April: 8 electro releases you need to hear this month

Mr C 'Incidents' (Superfreq)

One of dance music’s last great characters, Richard West (aka Mr C) has enjoyed the kind of career most producers could only dream of. In addition to cutting his teeth as an MC in London’s pirate radio circuit and becoming the frontman of chart-toppers The Shamen, West is also widely credited with revitalising London’s club scene when he opened The End alongside Layo Paskin of Layo & Bushwacka! fame. His new album, ‘Incidents’, kicks off with the gloopy acid of ‘Entry Search’, with other highlights including the propulsive breakbeats of ‘A Civil Dose’, the guttural ‘Acid Fever’ and stodgy electro of ‘Do It For Me’. There are a few missteps, of course – the rap on ‘Stand Up’ sounds a bit dated – but both the unnerving ‘Raid’ and caustic ‘Ripple Effect’ are pure gold, and proof that West can still craft forward-thinking club weapons with ease.

7/10

Reinhard Voigt 'Husky' (Terranova remix) (Kompakt)

Kompakt’s legendary ‘Speicher’ series makes its first outing of 2017, with the Cologne-based imprint looking to Reinhard Voigt and Terranova for an in-house remix swap. Terranova’s remix of Voigt’s ‘Husky’ just edges it for us, as the Paris/Berlin tag team of Fetisch and &ME tackle the track with an assured (if a little restrained) touch. Set across 10 sprawling minutes, the duo’s remix is a techno-leaning club weapon that’s packing a serious punch, even if it slightly outstays its welcome by the end.

8/10

Zeta Reticula 'EP 6' (Electrix)

UMEK doing the Lord’s work

Last year, Uros Umek reprised his electro-leaning alias Zeta Reticula with the promise of a series of EPs via Billy Nasty’s Electrix imprint. A man of his word, the Slovenian producer’s alter ego is back with four tracks of copper-bottomed electro. ‘Reticulum’ and ‘Solar Analogs’ kick off the EP in suitably bustling fashion.

Both share the same thumping 808 bass drum to set their groundwork, but where they differ is in their choice of melody: ‘Reticulum’ boasts unrelenting chiptune stabs, whereas ‘Solar Analogs’ features a more hypnotic synth palette to get fully lost in. ‘Rotating Protostellar Cloud’ and ‘Circumstellar Debris Disk’ are the EP’s outliers. The former is an Italo-inspired cut of electro, while the latter forgoes drum work entirely and sounds like the sort of grandiose track that Beethoven would knock together if he was let loose on a copy of Logic.

8/10

The Emperor Machine 'Voltage Controled' (Vertical Tones)

Sci-fi buff and analogue fanatic Andy Meecham (aka The Emperor Machine) delivers the first release from his newly minted Vertical Tones imprint with a four-track EP of mind-bending electro. It kicks off in suitably mechanical fashion, as Meecham pairs undulating stabs against stodgy kicks for ‘We Play Perfect’ before bringing all the disparate melodies together for a show-stopping finish. ‘Dry Down The Middle’ takes Meecham’s experimentalism even further down the rabbit hole, stitching together sawtooth hooks with a bassline that morphs more times than a Power Ranger. ‘Got To Warm Ride’, on the other hand, is a different beast entirely, with meaty kicks layered over cosmic-sounding pad work before finishing with a cacophony of space-aged melodies. Final track ‘Leggwork’is arguably the pick of the bunch, as Meecham combines electro and disco on a cut that’s just crying out to be pranced around to.

9/10

Sid Le Rock 'Elasticity' EP (My Favourite Robot Records)

For its 153rd release, My Favourite Robot Records welcomes Beachcoma boss Sid Le Rock for three tracks of sculptured electro-techno. The Canadian producer delivers a trifecta of rib-rattling tracks. ‘Echo Canyon’ sets the early pace with its pulsating basslines and ghostly melodies, while ‘Elasticity’ doesn’t live up to its title but is instead more straight-edged, as Le Rock adds some droney acidic techno into the broth for a lumbering cut of warehouse fodder. And to finish, you’ve got ‘Franz Guentag’, a downbeat cut that actually rounds out the release on a bit of a whimper. Its bruising basslines and haunting soundscapes are certainly worth your time and effort – just don’t expect it to kick-start a dancefloor.

6/10

AV AV AV 'Total Recall' (Parlophone Music Denmark)

It’s not every day that you fire up Snapchat to see Skrillex and Diplo listening to your EP on their private jet. But that’s exactly what happened to three Danish friends who were holed up in a remote cottage making music with no real expectation of success under the name AV AV AV. Diplo declared their music as “future gospel”, but there’s nothing ecclesiastical about ‘Total Recall’. A banger in every sense of the word, it’s a meaty cut of bone-shaking big-room electro that’s primed for main stages the world over. It’s not hard to see why Fatboy Slim has been championing the trio, too, and with a world-beating live show in the works, things are looking rosy for them.

7/10

She’s Drunk 'Three Trees Text' (Strip Steve remix) (Files Rec)

Strip Steve comes out of hiding to hand a fresh remix for She’s Drunk. While the two original contributions on offer here are both as mad as a box of frogs, Steve tries to bring to some semblance of order to the chaotic B-side ‘Three Trees Text’. Taking cues from the source material’s erratic nature, his remix wouldn’t sound out of place on one of those SoundCloud pages that Aphex Twin has been fly-tipping his music onto. Further proof that the Frenchman is in a league of his own.

8/10

Jody Barr 'Erotic Sally' EP (Portable Minds)

Having been hailed by Sasha as “one to watch” in 2017, Jody Barr is a man on a mission. This two-tracker for his Portable Minds imprint combines industrial techno with a serious electro bite: the title track adds acid top-lines to tough basslines for a cut that occupies the ground between electro and techno. ‘Screenplay’ leans more towards the techno end of the spectrum, but still has plenty of power due to its grizzly, foreboding demeanour.

8/10