Torc’ as Convextion. And, on the basis of this track alone, it’s better..
Track Of The Day: Basic Channel - Lyot Rmx (Basic Channel)
So I’ve chosen this one because it sort of echoes my dissipated state right now. This morning I ran the ‘Bonfire Burn’, a 10K in North Cambridge that is mostly on road, but goes off for around a third of its route. I had to dig deep, but hit was worth it, as I came through with a time of around 43:40. I’m really happy if I can still go under 45 minutes at this distance, so it’s a bonus that I go even faster. Anyway, I’m sitting on the couch, my bones slowly knitting themselves back into some sort off symmetry, watching lower league FA Cup action, and about to wrestle with the necessity of roasting a chicken. Slowly does it. Rather like this reverse, respiratory soundscape.
