Page 60 - Zone Magazine - Issue 033 - Jan Johnston

Vinyl + Digital
Albums - Dance
TECHNO & HARD TECHNO / Mark Neenan
Albums - Dance
D.A.V.E THE DRUMMER. - SOCIAL NETWORKS STEAL YOUR SOUL [HYDRAULIX 100]
Henry Cullen's legendary Hydraulix imprint reach the huge milestone of 100 releases, brought to you by the main man himself D.A.V.E The Drummer. Six no nonsense Hard Techno tracks are here to choose from and as i expected, they are all awesome! 'Meat Grinder' is a heads down stomper, full of dark grinding rhythms. We have the somewhat deeper and hypnotic 'It Was Too Dark' with hoover esque synth bleeps, subtle acid on the break and a great groove. There is the heavy and thumping ravey one in 'One Trick Pony' with an ace old school vibe from the break and then the infectious chugging rolling bass of 'Look At What We've Become' full of wicked reversed hoovers and clever percussion. My favourites though are title track 'Social Networks Steal Your Soul' which is a relentless dark pounder with metallic hits aplenty, distorted Gabba drum fills and a very apt vocal from H himself, warning us of the perils of too much social media.. (I'm sure by the time these reviews are out, you would of all heard this track!) ''Tweet, Tweet, Tweet. Little Fucking Bird!'' and my other fave is 'Himmel' which is massive! A huge rumbling Kick drum accompanies fast, Filthy and grinding Acid Techno at its finest / dirtiest with a cool robotic 'Time To Get Funky' vox and lots of industrial percussion noises throughout. Hats off to you Henry. Here's to the next 100. https://davethedrummer.bandcamp.com/track/social-networks-steal-your-soul
TOP TUNE //
STERLING MOSS / MARK EG / TIAGO SANTOS - POWER TO THE PEOPLE [REBELTEK 007] Sterling Moss' wicked Rebeltek series continues with this great 3 tracker of electrifying acid Techno! For the title track 'Power To The People' he teams up with everyone's favourite madman from Leeds Mark EG. Hard as nails energetic Acid here, which uses the brilliant final speech from Charlie Chaplin in The Dictator. Such a great hard groove on this with all the classy production you'd expect from these two legends with ace use of such a poignant vocal. ''Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!'' Track 2 is 'Violent Torpedo Of Truth' and is a solo outing for Sterling. The BPMs are upped in this ravey and energetic screech fest! A mental breakdown ensues and causes all sorts of havoc. End of set banger this! For Sterling's track with Tiago, they use the classic 'Time To Get Mad' sample (Have heard this used about 4 times this year!) but it is such a great sample from the classic film 'Network' and very VERY relevant. Chugging evolving acid Techno at its finest here. Top top release this and you can pre order the
limited edition Grey marbled vinyl (Ooh fancy!) and wav/mp3 now!
https://www.deejay.de/Sterling_Moss_%26_Mark_EG_Tiago_Santos_REBELTEK_007_REBELTEK007_Vinyl__960560
RECOMMENDED
LOUK - PITCH INVASION [SYNTAX ERROR 002]
Following on from their great debut release, Syntax Error No' 2 is here and me old mate Louk has pulled in the big guns! The infamous Player himself Jon Nuccle alongside Kevin Walsh, released 'Division One' back in 1998 under their 'Pitch Invasion' guise on the Orbits wicked label Radious. The excellent original which has been included here is a hard clanking tune of epic proportions with a super crazy synth line that gets you hooked and wonky dancing within no time! For 2020 who better to do a fresh remix of said tune I hear you ask? Only D.A.V.E The fucking Drummer! Henry goes to town with a relentless energetic hard and rattling rework of epic proportions. He keeps the ace twisted Synth hook of the original and adds a modern twang to it. Add to this tonnes of drum rolls, fills and evolving percussion throughout this is a certified beast! On the flip side (Yes it's available on a limited vinyl run too) label boss Louk supplies a dark heads down thumper called 'Penalty Kick' (the original draft was VAR sucks, how apt lol) Well this certainly doesn't suck and it's definitely a Penalty kick by Alan Shearer and not Gareth Southgate! Great work mate. On the remix for this German legend Andreas Kraemer slows things down a touch and manages to get a brilliantly crafted melodic version somehow, which will appeal to many. Crystal clear production as always from Andreas on this groovy tribal chugger. Quality package this, No 3 has just appeared in my inbox whilst writing this and Paul Mac is involved on that one! Blimey. Big things coming from this fresh new label. https://www.juno.co.uk/products/pitch-invasion-louk-syntax-error-002/796050-01/
RED - 1997 [XRX 01]
Brand new label here and I have literally no idea who 'RED' is and there is no blurb nor write up. (How very Techno) This needs to be included though. 4 class tracks of boneshakingly hard Techno here. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 are ace and full of driving hard kicks, energetic rolling percussive elements and sub basses so powerful you will need to change you're pants after 30 seconds! Chapter 4 is my favourite though, Red distorts the kick and adds even more Oomph! (Is that even a word?), add a subtle vocal, a hypnotic synth line and tonnes of movement and you have a 'Dax J' esque monster on your hands. I will be sure to look out for this label and whoever Red' is. Banger! https://www.decks.de/track/red-1997/cgy-q4
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