What is often more refreshing about electronic music these days is when someone doesn’t try and reinvent the wheel, I mean let’s face it the wheel is pretty good already so giving it some stupid pretentious name like ‘minimal’, which ironically means basic and is where house music inevitably began, decades ago, doesn’t blind the educated. It’s fun for the fashionistas to revisit 70’s flare or 80’s neon trends but tragically it is admitting that we have simply run out of ideas, creativity is dead and we are trying to innovate by repeating the past. Everyone jumps on it, because…

Quite frankly I’m just pleased Renaissance flicked past the Dave Seaman and Satoshi Tomiie pages of their phonebook when they were shortlisting the DJ’s for the next Master’s Series. Not that I have anything against Dave or Satoshi and agreeably they are both indeed masters, but currently there is a stock of talented young DJ’s that have proven themselves as potential suitors to the Renaissance crown. The most notable and undeniably the most worthy of those is, of course, James Zabiela. The young apprentice has surpassed the hype that surrounded him following the endorsement of DJ royality and has established…

The Shapeshifters’ are mostly synonymous with their hugely popular balearicy anthem of 2002 ‘Lola’s Theme’, which despite being heavily overplayed, was an undeniable floor filler, and when aired today, generates happy clubbing memories. These days the boys (Max and Simon) are signed to Defected and have been spending muchos time toiling in the studio. They are on fine form and still clearly have what it takes to shake shit up.

A journey over 3 CDs, this is possibly Defected’s pioneering release of 2008. CD1 holds a classic, warm house flavour throughout, while also airing the boy’s passion for that deep…

“Barcoded,” the latest artist album from Skank Sinatra, bears witness to what good electronica should evoke; a wholly honest digital vibration.

Sixteen tracks grace the disc, which itself is a murky, misty and a bit eerie journey through the lower regions of electronica consciousness. The tracks, like mist, vaporize from one ambient crescendo to the next with male vocals. “Souls,” “Slick” and “Cruse” are perfect examples of the creation of this atmosphere. Other tracks, though fewer in number, carry a bit of uptempo energy such as the title track, “Barcoded.” At this pace, electronica can seem soothing, almost inspiring –…

The FabricLive catalogue encompasses a strange and unique array of artists. It is hardly surprising, then, that Simian Mobile Disco man the helm of FabricLive’s 41st volume. James Ford and Jas Shaw have never erred on the side of conventionality (evidenced by last year’s Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release), and yet FabricLive 41 retains its structure despite traversing bumpy aural terrain. SMD spend the course of 22 tracks mixing up a tantalizing variety of wild electro-house, Balearic italadisco and electronica whose sound can resemble that of an intergalactic Star Wars laser battle played over The Phantom of the Opera. Needless to…

Steve Lawler’s Viva: Toronto embraces a sentiment that John Digweed once expressed about minimal electronic music – That is, that good minimal techno contains as much relative importance in the audible sound as it does in the absence of sound. Despite the wise sentiment, it was hard for me to be bought immediately by Lawler’s minimal prominence. Viva: London was a decent enough disc, but hardly a frontrunner in its category. Viva: Toronto is altogether a similar concept, mastering the devilish attitude that accompanies darkened rooms, seedy nightclubs and unfamiliar faces. However similar the genre is to its predecessor, Toronto…

The success that Ben Korbel has enjoyed as an Australian DJ has, for one reason or another, never quite managed to bridge the gaps between Australian clubbers and the global DJ circuit. EQ/Stomp’s latest compilation may change that, however; Korbel laces eighteen tracks together with smooth precision and touches the realms of contemporary techno, minimal and sexy deep house with even-handed discretion that is bound to find firm footing amongst EDM’s elite.

Electric 03 is an entirely middle-of-the-road musical mixture. It neither plunges into hypnotic waters nor skirts waves of frenzied enthusiasm. I have found the most enjoyment from Korbel’s mix…