200 FA - The Force Dimension (Amnesia Records)

Dorian Blue - The Advent (Thema)

Title: Dorian Blue

Artist: The Advent

Label: Thema Recordings

Cat Number: THEMA049

Genre: Techno

1: Kombination 100

2: Dorian Blue

3: In Time (The Brooklyn Edit)

4: Rhythm (Is life Edit)

5: Scroll (Digital Only)

If you want a richly textured techno EP, this is for you. Even though it’s hardly original, there’s so much going on here that it’s freshness shines through. The title track is my personal fave here, and comes across as cold wave on steroids. ‘Rhythm (Is Life Edit)’ is a break beat monster of stellar proportions, ‘Kombination 100’ a rubberoid techno banger, ‘In Time (The Brooklyn Edit)’ an airy, tribal romp, while ‘Scroll’ a relentless loop of doom. It’s all here on this exemplary release which is impossible not to like, if you like techno, that is.

Pink Cloud Syndrome - Peter Kirn (Detroit Underground)

Title: Pink Cloud Syndrome

Artist: Peter Kirn

Label: Detroit Underground

Cat Number: DU-VHS3

Genre: Ambient, Electronica

1: PCS1

2: PCS2

3: PCS3

4: PCS4

Four ambient, mood setting tracks which started off life as the background noise to a fashion show (I think). They are interesting enough in that context, and are competently arranged, steadily building in tempo if listened to chronologically. They would also be better than most of what passes as edgy on the catwalk, however, I can’t say much more than they are four atmospheric workouts that don't do anything special. Which is nice.

Crossing 011 - Milton Bradley presents Doomsday Device (Crossing)

Title: Crossing 011

Artist: Milton Bradley presents Doomsday Device

Label: Crossing

Cat Number: Crossing011

Genre: Techno

1: The X-Planet

2: Device 4

3: The Yesterday Machine

If Phil Spector made techno it may have sounded like this. ‘The X-Planet’ adopts a wall of sound approach and, as far as the big room philosophy is concerned, it’s not bad at all. There’s little or no space between the various elements and one feels quite pulverized by the whole listening experience. ‘Device 4’ and ‘The Yesterday Machine’ both work on the same principle, but lack the funk of ‘The X-Planet’, feeling loopy and less immersive, particularly ‘Device 4’. This EP goes for the jugular but, to an extent, comes off as formulaic and boring. Hit and miss.

Laurence Fisher Q's & A's

Laurence Fisher is the maverick behind Cambridge's only electro night, 'Motherchip Connexion'. We recently became acquainted, so I thought it only polite to ask him a few questions, and get him to do a mix. Read on and fill your boots (as well as your eyes and ears).

What motivated you to start Motherchip Connexion and what are the realities of trying to run a club night like it in Cambridge?

Motherchip started out of complete boredom and frustration at the lack of any electro music in Cambridge. I was staying in for years on end, mixing and listening on my own and one night went out to see an old mate’s event where people were playing eclectic mixes of music on vinyl. I started talking to people there and quickly made some new friends. I explained my passion for electro music and got introduced to a couple of other like-minded people. Seeing others putting on small events in pubs inspired me to get together with the few folks I met who had electro to play and it went from there. The reality is that in this town electro is a bit of an unknown quantity to a lot of people, but the beauty is that people come up to me saying “I don’t know what this type of music is but I love it, it’s amazing!” Crowd sizes can vary, we have had full rooms and single digit figures. A late license at a venue really helps but it is hard to persuade venues to give you one if you can’t guarantee numbers. We take what we can get.  

Who are the resident DJs and what are their styles? How do they compliment each other?

There are three residents including myself. 

Eddie aka Bovaflux/Nullptr plays a great range of high quality production electro, plenty of solid classics and new releases. His style leans towards tracks with deep moods, melody and emotions, but also knows exactly how to bring the heat when he wants to rock the crowd.

The Subdermic aka Lilly Phoenix is a force to be reckoned with. She plays some of the hardest techno I’ve heard in this town and slides electro bangers in between. It’s always exciting to hear her new unreleased material live and the reaction it gets. Furiously beat matching and fader flipping her way though intense sets, she takes no prisoners.

Purplehands  aka myself. I like to play all sorts of electro styles, depending on the time of the night. At the beginning I’ll be slower and playing gentle vibes; middle period I’m playing the classics and trying out new tracks. End of the night I’m ramping up with fast Detroit electro, and squeaky, bleepy and raw sounds from across the planet.

I think we all work well because we are versatile and rotate different time slots. We know each other’s styles well enough to transition our sets together while all bringing our own take on the music and surprise each other. It’s a lot of fun.     

What about lighting and visuals? Would you say that coming to Motherchip is an immersive experience?

Coming from a previous job working as a lighting technician the venue space is very important to me. I have a clear idea of what I like for our music, as dark as possible with a few lasers for dance floor motion and immersion backed up by smoke machine. The strobe comes out towards the end of the night usually controlled by myself. The one thing that people seem to like and comment on are the visuals I make, which is nice. I spend hours looking for old science documentaries, sci-fi and technology videos to splice together into 3 to 4 hour long playing videos. No 2001 though, that shit is great but completely played out! I only have basic software to make them with but I enjoy spending nights listening late to records and picking out scenes that compliment each other. It also really helps tie in the subject matter of electro music. It’s also great at the start of the nights when people don’t necessarily want to dance they can just sit back in the dark, listen and zone out to the visuals. There’s nothing I love more than watching missile tests while Fastgraph is being played.   

What are your own feelings about electro, and electronic music in general? How long have you been into it, and what got you started?

I came from playing bass in a punk band and mixing and scratching hip hop before I heard real electro. It’s a typical evolution in listening I guess. An old mate put me on to some records he had started buying around roughly 2001 and it just went from there. I just started exploring the underground world, mainly through the Internet. I remember hearing Radioactiveman’s first album being played at a market stall in town, a complete surprise to me at the time that someone else knew it. I said I knew it and the guy at the stall gave me a CDR of DJ Stingray’s - DJ café Mix Rotterdam, back in 2003. When I heard that it changed everything; it was on repeat in the car for ages. I spent many solitary years trying to hunt down the tracks on it and discovering lots of different types of electro in the process. 

The genre is incredibly personal to me, it’s the time and energy spent digging to find such amazing music, which solidifies the bond I have for it. The sounds are like nothing else to my mind. It’s full of different emotions and concepts. It can send me into deep thoughts, reflecting on the world and the future. It can also make me want to dance because it is incredibly rhythmic, funky, heavy and sexy.

What I find very interesting is that within a relatively small genre there are a number of artists that have their own original musical styles while still sticking to the essence of electro, it’s very similar to hip hop really, when MCs and beat makers have their own styles and it also feels like there is a bit of friendly competition going on. What’s great is the community of artists within it, I used to message The Advent and Stingray on Myspace asking about tracks and pointers for records. Today it’s great to be able to contact and share information with these artists directly on Facebook or by just chatting to them in person at club nights, there are no egos just hard working, genuine people keeping this scene alive for the love of it.

  

 Could you say what the most popular tunes are at Motherchip? Give us an all time top 5.

The Consumer – Datacare

 Shokh – The Man

 Randomer – Smokin’

ERP – Vox Automaton

Detroit In Effect – Let Yo Body Rock

When we spoke at the ‘Drexciyan Legacy’ night, you came across as someone who is passionate about what they do, but also realistic. Do you think you’ll ever be able to give up your day job to concentrate more on music, and what is the day job?

Well never say never, it would be great to do, I think that time is more important than money as long as you have enough to get by on. I often get ideas for making tracks while at work and wish I could just go home and turn on the music gear, and then when you get home you’re tired and only have a few hours to get creative. I don’t know if I’m just lazy or my heart isn’t in it enough but I do feel I waste too much time not making music. A valuable lesson I have learned over the years is that stress from jobs kills my creativity. Today I work in hazardous waste management and media production for a biomedical research campus as a lab technician. I have also worked in human anatomy, embalming donors for teaching purposes. 

If you could emulate any club night, which would it be, and why?

Scand is an electro night in and around London run by Sync 24 that always inspires me. Its just pure electro all night, they have their residents who are lovely people and they get in the famous names in the scene from around the world. It’s great to hear upcoming releases played by them and you know the crowd is there because they’re really into the music, I have made a lot of friends by attending those nights and it’s good to chat with like minded people about the music. Their last event was at Corsica Studios and was a split night with Neighborhood. It was so great to see electro in charge and in the main room instead of “room 2” which is so often the case; that’s what I’m aiming for too.    

What have been your greatest influences outside music?

Space exploration, human civilization, science and, broadly speaking, anything that involves a glimpse into the future. I’m looking forward to the Moon space station, the Moon base and humans landing on Mars, and also a solution to global warming.

 What are the top 5 labels and artists that are buy on sight for you?

Stilleben Records in Sweden run by Luke Eargoggle and his brother always put out interesting and crazy banging tracks and have done for years. They’re a must buy for me.

Cultivated Electronics run by Phil (Sync 24) in the UK has consistently strong releases and they fly off the shelves so keep your eyes peeled!

Fundamental Records run by Alek Stark out of Madrid is incredible. He has released artist’s albums and put together the biggest compilations of electro in the world from artists across the globe. These are a buy on sight for me as they contain tracks you cannot get on any other format than vinyl and I treat them like heavy ammo for doing a set. 

Jensen Interceptor (Australia) has recently started a label called International Chrome which is taking off right now. He and Assembler Code are putting out some furious banging electro which is a regular listen for me, I’m excited to see where they go musically.

Frustrated Funk is just a classic label and I always have to keep my eyes peeled for new stuff on there, so many great releases over the years.

What is coming up in the future for Motherchip? Is there anything happening between now and Christmas?

Yes we have our CPU Records release party celebrating Eddie’s (Nullptr) EP   ‘Aftrmth’, on 19^th October at 2648 Bar on Trinity Street in Cambridge. Also 96 Back from CPU will be joining us. Really looking forward to that and in a new venue too. We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds. I have a baby boy on the way so I will be very busy early next year, it’s all really exciting and I hope we can get more people around town to tune into our sounds and grow the crowd. We would like to get some bigger names to play for us and make more connexions! I think perseverance is key and as long as we are enjoying it we can make an impact. To the future!

Cacophonous Bling Podcast 10: Purplehands

DJ Dijital - Abduction Beats (feat DJ Lenn Swann)

Professor X - Static

Alden Tyrell - Obsession

Luke Eargoggle - Nancy is Data

Kan3da - Scandinavium

Kraftwerk - Computer World

Assembler Code - HAL's Machine Tool

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Survival

Darren J. Horgan - TB or not TB

Freddy Fresh - Flava

Biochip C - Non-violent

The Advent - Heights

The Other Side Of Space - Techno Drivers

The Consumer - Datacare

T/error - Transuranium

Klorex 55 - Your car is my car

Shokh - The Man

D.A.F. - El que

Fastgraph - ../../

Ultradyne - Suicide Relay

AFX - .942937

Autechre - Second Scepe 

Cacophonous Bling Podcast 10: Purplehands

Awakening the Past 2 - The Evader (Steve Bicknell) (6dimensions)

Title: Awakening The Past 2

Artist: The Evader (Steve Bicknell)

Label: 6dimensions

Cat Number: 126d-10

Genre: Techno

1: No Hats Required – Track 1

2: No Hats Required – Track 6

3: No Hats Required – Track 2

4: No Hats Required – Track 3

5: Power Of Balance

6: Shifting Illusion

The four ‘’No Hats Required’ tracks are all locked grooves. So let’s move on to ‘Power of Balance’, which feels like a longer locked groove, and ‘Shifting Illusion’ which does so as well. Sorry to be negative about this, but when two tracks are placed on the same release as what amounts to four even more condensed compositions, it doesn’t do them any favours. 

BROR07 - Jor-El aka Joel Alter (BROR Records)

Title: BROR07

Artist: Jor- El aka Joel Alter

Label: Bror Records

Cat Number: BROR07

Genre: Techno

1: In Ur Face

2: In Ur Mind

3: Spectrum

‘In Ur Face’, while being pleasant enough, relies on a dirty, squelchy sub bass to deliver its eponymous clarion call. It’s a contrast between light and dark which conjures up visions of Theresa May running barefoot through fields of wheat, while being pursued by a limp, sausage waving Boris Johnson. The dreamier ‘In Your Mind’ is grander in scope, and thankfully not at all evocative of the previous track’s tomfoolery. It’s rather good though. ‘Spectrum’ is a twitch from start to finish, and does nothing for me bar the background swirls. Head straight for ‘In Ur Mind’ on this release. It’s covering multitudes. 

Synergy EP - Tripeo (incl. Cadans, Doka collabs) (Rekids Special Projects)

Title: Synergy EP

Artist: Tripeo

Label: Rekids Special Projects

Cat Number: PSPX10

Genre: Techno

1: Rave Tune – Tripeo & Cadans

2: Idiocracy – The Leap

3: Need for Nuance – Tripeo

4: Zeitgeist – Tripeo

I’m a bit conflicted about stuff like this. Sure it works well but I’m not really a big room person, even though I can appreciate it from afar. This is the type of techno that permeates Joey Anderson’s recent Dekmantel Festival set, and he plays it very well, but there’s something missing, for me at least. Maybe it’s a little bit of soul? The truth is that there are a lot of nice noises here, but a lack of foundation. ‘Need for Nuance’ is eponymously my favourite here, but ‘Idiocracy’ and ‘Rave Tune’ both contain lots of positives as well. ‘Zeitgeist’ throbs when it needs to so if I sound indecisive about this it’s because I am.

Retroactive (Part Three) - Sir Lord Commix (R-Time Records)

Title: Retroactive Part 3

Artist: Sir Lord Commix

Label: R-Time Records

Cat Number: RTM006

Genre: Deep House

1: Evidence

2: Soul House

3: B Boy Disco

4: Flash ‘N’ Folks

‘Retroactive Part 2’ was reviewed on this blog a few months back, and what you get here is more of the same. The tunes here are rereleases which were scattered on various labels twenty or so years ago, and it’s a testament to Ammon Andrews’ skill as a producer that their time is coming around once more. Either that or we really haven’t made much progress and everything still sounds the same. In any case, with the exception of ‘B Boy Disco’ which is sparse, percussive and a tool, this is a lush, soulful spacey release with obvious nods to Detroit and has stood the test of time well. Lovely stuff.

STE 00003 - Ste Roberts (STE)

Title: STE 00003 

Artist: Ste Roberts 

Label: STE 

Cat Number: STE 00003

Genre: Techno

1: White Cold

2: Pumpkin Seed 

3: Elevate

Any track that contains a monologue about psychedelic drugs always hits the spot, particularly when it’s delivered in a soporific tone. ‘White Cold’ is that track. ‘Pumpkin Seed’ also makes use of a sampled voice, but this one eponymously describes what happened when a pumpkin seed was planted. One for when the drugs take hold and you’re struggling to grasp the inner meaning of nothing. ‘Elevate’, meanwhile, makes use of a flanged Mood ll Swing shuffle and is the most forceful of this functional trio.

Selections from We Will Live Again - John Daly (All City Records)

Title: Selections from We Will Live Again

Artist: John Daly

Label: All City Records

Cat Number: ACJD12x1

Genre: Deep House

1: Into The Northern

2: Touch The Sun

3: Dawn

4: Milestones

5: Don’t Ever Stop Loving Me

6: Wild And Free

A sincere and poignant statement accompanies this release. Daly lost his father to cancer, and this music was composed during the time he slipped away. The aftermath of this event was an epiphanic time for him insofar as the importance of his father’s musical influence was concerned. Half of the forthcoming ‘We Will Live Again’ album is present on this release, and it’s a turbulent selection. Listening to bits I’m reminded of ‘Inner City Life’, especially when the vocals kick in. However, this is just a general impression. Having said that, breakbeats are the dominant motif across these compositions, as well as an occasional bass-heavy undertow. The pieces are well-realised and full of character, a reflection, no doubt, of Daly’s emotional state at the time.

Mantras for the Travelling Souls - Fred P & SMBD (Modern Dialect)

Title: Mantras For The Travelling Souls Vol. 1

Artist: Fred P & SMBD

Label: Modern Dialect

Cat Number: MD001

Genre: Deep House

1: Angel Dust

2: Pulling Strings

3: Matralude 1 (Vinyl Only)

4: Hybrid 

5: Mantralude 2 (Vinyl Only)

6: Angel Dust (SMBD Dub) (Digital Only)

You may recoil at the mass of deep house that comes out on a weekly basis. You may also wonder what constitutes the genre, seeing a lack of depth in most releases, and then recoiling at the additional adjective “soulful” thinking it’s one too many and completely unjustified. The music under scrutiny here is of a type that links The Loft to Berghain; in which there’s sincerity, aligned with a contrasting refinement and rawness, which is dynamic, distinct and diverse. I doubt that a more vivid shade of the genre is being released at the moment. I’m reasonably well-versed regarding Fred P, not so with Simbad, who has released under the SMBD alias since sometime last year. so it would be interesting to know exactly who did what here. The ends have justified the means though, whoever is behind what.

Link to a link to an interview I did with Fred P for Ibiza Voice three years ago.

A recent Fred P mix I'm enjoying.