JohnnyoftheWell
Hugh G. Puddles
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AUGUST of t e c h n オ (REC me)

Hello I have a dissertation to write please assist me with a bit of badum badum and a lot of wavy shimmer shimmer ntss ntss. I sometimes absolutely love techno and sometimes don't care about it let's fucking go.
1Vladislav Delay
Multila

I shall take ONE DAY off to finish grind lfg !

LEADERBOARD SO FAR

1. March ('60s) - 3.685
2. January (Ambient) - 3.567
3. July (Grind) - 3.553
4. June (Metal) - 3.532
5. May (AsleepBS) - 3.404
6. February (Glitch) - 3.278
2Prurient
Through the Window

Aug 2nd
Shar rec
2013

Damn, I was apprehensive about this - Prurient's been on my list for ages for noiz reasons, which is really not something I'm feeling at this present moment - but it turned out to be a perfect way to kick off. Really slick and unexpectedly accessible industrial techno, production not half as raw as I was expecting, beats *infectious*, runtime relatively economical. Nice!!! Maybe the t/t has a tiny bit more space than it necessarily needs, but this didn't grate for me. Easy replay value, can see myself coming back to this. Cool.

4.0
3Monolake
Hong Kong

Aug 3rd
Ryus rec
1997

Monolake has been a hard 3.5 artist for me so far. I think his (although at this point, their) sound is great, but it's so spartan that I hardly ever come back to full records and usually get my fix from combos of 2-4 highlight tracks (of which there are plenty to choose from).

This is definitely my favourite from him so far though - first two tracks are textbook for that cold/distantly kinetic Chain Reaction dub sound (though fwiw I found them much less icy than Gravity and less impassive than Momentum), Lantau/Macau are diminishing returns on the same and slightly lose me, but the last three tracks are just an awesome combo and I love them!! "Arte" has a lot going on rhythmically but is really clearly developed and sticks the landing, "Occam" is easily the most upbeat Monolake b-b-banger (fuck that word feels wrong for them) I've heard, and the ambient closer has d e p t h s bby (I think Trif tried to get me into this with that song a while ago, but it backfired because I wasn't paying attention and assumed this would be like a solid hr of ambient Monolake I was a FOOL)

Would probably go 3.7 for the first four / 4.2-4.3 for the last three, so let's call it a solid 4
4Andy Stott
Passed Me By

Aug 4th
Dad rec
2011

Oooh boi, this was the most evocative fever dream I've heard since|next sentence|queasy, organic, intimate etc - I can think of a lot of good things to say about the way this is crafted, but it didn't make me want to do things with my body and neither did I feel it as deeply in my spirit as it doubtless deserves to have been. Love *in principle* the austere approach, the dissociated woozy voice architecture, the very-distant-but-still-there danceability - it's speaking to me a ton, but I'm just not connecting. Dammit. Cool rec. Really liked the song I heard from Luxury Problems, so the JOURNEY SHALL CONTINUE!

3.4
5Actress
Splazsh

Aug 5th
Deez rec
2010

This was cool! Hi-gain, high swagger, little bit wobbly but full of character and fun overall. Minor gripe was that the bass tone is either too bitcrushed or not bitcrushed enough to scratch that itch, and I cannot decide which - but I'm not too hung up on this and would waddle loudly to it any day

EDIT: yeah this is squelchy but more infectious that I thought at first, small bump upwards

3.7
6Purity Filter
Immortal Spirit

Aug 6th
Dedes rec
2022

Okay uh hardcore. EDM hardcore. Extremely online hardcore? Artwork + overt tracklist reference gave me Kara no Kyoukai nods, which is great and I adore the music and atmosphere of that anime, and these tracks remind me of them not one bit? The breaks are aight when that's on the menu, but this style of (digitally) reverberated hardcore over over-polished prod is not quite it - the heavy sections are dull + procedural and I don't get so much of a whiff of proper chaos. This is gamer shit! And not, uh, like, the kind that I would actually game to :[ Not badly made or mixed, just hella plastic (and not in a fun way; this wants grit)

And yeah, this sure af was not a techno record lol

2.8
7Anunaku
063

Aug 7th
jrlikestodance rec
2023

This was the most solid-but-safe rec so far, with perhaps more emphasis on safeness. First three tracks are conventional techno_things that go through the motions perfectly okay-ly but aren't scratching any specific itches for me. The second half brightened up quite a bit - Venus has a whole lot of sparkly zany appeal, Celeste is an endearing space-out, and Chimera is a surprisingly enlivening finale that perked me up right when I still was wondering what my overall vibe on this was (+ breaks near the end mmm yes). Glad to have something from this year here, but not sure how much I'll return to it outside of the last three

3.4
8Jeff Mills
Waveform Transmission Vol.1

Aug 8th
Hyp rec
1992

"tecHnO iS ColD daNcE muSic" well uh yes okay it kinda is. untss untss untss untss etc.. This is vintage untss through and through - the beats beat, the cycles cycle, and the melodies and samples are actually pretty varied and innovative compared to the zombie-rave the rest of this is utterly steeped in (Changes of Life OO pow pow lfg). Did I love it? Not quite ngl, but would I get down to it? Uh, untss lfg this is definitely techno, but not the kinda I enjoy to the max sitting down.

3.5

Dance score: mid-high
Dissertation score: LOW
9Nasenbluten
100% No Soul Guaranteed

Aug 9th
Sloth rec
1995

Shock of all horrors, this was obnoxious to the point of parody and I made the mistake of playing it immediately after a train nap. Fuck off. It does bang. Fuck off. It is loud and I probably would have been obnoxiously obsessed with it aged 19-20. Fuck off. The songs are all developed in reasonably smart ways given how fucking stupid this loud fucking beatdownthing is. Fuck off. It is what it is. Fuc-

3.3

Dance score: get in the pit
Dissertation score: """FUCK OFF"""
10Robert Hood
Internal Empire

Aug 10th
VlacDrac rec
1994

NICE. This boi is credited for starting min techno? COOL! This album is little upbeat and dangerously close to outright banger for what I'd usually associate with the subgenre, but this ~~does not matter~~ is in fact a good thing because this record kinda goes. A lot of the dissociated liminal intrigue that I'd turn to techno for is stashed away here - but the tempo is also a smidge higher than average (maybe) and it's a whole lot of fun. Could see this working on a bunch of different playlists, have found it an easy record to just throw on whenever. Good rec.

3.7

Dance score: dance dance
Dissertation score: um sentences happening
11The Soft Pink Truth
Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?

Aug 11th
granite rec
2020

this one is weird brb

Ed.: okay this definitely threw me for a loop by virtue of a containing the bare minimum of techno to qualify as such. My version was split into one track per word (as opposed to two long halves), and within that I liked the second (techno!) track, found that the rest of the first half eluded me, but ohhhh baby that lovely new age ambient magic of the closing run is a real gem. Steady grower so far, but very much here for these sounds - no techno needed

3.6
12Micronism
Inside a Quiet Mind

Aug 12th
Butkuiss rec
1998

This record fucks! Second + final four tracks in particular (Contemplating a Quiet Mind shit damn), but this is a really versatile, rhythmically deft package that takes the basic appeal of dub techno as I know and *love* it, and flexes it across a range of upbeat showings. Middle third was a minor lacuna, but overall this is a really cool, deceptively fun, cohesive album and I've already come back to it a bunch. Great shit.

4.2
13Sandwell District
Feed-Forward

Aug 13th
calm rec
2010

Opener on this is a looooong, frosty warm-up, and the first half of "Grey Cut Out" is scarcely more inviting, but oh shit baby when that song hits its stride, the album opens up like a charm. "Hunting Lodge" is a fuckoff massive banger, while "Falling The Same Way" feels like raving in a missile silo in a ~good way(?). Alb scales back to min techno in the vein of 10 after, which is nice but not as nice, but comes to a delicious slowburnin finale in Speed + Sound (+ the ??bonus?? track Surrender to the Unknown is another slapper). Good shit. This and Micronism play off each other incredibly well for roughly the same fix, really glad for that pairing (although this got very slightly - and unfairly - upstaged, so I haven't clocked in as many spins as I'd have liked)

3.95
141800haightstreet
Endless

Aug 14th
jots rec
2017

Ngl I did not get the buzz on this at all - base is your boilerplate cold-untssuntss, garnish is a faintly queasy atmosphere that occasionally curdles into a full fever dream (Permafrost = yes plz), but mostly lurks insipidly on the periphery. Some of its departures from this were outright grating (looking at you, Super Intelligent). Wasn't without its highlights - throat singing on the closer was a nice surprise - but it dragged its feet and mine, and ended up a long way off warranting a 90-minute runtime.

2.9
15Millie and Andrea
Drop The Vowels

Aug 15th
dedex rec
2014

This took a minute to warm up to - bookends were mech fluff for me and I absolutely hated the undanceable gain abusing jank of the second track (probably my least favourite single moment of the list so far lol). Everything else was COOL, if hella situational - once track 2 is out of the way and it decides to be a percussion album, this cooks. "Back Down" made for a great final highlight, but the way these beats are built and layered and flirt mucho deliciously with jungle sparks a lot of joy across this. Mixed but overall positive feelings on the whole - a tentative step further into the Stottverse lfg!

3.5
16John Tejada
Parabolas

Aug 16th
Pangea rec
2011

really enjoyed parts or maybe all of this, need another spin (has had several already!) to get my thoughts together
17Pole
2

Aug 17th
Ava rec
1999

Pole 2 is short! Like, feels actively short - maybe the first album on the list to make me double-take in an "is that it?" way! Wouldn't call this a gripe as much as a testament to how easily it goes by + how seamlessly it flows together - if Pole 1 is more a compilation of songs, this feels like a more confident showcase of one sound. The sound in question is great!! More dubby, a little more spacious, really smooth and just a little colourful. Good Pole! Could use a little more substance (which I suspect I'll eventually get from Pole 3), but this was one of the most replayable recs of the round so far.

3.8
18Basic Channel
Octagon

Aug 18th
Harvey rec
1994

Oh shit yeah, lovely case-in-point of techno doing EVERYTHING RIGHT while doing very little at all. Love it. Vintage goodness right here! Slightly more catered to dance than to study jams or mood music, but still viable for both. Will check more Basic Channel lfg.

4.0
19Claudio PRC
Volumi Dinamici

Aug 19th
Sniff rec
2017

I listened to this on a train on shuffle by mistake and it sucked

but this was probably a dumb way to listen to it

brb

EDIT: okay yes shuffle was definitely a negative for this - appreciate how smoothly it morphs from AMBIENT techno to ambient TECHNO. very cool. this would be cooler if I cared for the AMBIENT side of this at all, but damn it do be some gaseous hmmmm-fodder. the TECHNO side fares somewhat better, with "Velato" such a clear highlight that i'm not convinced i'll be back for the rest of this

hmmmmm

not very dinamico of u

3.2
20Drexciya
Harnessed The Storm

Aug 20th
Sint rec
2002

Ah uhuh Drexciya, techno's favourite concept geek project. My stance on these guys has generally been that they have some really great tracks but that I'm sceptical about the album experience. This has gone some measure to selling me on it even though it brings to mind a few of my core gripes.

I preferred it to Neptune's Lair by a decent mountain, and something I enjoy about both records is how distinct their individual tracks are - both have a really tangible range of ideas at play. What I mostly like but at times do not love is how these run the gamut between vibrant bangers ("Digital Tsunami", "Lake Haze"), sentimental daydreamers (big y e s to"Birth Of New Life"), nerdy bleep fritterings ("Aquatic Calaclysm") and drab tests of patience ("The Plankton Organization" and "Mission To Ociya Syndor And Back" is a...combo). Drexciya's snare is way sharp at points, especially on "Mission..." and their upbeat and/or melodic stuff is generally much more striking than their percussion-dominated untss fests (and we are NOT anti-untss on this list!). The opener does a great job of showing both off at their best though hmm - high points on this record definitely outweigh the lows, just has a rough third quarter.

All in all, it's good and occasionally great - definitely enough for a satisfying, if not completely consistent album experience, but I'm still not buying into the obsession

3.65
21The Future Sound of London
Lifeforms

Aug 21st
""Mort"" rec
1994

this is big and full of subtlety and emptiness i will process my thoughts

edit: okay this is good but-

The VAST FUCKING RUNTIME feels more a vehicle to extend its atmosphere than a product of the ideas in play, and I'm lukewarm on this because the atmosphere itself - while certainly engaging! - is enough for me to enjoy getting lost in it over one disc, but *not* enough for me to enjoy getting lost in my lostness over two. Any "electronic music is all sound and no structure" truthers probably had a field day over this - whatever sense of album-long progression is at play has largely evaded me so far. Can see how this could be a huge formative record (and it's certainly influenced a bunch of stuff I like!) but I'm not sure how much I love it or quite frankly what to do with it. Some of it is timeless and otherworldly, some (especially the actual TECHNO, which is a very secondary concern here) is dated and endearing in a similar fashion to SAW1. Cool.

3.5
22Filmmaker (COL)
Somber Realm

Aug 22nd
ffs rec
2019

Ha yeah this is a departure from the rest of the list, though no less legitimate. Those industrial and horror overtones definitely have their share of jagged edges. Heard this for the first time while working on my Elden Ring AoW challenge, and it r e a l l y hit the spot - following exposure in a study context, less so.

3.5
23Akkord
Akkord

Aug 23rd
Jash rec
2013

Not gonna lie, UK Bass might be one of my least favourite electronic subgenres - I frequently find the atmosphere anything from dull to gratingly sterile, the b a s s in question does little to draw me in, and the song progressions often leave me with a hollow feeling of being stuck in purgatorial orbit. So it goes for this - it has some cool beats for sure ("3dOS"!) and I can't fault it for the way it approaches the style or as a rec, but it ain't changing my mind either

edit: that said, i do really fuck with "Conveyor" when it goes full techno around the halfway part - could see if this grows

2.7

edit: yeah go on, this is slick and has grown on me a tad 3.0 and still intrigued
24Murcof
Remembranza

Aug 24th
SCMT rec
2005

this is really impressive in places and maybe even brilliant as a whole - brb
25Soft Crash
Your Last Everything

July 25th
jrlikestodance rec
2022

Now this is proper gaming music lol - suits me just fine. Unconvinced on the extent to which it's techno - Rym's classification as EBM seems appropriate (Pourpre Sommeil is pretty textbook), and I also hear a fair bit of trance in the tempo and pulse of stuff like Count to Zero, but that also suits me just fine. I don't have strong feelings on this as a whole - it's got all it needs to work great as a high octane situational listen, but isn't interesting (read: melodramatic and thrill-happy) enough to hold the floor in the same way on its own as adjacent shit like Perturbator. Cool album ig?

3.4
26Martinou
Rift

Aug 26th
izakaya rec
2021

This was cool! Found it more album-of-songs than overarching experience, despite the fact that it used pretty much the same palette throughout, and some points definitely kept my attention more than others. Slight minus points for a lot of tracks landing as a muchness, slight plus points for some g r e a t midway highlights, slightly more plus points for being a good record to throw on whenever

3.6
27LFO (UK)
Sheath

Aug 27th
Tyler rec
2003

Tyler you NERD this is a Warp Records album through and through!!! it does techno, but it also nerds. it contains a song called "Moist" what the hell dude. um, thoughts? opener is a highlight for sure, love those brittle glitchy (though not glitching) tones. things get a good deal less intricate and a good deal more more vamped-up techjanky. not huge on the following stretch of songs, kinda enjoy "Freak" though - that one's obnoxiousness can go straight to the dancefloor. overall, this has its moments? no strong feelings, a couple of highlights and many reservations idk

3.1
28Rival Consoles
Now Is

Aug 28th
RabbitSeason rec
2022

Took me a couple listens to click with this, partly because its spells of beatlessness(!!!) threw my expectations, partly because I mistook it for being blander than it is. It's good! Really full tones across the board here, dig how the melodic side (which imo carries it slightly more than the rhythmic) is so saturated but still carries subtleties if you listen in (overlapping delays on Vision Of Self are a treat, reversed pulsepulse shimmershimmer on Echoes is alright too). I wish I'd heard this earlier in the month when I had more time and attention and chill AAAAhh. Good album

3.5
29Petre Inspirescu
Vin Ploile

Aug 29th
insomniac rec
2015

WHAT DO I THINK ABOUT THIS um very good question I don't know?? It's chill as hell and one of the most effortless study jams of any on the list - full marks for dissertation fodder (36 HOURS LEFT fuck). It leaves no aftertaste though and I remember nothing about it after three plays? The dub dubs along, the soundscapes are there, nothing has distinct presence, nothing is amiss??? It's definitely situationally good enough that I want to like it more than I do when I put any given song on and pay close attention? tl;dr needs more edge, but can't go below a 3.5

3.5
30Andy Stott
Faith in Strangers

Aug 30th
pots rec
2014

Uhm yeah this fucks - by far the best Stott I've heard. I still find some how his VERY FUCKING STARK sound design oppressive and uninviting (though not unimpressive!), but the bookending stretches of this in particular scratched so many itches and gave me the FAITH i needed to continue the journey. will persevere, and even if i don't Get Into him, i'm looting highlights from this for sure

3.9
31Ricardo Villalobos
Achso

Aug 31st
Baseline rec
2006

I WISH TO ACTIVATE MY REPTILE BRAIN INSTEAD my attention span is not at its its best and this *is* almost excellent - can i love it? my body lacks substances this is very repetitive but not in a Basic Channel way it is a time-is-long-deal and i do not care for elongation today. will come back!

3.6
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