Mobile Dogwash, DJ No Comment, OB1, Jared Blyth – Chase Yer Tail 009 (CYT009)

The label you can  trust to meet your filthy needs, Chase Yer Tail once again come up trumps with a great four-tracker. It kicks off with Like Water from label dons Mobile Dogwash and DJ No Comment, who’s otherwise known as Aaron Higgins, from Dublin party fiends Transformer sounds.  It has a bowel-shaking bass, looped 90s techno chords and – of course, this being Dogwash – one of their patented scruffy acid lines. The eponymous quote from Bruce Lee introduces a manic third section from which you emerge, bloody and bruised.

OB1’s sound is cleaner, more separate – and funky as all hell. Indecent Exposure has a repeating siren throughout, but it’s in the acid lines where this is really happening. There are three or four of them blasting away. They build up to a breakdown where if you can imagine the acid lines like monstrous snakes and OB1 like a riot cop beating them back with a baton until ultimately he is overrun, then you’ve got the picture. By the end of the track they’ve taken over completely, rising in pitch and intensity until your veins explode, bloodying the pristine driven snow . I’m telling you, from the breakdown to the outro this is pure acid heaven. Round of applause for OB1.

So – what a great idea to have Indecent Exposure remixed by Twisted Tyrants (which the last time I looked was Mobile Dogwash and Dave Atomizer). As expected they bring the sleaze. Meanwhile, to take us home, is Jared Blyth, who usually appears as Nesbit. Reptiles comes with samples from Fear and Loathing and a suitably headbanging acid line, though as so often with Jared’s tracks it’s in the atmospherics where the real treasures lie. I especially like the looped horn, giving the track a 90s SUF feel. Bonzer!

Get it from: 909

MK303, Austin Corrosive, Tassid & D.A.V.E. the Drummer, OB1 – System Rejects 02 (System Rejects)

MK303’s Drugged Up is an outstanding track. Coming straight from SR’s no-nonsense division, the acid fires up right away, but it’s at around 1.40 that a riff begins blasting away behind the main acid lines, and it’s a total doozy, elevating the track from the realms of superior acid workout to something way better. A lot of tracks would happily rely on that one riff – not this one.

Meanwhile, Austin Corrosive breaks out the fatter, philthier acid for Sharks With Lasers. Austin’s recent tracks have had a real machinery-in-crisis sound to them, a feeling that they could, at any second, spin completely off the grid, and it’s an exciting, distinctive sound – the sound of a really in-form, confident producer. It’s a feeling that pervades the entire release, in fact. You get a sense of everybody involved stretching their wings.

Next, Tassid and D.A.V.E the Drummer on Sexual Advance. The track is basically a rework of the Adam Freeland track, We Want Your Soul, complete with the eponymous vocal and Bill Hicks’s ‘you are free to do as we tell you’ routine during the breakdown. Freeland’s track is a classic and it’s a brave man who evokes its memories, even in a new context, but Christ, this track thumps. Here the BPMs rise to Tassid levels, rather than drop to DtD levels, and Tassid tracks always bang. But this one? Whoosh.

Lastly, OB1 is, as ever, applying advanced acid techniques to his 303 on Fight War. First he has fun with drums, setting up a rolling, funky sound before laying down the first of the acid lines at around 1.40. The 303 are whipped to a frenzy, and with the looped ‘fight war’ vocal sample sounding suitably psychotic, the result is a truly breathless and relentless piece of acid techno, a stunning end to what is easily one of the best EPs of the year – if not the best.

Meanwhile, you can catch all of the Rejects plus various other ne’er-do-wells, including Rabbits fave Bad Boy Pete,  playing live at at Soitiz-organised bash in aid of the Headway charity. The party takes place at a secret location in Worcestershire on 7th December, and for tickets you’ll need to email soitizswifty@hotmail.co.uk. It promises to be epic.

Go to System Rejects’ website here.

Listen to the tunes here:

Champion Breaks – Extasy Make You Lovely (The Remixes) (Kut Off Records)

An unbearably nostalgic three-track remix EP from our favourite acid-breaker Champion Breaks, this begins with a real Rave Digger-esque take from Dodders, complete with tingle-on-the-back of your neck piano sections, and quick-hug-a-friend samples from Human Traffic. The DJ Slim vs Menace mix gets all junglistic on your ass but at the risk of playing Rabbit favourites, it’s Benji303‘s rub that really rules the roost. Benjio retains the manic  breakbeats so beloved of Champion but teases them into Acid Techno shapes and the result is phat and fast and highly addictive.

Robi Suss, Nesbit & DevilFishFury – AER006 (London Style EP)

Robi Suss’s Trip Back is a worthy A-side for this release. A slyly addictive tune I like the more I hear it, it evolves from a series of hammer blows and tik tok rhythms, the bass drum and hats building for a full three minutes before a series of effects introduces the acid drop. It’s a great technique and means the 303 sounds extra meaty when it arrives, landing like an axe to the head when you open the door to a stranger on a rainy night.  Sounds of Acid, meanwhile, is an SUF tribute, complete with a geezer vocal and some mega-squirly acid. Its great in the build  but ultimately promises a wee bit more than it delivers, and drops out just when you want it to really wig out, although I guess that has a lot to do with personal preference, mine being at the exploding eyeballs end of things.

Meanwhile, Nesbit’s Toxic Afterparty is an absolute cracker, boasting a funtabulous hardgroove opening. Chikka-wikka tribal drums jostle with effects for a couple of minutes before several kegs of Watney’s Red Barrel arrive and the Toxic Afterparty begins in earnest. For the main event two seriously scuffed-up and down-pitched acid lines take centre stage and batter the house into submission, but – and this is the really cool bit – without sacrificing the loose, funky feel of the tune’s first section. This is a very neat trick if you can do it. Mobile Dogwash do it a lot. And Nesbit’s absolutely on point with this.

Lastly DevilFishFury’s Around the Bend, which is Nesbit and ‘Tom & Riff’.  Not being very technical, I’ve no idea what the Devil Fish mod actually does, but it sure sounds tasty. What I really love about Around the Bend is the experimental feel to it, especially during the truly mental breakdown, where so much is chucked into the mix I half expected Gregorian chanting to start up. It’s noisy, for sure, but personally I love noisy. I live for busy. And I suspect you do too, so we should all be happy.

Get it from: Audio Eargasm Bandcamp

Steve Mills, Benji303, Tik Tok & Tassid – Interstate One (IO 001)

Interstate One is a brand, head-spankingly new vinyl-only Acid Techno label from Russia. Though homegrown artists will be featured on the forthcoming Interstate Two, this debut release features all UK-based producers. Here, you’ll find the emphasis is very much on the 303 here: these tracks bang, but they don’t bludgeon.

Waveform from Steve Mills begins things with a rolling beat and an acid line that builds, with another, higher-pitched one skronking away behind it. It’s classic Mills, his ability to hit the sweet spot and stay there remaining undimmed.

Warped is the sound of a producer really finding his feet. In this case Benji303, who gets all lab technician, laying down a base solution of tough techno and tweaking acid over the top. A breakdown at around the 3.00 mark sees the various elements dissembling, but this isn’t about fireworks so much as elegance. Benji’s tracks are always marked by a total love of the 303 sound, and so he lets the acid build again to the outro.

Tik Tok’s been on a bit of a roll lately. I never got around to reviewing Rave On but thought it was an ace tune. Like that one, Angry Villagers lays off on gimmicks and concentrates on  heads-down bangerishness. Unafraid to explore new ideas, it shares a common quality with his best tracks, where although you feel as though they could spiral out of control at any second, they never quite do. Ace.

Lastly, Tassid, who couldn’t be dull if he tried. Asylum uses echo-treated vocals and found sound for that genuine scary sanitarium quality, and when the acid comes in at 3.03 (yes, really) it’s scuzzy and funky as hell. A superb way to end a flawless EP.

Get it from: Stay Up Forever

OB1, Austin Corrosive, MK303, Tassid – Digital Rejects 001

Though the System Rejects crew are sticking to their original philosophy of keeping it vinyl, they’ve launched an offshoot  label for exclusive digi releases. There’s no crossover, they promise, and on the evidence of this first outing, no dip in quality either. Oh, and they came fully tagged.

Things kick off in fine style with Acid.647  by OB1. It has cantering percussion and a lovely echo-soaked kickdrum, with a brutal acid line acting as a framing device of for high-pitched squiggly sirens. A metallic riff not dissimilar to the breakdown in Unlucky Punk by Magnum Force completes the picture. Like a lot of the best London-style Acid out this year, it nods to the past while sounding bang up-to-date – with the emphasis on bang.

Next, Austin Corrosive’s Head Off finds him in a discursive mood, letting one of the acid lines meander down interesting melodic avenues before pulling it all back into shape where it tussles with another, both vying for supremacy of the track. Think of The Oracle by Cosmic Trigger given a sprayjob and you’re almost there.

Meanwhile, MK303’s Hero Challenge is as hard as nails. I dare you to listen to the intro without clenching your jaw. Jagged sounds drop in at will, intensifying what is a brutal, thrilling experience, while at the 2.47 mark there’s a break that is absolutely not to be missed, before a monumentally epic, transcendentally headfucking outro. There’s only one word for it, and that word is ‘Whoosh.’

Rounding out what is clearly a thoughtfully constructed release (two total bangers, two more idiosyncratic tracks) is Only Some Will Understand by Tassid. A breath of fresh air, it more or less dispenses with the usual structure, serving up a machines-in-crisis sound that not only rewards repeat listening but sounds brilliantly disruptive in the mix.

Get if from: System Rejects

A.P., Josh Inc., MK303 & Tassid – Skuxx003 (Skuxx)

All your favourite Acid producers have tucked away their 303s for this Skuxx release. First A.P attacks Tassid’s awesome Raw ‘n’ Dirty on the remix. The original is a beast of a track, a coachload of screaming, terrified cheerleaders hurtling towards a cliff edge as the driver clutches at his chest and slumps dead to the wheel. Cleverly, A.P saves the cheerleaders. He even has the cheerleaders celebrating at the precipice as he reforms the tune into a bouncy party centrepiece. And it’s a cracker.

Meanwhile, Paranoia by Josh Inc. is a bit of a Marmite track, which is all I’ll say about that. Next, things get real filthy for MK303’s Section 6. Industrial-revolution era beats, metal-on-metal sparking: the man like Matt Knight lays down some extra-special powerage here, and the ‘section 6’ vocal gives it a focus, although it never quite develops as much as you wish it would. Lastly, Wretch is another hard-assed torture-chamber tune from the ever-dependable Tassid. It’s hard, it’s filthy, it sounds like demented tramps playing with operating-theatre equipment and it has a series of late-period breaks that keep the energy levels high.

Get it from: 909

A.P. & Josh Inc. – Impact UK 003

A.P. is taking no prisoners on Distort the Dancefloor. This is a tune that reminds you this is the guy who brought you High in Chicago, Ride It and Off Ya Box and he’s continuing to innovate. No acid – this is a pure techno track from A.P. – but the sound is tough. It has a repeating metallic motif that floats in and out of the kick and, like Cuttin’ It, his collaboration with Josh Inc. to be found elsewhere on the EP, has a subversive, disruptive feel which gives it a unique and distinctive sound. It’s a fecking winnah.

Pump It Up, the other A.P. solo track, is a more funk-driven hip-hop influenced tune, like he had some ideas left over from his rework of Tassid’s Raw N Dirty . Meanwhile, the other EP highlight is Piston 69, by A.P. and Josh Inc. which again uses distortion to superb effect and has a tremendous, long break prior to a hurricane-like finale.

Get it from: 909

Benji303, Nesbit, Owen Acid & Dixie – AER 005.2 (Audio Eargasm)

Benji303’s tracks are usually marked by a healthy respect for Acid Techno’s beginnings, and though I’ve always liked the results I sometimes felt they lacked the kind of heaviness you’d want for a here-and-now 303 throwdown. Here, though, his old skool custodianship is employed to phatter-than-usual effect, producing what for me is his best tune yet, in Crunch. Likewise, Jared Blyth, aka Nesbit, is on a roll. Bitta Rough brims with confidence, featuring the kind of brooding riff that lurks in shadows in alleyways, building beautifully, speeding up, slowing down, and an acid line, like a psychotic dog, twisting at its feet.

Meanwhile Fuck Regretamine by Owen Acid & Dixie is a blast. The drums roll, and the acid has a great old-skool arcade feel. (Which reminds me, I never got round to reviewing Soitiz 004, which is unforgiveable because it’s a cracking release, with Owen Acid’s Swift Assault a total highlight.) Back to Audio Eargasm 005.2 and Step 3 rounds out the EP with two acid lines, once low and growling, one high and persistent, and a drop at around the 4.30 mark that’s an absolute beaut.

Get it from: Audio Eargasm at Bandcamp

Jamie C – SUF Projects 015 (SUF Projects)

Jamie C’s Shitbag is a monster tune, one of my favourites in recent years, but I have to admit I wasn’t too fond of the follow up, SUF Projects 010, which felt a wee bit ponderous by comparison. Now, after a stonking remix of Chemical Generation for Acid Test, he’s back with a gleaming newie on SUF Projects and is once more fleet of foot and nimble of finger, producing a bit of a bloody classic in the process. The A-side, Bakers Butchers is where it’s at for me, with two, maybe three acid lines blasting away so sharp they might as well be wielding flick knives, and a filmic vocal sample that should get all you sci-fi acid heads moist with desire. More to the point, it rocks like a bastard. Totally essential.

Get it from:  909
Jamie C Soundcloud