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Filipovich is one of a kind. The Belarus-born, Paris-based artist works in a multitude of media - found footage films, painting, silkscreening and performance to name a few. It's her musical output that has caught the attention of late, though, with Filipovich dropping a run of releases in recent years which began with 2021's Magnificat on Time Released Sound. Filipovich takes as much of a novel approach to her music-making as she does with her other artistic endeavours - Magnificat was centred around treated samples of Sergei Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, and she's also combined classical composition with contemporary electronic techniques on her subsequent drops.

For Idealized, Filipovich's debut on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit, she maintains the gothic air which characterised her previous releases and applies it to a record of widescreen contemporary techno joints. These tracks represent something of a gear shift for CPU, a label which has long made its name by delivering top-quality electro and machine-funk jams, but such is the quality of Idealized that these superbly-executed techno productions are sure to win over label fans both old and new.

Idealized is very much schooled in the German tradition of minimal/dub techno. Tracks like 'Physical', 'Wave' and 'Dance Minor' all anchor themselves on single, steady drum pulses and delay-drenched single-chord loops. Filipovich generally lets the central idea of these tracks play out across several minutes while introducing increasingly disorientating elements into the rest of the mix - wiccan atmospherics, clashing chords, spiralling delays and so forth. It's an approach at once respectful of Filipovich's predecessors - Basic Channel, Deepchord, Ellen Allien and so on - but also full of idiosyncrasies and individuality.

Many of the club cuts here hardwire us into the moody, murky environs of the darkest Berlin Basements. 'Ultra Red' rides forward on a crisp drum machine snap, a menacing burble of bassline and an eerie single-note synth whistle in the upper end of the mix; 'Dance Minor' shows off a bit of KiNK in the brain-bending modular loop that waxes and wanes at its centre; the second-half run from 'Wave' to closer 'Small Cave' travels ever-further out into deep space - the kick drums remain insistent, yet the textural elements are delivered with an edge and flair that evidences Filipovich's ability to think outside the box.

Filipovich's unusual methods, and the influence of sound art and electroacoustic composition on her music, are drawn out further when Idealized steps away from the dancefloor. 'Hydra' comes off like a more gothic version of Pole - its central pulse draws from dub techno but never quite settles into a danceable groove, and this beat is combined with the kind of unnerving keyboard work that would make John Carpenter proud. Although closer 'Small Cave' eventually locks into another dark-room techno roller, the opening section of the track delivers a weightless soundscape of bright, tinny chords and a scene-setting field recording.

Idealized, the first drop on Central Processing Unit from Paris-based Belarusian Lina Filpovich, broadens the label's horizons with a selection of finely crafted minimal/dub techno joints.

RIYL: Andy Stott, Deepchord, Ellen Allien, Moritz von Oswald

If you can judge an artist's quality by the company they keep, then FaltyDL is up there with the best of them. The label history of the producer known to his friends as Drew Lustman reads like a "who's who" of 21st century electronic music imprints - Ninja Tune, Unknown to the Unknown, Planet Mu, Studio Barnhus, the list goes on.

WithIn the Wake of Wolves, we can now add Central Processing Unit to this illustrious roster. The Sheffield label joins the party at a notable juncture - while FaltyDL has kept up an impressive clip of releases throughout his career,In the Wake of Wolvesis both the NYC-based producer's first LP for two years and his first full-length release away from his own Blueberry Records for almost a decade.

In the Wake of Wolvesproves to be both a great match for CPU and also further evidence of the label's burgeoning sonic palette. While CPU has built its reputation on top quality electro joints, recent releases have delivered adventurous electronica experiments (Proswell'sPeople Are Giving And Receiving Thanks At Incredible Speeds), hard-wired breakbeat techno (Baby T'sI Against I) and golden-age synth explorations (twenty-fifth anniversary reissues of Bochum Welt'sDesktop RoboticsandFeelings on a Screen, both of which first emerged via the legendary Rephlex Records).In the Wake of Wolvestakes things further still - this is a brilliantly genre-voracious record, one which marries the rhythmic cut-and-thrust that we have long known FaltyDL for with all manner of adventurous stylistic choices.

Those familiar with the FaltyDL experience will recognise the trademark blend of synthetic grit and harmonious softness in album opener 'I Need You'. This could pass for Four Tet or even Hannah Diamond at points, the steady build of pulsing synths and looped vocals recalling a more mysterious version of the PC Music sound. 'I Need You' stands shoulder-to-shoulder with any of FaltyDL's other great atmospheric album openers - no small feat given the competition. 'Further', the following number, is yin to 'I Need You's yang. This is a pulsating track which gleefully skitters between machine-funk, tubing darkside bass and breakcore-adjacent drum programming, all of which is peppered with some genuinely beautiful work in the higher synths.

'Further' sets the scene for several of the more club-facing cuts here. 'Minds Protection' similarly features all manner of strange percussive sounds to surprise the ear, and it also boasts a thrilling mid-section in which the bottom falls out the track to incorporate a short snippet of blown-out junglism. With its tunnelling low-end and clattering drums, 'Full Spectrum' kicks off a delightful run of grime-influenced joints which take cues from Mr. Mitch, Logos and many of those other producers who took the Eski sound to exciting new places in the 2010s. 'Forget Me Not', the album's longest track which is placed three spots from the end, feels like the record's climactic point - a pitter-patter post-house joint that has a hint of Caribou in its DNA, it'll take the clubs by storm.

But as much as FaltyDL may consistently bring the heat in terms of the beat programming, the thing which has long marked Lustman out as a special talent is the musicality of his compositions. No matter how much drums clatter or bass bangs, FaltyDL always hooks the ear back in with a sonorous synth or pleasing nugget of melody. Nowhere is this more apparent than onIn the Wake of Wolves' more weightless numbers, each startling in their prettiness. 'Half Spectrum' is a new-era beat track packed full of ear candy; the keening keys of 'GasGas' are potent with feeling; and on the album's closer, the evocatively-titled 'Mila Stans In A Meadow For The First Time Eating Strawberries', we get a gorgeous synth vignette that joins the dots between the modern mastery of Yung Sherman and the most emotionally affecting moments of Aphex's Twin's catalogue.

At once wistful and hopeful, archival and futuristic, FaltyDL's brilliantly unpredictableIn the Wake of Wolvesis a feather in the cap for both this seasoned producer and the Central Processing Unit label.

RIYL: AFX, Bochum Welt, Mark Fell, Mrs Jynx, Boards of Canada

RAWAX re-issues the former Unleash009 by Robert Drewek & Tomie Nevada - Minimize The Maximum EP from 2006.

This release became a big push after being played by Francesco Del Garda & Raresh to name a few.

The re-mastered version will be out 1st of June.
Don't feed the Discogs Sharks!

Back in stock!

NULLPTR never fails. Since emerging in 2016 with the Optical LP, Eddie Symons' project has become a byword for top-draw contemporary electro productions. After triumphantly returning to Sheffield's Central Processing Unit with 2020's Future World full-length, NULLPTR follows that album up with a new quartet of machine-funk slammers. Striking a balance between highwire, twitchy rhythm programming and some deft textural work, the Terminus EP demonstrates exactly why the NULLPTR name is so respected in the world of electro.

The first half here almost showcases the two sides of the NULLPTR sound in microcosm. Opening track 'Connected' zips along like one of the racers from a Wip3out game. The 808s are all booming breakbeats and hissing-piston hats, with a jittery synth bassline nipping in and out of the spaces left vacant by the drums. Atop these swirl eerie keyboard pads, the reverb from them draping across the rest of the instruments like fog above a city. By contrast, following cut 'Mesospheric Cruise' is the yin to 'Connected's yang. Where its predecessor was tense and coiled, this lilting number is expansive and open like a primetime Virginia joint - though the point where the wistful house pads strip back to foreground the twinkle-toed electro beat still has a pleasing crunch to it.

The B-side of Terminus serves dystopian snap from the off. Genre masters Drexciya are invoked by 'Syndicate'. The needle-gun bassline here turns itself inside-out across these five minutes, and all the while the tune is laced with some evocative shadow-realm synth pads. A similar energy courses through the EP's closing title-track, a cut which also brings into play a booming four-to-the-flour that gives it an unstoppable sense of forward-motion. Like 'Connected' and 'Mesospheric Cruise' - indeed, like all of the NULLPTR material that Central Processing Unit has brought us down the years - these jams will sound positively devilish when deployed in a dark basement.

The Terminus EP sees electro don NULLPTR (Eddie Symons) deliver four slices of unadulterated machine-funk heat.

RIYL: Virginia, Cardopusher, Drexciya, Silicon Scally

Warehouse find!

Since emerging in the early 2000s with releases on the seminal Merck label, Proswell (Joseph Misra) has proven to be one of the most original voices in IDM. People Are Giving And Receiving Things At Incredible Speeds (PAGARTAIS), his debut on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit, is another Proswell record which overflows with creative energy. Containing five widescreen electronic epics, PAGARTAIS showcases some of the most ambitious work in the discographies of both artist and label.

The core sonic palette of PAGARTAIS is one schooled in the IDM and electronica sounds of imprints like Rephlex Records, B12 and Skam. These tracks are helmed by thick washes of keys, an array of playful synth tones and drums so deft it's sometimes hard to tell whether they have been programmed or played live. However, across almost forty minutes of music here Proswell explodes preconceptions about genre and form, his music gleefully jumping from one new sound to the next while assimilating electro, prog, computer game music, post-jazz and pretty much everything in between.

Opener 'PAGARTAIS I' sets the tone for the rest of the record. This is a track which never sits still - beginning with a distorted melee of drums that comes off like a strange new version of breakbeat, 'PAGARTAIS I' moves through some thrillingly idiosyncratic takes on Rephlex-school IDM, stargazing Detroit electro and The Comet Is Coming's futurist electronic jazz across its near-ten-minute runtime. Following number 'PAGARTAIS II' is no less impressive, referencing the hyper-modern computer sounds of Iglooghost and Kai Whiston while containing a driving opening section which could have soundtracked one of the legendary Wipeout games.

Although this fabulously unpredictable record often zips along at high speeds, Proswell is also able to dial things back when he needs to. Indeed, the second half of PAGARTAIS finds him slowing down a tad in order to deliver some of the album's most atmospheric material - 'PAGARTAIS III' blends cutting-edge electronics with sonorous jazz harmonies and fizzing improvised lead lines, the mysterious 'PAGARTAIS IV' is a sort of freeform variation on the maximalist, colourful electronica of Galaxy Garden-era Lone, and the slinking computerised Braindance number 'PAGARTAIS V' recalls Calum Gunn's recent CPU drop Addenda.

Really, though, none of these comparisons quite do justice to the inventive capacity of this music - Proswell's in a lane of his own here. An incredibly innovative fusion record that takes in IDM, prog, computer music, electro and plenty more besides, People Are Giving And Receiving Things At Incredible Speeds (PAGARTAIS) is the sound of a unique musical mind in full flight.

RIYL: Calum Gunn, Kai Whiston, Iglooghost, Rustie, Bogdan Raczynski

Warehouse find!

With '100% Dope' we find Central Processing Unit bringing up their hundredth catalogue number, and you'd struggle to find a more fitting artist to ring in a century of releases for the label than Cygnus. The one born Phillip Washington has been with CPU since the very beginning, his 2012 LP 'Newmark Phase' representing the first record ever released on the imprint. That album's combination of textured techno and grizzly Drexciyan electro set the tone for CPU perfectly, and it's no surprise that Cygnus has returned to the Sheffield imprint several times down the years.

While '100% Dope' is an expert demonstration of what Cygnus and CPU do, this EP also shows just how much both artist and label have grown over the past nine years. At its heart '100% Dope' is a set of prime machine-funk from a master of the form, but these are also some of the most daring and innovative tracks that Cygnus has ever produced.

Take opening cut 'Bad RGB Controller'. In the undulating synth lines we have a ghost of grime as well as Drexciyan drive, and as such the track reminds one as much of Mr. Mitch or Last Japan as it does, say, Dopplereffekt. Furthermore, 'Bad RGB Controller' shifts gear around the halfway mark into a highwire electronica mode which has the wit and spark of prime Bogdan Raczynski. Entries like 'Float Back To The Surface' are similarly unpredictable. There's some lovely industrial techno bite to this one - the snare drum will echo in your head long after the party's died down - but Cygnus periodically pulls out the rug from underneath us with passages of impressionistic texture that almost border on sound art.

'Float Back To The Surface' is one of a trio of vocoder-led jams here. On 'Throwing Shade' we hear I-F and Egyptian Lover, with Cygnus' vocals clattering around like pronouncements from some funked-out robot overlord atop hissing-piston drums. Then there's the enticingly-titled 'CPU Records'. 'CPU Records' delivers all the crisp electro snap we've come to expect from a record emblazoned with that signature black-and-white artwork, yet this thing is also widescreen and cinematic in ways that demonstrate the maturation of the Cygnus sound. With a wicked vocoder vocal that celebrates the label's many achievements, 'CPU Records' is a victory lap tune if ever we've heard one.

Central Processing Unit keep it 100 on for this new EP. '100% Dope' by Cygnus is CPU's 100th catalogue number, and the Texan producer delivers on the promise of the record's title with a collection of brilliantly unique electro joints.

Warehouse find!

While the German producer Martin Matiske averages a new release under his given name every few years, there was a long stretch of time in which sightings of his Blackploid alias were much more rare. After dropping an EP for Frustrated Funk in 2006, fans found further material hard to come by over the next decade or so. However, Matiske has reinvigorated Blackploid in recent times, with the project making a few compilation appearances and dropping a couple of EPs across 2020.

That run now culminates inCosmic Traveler, a four-track affair which marks Matiske's debut appearance on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit. Given the long wait, it's great just to see Blackploid back among the fray once again. But for the project's CPU curtain-raiser to be an EP of such high-quality techno jams? Now that really is spoiling us.

Cosmic Traveler's title nods towards the sort of stargazing aesthetics one finds in classic Detroit techno. However, while there are undoubtedly ties to the Motor City in this music, the record ultimately steers less towards spacious atmospherics and more towards the taut, lean machine-funk of seminal practitioners like Dopplereffekt.

Matiske sets his stall out from the off. Opener 'Electric Engine' begins with a run of stiff-necked 808 kicks before hissing hi-hats, a grizzly bassline and all manner of futuristic sounds enter to warp the tune into hyperspace. Following cut 'Night Drive' repeats the trick of 'Electric Engine' but adds a pleasingly dinky synth lead in order to nudge itself slightly towards bleep-techno territory.

The two cuts on Cosmic Traveler's B-side are pure late-night goodness, a pair of mid-set heaters primed for dark basements. 'Pleasure Activism' delivers on the promise of its title and then some, pushing the Kraftwerk template to extremes by bringing a load of gnarly synth lines into play over a wobbling acidic chug. Finally, EP closer 'The Race' is reminiscent of both the twisted machine-funk of Gerald Donald's Japanese Telecom project and the playful modern evolutions of artists like fellow CPU high-flyer Jensen Interceptor.

The resurgence of Martin Matiske's Blackploid project continues withCosmic Traveller, an EP of timeless electro-funk and techno.

FFO: Dopplereffekt, Japanese Telecom, Jensen Interceptor, Cardopusher

While this may be the first release on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit from Global Goon, the one known to friends and family as Johnny Hawk brings a whole heap of experience to the Nanoclusters mini-LP.

Hawk started dropping Global Goon records on the legendary Rephlex Records back in the 1990s. The project's subsequent releases have taken in imprints as esteemed as WéMè and Balkan. Factor in a whole host of other aliases which have delivered missives via the likes of Planet Mu, and you know even before you press play on this witty, wily record that you're dealing with a master at work here.

The confidence with which Global Goon approaches Nanoclusters shines through in Hawk taking much of the mini-album at midtempo. Cuts like 'Khroxic Mould', 'Metallik' and 'Syntheseers' sound like Bochum Welt heading down a dark alleyway. The former in particular is a seasick lope, the tuned synths lurching around like sailors on deck in a storm as bass ebbs and flows underneath the mix.

The influence of Kraftwerk comes through prominently at times here, particularly in the way 'Calcula' and 'Digit Six' play pensive, slightly sombre synth chords off some simple but effective forward motion in the drum programming. That is not to say that Nanoclusters is not full of invention, though. None of the productions are overly flash, but this approach allows the little details to shine through more clearly, from cleverly panned hi-hats to hissing synth counter-melodies which flit in and out of the mix. Enthralling and packed full of ear candy, they're further evidence that Nanoclusters is the work of an expert craftsman.

While the pulse of Nanoclusters remains relatively steady throughout, it's still a rather lively record. Plenty of these tracks will get the dancefloor moving if deployed correctly - though whether they're heard at home or in the dance, it's the attention to detail which makes them stand out.

'Snapterisk' is as perfect an example of machine-funk as you're likely to find - the drum programming is razor-sharp but rubbery with bongos, the bass a lithe burble, and those wobbly stabs of keys that put a bit of wiggle in the beat? Delightful stuff. Elsewhere the ever-looping arpeggio of 'Metro Esc' has hints of Frankie Knuckles' house classic 'Your Love', though an array of interesting sonic nuggets - snippets of vocal, radar-like bloops, a gently insistent low-end pulse - soften the track's clubbier elements with a pillowy sheen. And Hawk throws us a curveball right at the end of Nanoclusters, tapping back into that old Rephlex sound for the fizzy, braindancing 'Metal Glass'.

Global Goon doesn't need to show off on Nanoclusters - from brilliantly slick machine-funk to Kraftwerkian reveries, the CPU debutant lets the music do the talking here. It makes for a confident and vivacious mini-LP, one which wears its expertise lightly.

RIYL: Cardopusher, Bochum Welt, Cygnus, D'Arcangelo

SDEM’s debut LP for Mancunian electronic music imprint Skam Records.

VORTICES 9 tracks continue SDEM’s current prolific flow after a steady series of drops via his own
MEDS label & other like-minded operators (CPU, Opal Tapes, Seagrave, Superpang etc..)

Informed by hiphop & computer music and steeped in Northern England's post bleep+bass
mutations, VORTICES operates in its own lane, rooted as much in the by-hand manipulations of
musique concrete and free improv as the studio-as-an-instrument innovations of electro, hiphop, dub and bass weighted electronica.

Evolved out of hardware jams, the pieces showcased here crackle with emotion and colour,
repeated plays reveal suggested and subliminal depths. Neither shackled to the grid nor enslaved to linearity, the LP expands & finesses SDEM's dynamic & forward facing approach

SDEM’s debut LP for Mancunian electronic music imprint Skam Records.

VORTICES 9 tracks continue SDEM’s current prolific flow after a steady series of drops via his own
MEDS label & other like-minded operators (CPU, Opal Tapes, Seagrave, Superpang etc..)

Informed by hiphop & computer music and steeped in Northern England's post bleep+bass
mutations, VORTICES operates in its own lane, rooted as much in the by-hand manipulations of
musique concrete and free improv as the studio-as-an-instrument innovations of electro, hiphop, dub and bass weighted electronica.

Evolved out of hardware jams, the pieces showcased here crackle with emotion and colour,
repeated plays reveal suggested and subliminal depths. Neither shackled to the grid nor enslaved to linearity, the LP expands & finesses SDEM's dynamic & forward facing approach

Carl Finlow keeps on keepin' on. Not only is Finlow one of the most respected names in electro, a producer who boasts a sprawling catalogue that takes in a wide variety of aliases, but he's also spent recent years establishing himself as a mainstay for Sheffield's Central Processing Unit label. Soft Robotics, the new EP from Finlow's Silicon Scally project, is the fifth Silicon Scally release in five years to boast one of CPU's instantly-recognisable black-and-white covers.

The reason that Silicon Scally and CPU keep linking up is simple; they're a perfect fit for one another. Central Processing Unit has established itself as a haven for post-Drexciya producers since launching in 2012, and there are few artists better than Finlow at building on the Detroit group's sound. The union bears fruit once more on Soft Robotics, an EP of lithe machine-funk jams that will both do damage in the dance and also reward more concentrated home listening.

Things begin at a steadier speed than one might expect. Rather than barrelling off with the kind of sinewy roller one associates with the CPU name, Soft Robotics' title-track takes things at mid-pace. The groove reveals itself without hurry, Silicon Scally adding or subtracting elements - twitchy modular loops, pensive pads, the occasional blurt of low-end - atop the chugging bass/drums groove. It's a track which wins you over with guile rather than force.

As the name of subsequent cut 'Jitters' intimates, this one picks things up a little after 'Soft Robotics'. The tempo is higher here, the central beat more nervy. At their cores, though, 'Jitters' and 'Soft Robotics' are kindred spirits. Here, another slyly insistent bit of drum programming comes swirled up with all sorts of extraterrestrial tones, from little nuggets of melody supplied by the keys to electrifying synth stabs and percussive squelches.

Things limber up further still on first B-side 'Spin Ratio'. The track's 808 kicks are punchier than those of the A-side jams, and there's a dizziness to the bass tone which gives 'Spin Ratio' an intriguingly off-kilter feel. Atop the booming beat we find ourselves hypnotised by cells of melody and harmony interlocking or moving apart - particularly the staccato module at the track's heart. Sure enough, 'Spin Ratio' is the Soft Robotics joint which cleaves closest to Drexciya, invoking other Detroit disciples like Jensen Interceptor in the process.

After Soft Robotics picks up speed in the middle, closer 'Super Fluid Tones' brings us back to where we started. This track returns to the more measured delivery of the record's opener - there's a steady pulse to the drums, and once again Silicon Scally packs the mix with so many intriguing whizzes, bangs, blips and blurts that it's impossible not be won over by this tune's construction. 'Soft Robotics' and 'Super Fluid Tones' bookend Soft Robotics very nicely, and Silicon Scally's smart pacing gives the EP a lovely ebb and flow.

The ever-excellent Carl Finlow drops a Silicon Scally release via Central Processing Unit for the fifth year running. Like its predecessors, Soft Robotics is an excellent and deftly-crafted collection of modern machine-funk.

RIYL: Drexciya, Jensen Interceptor, Fleck E.S.C., The Advent

RAWAX re-issues the former Unleash009 by Robert Drewek & Tomie Nevada - Minimize The Maximum EP from 2006.
This release became a big push after being played by Francesco Del Garda & Raresh to name a few.
The re-mastered version will be out 1st of June.
Don't feed the Discogs Sharks!

Blackploid has become one of Central Processing Unit's stalwarts in the past couple of years. Martin Matiske's project contributed a trio of EPs to the Sheffield label across 2021 and 2022, with each of them showing off the kind of electro chops and production sensibilities that made Blackploid an ideal fit for an imprint which also boasts the likes of Cygnus, Silicon Scally and Bochum Welt among its catalogue.

Now, for CPU's first release of 2023, Matiske levels things up with the debut Blackploid LPEnter Universe. Across these twelve tracks, Matiske leaves us in no doubt that he's a prime mover in the world of modern electronic music.Enter Universedoes not let up from start to finish, delivering a dozen pieces of leftfield electro that draws from the sound's greats while also showcasing an unpredictability and flair that is all of Blackploid's own.

The tone is set from the first frosty chords of opening cut 'Pulsation'. The track traverses the starscape on pitter-patter drums and chirruping synths, a lively and slightly dystopian roller with an adventurous undercurrent reminiscent of classic Rephlex drops. It's a style which Blackploid often draws for throughout the rest ofEnter Universe, albeit with elements added or subtracted at each stage.

Indeed, this album features some of the most unusual production you will hear on any record this year. While the grooves pulse away in a manner reminiscent of Drexciya or Legowelt, Blackploid layers the mixes with a whole cornucopia of synth tones. 'The Mission' boasts a bleep-bloop breakdown that sounds like malfunctioning rotary telephones; 'Silent Room' is a ghoulish jam which harks back to Warp's legendary Artificial Intelligence compilations; 'Automatik' and 'Wormhole' are defined by some brilliantly strange low-ends - you'll be thinking of Mr. Oizo's 'Flat Beat' with the wiggly former, while the gurgling, writhing anti-lead that dictates 'Wormhole' is oddly thrilling and more than befits the track's title.

This inventive approach is also apparent in some of the structural choices onEnter Universe. While the tracks here all keep a steady, dancefloor friendly pulse, several of them surprise you by switching up the approach after a minute or two. 'Pulsation', 'Automatik' and 'The Mission' all feature moments where a new element - extra hi-hats, a synth line entering from leftfield - inject fresh impetus into the tune to keep the listener on their toes.

Blackploid may push the sonic envelope onEnter Universe, but this does not mean there is no room for melody. In particular, the cuts here which most strongly channel 'Computer World'-era Kraftwerk do so by fronting some slyly tuneful work, particularly in the low end of the mix. 'Unidentified' serves up delightfully springy chords, 'Cell Mutation' leads from the bassline, and 'Space Curve' features little cells of melody and counter-melody working together to closeEnter Universeout on a high.

Blackploid's debut LP Enter Universe marries Drexciyan electro and Warp-school electronica with some brilliantly inventive production choices.

The Blackploid resurgence of recent years continues to gather steam. After laying dormant for some time, Martin Matiske's project roared back into life in 2021 with a pair of EPs for Central Processing Unit. It doesn't look like he'll be taking his foot off the gas any time soon - not only does the new Blackploid collectionPlanetary Sciencecomplete Matiske's hat-trick for the Sheffield label, but it also serves as a prelude to the full-length album which Blackploid will deliver on CPU in 2023.

If that LP is as good as the tracks we get here, then it's safe to say that we're on to a winner. This EP contains a quartet of top-tier machine-funk productions, the kind of crisp post-Drexciya joints we've come to know and love Blackploid for. Each track onPlanetary Sciencemakes good on the record's title by delivering club tackle flecked with FX which sound distinctly like spaceships blasting off into the cosmos.

There is also progression acrossPlanetary Science. While it still aims for the dancefloor,Planetary Scienceis a somewhat more textured listen than eitherStrange StarsorCosmic Traveler, Blackploid's previous CPU drops. Most notable is the increased use of synth pads, with Matiske draping chord progressions over all of these tracks in order to give his music a newfound depth.

Blackploid's subtle evolution is clear from the opening track. 'Dimension Unknown' may begin with a precision-engineered groove reminiscent of an early Legowelt joint, but things soon soften with the introduction of some rich keyboard chords. A few well-chosen bleeps and bloops flit in and out of the mix, but whereas some would use these to scuff up the track further here they are warm and playful.

The more confrontational stance of following cut 'Magnetron' makes it a yin to 'Dimension Unknown's yang. Blackploid works with similar tools here - machine-gun beat programming, chords playing off boinging bass - but there is a tension and buzz to the track which isn't apparent on its predecessor. The synths have a slight Eighties deep space thriller vibe about them, and the FX cut through the mix with more bite.

'Magnetron's energy carries through to 'Wire', the first track on thePlanetary ScienceB-side. Here a big, brutish bassline takes centre stage from the off, a chunk squarewave equal-parts Dopplereffekt and early Eskibeat. Around this swirls a queasy brew of synthesised tones, with the component parts all arranged in order to channel 'Magnetron's sense of unease.

Planetary Sciencecloses out with 'Neurotransmitter'. On this cut, Blackploid returns somewhat to where we started off, finding a midpoint between 'Dimension Unknown's more spacious feel and the livewire flavour of 'Magnetron' and 'Wire'. Tension remains, particularly when Matiske serves up one of the EP's snakiest basslines, but there's also a deftness to the synth pads here which makes 'Neurotransmitter' a little softer around the edges.

Blackploid limbers up for a forthcoming full-length on Central Processing Unit withPlanetary Science, an EP of stargazing electro joints that quietly expand the project's sonic world.

RIYL:Drexciya, Dopplereffekt, DMX Krew, I-F, Annie Hall

DJ and producer Annie Hall has been steadily carving a name for herself as an artist who enjoys diversity. Born and bred in Spain, Annie started her life as a DJ very young in 2003, having had her first encounter with vinyl when she was a kid because her brother is a reggae, dubs and roots DJ in Spain. With a long time passion for music and a love of experimenting with new sounds Annie isn’t constrained by the same boundaries as others. Producing since 2005, she has released on labels such as Tresor (with ´Daughter Produkt´ proyect along Gerald Donald), 2020 Vision, Detroit Underground, CPU records, Delsin Records and now she continues the journey with Orson and we are over the moon.

We could tell you how this debut album from Lucita Octans is influenced by the full spectrum of electronica, with an unique palette of genre-busting sounds bursting forth from a singular mind. We could tell you this is raw but melodic, intense but deep, and tough yet fun.

Indeed we could tell you how Lucita Octans is a pseudonym for Melissa Speirs and how in another life she makes dancefloor destroying electro with Biochip (CPU, WeMe).

But really, perhaps it'd be better to just tell you how Melissa herself describes the world of Lucita Octans.

"Lucita Octans is floating adrift somewhere. She is looking for the perfect world.

Melodies kind of come to her by a somekind of phenomenon. She begs you not to take her too seriously. She was never here and neither are we."

For more than a decade now, Fleck E.S.C. has marked himself out as one of the most playful and prolific producers in the electro game. Across dozens of releases for labels including Bass Agenda and Science Cult, the France-born, Japan-based artist has made his name through a production style which balances limber beats with exploratory textural work.

Fleck E.S.C. debuted on Central Processing Unit in 2018 with the Discrete Opinion EP. Now, after stopping by the Sheffield label last year on a Silicon Scally remix job, Fleck E.S.C. delivers his second EP for CPU in the form of Rough Silk. The record's intriguing title proves an apt introduction to this four-track affair. These cuts are at once sleek and abrasive, anchored by robotechnic machine-funk grooves yet also full of strange, shifting shapes.

The opening title-track expertly sets out Rough Silk's stall. Heralded by gurgling synths and all manner of whirring percussive tones, 'Rough Silk' blossoms around the minute mark with the introduction of a wickedly buoyant lead synth. This is music at once visceral and full of mystery, the sound of wending through the back alleys, and the feeling carries through to the following cut 'Hat in the Cat' - as the synth pads spool out overhead, the machine-funk snap of the beat has an almost aquatic quality that links it back to Drexciya.

Much like 'Rough Silk', the record's first B-side 'Faking Sweet' also shifts gears. The opening strains of the track seem to be preparing for another insistent, expansive broken-beat pulse, but it stiffens its neck around ninety seconds in. Programmed drums whirr around a jittery machine-gun bass while discordant synths pull at the edges of the track, all of which brings a strong dystopian energy that increases further as the percussion sounds become increasingly bug-eyed.

After so much excitement, 'Digger Play' closes out the EP with a softer touch. There's still plenty of low-slung bounce to the beat, but the track runs a little slower, and there's a warm wistfulness in the synths which gives 'Digger Play' a painterly, almost poetic feel. However, while it may take its foot off the gas, the production here is as deft as it is everywhere else on Rough Silk.

With new EP Rough Silk, electro whizz Fleck E.S.C. brings the sort of casual mastery to proceedings that has characterised his career to date.

RIYL: Silicon Scally, Jensen Interceptor, Annie Hall

“BLEU” is a deep, witty, and contemplative scroll through frustration and love. As journalist Jasmyne Keimig explains in her liner notes, the album is an optimistic look at “the money woes, the creeping loneliness, and the isolation of modern living.” This ten-song vinyl debut from choir kid-turned-rapper Dave B is introspective, intimate, and intensely personal, framed against lush production from a collaborative team of producers, including Papi, Sango, Wax Roof, Vitamin D, Daoud, Esta, and U. Moore. The single “CPU LUV” arrived with a music video that parodies a classic Microsoft commercial, and explores our smartphone obsessions, describing a romantic liaison where the couple choses scrolling on their phones over intimacy. Described as “one of Seattle’s brightest hip-hop talents” by local and national media, Dave B has received praise from Pigeons & Planes, Complex, HotNewHipHop, Okayplayer, Pitchfork, XXL, Essence, and NPR. He’s appeared on The Tonight Show and performed in arenas across America, Europe, and Australia.

Carl Finlow keeps on keeping on. As the world changes around him, the veteran producer continues to do what he does best - craft top-quality electro tunes which invoke the sound's Drexciyan heyday, yet carry themselves with an assurance that is all of Finlow's own.

Finlow remains a prolific producer more than a quarter of a century on from his emergence. Still averaging several records a year across a variety of aliases, recent times have seen Finlow forge particularly strong links with the Central Processing Unit label. Now, after a run of EPs for the Sheffield imprint which began with 2018's 'Projections', Finlow's Silicon Scally project offers up CPU's first drop of 2022 in the form of the 'Field Lines' LP.

Silicon Scally productions have long been marked out by how they combine piston-precise beat programming with more textured synth play. 'Field Lines' runs with this formula to deliver some of Finlow's most atmospheric material to date. At once shadowy and expansive, listening to 'Field Lines' is the aural equivalent of taking a night-time drive around some futuristic metropolis.

The beats cruise sleekly here. Many of these burbling machine-funk numbers hover at mid-tempo, the crisp clip of their drum programming given shape and depth by all sorts of percussive tones fizzing around at the fringes of the mix. Even when 'Field Lines' seems to set its sights on the club - the Bunker Records-aping 'Amino', for instance, or the dystopian whizz-bang of 'Static Fire' - the tracks here strut sturdily rather than giving in to full-on freakouts.

However, from this sturdy base, Finlow moves outwards. Working with tones which range from rapid-fire machine-gun bass to keening, dawn chorus keyboard pads, Finlow leads us through the futurescape with the expertise of a seasoned guide. Cuts like 'Submerged' and 'Yield' are brilliantly cinematic, blooming from those reliable drum pulses into miniature masterpieces of nocturnal electronics. Elsewhere on 'Field Lines' there is a mechanical majesty to 'Inhibitor' and 'Altered Domain' which invokes the brave new worlds that Kraftwerk repeatedly conjured in their heyday.

Central Processing Unit's first release of 2022 is 'Field Lines', an LP of electro-funk explorations from Carl Finlow's Silicon Scally project which will thrill regardless of whether it's experienced through headphones or out on the dancefloor.

RIYL: Drexciya, Kraftwerk, Cygnus, Annie Hall