Solar One Music is an hectic label that is producing quality music and is always in evolution. With The Crystal Issue sub-label, they deliver music focused on Acid/Chicago/Detroit/Techno/House, genres which deeply influenced Robert and Nico, the two label's bosses. The releases will be issued only on one sided colored 12" in limited run'¦ no digital files available. The first release of the series is by Mantra, project of a guy called Craig Stainton, who is also active with the Acid Phreex, Craig Stainton, Monofonix, Myriadd monikers. He has at his active an LP ("After Dark") and three EPs on Bunker Records as well as another EP released the last year on Abstract Acid. Mantra's is pure acid techno with tiny house influences where the classic TB-303 and TR-606/808/909 sounds are used to create a hypnotic loop where sampled vocals, sparse deep bass lines and some synth effects. On this first release presented on orange vinyl as opening track we find "Beat That House", a tune characterized by an house bass line that is joined by TB-303 on the pauses, just to start again with the "mantra". "Many Worlds" follows and this is focused on TB-303 sounds, drum machine blasts, tiny distorted synth reverbs and vocal samples scratches. Trancey, obsessive and dancey, these tunes are two of the best produced by Mantra. If you are into acid or techno, check this out!

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown", said the legendary American writer H.P.Lovecraft and this fresh and somehow unknown twosome by Guido Van Den Brink aka Atiq, founder of Mindtrick Records and known in Rotterdam for its intense activity as a promoter of many notorious parties such as "Jungle Soundclash" and "Rave!!!", and Pim Arnoldus aka EnK, music producer and guitar player in the Dutch nu-metal band Brainshake, trace the ancestral sense of the above-mentioned definition and above all the strength of its semantic and spiritual payload by means this remarkable debut album, which encapsulate many acts of IDM and electronic hybrids as well as the most interesting declension of heavy dubstep - I could namedrop Hecq, Venetian Snares, Burial or even some oldest acts such as Beefcake, Flint Glass, Elixir (a project by Martin Stovey, Steve Jones and Richard Pushong, which dropped some interesting stuff on Quatermass, sub-label of SubRosa) or Bill Leeb's Synaesthesia - with a deep penchant for psychedelic orchestral inserts. In reality they don't depart from Lovecraft's quote, but these skilled guys cite some words by Dr.Wayne Dyer they sampled in the initial track "Stay With The Familiar" ("Fear of the Unknown...They are afraid of New Ideas...They're loaded with Prejudices, not based upon anything in reality, but based on if something is new, I reject it immediately; because it is Frightening to Me. What they do instead, is just Stay with the Familiar. You know, to me, The Most Beautiful things in all the Universe, are The Most Mysterious"...a very meaningful message for our troubled planet), which perfectly sets listener's mood for the whole album, whose main quality lays in its intimate narrative structure. There are many stylistical peaks all over the release: the cathartic suspense, which have been enhanced by entrancing female vocals, of "Moonlit Tea Party", the heavy lock step, the suffocated melodies and the sinisterly silvery atmosphere of "My Obligation", the somber crystalline music box on "The Glass Kingdom", the cinematic Gregorian chant-driven mesmerizing dubstep of 'Like an Angel's Feather' - absolutely my favorite track! -, the meteor craters of the mercurial dub on "Sim One" (nice track with samples of Orson Welles' narration of "Future Shock", a documentary by visionary American writer Alvin Toffler) and "Three Minutes", the bites of dubstep on a Jarre-like synth-driven melodic sequence on "Shards Of Brilliance", which precedes the final resolution "The Moment Of Truth", which got spelled by Mike Redman's rapping. Fear of the unknown must be beaten and these guys proposed their amazing sonic strategy.

If we leave aside a couple of interesting remix collections, "Inside The Reactor" and "From The Land Of The Rising Sun" (the second part of "Inside The Reactor"), the phenomenal project by talented British producer Bew Watkins, which has gained a certain notoriety and a lot of approval for the fact he managed to put goa-trance, psychedelic techno, orchestral layers and ethnic music in the blender in order to squeeze highly synesthetic and powerfully magmatic condensed soups, has been out of service since 2008, so that many fans of Juno Reactor will be happy for this resurgence which sounds as a comeback as well due to some resemblances with his past works. The cover artwork itself could resemble both somehow profane/sacred references Mr.Watkins often recall, mainly justifiable by the intent of representing the deranged absurdity of the exploitation of religions for undermost purposes which marks human history than an act of groundless blasphemy (gas-masks into Nativity scene and rifles for little angels are really meaningful and bright ideas), and collage art he often recalls - think about artwork of his goa-trance explosive release "Beyond The Infinite" -, whereas the sound seems to be related to the frenzy whirling goa-trance of the above-mentioned "Beyond The Infinite" (particularly on incendiary tracks such as "Guillotine", "Final Frontier" or the frightening "Zombie", which got inspired by these monsters who became somehow fashionable for no other reason than the "gene mutation" or the imaginary evolutionary step from humanity to "zombietude" seems to be provoked by the brand new capitalistic slavery nd its inner inferences), flaming ethnic insertion of "Shango" and "Bible Of Dreams" (the catching heavy "gipsy" guitar strokes on "Final Frontier" could be the first clue), post-apocalytic nuances and a bunch of tricks he transplanted from music for the silver screen: the initial "Final Frontier" itself seems to include many references to the final theme of Blade Runner, whose contributing factor could be the inclusion of some horns who are not so different from the ones Vangelis used for that notorious soundtrack. Moreover Juno Reactor keeps on interlacing a solid narrative congruence together with an immediate emotional impact, which penetrates sensory system to the point that listeners could vividly experience the heat of flames, the mystical flight ofa prayer, the heartache of a mother, the terror of an air raid, the bewilderment of an orphan, the aloneness of a recluse, the pain of a whiplash by means of headbanging breaks, mesmerizing sequences, breath-taking sonic architecture and a remarkable effort on sampling and building of motifs. From the initial ignition of "Final Frontier" to the final woebegone anthem of "Playing With Fire", which could resemble the sense of tragedy of some moments of "Songs from Beuern" in the end, "The Golden Sun Of The Great East" radiates dazzling light to ears and brains.

The sixth installment from Protect Audio seems to surface from the crust between tectonic plates of contemporary techno, neurofunk and harsher drum'n'bass. The most interesting aspect is the fact this label is trying to refresh and enhance the quality of sound so that many liusteners will easily fathom while listeneing to the four effluences on "Diffraction of Sound EP" since the initial "Treibgut" (German for "marine debris"), the surprising track by Berlin-based duo Survey, where Hardy and SolHo melt perfectly sharpened breaks, venomous tentacular bass frequencies, ticking clicks and suffocating sounds with the alternation of a sort of unnatural breath and temporary apneas, which could let you think about the awakening of some sea monster after it got hassled by isles of floating litter. The somehow creepy atmosphere, which introduces the following Homemade Weapons' "Slivers" by means of explosions and spurts, precedes avalanches of crackling beats which becomes more and more engaging and viscous, while Shiver seems to apply himself with a broken clockwork, which he tries to resuscite by means of pumping inflations on "Displaced". An old-school aftertaste and a sort of broken samba mark Marukomu's "Iridium" out, which is maybe the track, where some spores of the previous tracks coalesce and eddy into a really absorbing tune. As I've already highlighted, the quality of sounds is one the most remarkable aspect of this release besides the panache of stylistical crossbreeding.

I'll take upon myself the risk to sound repetitive, but I have to say French drum'n'bass label IM:Ltd is building a climbing frame to reach the empyrean realms of the genre by a series of releases this year, which are really remarkable on a quality level. This new record comes from Ukrainian talent Vladimir Prituliak aka Hibea, who emulates the explorative flight of the mysteriously charming long-eared bird, which gives the name to the track "White Owl", its hushed hunt in the dark, by means of clear-cut jungle-oriented breaks, icy puffs, a recurring sound which could vaguely resemble the call of a owl and a 3-note theme which engagingly emphasizes this imaginary night-flight, while compatriot producer Eugene Fade accentuates the jungle core of the original track by samples which resembles some proper jungle classics and a rising absorbing tone which evokes some stuff by Aphrodite on his remix, which is only available on the digital version as well as the original version of "The Form", an amazing 6-minutes lasting swirl of percussive popping, guided missiles, blasts of wind, shaking basslines and palpitating hums. On vinyl, you will find its hovering remix by Phil Tangent, which is maybe the plumiest track (not so different from some good uplifters on Hospital) of this appealing release by Hibea. Take wing and peer into darkest nights.