December: 19 techno releases you need to hear this month

Charles Fenckler 'Diving From The Void' (Soma Records)

As soon as the opening track has sprinkled its cosmic dust all over you, Charles Fenckler’s album on Soma Records continues to ease you in with its second track, the aptly-named ‘Immersion’. It’s an album that involves a lot of moods, from the understated to the outright raucous, each one thoughtfully placed next to the other so as to create a loose narrative. From ‘Immersion’ we glide into ‘Stellar Acid’, which conjures up images of a psychedelic trip into far-flung galaxies, before introducing the harmonious rumblings of ‘Estrange’ and the unsettling ‘Anxiety’. Fenckler steps outside of the all-out dancefloor a few times, which keeps the LP varied though consistent. Watch out for the walloping rave stabs on ‘Frozen Room’, too, which has done really well as a single release thanks to its warehouse-inspired chunks of analogue. This is a classy collection of music with enough variety to make it worth buying the whole thing, and plenty of dancefloor crushers to keep the DJs happy.

8/10