Syndrome, DTM, n3oc0rt3x, dyLAB – Made in Melbourne V2.0 (Acid All Stars)

This, as they say, is Melbourne fucking Techno, four of Melbourne Acid’s leading lights on a cracking EP with nods to the old skool, plenty of bang for your buck, plus plenty of proper, what-the-hell-are-they-smoking weirdness.

Things kick off with Syndrome’s Lost in Transit (146 BPM), a woozy tune beamed in from a cracked-open, dying dimension. All the parts have made it through but in various states of malfunction and decay. Only the 303, solid little trooper that he is, seems unaffected by the carnage, holding things together as riffs and vocals explode like planets into echo and distortion around him. This is the music playing inside Grant Morrison’s head, and it’s ace.

Likewise, Gear by DTM (145 BPM)seems cut from a different sonic template, scuffing up an already muffled kick and distorted sound effects into a storm-blown live sound that’s at once hypnotic and distorientating. Up next, n3ocOrt3x’s New Realm (145 BPM) sounds like it’s about to fall to pieces in the middle then fires into a life with a doozy of a kick– a doozy – the whole thing sounding like a battle fought at the gates of a medieval castle.

Rabbits favourite dyLAB, meanwhile, does his dyLAB thing on EP closer Exhibit One (130 BPM). That thing being the precise, almost surgical application of 808 and 303. As usual, his is superior fare, and in this company he’s a mild-mannered professor, a welcome respite from the storm that came before.

Get it from: Beatport

All 2011, All Acid Techno Mix

Here’s a mix I made of… well, it’s a bit daft to say it’s the ‘best’ Acid Techno of 2011 so far, since I can’t possibly presume to be familiar with it all but this is the best Acid Techno of 2011 that I’ve heard, at least.

The tracklisting is…

D.A.V.E The Drummer - Acid In The Box
D.A.V.E The Drummer & Chris Liberator - Twinkle Toes
Jamie C - Shitbag
Sterling Moss - Never Give In
A.P - Can't Get Enough
Syndrome – MFT (D.A.V.E. The Drummer Remix)
Austin Corrosive - The Drums
Ben Fraser - Tek Stream
Nitronoise - Missed F*ck
DDR And James Kinetic - The Cross Joint
D.A.V.E. The Drummer & Tassid - Keep It Going
Sterling Moss - Rock N Rolla
Chris Liberator & Darc Marc - Happy Birthday LSD
Nitronoise - Acid Crumble
A.P - Ride It
D.A.V.E The Drummer - Stop The System
Chris Liberator, Sterling Moss & Maxx - Deadly Swine
Hectech - Lock'n Loud

Syndrome – MFT (Scythe Squadron Recordings)

Cat no: Scythe 08
Release date: 17/04/11

MFT (D.A.V.E the Drummer remix) **
BPM: 142
There’s a reason this is on the A-side, and that’s because it’s a masterpiece: a flat-out, hands-down, solid-gold, woah-mama-I’m-home classic. People will be hearing this record and feeling like I felt when I first heard Unlucky Punk by Magnum Force, or when you first heard [insert the name of the acid techno record that nailed it all for you here]. I’m not sure it’s a game-changer as such, because I’m not sure it’s even possible to make a game-changing record now (and look forward to being proved wrong about that) but it is an almost perfect example of the artform, and it rocks. Credit goes to the original, of course; the nuts and bolts are already there, especially that amazing, deep, dystopian vocal, intoning, ‘this is fuckin’ techno, Melbourne fuckin’techno’. Otherwise the man born Henry Cullen takes every single element and beefs it up. The track leaps out of the blocks with a hard but undistorted kick, bouncy percussion and then straight into the vocal sample, that Henry’s beefed up, instinctively aware how bloody awesome it is. Now come layers of bassline, the 303 building, the kick getting harder, and each time you think it’s got as hard and as fast as it’s going to get, it goes up a notch. I remember hearing Vision Creation Newsun by The Boredoms for the first time and feeling the same way I feel when I listen to this record. That it’s not going to wimp out on me; that it has somehow intuited exactly what I want it to do and what I want it to do is go to the next level. If The Boredoms ever made an acid techno record, this is the record they’d make. At 5.10 there’s a break that lifts the top of your head off with whooshing DnB atmospherics and that awesome end-of-the-world voice, then back it comes, with a smooth, rushy finish and the acid taken to its absolute max. Perfect. The only problem with it, really, is how the hell do you follow it?

MFT (original mix)
BPM: 148
On his Soundcloud page, Steve ‘Syndrome’ Clark says, ‘This track came about due to the frustration I was having with Melbourne events. People advertising events with the theme of hard techno and all you get is minimal. So I turned on my studio and put all that frustration onto my machines, voiced my opinion and MFT was the result.’ Just below that there is comment from D.A.V.E the Drummer: ‘Like it, mate, good work,’ and never was a truer word spoke. It’s a choppier, slightly less-sure-of-itself mix than either of the other two on the record, but it still rocks hard and listening to his Soundcloud offerings (check them out here) there are plenty more where that came from. Bring them on I say.

MFT (Chris Mate remix)
BPM: 142
As with all three mixes, the sample pulls into a new and and exciting dimension, and the 303 is gratifyingly hard, plus at about 5.00 there’s a build that starts off sounding like distorted strings and ends up like a dive-bomber, which is a fantastic moment, and has a welcome repeat later on. It’s brilliant. Any other time, it would saunter off with the honours held high, but that A-side is like the call of a Lily Cole-shaped Siren: sexy and deadly and not to be ignored. D.A.V.E the Drummer’s having a brilliant year. I read recently (On Harderfaster.net here, in fact) that he’s had three months off the grog. Maybe that’s the secret…