charles duff and daniel fisher have known each other since well before their respective forays into dance music. they serendipitously crossed paths at some point in the early 2010s with mutual friends in the nyc club kid scene. shortly thereafter they realised they both were keen to ditch the vapid hipster bullshit that had fueled their early careers thus far in order to pursue something pure: techno. mind you, this was at a time when it was not terribly cool to be into underground dance music. if anything, they both were greeted with massive skepticism from their peers but that didn t ultimately deter them. both went from relative obscurity to regular slots at berghain. and for two american kids musing in a pathetic bedroom studio, this was nothing short of a dream come true. a prophecy had been fulfilled. the two tried their hands at numerous attempts at collaboration over a 5 year period but nothing seemed to stick. most of it sucked horrendously according to them. but not on this occasion. the stars finally came into alignment and they were able to execute a concise group of tracks that finally made sense together. which brings us to threads. threads, an homage to the uber-dystopian bbc docudrama from the 80s, sums up their dynamic approach to tracks. it s an alienating, sinister take on techno that somehow manages to not fully lose faith in dire times. much like life today.

mancini and the creepers is a much needed breath of fresh air that really turned my week around from being horrendous to unreal! with the ridiculous vocal stylings of mancini throwing down some truly unorthodox rhythm, along with the unreal british-accented lyrics, this crew is pure entertainment in my mind. the rapping is done over the production crew, consisting of tommy tempa and frank law’s, beats and is put together in a great package.

white asega co-­owner jack dixon wrote new curtains after a friend who was coming wildly off the rails told him he was a good producer but his tunes were boring. the original version was really sparse and about 300bpm. when jack moved to new york the parts got lost, so he remade the track a dozen times. this was the version we all liked best, although jack never wants to hear it again in his life. it sounds tough and tropical. our friend troy gunner remixed it, and turned it into something so loud and slamming it will knock your teeth out. after telling jack to stop making boring music, mark kodiak spent two horrendous years working with jamie kodiak on a song they ve called taargus. it nearly destroyed their friendship forever but we think it was worth it. it has brutal weapon sounds, nasty snares and an incessant “yo” that has been described as “annoying and unnecessary”. the artist tom pounder has created a blinding video for it that contains brand new colours. french born bass genius bambounou stepped up to remix the track, taming the wild stems into a hypnotic early­morning house stepper. it took us approximately 2000 exhausting facebook group chats, four cross­atlantic flights and one divorce to get to this point. we hope you will enjoy this record for the rest of your lives. rip ken tulley.

you can forgive a band who set out to create something even just a little bit different and get it horrendously wrong, but its tough to have sympathy for a band who shy away from the challenge altogether. such was the case with autokratz on their first album, animal, which, apart from a passable opening track, consisted of a series of bland electronic pastiches Ð dance music that conversely made the listener want to sit and wait it out. that didnt stop the hype building around the duo, though, thanks in no small part to the fact that the album was released through in-vogue french label kitsunˇ music. the confusing positivity surrounding the lp suggesting, perhaps, that style overcomes substance once a record company has received the hipster seal of approval.this time around, however, kitsune has stepped aside, with autokratz releasing the follow-up on their own label, bad life. but has the sense of responsibility that surely comes with this step made them re-evaluate their direction? has it inspired them to inject a much-needed shot of creativity into their work? not a hope. if anything, autokratz descend even further into mediocrity on self help for beginners. once again, their best tunes are loaded towards the front of the album, starting with the lead single, -opposite of love. its far from outstanding, helped in no small part by the terribly contrived lyrics, but does possess a catchy synth melody Ð enough to earn it a place on club playlists, at least. its a similar story with -becoming the wraith, which has peter hook on hand to deliver an overtly new order-esque bassline. beyond that, however, the quality dips dramatically. tracks like -the seventh seal and -r.i.s.e. are typical of the selection on offer, underwhelmingly vapid, derivative tunes which show up a disappointing, but not totally unexpected, scarcity of guile on the part of their creators.where autokratz do excel is as producers Ð a quality evident not only in their own work, but also in their remixes for other artists. unfortunately, this only serves to exacerbate their deficiencies on the other side of the control room desk. ultimately it may mean that, having failed to address the shortcomings of their debut, autokratz will be fated to be filed under -also rans in the annals of music history. thats assuming, of course, that someone out there will actually remember them at all.