Hot on the heels of the recent coming back of Pete "Voyager" Parsons, Dutch dj and producer Fusion, label owner of Tempo Records, encouraged the return of another influential and groundbreaking producer, Ipswich-based producer Steve Carr aka Digital, who recently appeared on a nice tidbit from Metalheadz after a relatively long period of likewise relative silence. MY favorite track of these three Amen bullets is "Africa", the first on AA side, as he wisely managed to adorn Amen break by a warm dub bassline and Afro-electro pinches, but the same side shines for "Fire", the most "minimal" track I've ever heard from this producer. Both of these tracks feature amazing dynamics as well as an evocative subtle sense of anxiety, while "Logged In", the little computational pearl on A side is likewise unusual as besides some hooks to old-fashioned jungle sonorities, Digital inoculates a slithering bleeping sequence and atmospheric sci-fi pads, which seems to launch Amen break into deep space as if it is a sort of an S.O.S. message in the bottle related to a zombie invasion on Earth that some close-to-the-divine entities would hopefully receive and take in consideration.

The very first tunes by 20-years old Cardiff-based producer and dj resident at Aperture - one of the best dnb clubs in UK and miliar stone of Cardiff dnb scene - Jack Boston made me guess he was going to become a possible next big thing on drum'n'bass scene and Symmetry label owner and hyperskilled producer Break could have felt the same as he decided to embrace his official debut release and picked it up his renowned imprint. Even if the tantalizing lyrics by mellow songwriter and singer Solis makes me ween that it could fit like a glove to an advertisiment by a sexy holistic masseuse, "Go With Me" distills a catchy junglish groove by haunting liquid keyboards and space-rock-like diluted guitar riffs so that the soothing and evocative spell of Solis' voice and Boston's music got reciprocally intensified. A more bluesy guitar as well as entrancing pads, ecstatic guiding voices, a warm trumpet got blended by a well balanced dosage of groundshaking breaks and a resounding bassline on "The Little Things", which could make listener focus on Boston's sound if your aural perception got temporarily eclipsed by Solis-induced sensual reveries of the previous track.

Kolokol is both the name of the highest volcano in Kuril Islands and of a notorious artificial opiod which seems to have been tested on subway ventilation system in Moscow and Novobirsk and supposedly pumped in the ventilation system of the crowded Dubrovka Theater by Russian special forces when they killed a remarkable number of people, who were taken hostage by some Chechen Islamist militants. Such a ttle for a drum'n'bass song rises some expectations about its style which got satisfied by Fade, nom de guerre of Ukrainian producer Eugene Galushchenko, who drops a couple of really brilliant tunes for his third release on Free Love Digi: back in anger and pride, Fade emits nervously roaring breaks over furious neuto-tech sonorities on "Kolokol" while he wakes some beast before feeding them on "Feed The Beast" by means of more tech-step oriented stunning breaks. That's a true sonic d'n'b-propelled assault!

Look who the cat dragged in! In a decade, just some live gigs and a "best of" came from Slovenian band Borghesia, but it seems that they have still to say something and they choose an appreciable mixture of electronic rock, EBM sprays and many stylistical unpredictable influences, which are quite different from the dance-oriented EBM stuff they used to spread to reach some visibility in the 90ies, which permeates some tracks of "And Man Created God" such as "My Life Is My Message", "Too Much IS Not Enough" and "C'est La Guerre", a song which quotes Bertold Brecht and recaps the spirit of this band ("Love in my heart/Peace in my mind/Gun in my hand/War in my blood"). As you can easily guess while inspecting the cover artwork - a greenback of 100 YES, a currency whose name comes from the symbols of yen, euro and US dollar -, they keep on emphasize political statements in a provocative, straightforward and meaningful way: the opening "We Don't Believe You", where they wisely inserted a banjo which reminds Americana folk sonorities, could be the hymn of awaken mankind from the regime of flexibility, mass mental manipulation and other centerpieces of our political money-driven systems; Arabian nuances cannot but feature "194", a wise song whose meaningful words got written by an anonymous group of students from Gaza; the intelligent exotic scents of "Kaufen Macht Frei (Buy Baby Buy)" perfectly renders the plastic illusions and the ephemeral peace of mind that got inoculated by consumerism as well as the Mexican nuances of "Para Todos Todo", whose lyrics have been taken from Subcomandante Marcos' words, and the quote of Marcuse on the final "Shoot The Clock!", which echoes some philosophical and sociological essays which explains that the control of time is the real foundation of contemporary oppression, are likewise guessed hooks. Paraphrasing the lyrics on "C'est La Guerre", this record could be a possible tool of revolution inside a world which seems to trust in money and nothing else...

I already introduced the first (the one with brilliant Australian guitar player Oren Ambarchi) of the two concomitant collaborative releases by Richard Pinhas that Cuneiform dropped in May and it seems that the label is aware of the fact that this one which involves Japanese drummer Yoshida Tatsuya - younger generations could know his name for the impressive drum'n'bass project Ruins, even if several important collaborations and projects (Zeni Geva, Acid Mothers Temple, Painkiller, Koenji Hyakkei, Samla Mannas Manna and many more...) embellishes his track record - could break the heart of all those electronic rock or prog followers who believed the gung-ho words by some rabid reviewers of younger duets such as The Kills or The Black Keys, who are much more better than marketing inflated bands like Arctic Monkeys or Arcade Fire, as these veterans can look down on many youngster who are trying to leap over some stylistical barbed wire fences. As this release is the second musical chapter that belongs to the ambitious Devolution Trilogy where Richard merged his sonic explorations and his philosophical reflections on capitalism and the contextual devolution of human/biological faculties, the void where they welcome the listeners could be connected to a plenty of philosophical essays about the somehow tragic effects that both the capitalism and its twilight caused to mankind: according to Pinhas' own words, the title refers to "a kind of journey, not more into the being but into the Void - the nothingness that is now the "center" or the absence-of-center of our societies" and the one-hour lasting track, after the shortest appetizer which precedes it, catapults listeners into the spiritual anxiety that a deeper reflection about our condition of almost drab elements and isolated cells of a voracious monster could inspire by means of permanent synth waves, slightly distorted electic guitar phrasing, dizzying speed drumming, whirling sounds and unpredictable electronic prog fluctuations, where you can almost perceive the perpetual buzz of controlled insects as a possible sinister "biological" meeting point of humans and machines as well as the meeting point between soundscapes and thought.