Reclaim Your City Techno | Minimal | Tech-House 5 Items

Helmed by two longstanding legends of the scene, our next installment pays tribute to the Benelux techno connection as we welcome Dutch maestro Steve Rachmad under his Sterac alias and Token boss Kr!z to the fold. Each contributing a brace of the typically elegant hard-hitters they've become so widely reputed for, the pair has us swinging in balance between proper floor-destroying potency and mind-expanding otherworldliness. A homage to the uncluttered and beautifully escapistic vision they've advocated throughout their career and continue to push in their various endeavors, Rycl019 is a feast for the purists as much as a compellingly future-facing manifesto: classic in essence but vanguard in its quest. Holding the reins of the A side, Rachmad gets the ball rolling pedal to the metal. 'Muff Case' is genotypic Sterac material with its surgical uptempo groove and malleable analogue membranes leaning against a sci-fi-indebted scenario. Twisting gridlocked 4x4 semantics whilst his trademark machine funk runs the voodoo down in euphoric style, the Amsterdam-based magician has us hanging onto each bar's end as we'd be watching a thriller: eager and excited for the next shift of gears. A deluge of chromatic arps and subtle chord distortions agitate the sleek surface of 'Strike Icer' - a euphorically effervescing and inch-perfectly built slice of liquid-like techno pyrotechnics, congealed into something of a classic for the future ahead. Lovers of Rachmad's precise yet richly-hued blends shall rejoice, for the Dutch producer flexes the refined brilliance and implacable relevancy of his sound in an epoch not so highly regarded for its risk-taking, soul-searching qualities. Cross the other side and here's Belgian techno don Kr!z laying it down badman style. True to its name, 'Sorcerer' is a spell of unrelenting techno boggle, tailored to withstand the heaviest DJ use without losing any of its punishing grit. As blunt synth arpeggios keep looping in and out of focus, from sub-end depths to foreground in-your-face'ness, Kr!z harnesses a wild bassy storm, inbound for total floor obliteration. Shifting the angle onto deeper envelope fine-tuning and lysergic mind-games, 'Lightworks' fuses a sense of weird acid sensuality with the incisiveness of crisp drum patterns and bass-heavy aggression. Shining through the squelchy layers of FX-laden baselines, Kr!z's emphasis on textural interplays and rhythmic overlaps blazes to further devastating effect. *This bad boy comes pressed on 70% blue 30% white marbled vinyl. Artwork by the talented Laura Arteaga Charlton.

Following a first iteration which set the tone for our newly-minted Heimat series in explosive fashion, here comes the much anticipated second batch of our zeitgeistian take on today's scene's, its current potential and destination. Showcasing productions from artists keen to roll up their sleeves and sail into the impassible status quo, this new number packs the kind of red-hot hammering and cutting-edge punch we've been so adamant to push and defend over the past decade. Berlin-based French producer Arkan steps in first with a proper magnetic depth charge. Dwelling the darker layers of our ocean floor as its name suggests, 'Submarine' is pure hypnotic material geared up for heavy-duty boogie in the warehouse. Filling its ballast tanks with a hefty deluge of muscular bass onslaughts, sonar-like bleeps and untamed cascades of loopy arps, this one rolls and pitches like a haunted ship on predator mode. Adding his dynamic pulse and mind-bending spin to the A-side, Frameworks & Untertwegs bossman Decka cuts a path of straight mental obliteration as he smashes the doors of the club wide open and parades all guns blazing with the unapologetic crusher that is 'Circumvent'. A no-holds-barred workout for the strong stomachs, churning out fiery bars of kick-drum/squelchy bass contrast with in-your-face swagger. Switching on to the flip side, there's Manchester's Yant cruising with the ebulliently dynamic (no shit, Sherlock) tune, 'Moving'. A multidirectional concerto of pong-like modularity and racing synth arpeggios flying off like coloured bricks in a Tetris game gone absolute batshit. The kind of hi-intensity burner that'll awaken any lukewarm mid-set flow with its bouncy unpredictability and ruthless forward-pushing thrust. Rounding it off on a further minimal note, Amsterdam up-and-comer Hitam treats us to an inch-perfectly engineered finale with a stripped-back - yet, absolutely not hollow - bomb, 'Venusian Winds'. Gutsy that one sure is, with its metronomic step ticking at near-cyclonic speed and cleverly arranged, subtly FX-coated funk keeping things both suspenseful and focussed thru and thru. A sleek combo of pared-down brutalism and masterly executed analogue tailoring altogether. All dressed in clear purple marbled wax for the occasion, "Heimat II" shall please both the techno purist and visual aesthete in you with its velvet touch and effortless chic.

Celebrating ten years of uncompromising devotion to techno and its bastard cousins from the fringes, Rotterdam's finest Mord and RYC team up to deliver a special four-vinyl / eight-sided kaleidoscope of a compilation, featuring some of the artists that have helped shape up both labels' identities over the years as they press on in their aim to set their very own techno utopia into stone. - Adriana Lopez, Amotik, Bas Mooy, Brendon Moeller, Dimi Angelis, Inigo Kennedy, Jeroen Search, Kaiser, Norbak, Orphx, Quelza, Rene Wise, Ritzi Lee, Stanislav Tolkachev, The Lady Machine, UVB are all present! Unfolding as a testimony to their unflaggingly resolute vision and aspirations, 'Mord x Ryc' operates as an ode to their hometown of Rotterdam - the artwork itself being a direct nod to the city's iconic 'cube houses' from the 1970s, but also to the tentacular connection both Mord and RYC have developed throughout the past decade, bonding organically alongside like-minded artists and hubs from the techno internationals to expand their reach and impact. Local figure Ritzi Lee paves the way with 'Neutropia', a mind-bending, abstract-leaning head charge of frizzling electronics mixed with the unrelenting assault of a thousands bisons' pack fracturing their way into your system. Amotik follows up with the paced-up bleepy madness that is 'Laal', a proper deep and raging slice of clinical machine hoodoo, geared up for hi-velocity rumble on the dance floor and a ruthless hi-jack of your brain capacities for the duration of the track. Up with the punishing club destroyer 'Lucidez', Norbak treats us to a maelstrom of choppy hardware currents and head-spinning strong winds criss-crossing a brutalistic mindset. Dimi Angelis 'Optical Prism' is one to play some nasty tricks on the mind and alter your body functions through its evil-minded thunder of processed drum prog, noise-adjacent projections and gusty, Dantesque atmosphere. Breathing in further acid wonkiness in his typically spaced-out composition with 'Illustris', Jeroen Search has us jacking to a weirdo concert of chord dissonance and punchy percs, whereas French exponent UVB lets the hounds of rave loose on the epic-sized 'Mortifere' - a strikingly potent piece of 909-fuelled dementia that unfurls with the fierce soul of a 90s scene warrior, and future-facing bravura of newfangled classics. Taking over on the rough and unfazed 'Vedette', Mord boss Bas Mooy gives his own definition of a quality industrial chugger, club-efficient and trimmed down to its most essential palette. Kaiser goes full-on martial style on 'Disciplined Soldiers', giving us a taste of his ever surgically executed blends, flush with the usual tapestry of lysergic synth swashes and nonstop pounding drums. Canadian duo Orphx step in with the rugged and opaque 'Slipping Through My Fingers' - a much spitting glimpse of the sound they've come to advocate over the years, as raw as it proves oddly sensual, and as hypnotically entrancing as it remains mysterious to the bone. A riotous, pounding danse macabre that oozes tar fumes and heated steel, the Lady Machine's 'Concorde' is no-prisoner techno in its purest essence, tailored to whip up a frenzy in any context, any time of the day. Walking the tightrope between an elevated sense of melodicism and mastered 4x4 uproar, Inigo Kennedy here again exposes the width of his skills when it comes to carving out durably haunting, soulful techno that sure knows how to harness energy and power from the ravers' hearts, whereas Adriana Lopez 'Gradual Illusion' steers us back to a further exhausting state of sublimation, and then utter dissolution. Whiz kid Quelza pulls out a big one with 'La Choregraphie Du Soleil', a much ambitious slab of visionary techno, splattered with the kind of breathtaking arrangements and scope-breadth you'd expect from more seasoned producers. True to his high-flying standards, Ukrainian maestro Stanislav Tolkachev goes full mental style with 'Must Be Loud', a genetically modified treat that'll get your senses in a weird sense of alert, while Rene Wise dishes out a massive burner in 'Smashing Around', as ever laser-precise and textured out to impressive effect. Brooklyn's dub techno legend Brendon Moeller rounds off the package with the obsessively playful 'Hot Pursuit', sure to please all lovers of the US producer's mind-altering modular style and upstream relevancy.

For the next instalment in our split series, we handed the reins over to two producers whose work has kept us continually inspired over the last few years. At the helm of the A-side, Berlin big-room havoc-wreaker Amotik puts on the burners right away with two riotous jams that scream nothing but sonic aggression. On the flip, the mysterious, genre-unbound Janice sweeps us into his psychedelic, non-formulaic techno mindset. True to Amotik's minutely balanced, well-integrated blends of punishing kick drums and sunken harmonics, metronomic destroyer "Narangi" swings the pendulum sharp and clean, from deep down a thick sludge of reverb-soaked, FX-topped percussive armada to bleeps n' bloops barrage fire, whereas quake-inducing tides of 909 thunder hail down upon the dance floor with unrelenting frenzy. The dusty bone-bruiser "Hara" picks up the torch and it's in no calmer mood. A slowed-down, breaks-loaded churner, this one relies on a fine engineering of lo-freq moves and pure hardware-processed filth to establish a murky motel, cinematic narrative of sorts. Up with the fracturing wares, here's Janice rocking the flip upside down with the aptly-titled "Mass Formation Hypnosis". Doing what's written on the tin, the faceless producer rushes us headfirst into the boiler for a thorough, unfaltering brainwash. Smelling of leather, grease and coal, this one's bristling with a delectably rugged palette of unambiguous electronics: an ultimate shelling of chest-rattling drum work, in-your-face bass uppercuts, trumpeting stabs and menacingly altered vox. The final salvo, "Names and Excuses", tops it all off on an ominously droney tip, flinging us right away into the frothing mouth of a deadly machine giant, hurtling and tumbling down mazy bowels of washed-out ambient techno via rhyzomatic gutters of brooding abstract motifs and no-frills heavyweight pound. Hectic. ''xvii'' comes adorned with a duly outstanding frame to shine, and will be pressed on 180g audiophile quality vinyl. Once again a way for RYC to openly declare its aspirations and goals, in letting people know that quality, passion and love for the music is all that matters.

After traversing the globe through epicentres that have established Techno as a genre thats here to stay, such as Berlin, New York, and London, Reclaim Your City digs deeper to uncover some more modern capitals that are bubbling from underneath like Stockholm, Buenos Aires and Madrid. The label only continues to expand into underground culture to deliver sounds from some of the best local talent of Tbilisi and Milan for their ninth release. The A-Side presents tracks from Milan-based artists Wrong Assessment and Alfredo Mazzilli to showcase the strength in their growing scene. Wrong Assessment's 'Milano' demonstrates a dynamic rave track with a prudent build, much like the Trance that graced Italian dance floors in the early 00's, while Alfredo Mazzilli's 'Crossing Boarders' paints dreamlike state with a harmonic array of synths. With Tbilisi representing the records' B-Side, the rhythms delve in to a much more unrefined state as Newa and Skyra deliver tracks which emerged from the recent political upheaval that swept the city. Newa's 'Easy' is an irresistible groover with a heavy low end, while Skyra's 'Love' is the epitome of peak time euphoria with its psychedelic-leaning whispers and addictive beat.