Various Artists "Rude and Awake Vol. 1" Iron Oxide 06
It seems to us that ‘hard techno' is getting a bit of a bad name recently…and it's not hard to see why. A genre that has traditionally been one of the more forward looking in terms of sound design and inventiveness has increasingly been hijacked by the super-high bpm schranz & hard-house brigade, and it's now very difficult to find decent hard techno producers that haven't moved over to the more lucrative minimal/electro-house market. Well look no further. Iron Oxide continues to push the envelope with both new and well-established producers that aren't afraid to nudge the meters well into the red, and the first part of ‘Rude and awake' features highly creative (but also slamming) contributions from relative newcomer Spewis, long-time noisemaker Bjorn Svin, and one of the very few female hard techno producers, Esther Ofei. Together they make a glorious noise, from Spewis's energetically edited bleep-a-thon to Esther's kick-heavy arcade-zapping thumper, via Svin's typically gnarly drum workout. All on a rather spiffing slab of orange & black vinyl. Essential gear for dark techno warehouses…
I generally agree with what's said here. It IS difficult to find good harder Techno these days. There are spats of releases, but nothing solid for long. I blame the years of boring Techno that got played out. The 'Techno Top 40' from old distributors like Prime. Techno is almost a swear word in these parts it feels like. Every time you use it it has to be followed by some justification it seems.
People who represent and/or tour around playing records need to maintain solid integrity. As mentioned in the write-up above, switching over to a new sound because that's where the market has moved to is not maintaining solid integrity. Either you encompass it all from the beginning because you fully enjoy it all or stick to your crappy little cubby hole.
