One year after his good digital release "Trauma EP", which included some interesting dnb tunes such as the title track and the sinister cuts of "Vertebrae", a collaboration with Bristol-based dj Jekyll, the young dnb producer and dj Peter "Arkaik" Goebel cranks another consirable release out in order to cut the edge. On the initial title-track, the "ticking" sound of an operating pendulum clock (or possibly a metronome), a deep heartbeat-like pulsation and melancholic pads before a mumbling distorted bass tone sneaks into the lines almost suggest a possible matching between escapism and escapement and a similar dynamics typifies the following tracks "Lost", a true candy on this EP, whose sinister underlying grumble get mitigated by lovely female vocals and an uplifting rhythmical pattern, "Game Changer", which features the vocal contribution by MCXL and a gristlier bass hit, which also marks the final track "Serrated", whose hitting pulsations sound more like a series of knocks against the mind box in the event that you could have been packed by Arkaik's tricky entwining of sonic and rhythmical tenses. Really mindblowing tunes.

Another musical treat from techno and dubstep focusing Texas-based label Pushing Red by Heath Looney sees the sign of Toronto-born Cameron McLaren, better known as Consequence, who vouches his reputation as a producer with a passion for experiments and sound engineering he gained after many notorious hits and a couple of slightly unconventional albums ("Live For Never" and "Test Dream") on dBridge's appreciated Exit Records, where he managed to melt impressively different styles such as dubstep, drum'n'bass, ambient and pure electronic music. On A side, the initial tuning by metallic pitapat which sounds like the adjustment of a clockwork, claps and other percussive elements evolves into a mellow tune by means of slightly distorted synths and high-pitched billowing harmonics on "Atrium"; the flipside-placed "Box Rituals" features a similar progression as it starts with a terse 4/4 kick and a sort of march before the appearance of melodic effluviums, which evoke an estranging sense of tragic beauty. Some listeners cannot but hope it's a sort of "teaser" which is ready to come.

James Clements, better known as ASC, one of the most prolific electronic music producer, who mostly lived and breathed Motown, techno and primeval UK hardcore scene, unclasps a couple of catchy techno tunes on this polarized release for Texas-based label Pushing Red by Heath Looney. Even if I could surmise he mainly seems to build a stylistical bridge between icy sci-fi electro sounds (I could mention some stuff which came from NY-based Satamile) and those hazily narcotic sonorities of some underground UK releases, there's something in the assembly of the rhythmical pattern, in the progression of sounds and in the percussive elements (particularly of the negative pole of this electrolytic cell, the track called "---" or "Electron" where ASC seems to induce radioactivity at a certain point by means of catchy dynamics...) which let me thought about some possible hype revisitation of some techno-trance mantra by obscure Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia by Sabres Of Paradise or Solar Quest. Of the two tracks, I prefer the above-mentioned "Electron", but "Proton" is equally catchy, even if those mashed bumps on pitched buzzes of the first part could sound a little bit banal till the moment he injects funnier legerdemain with bleeps and click on a heady very low frequency.

After the appetizer of "Espoo", a sort of sidetrack and bridge between his previous album "Vantaa" and present day, Sasu Ripatti aka Vladislav Delay keeps on feeding his "psychogeographical" sonic series about Finland, his beloved country, by a release named after Kuopio, the second urban area in terms population density after Helsinki. By means of this good album, the mutation of Delay's sound seems to have been completed in the bargain: even if it could sound less irregular and somewhat close to more chewable stuff, Sasu manages to mould a sound, which sound mature and elegant both when he contours more physical sonorities as it happens in the first part of the record in authentic master strokes such as "Avanne", "Hetkonen" or "Osottava", where he almost renders ice, crystal, metal, timber, empty logs or even crumbled stalactites by means of sounds, smoothed with suspended pads and muffled reverberations, and when he tacks towards more bouncing tracks and amazing hybridizations which manage to preserve the typical matchstick structure and modular progressions of his style. There are many gems which seem to be squeezed from Kuopio's spirit - a people-orinted environment, where it seems there's a careful and balanced policy on cultural life, environment, transportation and arts, which probably influences people's mood, as it seems that Kuopio inhabitants are more jovial and talkative and less melancholic and reserved than other Finnish citizens - in order to encrust it on listenable support. I could just recommend to relish and gulp it down like a pleasunt journey with many amazing landmarks such as the puffed telegraphic breakbeat of "Marsila", the floating levitations of "Kellute", the crystalline nibbling and mindblowing sequences of "Hitto", the catchy melting of icy leftover curls of "Kuuluuko", the lukewarm fibrillation of "Hetkonen" and so on... Really yummy record!

Robert Witschakowski has always been really active and also 2013 has started in a good way as The Exaltics already released a split 12" EP and this new "Muted World" EP which has been released by Austrian label Trust. Available as 12" and digital download, "Muted World" blends electro, a bit of acid (like on "Second Phases"), ambient electronica and Detroit techno. As usual the tracks offer hard beat complex rhythmic textures, tense atmospheres and almost a maniacal cure into the arrangement procedure. "Muted World" offers four new instrumentals "Every Beginning Has An End", "Second Phases", "Muted World" and "Broken" plus a remix of "Second Phases" by bristol's Kamikaze Space Programme, the new experimental techno project of veteran drum'n'bass producer Chris Jarman a.k.a. Raiden. On this version, Chris kept the main melodic structure and added distortion here and there, but mainly to rhythmic elements, just to give more boost to the whole track. As usual, for The Exaltics, wait for a quality release!