Rene Reiter, Black.Art, Maxx – Carbon Audio 05 (Carbon Audio)

Defqon 3 is a tale of rising panic, with a subterranean, echo-soaked kick supplemented by siren motifs and a truly terrifying central riff. There is an epic, slowly unfolding quality to it as well. Imagine a really hard-assed remix of a Sabres of Paradise tune circa 1996 and you get the idea.

Defqon 5, meanwhile, is a showstopper, up there with the best of the year. A magnesium flare, a wired and wide-eyed blast of utter madness, it starts hard and fast then around the halfway mark throws off its kimono and with a synthesised scream goes bonkers, chucking riffs around and unleashing some of the best and most brutal acid known to man. It’s the kind of track that makes you grin; that makes you do that whoosh thing with your mouth; that reminds why you got into Acid Techno in the first place.

Over to next door, and if there was an exact point where industrial techno met the wide-eyed riff-frenzy of acid techno, Black.Art’s Rust would be it, a lovely old-school flavour to this track. With Maxx and Rene Reiter’s VD galloping us past the finish line for what is an exceptional, nay, essential release.

Release date: August 1, 2013

Carbon Audio online

Zenith Distribution page (including samples to download)

Digital goodies on the Braingravy train

So, Braingravy, one of the most exciting of the new labels, has now gone digital, which is great for those of us with mothballed decks, even more so when you consider what a tasty line-up label boss Steve Mill has managed to secure, past present and future.

To kick things off Mills has reissued Braingravy 01 to 03. I haven’t sprung for 01 yet, but I can say that 02 and 03 rule – six tracks of engine-room Acid Techno featuring a mouthwatering array of talent, old and new. In the new camp, Jamie Taylor’s Tik Tok and Olly Berry’s OB1 both feature, with the latter on Braingravy 02 providing the scintillating, Jello Biafra-sampling banger Won’t Get Fooled Again. Keeping him company on 02 is Rene Reiter’s 18 Years Old Cat on Acid, a hard but quirky track with a broken beat feel to it, as well as Sterling Moss and Steve Mills’ Electric Landlady, which boasts an almost eerie, echo-flavoured break. Meanwhile, on 03, the aforementioned Tik Tok drops That’s Got to Change, a clean-lined banger. No More Fucking Rock n Roll by Dave the Drummer, Chris Liberator and Steve Mills is phat but still isn’t the highlight, that honour going to the hideously addictive Acid Underground from Mr Mills himself.

Meanwhile, number 04 is ready for take-off, with tracks from Jack Wax, Sterling Moss & Steve Mills and Mobile Dogwash – an utterly superb line-up if ever there was one, and due out January 21. Braingravy take control, indeed.

Get it from: Juno Download