Wildly prolific Melbourne-based JOVM mainstays King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard — Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (harmonica, vocals, keys), Cook Craig (guitar, vocals), Joey Walker (guitar, vocals), Lucas Harwood (bass) and Michael Cavanaugh […]
Category: techno
Live Footage: Smag På Dig Selv’s Performs “Total Full Power Extreme Nuclear Confusion 2000” at Better Company
With the release of their full-length debut, 2024’s SDPS, Copenhagen-based jazz punks/acoustic techno trio Smag På Dig Selv (SPDS) — Oliver Lauridsen (tenor sax), Thorbjørn Øllgaard (baritone sax, bass sax, vocals) and Albert Holberg (drums) — firmly […]
New Video: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Share Glitchy and Club Friendly “Level 5”
Wildly prolific Melbourne-based JOVM mainstays King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard — Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (harmonica, vocals, keys), Cook Craig (guitar, vocals), Joey Walker (guitar, vocals), Lucas Harwood (bass) and Michael Cavanaugh (drums) — have a long-held reputation for being restlessly creative and never standing still musically, exploring everything from prog-tinged thrash metal, primitive synth-rock, down-home jam rock and on recent releases feel-good symphonic rock.
The Aussie outfit’s remarkable 28th album Alien Metal follows on from 2023’s The Silver Cord — and grew out of last year’s “rave shows,” in which traditional instruments were abandoned, with the band gathering around an expansive modular synthesizer setup they named “Nathan,” each member making their own manipulations to create a mind-altering whole. And what initially began as an experiment soon became an obsession, inspiring what may arguably be one of the band’s most ambitious albums to date. “It completely rewired my brain,” Gizz’s Stu Mackenzie says, having discovered the possibilities of the Eiurorack synthesizer format on the recommendation of bandmate and self-confessed “techno head of the group” Joey Walker. “I was like, ‘I’m going to forget everything I know about music and relearn it all from scratch.”
The album was far from straightforward to make. Over the course of several years, the band scrapped countless recordings and abandoned entire creative directions while searching for the album’s identity. “We’ve never scrapped so much material as we have for this album,” Mackenzie says. “Entire albums, entire universes that were formulated, created, recorded, deleted and started again.”
The breakthrough finally arrived during a late night, improvisatory jam session that went over an hour. That spontaneous jam became the foundation for the entire record with every track on Alien Metal evolving from the same source performance. The result is a seamless, constantly shifting journey through techno, hardcore, house and jungle influences, filtered through King Gizzard’s unmistakable psychedelic lens. Pulsing rhythms, distorted textures and unexpected twists collide across material that’s at once futuristic and uniquely their own. “It sounds so crunchy, but also beautiful,” says Mackenzie.
“Alien Metal goes really hard, but it also goes to really interesting places,” adds Joey Walker. “And it feels unique – it feels like us, still.”
Alien Metal‘s first single “Level 5” sees Mackenzie’s heavily vocodered vocals beneath a mind-bending bit of industrial techno featuring glistening and glitchy synth textures paired with skittering, machine gun staccato beats that showcases how hard the band’s material typically goes while arguably being the most club friendly song they’ve released to date.
Directed by Hayden Somerville, the accompanying video places the viewer in a dystopian hellscape in which a collection of scientists perform a weird experiment on a humanoid mutant to hilariously weird effect. Not to spoil things too much, but it involves an autopsy and a connection to a modular synthesizer.
New Audio: London’s TheWhatIfMix Shares a Club Banger
TheWhatIfMix is a London-based electronic music artist, producer and mixing engineer, whose work is centered around one core question: What if you achieve your dreams? His sound sees him blend elements of deep house, tech house and atmospheric electronic textures in a way that’s designed to move both body and spirit. Thematically, each track features a much deeper — and much-needed — message of self-belief, transformation and reconnection with the self.
For the London-based artist, TheWhatIfMix as a project is anchored in the concept that music is much more than sound, that it can be a reminder, a release and a push forward.
“La Magia” reached number 1 on aBreakMusic. His recently released five-song EP Higher Self received airplay on FutureHits Radio. Thematically, the EP is a journey through self-awareness, transformation and the belief in infinite possibilities. And building upon a growing profile, the London-based artist’s latest single “WAKE UP” is a high energy, club rocking bit of techno that channels JOVM mainstay LutchamaK, complete with a mantra-like sample.
As TheWhatIfMix explains, “‘WAKE UP’ is about questioning what we are shown, seeing the system more clearly and taking that power back.”
New Audio: C.M. Samuels Shares an Industrial Techno-Inspired Banger
Best known for handling synths, samples and drum machines as a member of Western post-punk outfit Ritual Howls and for being a member of ambient post-industrial project Mission to the Sun, C.M. Samuels stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with the release of his solo debut EP After Selection, which was released earlier this month.
Samuels has long been deeply rooted in Detroit — its environments and ever-evolving music scene that has shaped the core of his sound. He cut his teeth decades ago in industrial projects and now, he channels that foundation while crafting electronics for Ritual Howls and exploring much more experimental directions with Mission to the Sun. Fittingly, the EP which was released earlier this month through Detroit Industrial, the five-song After Selection draws from Samuels’ long-time love of classic EBM, early Wax Trax! Records, Skinny Puppy, and others.
His five-song debut EP is an instrumental EP firmly entrenched in EBM and industrial techno. Anchored around driving rhythms, pulsing synth lines and a sharp sense of momentum, Samuels’ debut effort is specifically designed to energize the dance floor and keep bodies moving.
The EP’s latest single, EP opener “Body Interface” is a club banger anchored around punchy industrial thump and a buoyant bass line that lock into a relentless and forceful motorik-like groove. Sonically, the track seemingly channels early Nine Inch Nails and 90s industrial techno while possessing a remarkably modern sensibility.
Live Footage: Nine Inch Noize at Coachella
Founded in 1988, Nine Inch Nails — currently founder Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who became a full-time member in 2016 — is widely considered one of the most important, innovative and influential acts in modern music. Known for their unique blend of industrial, electronic, rock and ambient elements into emotionally raw and sonically aggressive work, the Grammy Award-winning, Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductees have actively redefined what mainstream music could be, selling over 20 million records globally, including 11 million albums in the United States alone.
Adding to their impressive accolades, Renzor and Ross have composed 20 film scores, winning two Oscars, three Golden Globes, two Grammy Awards and an Emmy Award.
Alex Ridha is Iraqi-German DJ and producer, best known as Boys Noize. The prolific German producer has developed a reputation as a singular figure in 21st century electronic music culture: a cross-genre-bridge-builder, who effortlessly bounces between techno, pop, industrial music and hip-hop while remaining a favorite of techno purists and a global headliner, who has never turned his back on the underground scene that he came up in.
Ridha has collaborated with a veritable who’s who of contemporary music, pop culture and fashion including Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails, A$AP Rocky, Bon Iver, Frank Ocean, Arca, Virgil Abloh, Chilly Gonzales, Lady Gaga and a growing list of others, who have enlisted him to bring his underground edge and distinctive sound and production to their work.
While prolifically releasing his own original productions, Boys Noize has also remixed material by Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, A.G. Cook and Solomun. He earned a Grammy Award-nomination with long-time collaborator Skrillex, and he has been featured on tracks alongside Keinemusik, Shygirl, Kelsey Lu, Rico Nasty and VTSS.
Ridha is also the founder and head of Boysnoize Records and the newly launched ONES AND ZEROES, which specifically focuses on rising global talent.
Ridha worked with Reznor and Ross on the Challengers and TRON: Ares film scores and the Grammy Award-winning song “As Alive As You Need Me To Be.”
“The creative fulfillment of working on the Challengers and TRON scores with Boys Noize led me to think that including him in the Peel It Back tour could be an interesting way to express NIN in more purely electronic terms live – a concept I’ve wanted to explore for some time,” Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor says. “The result was so much fun for us we felt it was worth expanding and formalizing in some way.”
On a whim I mentioned it would be cool to play a whole set as Nine Inch Noize in the Sahara tent at Coachella,” Reznor adds. “Careful what you wish for…the next thing I knew we were designing a whole new show to present in the way it deserved.”
Nine Inch Noize, builds on the past few years of collaboration between Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize. Before, their live debut as Nine Inch Noize, the two acts recorded Nine Inch Noize, which they released after their live debut at Coachella’s first weekend and before their second set at the festival’s second weekend.
Nine Inch Noize and Coachella shared some amazing live footage of their Coachella set last weekend. From the live footage, their set was a not-to-be-missed festival moment. But in a larger context, it’s a desperately needed collaboration that results in something that’s both completely new and genre-defying yet rooted in the familiar.
New Audio: Yves von Wartburg Shares Swaggering “Feel My Bass”
Yves von Wartburg is Swiss producer and DJ, who spent the early part of his career contributing to multiple gold- and platinum-certified productions, which have achieved international chart success. That experience continues to shape his own approach to electronic music production.
Recording and performing under his own name, von Wartburg specializes on high-impact techno for club and festival settings. His first release on ISMUS, an imprint of Brussels-based label KNTXT, “Feel My Bass” is a swaggering, high-energy club and festival banger, featuring twitter and woofer rattling thump, glistening synth arpeggios, an in-your-face hip-hop-styled vocal sample and big hooks.
Perfect for clubs in Berlin and Ibiza, as well as festival stages, “Feel My Bass” reminds me of JOVM mainstays Boys Noize and LutchamaK, while showcasing a producer with a big, crowd-pleasing sound.
New Audio: French Artist and Producer Monølo Lovingly re-interprets a Classic House Banger
Monølo is a French classically trained pianist and electronic music artist, who has built a career exploring the intersection of acoustic piano and contemporary techno. Throughout his career, his work has seen him crafting a sound where minimalism, rhythmic tension and club-focused energy — with an emphasis on live performance, organic recording method and a raw production aesthetic. The result is a distinct and modern take on techno that’s equally suited to deeply focused listening and the dance floor.
The French artist’s latest single “The Bells Tribute (Piano Techno Mix)” was originally conceived a free, solo piano reinterpretation of Jeff Mills‘ iconic 1996 track “The Bells.” The Monølo re-interpretation turns the original into a percussive and hypnotic tune that’s one-part techno with a decidedly industrial leaning. It’s a club banger but at its core, the song explores an uneasy yet irresistible tension between hypnotic repetition and interpretative freedom.
New Audio: SPDS Returns with Trance-inducing Banger “Like A Word I Never Knew”
With the release of 2024’s full-length debut, SDPS, Copenhagen-based acoustic techno/jazz punks Smag På Dig Selv (SPDS) — Oliver Lauridsen (tenor sax), Thorbjørn Øllgaard (baritone sax, bass sax, vocals) and Albert Holberg (drums) — firmly cemented their reputation as one of most boundary pushing groups in the contemporary Danish scene. With a sound that’s an explosive, party starting mixture of acoustic techno, punk energy, jazz and 90s EDM, the Danish trio have begun to make the round of the international festival and touring circuit, playing sets at Roskilde Festival, SXSW, The Great Escape, Eurosonic, Winter Jazzfest NYC and Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage.
SPDS’s highly-anticipated sophomore album This Is Why We Lost is slated for a March 2026 through Stunt Records. The album will feature the previously released, TMI Tammi-produced “Let’s Go!,” “Vik’s Rawcore,” which sees the trio collaborating with vibraphonist Viktoria Søndergaard, and the album’s fourth and final, pre-release single “Like A Word I Never Knew.”
Arguably one of the darker songs on the album, “Like A Word I Never Knew,” is a trance-inducing and forcefully propulsive club banger paired with a modal-era Miles Davis-like introspective lyricism. Recorded during the final phase of album sessions, “Like A Word I Never Knew,” captures a moment of transition. As summer inevitably faded into yet another autumn and the band wrapped up their final shows of the season, they entered the studio with a noticeably calmer, more introspective energy. And the result is a track driven by focus, restraint and deep emotional weight.
For the band, the song reflects the core ambition behind the forthcoming album: to create music that can exist within a trance or club-orientated setting while still carrying a strong melodic and narrative arc.
New Video: Fat Dog Shares Euphoric Trance Banger “Running”
Led by Joe Love, the rapidly rising London-based electronic act Fat Dog — Love (vocals, production), Chris Hughes (keys, synths), Ben Harris (bass), Johnny Hutchinson (drums) and Morgan Wallace (keyboards and sax) — can trace its origins back to 2021, when Love decided to form a group and take the demos he’d be making as a way to keep himself during lockdown out into the world. Initially, Love had two simple rules: Fat Dog was going to be a healthy band, who looked after themselves and there would be no saxophone presence in their music. But those two simple edicts have long-since been broken.
With Hughes, Harris, Hutchinson and Wallace, Love found like-minded mavericks to help bring the dream home. “A lot of music at the moment is very cerebral and people wonʼt dance to it,” says Hughes. “Our music is the polar opposite of thinking music.” The band’s Chris Hughes should know. He was originally a fan of the band, who at that point had been making a name for themselves with a series of exhilarating and/or wonky shows across South London before he joined.
Those early gigs formed the bedrock of what the rapidly rising British outfit were all about: seizing the moment, drinking too much with the moment, going home separately from the moment, but making up with the moment again the next day. Naturally, the rising British outfit quickly developed a following — and it helped that every show across London had become a huge upgrade on the last.
There’s something far deeper going on with the band. “Thereʼs a sense of community about Fat Dog,” says Hutchinson. And after completing their first shows in the US, including a set at a taco joint, the band has quickly built up a following Stateside. Building upon the buzz in their native UK, the Londoners will tour the UK next month and November, as well as make a run of the European festival circuit, playing sets at festivals in the UK and Europe over the summer.
Amazingly, the band’s breakthrough year or so, has come as the result of only two official singles under their collective belts: “King of the Slugs” and “All The Same,” propulsive, club rocking, industrial-inspired banger built around glistening synth arpeggios, and orchestral sample-driven hit, industrial clang and clatter paired with skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap, enormous shout along worthy hooks and a plaintive vocal delivery.
Fat Dog’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, WOOF is slated for a September 6, 2024 release through Domino Recording Co. Produced by the band’s Love, Jimmy Ford and Jimmy Robertson, WOOF‘s material is influenced by Bicep, I.R.O.K., Kamasi Washington and the Russian experimental EDM group Little Big. Sonically, the album reportedly sees the London upstarts firmly establishing music for letting go, anchored around a blend of electro punk, snarling rock, techno soundscapes, industrial electronica and rave euphoria. The sound that Fat Dog makes, according to Love is “screaming-into-a-pillow music.” He continues, “I wanted to make something ridiculous because I was so bored. I don’t like sanitized music. Even this album is sanitized compared to what’s in my head. I thought it would sound more fucked up.”
WOOF‘s latest single “Running” is a hook-driven bit of club rocking trance, built around glistening, razor sharp synth arpeggios, relentless four-on-the-floor, thumping club beats and shouted vocals. But underpinning the club friendly euphoria is a tense, paranoid unease that befits our corporate sponsored hellscape.
Directed by Stephen Agnew, the accompanying video for “Running” is a surreal, breathtakingly cinematic visual with hints to Ken Russell, Ingmar Herman and others that reveals the true origins of the cult of Fat Dog and their real leader.
Throwback: Happy Belated 77th Birthday, Florian Schneider!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates the 77th anniversary of the birth of Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider.
New Audio: JOVM Mainstay LutchamaK Shares Genre-Defying Banger “Acid Drift”
Wildly prolific French electronic music producer and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK has had a busy 2024:
The JOVM mainstay began the year with a two-track release through Techno Parade titled Job Done, which featured “Job Done,” a glitchy and swaggering bit of techno meets footwork featuring machine gun-like skittering beats, glistening synth arpeggios paired with tweeter and woofer rattling thump. It’s an accessible and euphoric club banger meant to be played loudly and meant to encourage you to dance and sweat.
He followed that up with Flip the Funk, a four-track EP, which was digitally released through British electronic label Biotech Recordings and featured EP track “Pride,” a lush and soulful bit of deep house-meets-techno that reminded me of house music nights on WBLS back in the day.
Earlier this month, the prolific JOVM mainstay released “Acid Drift” through Rue des Trois Rois Records. The track is a slick and seamless synthesis of tribal house, deep house, drum ‘n bass that’s simultaneously club and lounge friendly while still slapping hard.