Techno continues to be a source of high quality music, and 2008 was no different. While a lot of focus still inevitably falls on Detroit, with a big Carl Craig collection this year, there remained plenty going on outside the birthplace. Such as Kenny Hawkes and David Parr’s ‘The Booby Trap’, or Alex Smoke’s ‘Vaporub EP’, both early to show in January. And when you talk techno it’s almost impossible to avoid Soma – label bosses Slam dropping a monster with ‘Staccato Rave’ in February. Mugwump got Kris Needs all excited in March, Boutade commanding an excellent Ewan Pearson, while Soma again dropped a big bomb with Let’s Go Outside’s ‘I’ll Lick Your Spine’, with classic Repeat Repeat mix. And how’s about this from Lewis Dene, describing Christian Smith & John Selway’s ‘Total Departure’ as “roaring down a German autobahn in a Bugatti Veyron driven by The Stig on acid!” Meanwhile Kris Needs’ trousers were singed to a crisp with Jerome Baker’s ‘Omega Chronicles’ EP in June.
Is Radio Slave house or techno? We’ll pass on that – either way ‘Eyes Wide Open’ and ‘Incognito’ made a double ‘A’ side well up to the quality of previous releases. Good to have The Black Dog releasing so much this year, and their ‘Detroit Vs Sheffield’ EP was hailed as classic electronic heaven all round. Still with Soma – again – Martin Wheeler served notice of his upcoming fourth album as Vector Lovers with the excellent ‘Ping Pong’, while Dave Clarke’s new label White Noise got off to a flyer with Frank Kusserow’s ‘Assimilate Your Soul’. Speaking of new labels, Alex Smoke’s has done very nicely thank you – the latest release a winter warmer in Name & Relucto’s ‘Spawnofspoon’ EP.
Ben Hogwood
