Available now as a two-CD, 31-track set or later in the spring as a double LP with only eight cuts (but featuring two exclusive cuts), Interstellar Fugitives 2: Destruction of Order follows in the footsteps of its predecessor from a few years back and presents a snapshot of the current state of Detroit?s most infamous techno militants, Underground Resistance. Perhaps the most striking thing about the release is the diversity: there?s classic Detroit techno sounds, electro, slide (a new Detroit rollerskating thing, apparently), ambient, and even a rock/techno hybrid (the less said about which the better). Highlights are many, including the aforementioned Suburban Knight?s ?Predator?s Language,? the double-shot of DJ S2?s infectious, booty-shakin? ?Nasty? and ?Post Emancipation Psychosis,? and the Infiltrator?s ?Mindsweeper.? And of course, you get all that fabulous UR propaganda and military jargon, which never fails to get my blood pumping and makes me want to cover my face in camo makeup and stalk a club with an armful of UR 12??s and forcibly commandeer the decks from whatever meathead is spinning at any particular venue in my town. I have a feeling Mad Mike would approve. In any case, it doesn?t all work all the time, but it hangs together remarkably well considering, and for a 31-track set, did you really expect it all to?

Underground Resistance / 069
[Todd Hutlock]

Following in the hotness of the recent Pheek 12”, Kenneth James Gibson ([a]pendics.shuffle) delivers one of his best singles to date for his own Adjunct label. Much more raw and jackin’ than his releases on Orac, the lead cut “Dirty Bed” is an instantly addictive low-end monster, with an ominously sleazy vocal and some aggressively wet stabs of acid. The Westend Ghetto remix of “Dirty Bed” is rather similar but gives the track a bit more room to breathe, cutting up the vocals and using them more sparsely. Rounding things off is another bass-heavy swinger, “Optimal Clamour,” that veers close to sounding like a nasty dub of Green Velvet. Recommended.

Adjunct / 004
[Michael F. Gill]

Straying away from his home base of Trapez, the press blurb for ?Mid Atlantic? totes this as being Hacke?s ?house? release. Aside from not allowing any of his warm, dubby chords to smear and adding some more buoyancy to his tempos and basslines, there?s isn?t much difference between ?Mid Atlantic? and his Trapez material. Still, it?s good to see old Ollie (as he is never called) being loose and up-front, especially on the standout cut ?Track 87,? which adds a funky ascending/descending bassline and chopped up horn squawks without relinquishing any of his usual dubbiness. If nothing, this release shows once again how dance music is such a game of millimeters, in that a slight buoyancy in tempo can equate the difference in which genre or subgenre producers and DJs classify records in.

A Touch Of Class / 017
[Michael F. Gill]

Tellingly, the first thing I thought when I heard that Basteroid was releasing a 12” in tribute to the Wiener Schnitzel was, “I can’t wait to see what ridiculous heights the press release will go to this time.” True to form, the press release was a detailed six-step recipe on how to prepare a Schnitzel dinner. Luckily, Areal has yet to reach a Morrissey-type situation where the song titles and press information is more interesting than the actual music. “Schnitzelmachine” is actually a bit of a departure for Sebastian Riedl (aka Basteroid,) who’s always been the most delightfully obnoxious producer of Areal when it comes to squelching beats and pure overdriven melodic assault. On both tracks, the edges of tension are now much more sleek, stark and agile, and remain mostly unresolved. Compared to the relative messiness and viscerality of Riedl’s earlier releases, “I, The Schnitzelmachine,” is like a formally tumultuous person trying to learn to express himself more efficiently without resorting to his once familiar tactic of full-on venting. In that respect it makes this release equally enveloping and frustrating, but overall worth hearing.

Areal / 035
[Michael F. Gill]

“Broadway,” like Tellier’s last single “La Ritournelle,” is full of lush orchestral strings, romantic lyrics, and gorgeously jazzy drumming (courtesy of Afrobeat legend Tony Allen.) Both singles are anomalies on his recent album Politics, which veers from huge, Trevor Horn-style bombast to hyperactive new wave tomfoolery. Five remixes, including two apiece by Jake Bullit and Chicken Lips, are split across this CD and 12” single, but no one really improves on the original. “Broadway” being immense as it is, adding layers of synths and four-on-the-floor beats on top results in mixes that reek of overcrowding and overcooking. Sparingly, Chicken Lips had the wise idea to include a dub version of their disco-tech mix, which becomes much more palatable as an instrumental. Also included on the CD single is Tellier’s rhodes-fueled slow jam “Le Long De La Riviere Tendre,” which was also one of the two tracks he contributed to last years Respect Is Burning compilation “Ete D’amour.”

Lucky Number / 005
[Michael F. Gill]

Ryan Crosson is another disciple of the M_nus sound, a druggy take on techno & mechanical funk that lives primarily between Detroit and Ontario. After a very promising 12” on Trapez last year, “Artists Have Bad Haircuts” finds him trying to shake off some of the excess DNA from Matthew Dear and Magda that also permeated his recent 12” as Berg Nixon. Nevertheless, Crosson shows off some excellent production chops, especially on the title track, where he positions a barely audible sweeping drone to sound like it is occurring completely outside the scope of the track. To put it another way, I was listening to it while stopping off at a local pharmacy and I thought this sweeping sound was the sound of the pharmacy’s radio seeping in to my headphones.

Telegraph / 023
[Michael F. Gill]

Why this is currently one of the biggest minimal anthems of the moment, being hailed by everyone from Francois Kevorkian to Ivan Smagghe to Richie Hawtin, is sort of lost on me at the moment. There is no hook, build up, or even a sense of dynamics throughout Woolford’s “Erotic Discourse,” it’s basically a flimsy sounding drum track with some dry clanging sounds and steady set of mildly wet toms that alternate from the left to the right speaker. Who needs an art-house version of Rotterdam Termination Source’s “Poing” without any of the poings? Next.

20:20 Vision / 128
[Michael F. Gill]

More comedown than come hither, Frenchman Florent Renard presents two pieces: a macabre night driving piece, and something like a techno remix of bad video game music. From the low rumblings of the bassline to the high-end tweets and the Lindstrom synths half way through, “G-Net” is an absolutely solid and dubby track, reminiscent of recent Wagon Repair releases, but not quite made for dancing. However, the b-side, “Ritournell,” does anything but bring to mind Sebastian Tellier’s epic track of very nearly the same name. Opening at a plenty upbeat tempo, Florent drops in an 8-bit sample that forgot to take its Ritalin, and basically the piece comes off like a vinyl copy of the Metroid soundtrack played at the wrong speed. The overall impression is that Florent is trying too many things with not enough variation; two completely different sounds, and each with an explicit teleological approach: start here, do this, end there. However, a less rushed and more focused effort might find itself a home on K1 rather than K2.

K2 / 006
[Cameron Octigan]

Making the jump from DJ to producer during the last four years, French pseudo-minimal electro enthusiast Bastien Grine has ventured away from his previous label Scandium for a release on Kompakt’s new K2 off-shoot. K2 hasn’t received nearly as much acclaim as Kompakt’s other sub-labels, but if audioscrobblers and blogs are any indication, Grine may help change all of that. Inciting a particularly (Get) Physical take on electro, the titular a-side of “Where R U” starts its engine with a hypnotic bass line before taking an off-ramp to a rave where the dancers are dirty and low to the ground. “Pastel,” on the flip side is like a stuttering bull running into a thick wall of bass triplets and being pounded into the ground by the beat. Shying away from the overdriven sounds of “Where R U,” the third and final track, “828,” presents a stark approach to electro that could maybe only be improved by a certain Chilean dropping his super sexy vocals on a remix. But by the end, Bastien has at least made this much clear: Where U R is somewhere near a rave, a big fucking rave.

K2 / 007
[Cameron Octigan]

Given that it was initiated under the pretense that it would explore “unconditional love to timeless music,” and given that each track on Immer is a personal favorite of Mr. Michael Mayer, this Kompakt off-shoot is basically a chance for those of us who aren’t fortunate enough to know the man to still take a peek into his bag of tricks. D-Saw’s “Track 10:30″ begins with an aural illusion that morphs back and forth across time signatures, and just when it seems to enter an endless lock groove, a sky-sized drum falls out of the sky and smashes the entire track. The product of this union is a celestial piece of German rave, and, yes, trance. With a bass line that brings to mind Kraftwerk’s “Aero Dynamik,” Mayer drops another trance bomb on us for the b-side, Euphorhythm’s “Patrik (Dr. Motte’s 1997 Mix).” It feels good, dirty, and frankly, makes those of us who never actually owned a glow stick a bit jealous.

Immer / 002
[Cameron Octigan]