At its darkest and most driving. The group is clear and unanimous — this is their best yet.

Meditative, absorbing dance music in true Moritz style — at times seemingly transfixed by its own elements, and minimal almost to vanishing-point, but quickly back ticking, kicking and amassing.

Tony Allen, Max Loderbauer and Moritz von Oswald; mixed by Ricardo Villalobos.

A kind of intimate scrapbook of the startling collaboration between the techno maestro and this long-standing musical collective based in Bishkek, devoted to the roots music of Kyrgyzstan. Loose-leaved but balanced, lucid and intimate, it sets out from stunning a cappella and virtuosic komuz and kylak, mouth harp and traditional percussion: not field, but expert studio recordings, using marvellous vintage microphones, made over several days in Berlin. Further, a few of these are deftly treated by Moritz, using Reichian de-synced double-tracking, and discreet effects. Also two ten-minute dubs: a deadly, signature Berlin steppers, plus its version; and an echoing, mystical drum session, recorded live on stage in Bishkek. And a side-long, dream-like summation: the locomotive, oceanic, clangorous, dread Facets.
Ravishing, rooted, searching music; beautifully presented.

Two sick techno killers, stalking the perimeters of noise; and generous excerpts from a soundtrack to Dreyer’s Vampyr, with Sun Ra in its marrow, alternately driving and motorik, off-the-wall, lost in space.

DJ Nobu & NHK yx Koyxen.

Two spaced-out, synthed-up, house tearaways; a chunk of totally fucked-up dancehall; dub techno. A guitar solo and tincture of Fleetwood Mac to boot. TTT measures.

‘Here, again, it’s the odder and more elemental devotion to semi-narrative, ambient, and concrète sounds that we loved in Pomegranates — though Telas is more refined, with less sudden shifts and vignettes. An hour of self-reflective music is shaped incrementally; building and collapsing across the four sides.
‘Telas evokes a kind of monastic retreat. Where Pomegranates seemed epic in its scope and shifting scales, this album conveys images of quieter moments spent tending to a vegetable patch within a cloistered garden, perhaps, or the threading of a tapestry with filigree. Nicolás moves slowly and deliberately throughout, manipulating gauzy fibres and room-tone, or fluttering around his cryptic actors, so that when bursts of clarity and emotion appear they take on a deeper character.
‘There’s a greater sense of contemplation and patience in the album’s logic, pointing to a conception of art, melody, and sound which is continuously under construction. Together with sister-album Cenizas, and recent Against All Logic material, it feels like there’s a centre being defined and meditated upon.’

Aka Jan Katsma of Bunker associates Syncom Data, stepping out with his first full solo release in three years. Six feverish, dubwise synth excursions, rumbling with restrained power; with passages as body-rocking as recent Katsma/SD contributions to mixtapes by Dettmann and Stingray, but always verging on acid disintegration.

A mixtape by DJ OD from Paris, messing around with live recordings copped off friends like Mike Cooper, Jay Glass Dubs, Don’t DJ and Rabih Beaini. Snazzy red tapes in white cases.

A mouth-watering collaboration; plus flips from Al Wootton and Ottomani Parker.
‘The opener Last Breath is a late-hour pelter: relentlessly moody and hypnotic, with heaving sub-bass pulses. Tunnel Drift switches lanes with its distinctive tech-stepping 90’s throwback style; a forward-thinking take on a nostalgic sound.
‘Al Wootton’s contribution is characteristically fresh and inventive dubbed-out house, with his signature layering of atmospheric textures, and a deep and groovy bassline.
‘After a blissful opening, the Ottomani Parker excursion overlays driving percussion with horns, keys and live hand-drumming; an uplifting finale.’