Various Chronika Boshke Beats (Spain)

A lot of people have been talking about ‘psychedelic techno’as a distinct genre for some time now, and on the strength of this release they might be just about right. Boshke Beats’ first CD release features nine tracks, some from people you know and some from people you don’t, all having firm feet on the techno ground, as laid down by Carl Craig, Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin and all the rest of that lot. Midimiliz open with XV!, a scrape-ified skittery bit of deep techno, and The Delta’s recent single Hero FX adds more atmosphere than you can shake a stick at and a sci-fright, bustling feel. Psychodelichesky from Boo.Reka starts pneumatic-gabbaesque from which it builds, and when it drops you’re left reeling from one of the most beautifil and direct bits of dance music ever. Authentik’s Vampires is like fighting drums on a seasick bed of bass, Midimiliz’s massive No Exit is brash and brazen, a soundtrack to a mental 3-d VR videogame and just as paranoid as its name suggests, and the portable feel of Spiralkinder’s Wide Screen builds up a wicked looped groove, drops in a cyber-disco break, and gets the feet and brains moving like it should. Fuzzion’s Out Of Order has a broken mis-set feel and almost sounds like cryogenically frozen electro in the 35th centuary, and the cinematic dubby vibe behind Neser DNA’s Stainless Steel is enough to get the paranoid insectine among you rabid for mercy. Things escalate into pure digitadelia with Metalogic’s sublime Mutual Exclusion, with lazy breaks that sound like they’re made up of spare parts from all the other tunes on the album. All in all it’s wonderful, an aqcuired tate, but wonderful. There’s little here to please the old-skool goa crowd but if, as the stoned philossophers tell us, machines and AI will one day rise up and conquer humanity, then this is their soundtrack to get them in the mood for species annihilation. If that idea’s to your taste, then so’s this album.

More info: www.boshkebeats.com