Back to regale us with further precious techno and house gems, DJ Skull! "Bazzar" hits the spot with beautifully harmonious synths and a techno funk guitar lick that will keep you dancing forever. "Heavy Thinker" is a delirious peak time dance floor killer, working organic drum programming against techno siren and ominous kalimba hook. "Power" is all about the old school Detroit strings and tones, setting a steady pace to keep the momentum going into the small hours. Finally, "Rise" has those unmistakable Chicago house values emerging once more, as keys and strings lift the spirits to elevate mind and body.
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Sect returns to the heart of the history once more. Chicago's legacy is finally represented on the label by one of the finest producers of this city and sound, DJ Skull. Words can't do justice to the legacy of this legend of house and techno music. For almost three decades Skull has produced of some of the finest dancefloor tracks ever made, be it through Saber (Trax), DJAX, Hybrid, Majesty Recordings, Tresor, or many others. Here the Dark Knight offers four very special cuts that reaffirm his legendary status. The title track combines the most up-to-date techno production techniques with the inimitable Chicago jacking sound. "Promise Of Peace" retrieves traditional house values on the mellower end of the musical scale, while "Reboot" gets back to the straight-up techno, with some nicely understated acid elements; and finally "Big Girls" is informed by both reggae dub and forward thinking techno.
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Autoreply boss Dicken Lean aka OCH returns to Sect, a UK label waddling in the dubbier end of techno. OCH first appeared on Sect in 2011 when the label released It's All For You, compilation, an extensive selection of deeper techno cuts from artists like Jeroen Search, Jolka, AnD and Fanon Flowers. OCH's track "Tears" made the cut, which reappears on his latest Surveillance Network missive, only having undergone a murky Skirt remix. "Linear Progression" sees OCH's love of tribal percussion thrown in among resonators and reverb, while "Up For Lost" features unusually suitable bongo drumming pitched against filtered saw waves that sweep across the tracks face. "Shattered Dreams" closes the EP with something Disney sounding, but given the cloudy Actress treatment.
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As a staunch representative of Midwest techno since the mid-nineties, Fanon Flowers has always skirted on the periphery of the scene rather than getting placed on the pedestal many of his neighbours do, but this return to UK's Sect Records sees a further widening of his reach, with this particular record embracing his dub techno side with a cavernous chord deployment and plenty of metallic hits. Substance is on deadly form for the remix, trimming said chord down to a fine point and adding some welcome funk into the arrangement to a thoroughly engrossing end.
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Having swiftly carved a niche for himself amongst the likes of Perc, Ben Gibson returns to Sect to deliver more of his brooding and engaging techno. There's a great emphasis on sound design and atmospherics in the two tracks on Quien Es?, as ominous clangs and tense tones hang heavy over rugged drum workouts. "Ceased To Gasp" is the more industrial of the two, but still allows for a melodic slant in the cavernous echoes that define the track. "Remain" adopt a swirling, psychedelic approach to sonic decoration that draws you in just as it continues flooring you, like all good techno should. Highly recommended More

The Dimension EP can be seen as a veritable coup from the Sect label, as iconic Dutch techno artist Jeroen Search makes his label debut with some typically wall rattling techno functionalism. Able to flaunt a discography that reaches deep into the early nineties with releases across Mills' Axis imprint, M_Rec LTD, Traut and more, Search's tireless energy for one take productions has seen him at his most productive this year and as always his tracks still retain a finely sculpted feel regardless of his preferred approach. Swiftly spiralling undercurrents of analogue acid merge in synchronicity with the tightly wound drums to provide one relentlessly driven groove on "Paralell Lives" with intermittent ascendant hat rolls and subaqueous keys worthy of the Something In The Sky series only serving to further hypnotise your senses. Complementing this, "Section A" is gruff Fachwerk style concrete techno at its finest and "Inverse" demonstrates Search's ease for producing well crafted minimalism.
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The second vinyl sampler showcasing some of the highlights from Sect's recent compilation It's All For You sees Croatia's Jolka and Manchester's Casual Violence share the billing on this fantastic 10", pairing two huge tracks that feel like two sides of the same coin. Jolka's "Life Is Changing" is the more overtly bright of the two, utilising a jagged arpeggio and bright stabs which provide an intensly hypnotic backdrop to the track's monolithic beats. On the flipside, Casual Violence's "Acceptance Of The Fact At Hand" operates on a slightly more subtle level - its sweeping strings and soothing melody deceive you into thinking the track is lighter than it is, but the thundering kicks and concise percussion tell a different story, creating what is an organic, cavernous composition filled with rich textural nuance. More