This time Slok’s Electronic Petz imprint sees the first official release for ‘Softive’, a young DJ and talented producer from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

With a solid house flow the Original Mix begins, the first pad is dropped and you know immediately that this one is going to be huge – the synth line that holds the groove throughout is top draw, pulling from progressive roots and some classic Balearia. Simple but heavily affective.

The Softmal re-arrangement offers little more than the original but does change the tone slightly and provide a variation on the percussion, the melody is…

Boz Boz keeps marching on in 2009 having already seen ‘Experiments in K Minor’ and Lank’s ‘Twinge’ pass us by, we are now treated to another gem as Mr. Graham programs his magic on ‘Is There Anybody Out There’.

The original oozes the Quivver trade we’ve become accustom too, a thumping kick, some detuned stabs and filtered percs usher in the honky tribal that Quivver fans now adore. Driving bass throbs on with more effects and the “is there anybody out there” tagline introduced, atmospheric sweeps and a droning synth compound this dark workout.

Almost as commonplace as Quivver on…

Darkness By Design has long been a track I’ve savored during live JZ performances. I was aware that, initially, James had no plans to release it. Seeing it finally achieving the spotlight it’s deserved for nearly a full year now makes me excited and willing to contribute my thoughts.

The Joy Divsion/Depeche Mode influence is undeniable, almost seductive. Whilst James produces the vocals for the track, you’d never be able to hazard a guess at their true identity given the level of deep and hypnotic distortion. The bass riff crawls and squirms with the same angst as would a Pearl…

I’m not going to bore you with Digweed & Muir history, we all know it and we all recognise what it has offered over the years. John and Nick’s first exposé in Bedrock’s 11^th year is inspired, Aquatonic is what you would expect Xpress 2 and the Chemical Brothers’ lovechild to sound like – sonically industrial madness. Hypnotic chaos with trademark bass, its one for the floors and it’s one for the headphones, you will undoubtable lose yourself in the track.

On the flip…

Umek has recently departed from his raw techno roots with a run of releases finding themselves on the tech house shelves of record haunts. This release is about as much of a return to those roots as we can probably expect during the current techno movement, 1605 have hit the top corner with this one.

The title track, Destructible Environment begins with the plonky rhythm that maintains the flow of the track throughout. The lead of this track sounds like a swarm of…