DSC is enjoying its most productive year to date, and its not even half way through. Cliche Morph is a mysterious new entity, debuting with Liquid Materia. The title track melts streams of melody, chords dissolve in currents as a steady thump tries to tame the sonorous swash. Claudio PRC, of Prologue fame, interprets the tides of the original. Aquatic ambience floods speaker as sounds are kept below the waves in a dream state. "Impulse Inside Mechanism" pulls you further into the haunted machinery of Cliche Morph. Wraithlike harmonies ache, ghosting between steady percussion for a work of palpable emotion. That tactile quality comes to the fore with "Alternative Solution." Rhythms are given extra girth, bass lines given extra room as strings swim before they soar. First run on purple black marbled vinyl. More

For the tenth instalment of Deep Sound Channel the label is going full circle, back to where it all began. ARC# inaugurated the imprint back in 2013 and now part of the collective, Tom Liem, is flying solo. Well, solo for the opening track. "A Liquid State" is a mellow, melting piece of marshy machine music. Warmth flows as clicks and clacks orbit a soft and soothing syntheline in a track that epitomises the term ambient techno. Acronym, of Northern Electronics and Semantica fame, takes over the controls for the flip. Percussion is folded and refolded, layered into itself into a hypnotic haze. Behind these blurred beats a burbling bass bulges as gentle key strokes scatter for a remix brimming with textures and intensity. Limited to 250 coloured copies. More

Dutch producer Mohlao is next up on Shipwreck offshoot Deep Sound Channel with a four track EP that showcases his specialist dub techno style. It follows on from top releases by Albert Van Abbe and Mike Parker, and means the label starts 2015 in style. Before now the Dutchman has released on labels like Meanwhile and Other Heights, as well as working as VC-118A on Lunar Disko Records and Tabernacle. This four track EP kicks off with 'Cladistic Mutation', a sparse underwater soundtrack with only the gentlest suggestion of rhythm, lots of reverb and tiny little details that float by like micro-bacterial debris. 'M2' is a more beat driven dub track but is still way below the surface: the kicks are smooth and hunched over, the chords are smeared out in all directions and the atmosphere is lo-fi and grainy. On the flip, 'Grain' gets even more energetic, with firm techno kick drums setting a stern tempo as all sorts of aqueous details and spacious effects peppe r the groove. There's a heavenly nature to the pads and an industrial texture to the percussion that makes this a cerebral but physical affair from start to finish. Lastly, 'Neurowaves' closes things down in blissfully dubbed out and horizontal fashion, with large sweeping pads, tweaked filters and evocative little details all placing you firmly under water. Just like the label name suggests, this is seriously deep, comforting and escapist music for the heads. More

Mike Parker is next to release on Deep Sound Channel - a sub label of the Dutch Shipwrec imprint - and as ever the two tracks he offers up are made of twisted analogue frequencies that work their way into your brain. Parker has long been a techno hypnotist releasing on labels like Prologue, Mote Evolver and his own Geophone label, and has been collaborating with the likes of Donato Dozzy in the process. This new vinyl only 12" comes on special silver marbled wax with a silkscreen printed PVC sleeve and again is an essential selection for deep techno fans. 'Modulation Cave 1' is powered by warm, rubber kicks drums and above that are finely teased out synth lines that roam like mischievous spirits above the never ending groove. Parker's subtle synth modulation is all that is needed here for you to be locked from start to finish. 'Modulation Cave 2' is a similarly deep, tunnelling and hypnotic affair with lumpy kicks and hiccupping synths roaming free. This is pure techno for the heads only. More

Ghostek graced Shipwrec in 2011 with the excellent Easy Changes. Now the Russian producer returns to the Dutch imprint with two tracks for Deep Sound Channel. A steady drum pattern introduces the mysteriously shrouded "The Morning After." Toms are hollowed out as persistent percussion builds into a lonesome and windswept plateau of otherworldly aspects. Ambient spills into Techno for this cerebral spiral of sounds. "2.5 Miles Abyss" steals the listener below matted waves. Melodies blur, harmonies washing out of focus as aural layers lap overhead. Northern skies of solid permanence shift against cylindrical coils and lost vocals as immense pressures rise and fall under Ghostek's omnipresent control. Colored vinyl (only) release. More

Following up ARC#'s excellent album is a new series of 12"s from Deep Sound Channel. DSC proudly introduces the pioneering Darko Esser, under his Tripeo moniker to set these series in motion. Tripeo gouges out chasms of bass for "Ugani". Industrial murmurs are supplanted by earthy rhythm patterns. The ever pervasive clank of the machine is never far away, coils and circuitboards creeping over organic growth to choke and overcome. Insular dub spirals into "Opuvar". Oscillators bend and bulge, waiting for Tripeo to inject ever more voltage. But the temperature is tapered, hi-hats bolstering intensity for a work of cerebral and contained Techno. Fit for the armchair and subterranean dancefloor, dark and deep from the hands of Tripeo. Comes in special designed artwork, vinyl only.


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