RIYL: Dopplereffekt, Drexciya, I-F, Jensen Interceptor, 96 Back

Revelations

Silicon Scally - Revelations

NULLPTR never fails. Since emerging in 2016 with the Optical LP, Eddie Symons’ project has become a byword for top-draw contemporary electro productions. After triumphantly returning to Sheffield’s Central Processing Unit with 2020’s Future World full-length, NULLPTR follows that album up with a new quartet of machine-funk slammers. Striking a balance between highwire, twitchy rhythm programming and some deft textural work, the Terminus EP demonstrates exactly why the NULLPTR name is so respected in the world of electro.

The first half here almost showcases the two sides of the NULLPTR sound in microcosm. Opening track ‘Connected’ zips along like one of the racers from a Wip3out game. The 808s are all booming breakbeats and hissing-piston hats, with a jittery synth bassline nipping in and out of the spaces left vacant by the drums. Atop these swirl eerie keyboard pads, the reverb from them draping across the rest of the instruments like fog above a city. By contrast, following cut ‘Mesospheric Cruise’ is the yin to ‘Connected’s yang. Where its predecessor was tense and coiled, this lilting number is expansive and open like a primetime Virginia joint - though the point where the wistful house pads strip back to foreground the twinkle-toed electro beat still has a pleasing crunch to it.

The B-side of Terminus serves dystopian snap from the off. Genre masters Drexciya are invoked by ‘Syndicate’. The needle-gun bassline here turns itself inside-out across these five minutes, and all the while the tune is laced with some evocative shadow-realm synth pads. A similar energy courses through the EP’s closing title-track, a cut which also brings into play a booming four-to-the-flour that gives it an unstoppable sense of forward-motion. Like ‘Connected’ and ‘Mesospheric Cruise’ - indeed, like all of the NULLPTR material that Central Processing Unit has brought us down the years - these jams will sound positively devilish when deployed in a dark basement.

The Terminus EP sees electro don NULLPTR (Eddie Symons) deliver four slices of unadulterated machine-funk heat.

RIYL: Virginia, Cardopusher, Drexciya, Silicon Scally

Terminus

NULLPTR - Terminus

2021 has been something of a banner year for Central Processing Unit. Less than a decade on from its first release, the Sheffield imprint brought up a century of catalogue items earlier in 2021 with Cygnus’ fittingly-titled ‘100% Dope’ EP. 

Reaching such a milestone would cause many to pause and reflect on their achievements. However, as well as taking stock, CPU has continued to drop new music at an impressive clip - Blackploid, Silicon Scally and London Modular Alliance are just a few of the cult favourites to issue new material via CPU in the past twelve months.

With FASME & Maelstrom’s Lotus 48 EP, CPU round out 2021 with yet another cracking electro collection. For the latter, this is par for the course - Maelstrom’s catalogue stretches back to the 1990s, and the one born Joan-Mael Péneau has already delivered two fine records on CPU in the past. However, Lotus 48 represents another line in the sand on account of it being Fasme’s label debut.

No matter who is at the controls, Lotus 48 carries itself with a panache which signifies that Fasme & Maelstrom are both in their element here. Many of the tracks are anchored by the sort of snapping machine-funk grooves which have become something of a calling card for CPU down the years. 

That said, as well as club-ready rhythm work, Fasme & Maelstrom also deliver some gorgeous synth textures which evoke the golden age of Boards of Canada and AFX. A-sides ‘Almond Blossom’ and ‘Ciliae’ both follow this formula fabulously well. The bass and drum programming will delight those who have enjoyed recent CPU drops from Cygnus, Silicon Scally et al, while technotronic synth pads open up hidden depths.

The title-track kicks off Lotus 48’s B-side with another sleek, slick beat. After introducing gurgling basslines and ghostly tinklings of synth, ‘Lotus 48’ soon locks into a slamming breakneck groove which is sure to send the dance into raptures. It’s an energy which carries through to closer ‘Moneres’, a joint which contrasts booming drum programming with chordal washes taken straight out of the dub-techno playbook.

Fasme & Maelstrom expertly combine machine-funk grooves with deft synth play on the Lotus 48 EP.

RIYL: Automatic Tasty, Silicon Scally, Cygnus, Splitradix

Lotus 48

Fasme & Maelstrom - Lotus 48

Carl Finlow keeps on keeping on. As the world changes around him, the veteran producer continues to do what he does best - craft top-quality electro tunes which invoke the sound’s Drexciyan heyday, yet carry themselves with an assurance that is all of Finlow’s own. 

Finlow remains a prolific producer more than a quarter of a century on from his emergence. Still averaging several records a year across a variety of aliases, recent times have seen Finlow forge particularly strong links with the Central Processing Unit label. Now, after a run of EPs for the Sheffield imprint which began with 2018’s ‘Projections’, Finlow’s Silicon Scally project offers up CPU’s first drop of 2022 in the form of the ‘Field Lines’ LP. 

Silicon Scally productions have long been marked out by how they combine piston-precise beat programming with more textured synth play. ‘Field Lines’ runs with this formula to deliver some of Finlow’s most atmospheric material to date. At once shadowy and expansive, listening to ‘Field Lines’ is the aural equivalent of taking a night-time drive around some futuristic metropolis. 

The beats cruise sleekly here. Many of these burbling machine-funk numbers hover at mid-tempo, the crisp clip of their drum programming given shape and depth by all sorts of percussive tones fizzing around at the fringes of the mix. Even when ‘Field Lines’ seems to set its sights on the club - the Bunker Records-aping ‘Amino’, for instance, or the dystopian whizz-bang of ‘Static Fire’ - the tracks here strut sturdily rather than giving in to full-on freakouts.

However, from this sturdy base, Finlow moves outwards. Working with tones which range from rapid-fire machine-gun bass to keening, dawn chorus keyboard pads, Finlow leads us through the futurescape with the expertise of a seasoned guide. Cuts like ‘Submerged’ and ‘Yield’ are brilliantly cinematic, blooming from those reliable drum pulses into miniature masterpieces of nocturnal electronics. Elsewhere on ‘Field Lines’ there is a mechanical majesty to ‘Inhibitor’ and ‘Altered Domain’ which invokes the brave new worlds that Kraftwerk repeatedly conjured in their heyday.

Central Processing Unit’s first release of 2022 is ‘Field Lines’, an LP of electro-funk explorations from Carl Finlow’s Silicon Scally project which will thrill regardless of whether it’s experienced through headphones or out on the dancefloor.

RIYL: Drexciya, Kraftwerk, Cygnus, Annie Hall

Field Lines

Silicon Scally - Field Lines

The relationship between Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Shun begins in 2018, when the British label decamped to Tokyo to throw a party in the Japanese capital. Alongside a lineup which contained the likes of Fleck E.S.C., Shun was one of the local artists who DJed that night. Now, four years on, he links up with the Sheffield imprint in order to deliver dancefloor destruction in the form of new EP The Door.

There is some seriously tough club tackle here. Regular followers of CPU will be able to identify many of the sonic archetypes which have made the label a leader in the field of modern electro. These four tracks are backed by broken-beat machine-funk snaps in the vein of Drexciya, Jensen Interceptor and the like, and one finds a sense of dystopian futurism running through The Door which links it to other CPU drops.

However, there is also a gritty, saturated feel to these productions which marks Shun out from the pack. With their writhing, insistent bass melodies and heat-treated drum programming, opening cuts ‘Digital Slave’ and ‘Kishibi’ have plenty in common with the underground wiggle of labels like Super Rhythm Trax, while prominent use of 303s also provide these tunes with an acidic tang.

Another quality which distinguishes Shun’s vision is the inspiration he draws from anime. Track titles like ‘Kishibi’ and ‘Rohan’ are references to Kishibe Rohan, a figure from the manga ‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’ in which the names of characters and their specific techniques are drawn from musical sources. This give and take with influences outside of music is further felt in how Shun makes liberal use of keyboard melodies that nod to horror and sci-fi movies - the introduction of such synths into ‘Kishibi’ and ‘Rohan’ give The Door an almost cinematic quality which is amplified still further by the vocal snippets which flit around the mix on several tracks.

Japanese producer Shun debuts on Central Processing Unit with The Door, an EP of hard-bitten, acidic electro bangers.

RIYL: Jerome Hill, DMX Krew, Drexciya, Jensen Interceptor

The Door

Shun - The Door

Bochum Welt’s 2019 LP ‘Seafire’ and its accompanying remix album are two of the Central Processing Unit label’s most beloved releases. However, links between the two parties run far deeper than just those records.

You see, the tracks that Gianluigi Di Costanzo cut as Bochum Welt in the 1990s and 2000s are in the very DNA of the celebrated Sheffield imprint. Bochum Welt’s drops on labels like Rephlex made for some of the most celebrated electronic music releases of the era and went on to influence producers the world over - including many of those who have turned up on CPU since it launched in 2012.

As such, it makes sense that two of the most crucial EPs from Bochum Welt’s first wave are now being given new life by CPU. ‘Desktop Robotics’ and ‘Feelings On A Screen’ initially emerged in 1997 via Aphex Twin’s Rephlex imprint. Now, Di Costanzo has curated this special CPU release to celebrate both of those EPs making it to 25. This is a reissue with a twist, though. While ‘Desktop Robotics / Feelings On A Screen’ features many crucial cuts from the original pressings, the record also serves up other gems gathered from Bochum Welt’s original master tapes - all of which have never previously been released on vinyl.

The ‘Desktop Robotics’ cuts which make for the record’s first half are dreamy, impressionistic things. On this quartet, Bochum Welt plays painterly synth work off of idiosyncratic drum programming to illuminating effect. The opening title-track, for instance, blooms from a clattering, distorted beat into an icily beguiling electronic soundscape, a vibe which carries through to following number ‘HMT (202 Mix)’.

Things become more weightless on ‘Leafs Brought By The Wind’, a potent vignette where you can almost see the leaves falling amidst its reverb-drenched haze. We then get ethereal ‘Marylebone (Demo Version)’. Anyone who’s heard the iteration of ‘Marylebone’ which appeared on Bochum Welt’s 2017 LP ‘April’ will be pleasantly surprised by this alternate mix. Here the track pulls away from pretty post-minimalist piano composition to widescreen ambience - it’s so warm and intimate that it feels like peeking behind a curtain to observe an artist at work.

Things ramp up a notch with the tracks taken from in and around ‘Feelings On A Screen’. The title cut kicks off the record’s second half in limber fashion, its nimble percussion programming dancing around a pulsing bassline. Like A Tim’s mix of ‘Greenwich’ is still as much of a party-starter as it was on the original ‘Feelings On A Screen’ release, with the Djax-Up-Beats veteran setting buoyant rhythm work against a playful, eccentric lead-line. 

Between these tunes we are treated to one of the gems of the Bochum Welt discography. In 2007, Di Costanzo split an EP with Heinrich Mueller, an artist best known as Drexciya’s Gerald Donald. That record featured Mueller’s ‘Z Version’ of Bochum Welt’s ‘Saint’, and the track’s appearance here, with machine gun bass burbling alongside strange textures, joins the dots between Di Constanzo’s style and the pulsating machine-funk that Donald helped popularise. Things close out with ‘North’, a frostily beautiful ambience which makes for a fitting bookend to this album when taken alongside ‘Desktop Robotics’.

This 25th anniversary re-release of Bochum Welt’s ‘Desktop Robotics’ and ‘Feelings On A Screen’ EPs reminds us that, while time may have passed, the appeal of Bochum Welt’s electronic music remains as strong as ever.

RIYL: AFX, Mike Paradinas, Boards Of Canada, Mrs Jynx

Bochum Welt - Desktop Robotics & Feelings On A Screen (25th Anniversary Edition)

Seasoned heads may already be aware of dynArec. The project of one Chris Kalera, dynArec has been a force in the electro underground for more than two decades at this point, releasing numerous records and helming the Vaporwave label to boot. He has marked himself out as a purveyor of top-quality machine-funk during his career, a producer who runs with the spirit of Detroit to craft club traxx of wicked intensity.

After a period of relative quiet in the late 2010s, Kalera has roared back into action recently, with a run of releases emerging in 2021 and 2022 across labels including Cultivated Electronics, Superluminal and Umwelt’s New Flesh. Now the Vaporwave Records founder takes his Central Processing Unit bow with the Force In The Sum EP, and his hard-hitting electro style is immediately at home on the Sheffield imprint.

Force In The Sum commences with ‘A Dispatching Role’, a track where eerie vocal snippets and delay-drenched anti-melodies cluster around a volatile low-end wobble and crisp 808 snap. It’s equal-parts ominous and invigorating, kind of like the Thom Yorke of ‘Kid A’ times if he’d been granted an audience with Gerald Donald. ‘A Dispatching Role’ is prime slalom music, and the mood carries through to following cut ‘Stabilized’. After a stentorian opening of unerring kick drums and fizzing keys, ‘Stabilized’ soon blooms into a retro-futurist robo-electro joint which comes off like a more textured iteration of Unit Moebius.

Things open up a little more on first B-side ‘Canonical Form’ - at least, they do before the track’s pretty opening flushes are interrupted by a vicious blurting bassline reminiscent of, say, Jensen Interceptor. There are no broken beats here, the track’s unyielding four-on-the-floor thud pushing the joint a little more towards techno mode than the A-side jams. This straight beat remains on Force In The Sum closer ‘Classification Of Elements’, with sputtering hi-hats playing off the groovy pings of the synths to devilishly danceable effect. Slip-sliding saw sounds and spine-tingling, almost ‘X-Files’-esque lead lines enter to up the ante, but the mood shifts after dynArec starts to lace lush chordal stabs and delay-drenched modular runs through the track. All the while, a voice repeats the mantra “what matters is the sound” - and who could deny the truth in this statement?

dynArec’s prolific recent run continues with the four track Central Processing Unit debut Force In The Sum. Tense, expansive and worldbuilding, this is wickedly danceable electro done right. Truly, what matters is the sound.

RIYL: Jensen Interceptor, Cardopusher, Cygnus, Silicon Scally

dynArec - Force In The Sum

Splitradix FFT is a fast Irish transform (FFT) rhythm for computing the discrete musical acid (aux note relative), and was first described in an initially little-appreciated paper by R. Yavne (1978) and subsequently rediscovered simultaneously by Central Processing Unit label owners in 2021. (The name "Splitradix" was coined by one of these re-inventors, S. Hennelly.) In particular, Splitradix is a variant of the Electro-Vocoder FFT rhythm that uses a blend of analogue 2 and 4: it recursively expresses an emotion of length N in terms of one smaller aux of musical N/2 and two smaller DFT of Fenix PCM/70.

Synthesizing Your Future

Splitradix - Synthesizing Your Future

Blackploid has become one of Central Processing Unit’s stalwarts in the past couple of years. Martin Matiske’s project contributed a trio of EPs to the Sheffield label across 2021 and 2022, with each of them showing off the kind of electro chops and production sensibilities that made Blackploid an ideal fit for an imprint which also boasts the likes of Cygnus, Silicon Scally and Bochum Welt among its catalogue.

Now, for CPU’s first release of 2023, Matiske levels things up with the debut Blackploid LP Enter Universe. Across these twelve tracks, Matiske leaves us in no doubt that he’s a prime mover in the world of modern electronic music. Enter Universe does not let up from start to finish, delivering a dozen pieces of leftfield electro that draws from the sound’s greats while also showcasing an unpredictability and flair that is all of Blackploid’s own.

The tone is set from the first frosty chords of opening cut ‘Pulsation’. The track traverses the starscape on pitter-patter drums and chirruping synths, a lively and slightly dystopian roller with an adventurous undercurrent reminiscent of classic Rephlex drops. It’s a style which Blackploid often draws for throughout the rest of Enter Universe, albeit with elements added or subtracted at each stage.

Indeed, this album features some of the most unusual production you will hear on any record this year. While the grooves pulse away in a manner reminiscent of Drexciya or Legowelt, Blackploid layers the mixes with a whole cornucopia of synth tones. ‘The Mission’ boasts a bleep-bloop breakdown that sounds like malfunctioning rotary telephones; ‘Silent Room’ is a ghoulish jam which harks back to Warp’s legendary Artificial Intelligence compilations; ‘Automatik’ and ‘Wormhole’ are defined by some brilliantly strange low-ends - you’ll be thinking of Mr. Oizo’s ‘Flat Beat’ with the wiggly former, while the gurgling, writhing anti-lead that dictates ‘Wormhole’ is oddly thrilling and more than befits the track’s title.

This inventive approach is also apparent in some of the structural choices on Enter Universe. While the tracks here all keep a steady, dancefloor friendly pulse, several of them surprise you by switching up the approach after a minute or two. ‘Pulsation’, ‘Automatik’ and ‘The Mission’ all feature moments where a new element - extra hi-hats, a synth line entering from leftfield - inject fresh impetus into the tune to keep the listener on their toes.

Blackploid may push the sonic envelope on Enter Universe, but this does not mean there is no room for melody. In particular, the cuts here which most strongly channel ‘Computer World’-era Kraftwerk do so by fronting some slyly tuneful work, particularly in the low end of the mix. ‘Unidentified’ serves up delightfully springy chords, ‘Cell Mutation’ leads from the bassline, and ‘Space Curve’ features little cells of melody and counter-melody working together to close Enter Universe out on a high.

Blackploid’s debut LP Enter Universe marries Drexciyan electro and Warp-school electronica with some brilliantly inventive production choices.

RIYL: Legowelt, Cygnus, Proswell, Jensen Interceptor

Enter Universe

Blackploid - Enter Universe

Annie Hall returns to Sheffield’s Central Processing Unit label with an EP entitled Memories That Never Happened. This record represents the producer’s third time on CPU after 2016’s Tenured Positions and 2020’s Fum, and it is also the latest release in a busy couple of years for Annie Hall which have also seen her drop EPs on 20:20 Vision, Orson Records and Random Island. The momentum Annie Hall has built up in recent times carries through to a dynamic collection of productions which bring enough heft in the beats to keep the dancefloor happy while also including all manner of details in the production.

Memories That Never Happened begins with the title-track, a twitchy yet wistful cut which perfectly matches its name. There’s bite to the broken-beat electro pulse, growling bass and robotic declamations of “it’s Annie”, but the makeup of the track is simultaneously rather rose-tinted, particularly when some chemtrails of a synth lead enter later on. The overall effect is as thoughtful as it is stimulating, akin to the halcyon productions of Daniel Avery.

If ‘Memories That Never Happened’ is somewhat plaintive, following jam ‘Problematic Tape Recorder’ has the bit between its teeth from the get-go. The beat crashes and snaps, and when played off shimmering stabs of synth it all adds up to a Wip3out rush that nods to both the old Rephlex Records sound as well as contemporary practitioners like Nightwave. Once again the synth lead is used lightly here, more an augmentation to the beat than the centrepiece - another demonstration of Annie Hall’s ability to write with focus even when the overall intent is to move bodies in the club.

The energy of ‘Problematic Tape Recorder’ is spun in an unusual direction on ‘Subsequent Experiments’, the first track of Memories That Never Happened’s B-side. This cut may be the quickest on the record, but this does not mean it shouts the loudest. Indeed, ‘Subsequent Experiments’ may be the most ornate production here, full of shadowy sonics and a deconstructed beat running at D&B speed. A kind of shadowrealm version of Planet Mu’s early drill & bass explorations crossed with UVB-76’s darkside post-Metalheadz excursions, this one is an eerie thrill.

After the busy ‘Subsequent Experiments’, Annie Hall slows down to take the EP’s home straight at mid-tempo. On ‘Unparalleded Comfort’, keyboard stabs slide over a rhythm that’s at once driving enough for the dancefloor and nuanced enough to allow little half-melodies of synth to flit around above. It’s a fitting closer for this EP, almost playing like an amalgamation of the elements which made the rest of Memories That Never Happened so appealing.

Annie Hall returns to Central Processing Unit with Memories That Never Happened, an EP of masterful productions which will delight both clubbers and home-listeners.

RIYL: µ-Ziq, Pessimist, Nightwave, Mark, Drexciya

Memories That Never Happened

Annie Hall - Memories That Never Happened

It was perhaps only a matter of time before Si Begg rocked up on Central Processing Unit. Now an esteemed veteran of British beat tracks, Begg’s name has become synonymous with quality club productions ever since he burst onto the scene three decades ago. In the years since, Begg has released scores of records on some of the most prestigious labels in the business - Tresor, NovaMute, his own Mosquito. As such, his debut on the Sheffield imprint whose name has become a sign of quality since it launched in 2012 seems like a wholly logical progression for one of electro’s most consistently excellent producers.

Begg’s casual mastery of his sound is shown off by the fact that he doesn’t over-egg the pudding of the Energie Electrique EP. Rather than doing sonic cartwheels to get people’s attention, Energie Electrique is characterised by the way Begg adds or subtracts elements to sturdy grooves. It’s an approach which makes for a collection of tunes that manage to bring the boogie from the off while they also hide all sorts of aural Easter eggs amidst the mix.

On opening cut ‘Energy’, a droning start full of crisp drum programming soon develops into a head spinning electro groove reminiscent of Kraftwerk’s Computer World. An acid-laced bassline waxes and wanes, modulating in intensity across several minutes as Begg sprinkles in percussion, synth blurts and vocoder vocals. It’s a slyly insistent rump-shaker, and the - ahem - energy that the track provides carries through into following number ‘Buckfunk Beatz’. This joint begins with a gnarly, chattering synth sound before the sizzle and snap of a broken-beat kick-hat loop locks into place. While still very Kraftwerkian, ‘Buckfunk Beatz’ also has the playful grizzle of contemporary practitioners like Cardopusher and Begg’s fellow CPU operator Silicon Scally.

Things switch up at the start of Energie Electrique’s second side. Rather than rolling out a high-octane groove, Begg delivers a low-slung mid-tempo roller called ‘MS10 Machine Funk’. The programming on the kick drum here could almost pass for a dirty south hip-hop production if Begg didn’t lace it with such a strangely compelling use of the oscillator - sometimes squealing, sometimes squawking, sometimes wobbling, always thrilling. The mix flecked with chordal stabs, ‘MS10 Machine Funk’ is a masterclass in combining danceable beats with the quest for thrilling sounds that is so often the mark of a truly musical mind.

To round things out, Begg brings us back to the beginning. ‘Electro P1 B’ is a delightfully dystopian bit of Drexciyanism. Piston-hiss drum programming, nervy atonal synth nodules, some cavernous reverb deployment - this is a body-mover if ever you heard one, and one executed with all the style, aplomb and panache you’d expect of Begg.

Si Begg takes his Central Processing Unit bow with the Energie Electrique EP, a quartet of club tracks to rival anything in his vast and vaunted discography.

RIYL: Kraftwerk, Silicon Scally, Drexciya, Cardopusher, Annie Hall

Energie Electrique

Si Begg - Energie Electrique

Carl Finlow keeps on keepin’ on. Not only is Finlow one of the most respected names in electro, a producer who boasts a sprawling catalogue that takes in a wide variety of aliases, but he’s also spent recent years establishing himself as a mainstay for Sheffield’s Central Processing Unit label. Soft Robotics, the new EP from Finlow’s Silicon Scally project, is the fifth Silicon Scally release in five years to boast one of CPU’s instantly-recognisable black-and-white covers.

The reason that Silicon Scally and CPU keep linking up is simple; they’re a perfect fit for one another. Central Processing Unit has established itself as a haven for post-Drexciya producers since launching in 2012, and there are few artists better than Finlow at building on the Detroit group’s sound. The union bears fruit once more on Soft Robotics, an EP of lithe machine-funk jams that will both do damage in the dance and also reward more concentrated home listening.

Things begin at a steadier speed than one might expect. Rather than barrelling off with the kind of sinewy roller one associates with the CPU name, Soft Robotics’ title-track takes things at mid-pace. The groove reveals itself without hurry, Silicon Scally adding or subtracting elements - twitchy modular loops, pensive pads, the occasional blurt of low-end - atop the chugging bass/drums groove. It’s a track which wins you over with guile rather than force.

As the name of subsequent cut ‘Jitters’ intimates, this one picks things up a little after ‘Soft Robotics’. The tempo is higher here, the central beat more nervy. At their cores, though, ‘Jitters’ and ‘Soft Robotics’ are kindred spirits. Here, another slyly insistent bit of drum programming comes swirled up with all sorts of extraterrestrial tones, from little nuggets of melody supplied by the keys to electrifying synth stabs and percussive squelches.

Things limber up further still on first B-side ‘Spin Ratio’. The track’s 808 kicks are punchier than those of the A-side jams, and there’s a dizziness to the bass tone which gives ‘Spin Ratio’ an intriguingly off-kilter feel. Atop the booming beat we find ourselves hypnotised by cells of melody and harmony interlocking or moving apart - particularly the staccato module at the track’s heart. Sure enough, ‘Spin Ratio’ is the Soft Robotics joint which cleaves closest to Drexciya, invoking other Detroit disciples like Jensen Interceptor in the process.

After Soft Robotics picks up speed in the middle, closer ‘Super Fluid Tones’ brings us back to where we started. This track returns to the more measured delivery of the record’s opener - there’s a steady pulse to the drums, and once again Silicon Scally packs the mix with so many intriguing whizzes, bangs, blips and blurts that it’s impossible not be won over by this tune’s construction. ‘Soft Robotics’ and ‘Super Fluid Tones’ bookend Soft Robotics very nicely, and Silicon Scally’s smart pacing gives the EP a lovely ebb and flow.

The ever-excellent Carl Finlow drops a Silicon Scally release via Central Processing Unit for the fifth year running. Like its predecessors, Soft Robotics is an excellent and deftly-crafted collection of modern machine-funk.

RIYL: Drexciya, Jensen Interceptor, Fleck E.S.C., The Advent

Silicon Scally - Soft Robotics

Eddie Symons’ fine recent run for Central Processing Unit continues. The NULLPTR mastermind makes it four releases on the Sheffield label in five years with Recursor, a six-track EP which balances precision-engineered machine-funk grooves with an overarching aura of gracefulness.

Recursor finds its lane from the opening title-track. On the quicksilver ‘Recursor’ we get Drexciyan punch, a needlegun bassline and staccato arps offset by eerie washes of synths. There’s a tension between the two elements of the track, and this yin-yang combination means that’ Recursor’ will work equally well for both the rave’s darkest corners and also the euphoria of a sunrise set.

After the title-track begins the record at breakneck speed, ‘Pulsar’ puts proceedings into cruise control. There’s still enough punch in the drum programming to ensure that ‘Pulsar’ will deliver in the dance, but this mid-paced tune is dominated by its warping bassline and keening keys, all of which comes together for a pretty and strangely wistful number. ‘Pulsar’s energy persists into following cut ‘Phase Function, though there’s a twitchiness to the bassline here which gives this track a nervier, more neurotic feel. As well as the golden age of Detroit electro, you’re also looking at Silicon Scally and Annie Hall as ballpark references, though there’s a winning idiosyncrasy to the production here which is all NULLPTR’s own.

The groove which kicks off the second half of Recursor is one of the most focussed on the whole EP - ‘Seil’ has a bassline which moves with the intent of a heat-seeking missile. When combined with the distant snap of 808s and twinkling arps, the whole thing very much maintains the shadowy feeling of ‘Phase Function’, and it’s an energy that Recursor rides into ‘Stone Tape’. ‘Stone Tape’ boasts another stellar bassline, but rather than the low-end barrelling forward intensely as it does on ‘Seil’ the bass here skips all around the mix, pleasingly erratic and playful. 

‘Portal’ is an apt title for Recuror’s sixth and final track. Indeed, the whole vibe of ‘Portal’ makes it a perfect closer for this EP of detailed electro jams. This tune really does feel like a portal being opened, the bass and drums busying themselves on the floor while chemtrails of synth in the upper-end of the mix intimate something enticing beyond the threshold.

Sparky yet sleek, Recursor is the latest fine machine-funk collection from NULLPTR.

RIYL: Annie Hall, Silicon Scally, Legowelt

Recursor

NULLPTR - Recursor

While this may be the first release on Sheffield’s Central Processing Unit from Global Goon, the one known to friends and family as Johnny Hawk brings a whole heap of experience to the Nanoclusters mini-LP.

Hawk started dropping Global Goon records on the legendary Rephlex Records back in the 1990s. The project’s subsequent releases have taken in imprints as esteemed as WéMè and Balkan. Factor in a whole host of other aliases which have delivered missives via the likes of Planet Mu, and you know even before you press play on this witty, wily record that you’re dealing with a master at work here.

The confidence with which Global Goon approaches Nanoclusters shines through in Hawk taking much of the mini-album at midtempo. Cuts like ‘Khroxic Mould’, ‘Metallik’ and ‘Syntheseers’ sound like Bochum Welt heading down a dark alleyway. The former in particular is a seasick lope, the tuned synths lurching around like sailors on deck in a storm as bass ebbs and flows underneath the mix. 

The influence of Kraftwerk comes through prominently at times here, particularly in the way ‘Calcula’ and ‘Digit Six’ play pensive, slightly sombre synth chords off some simple but effective forward motion in the drum programming. That is not to say that Nanoclusters is not full of invention, though. None of the productions are overly flash, but this approach allows the little details to shine through more clearly, from cleverly panned hi-hats to hissing synth counter-melodies which flit in and out of the mix. Enthralling and packed full of ear candy, they’re further evidence that Nanoclusters is the work of an expert craftsman.

While the pulse of Nanoclusters remains relatively steady throughout, it’s still a rather lively record. Plenty of these tracks will get the dancefloor moving if deployed correctly - though whether they’re heard at home or in the dance, it’s the attention to detail which makes them stand out.

‘Snapterisk’ is as perfect an example of machine-funk as you’re likely to find - the drum programming is razor-sharp but rubbery with bongos, the bass a lithe burble, and those wobbly stabs of keys that put a bit of wiggle in the beat? Delightful stuff. Elsewhere the ever-looping arpeggio of ‘Metro Esc’ has hints of Frankie Knuckles’ house classic ‘Your Love’, though an array of interesting sonic nuggets - snippets of vocal, radar-like bloops, a gently insistent low-end pulse - soften the track’s clubbier elements with a pillowy sheen. And Hawk throws us a curveball right at the end of Nanoclusters, tapping back into that old Rephlex sound for the fizzy, braindancing ‘Metal Glass’.

Global Goon doesn’t need to show off on Nanoclusters - from brilliantly slick machine-funk to Kraftwerkian reveries, the CPU debutant lets the music do the talking here. It makes for a confident and vivacious mini-LP, one which wears its expertise lightly.

RIYL: Cardopusher, Bochum Welt, Cygnus, D’Arcangelo

Nanoclusters

Global Goon - Nanoclusters

Recursor (Super Sentient Intelligence Construct Remix)

Nullptr - Recursor (Supersentient Intelligence Construct Remix)

After building up a head of steam on labels such as Craigie Knowes and Rotterdam Electronix in the past couple of years, Larionov debuts on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit with the Space Threat EP. Larionov's previous releases have shown off a musical sensibility which is both schooled in classic electro stylings and also able to reach for leftfield sonics in a way which sets the producer apart from the pack. It's a vibe that continues into this record, a quartet of busy electro joints which are characterised by a brooding, neurotic energy.

The opening title-track is precisely the sort of thing which would soundtrack a voyage to the outer-edges of the solar system. 'Space Threat' is a nervy, restless bit of machine-funk, the track moving forward at a midtempo which manages to be at once steady and slightly fidgety. The beat skitters and swerves, a perpetual-motion machine of minor-key bass, strange modular flutters and thwacking snares. All of this is draped in icy washes of keyboard - think Drexciya if they blasted into outer space rather than delving deep down in the ocean.

'Asteroid Attack' works from the same blueprint for 'Space Threat' but ratchets up the intensity a little to take the track to another galaxy. It's still powered by a livewire neurosis, all piston-sharp drums and whirligig synth percussion. However, an increased tempo, strangely poignant keyboard lines and little snatches of vocoder-drenched vocals turn 'Asteroid Attack' in the direction of modern practitioners like Cardopusher and CPU homie Silicon Scally.

Opening up the EP's B-side, 'Flying High' finds a midpoint between its predecessors, returning to the steadier pace and twitchy vibe of 'Space Threat' but maintaining 'Asteroid Attack's single-note counter-melodies and digified vocals - although here the ghostly treatment on the voice makes for a hugely eerie atmosphere. Around the four-minute mark, the track peels back the veil of synth pads and wobbling keys stabs to turn the attention wholly to the rhythm section, a choice which feels like taking a stiff drink in order to redouble your energy for the next part of the night.

'Vimana Ride' runs with 'Flying High's approach to see Space Threat out in style. There's something to the digital vocal sighs that make up the melody of this cut which gives things a really uncanny quality - it's the kind of sonic choice that Sadboys producers like Yung Gud and Yung Sherman would make, but applied wholly to the service of crafting body-popping, acid-tinged electro.

Larionov arrives on Central Processing Unit with an EP of anxiously excellent electro experiments.

RIYL: Cardopusher, Silicon Scally, Annie Hall, Cygnus

Space Threat

Larionov - Space Threat

In a convergence of two of the most celebrated names in contemporary electronic music, Karsten Pflum steps out on Central Processing Unit with the Liars EP. As anyone who has followed either Pflum’s work for labels such as Worm Interface/Furthur Electronix or the Sheffield imprint’s recent run of top-quality electro joints will have expected, this coming together proves to be a match made in heaven.

What we have here is a tour de force of modern machine music. With Liars, Pflum achieves that rare feat of making something that is at once boundary-pushing yet also thrillingly immediate, his attention to detail shining through with each well-placed snare hit or leftfield structural choice. Equally apt for home listening or dancefloor deployment, Liars is a delight for heads and hedonists alike.

Constantly evolving while also cleaving to a relentless groove throughout, opener ‘WAN1’ is a brilliant scene-setter for Liars. The track slinks between sections of seething post-Drexciyan acid and eerie vignettes which balance out haunted house synth licks with the sort of punishing bass blasts that recall early grime classics like Youngstar’s ‘Pulse X’. A sly shift of key halfway through the track only serves to redouble ‘WAN1’s restless brilliance.

After ‘WAN1’, ‘LOLA’ represents something of a gear-switch. The track’s wiggly opening bassline is a red herring - make no mistake that we’re fully into braindance territory on this one, the drums skittering across the mix as Pflum fills the track out with jungle-adjacent delays and softly insistent synth pads. As ‘LOLA’ goes on, blurts of synth and some stiffening in the drum work pushes the track into pure rhythm workout territory.

First B-side ‘MOUSFOLK’ somewhat splits the difference between Liars’ A-sides. This track has ‘WAN1’s unyielding stomp and prominent acid bass line, but the helter-skelter drum breaks and wandering keyboard lines are very much pulling from ‘LOLA’s zanier energy. As with the other joints here, ‘MOUSFOLK’ is elevated by Pflum’s composerly touch, the Dane frequently throwing in new sonic tidbits - a skippy snare tattoo, a single-note synth loop which sounds like a hovering spaceship - that reinvigorate the mix.

Pflum’s musicality is at the fore once more on closer ‘BALM’. For the first section of ‘BALM’, a rich and sombre keyboard fugue, you’d be hard pressed to say whether you’re listening to a producer of club music or a contemporary classical maestro. The way Pflum builds this central motif up with deft broken-beat drum programming, a wheezing synth countermelody and distant vocal sighs is equally delightful, the whole track coming off like a kindred spirit of the electronica-infused experiments on Radiohead’s 2000 masterwork Kid A.

A brilliantly unorthodox collection of electro-braindance hybrids, Liars is a barnstorming Central Processing Unit debut from the seasoned Karsten Pflum.

RIYL: AFX, Silicon Scally, DMX Krew, Matmos

Liars

Karsten Pflum - Liars

Limited edition (250 copies worldwide) 12" vinyl.
Includes Flektro, Dink, No More Snow Time, Traffic and Gemswon.

March 2015.

MNLTH - FLEKTRO

Limited edition (300 copies worldwide) 12" vinyl in shrink-wrapped printed sleeve with paper inner.
Includes Microbial, Minor Arc, mActavis and Model 2029.

Jensen Interceptor - M

Intergalactic Lover

Daddy Long Legs - Intergalactic Lover

Limited edition 12" vinyl in shrink-wrapped printed sleeve with paper inner. Includes Acid in a Church, Remember Members, 8oh8 Freight and Backwards. 

Artist: Microlith
Title: Subtle Variance
Label: Central Processing Unit
CAT#: 00101011
Format: Vinyl / Digital

After his debut EP ‘Hello 307’ and critically acclaimed follow up LP ‘Dance With Me’ we find Microlith, aka Rhys Celeste, pushing his sound ever forward. Celeste takes his sublime musical ability and electro funk influence to produce a compelling soundscape.  
A vast army of analogue synths can be heard on every track which will catch the ears of AFX fans as he effortlessly manipulates them into beautiful, highly detailed compositions.
This EP occupies a corner of electro seldom trod, and with it Celeste galvanises his lofty position in the new wave of braindance.

All tracks written and produced by Rhys Celeste. 
℗ 2017 CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT 
© 2017 CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT 
MASTERED AT COMPUTER CLUB SHEFFIELD 
DESIGN BY HUMAN / WWW.HUMANSTUDIO.COM

Subtle Variance

Microlith - Subtle Variance

Limited edition 12" vinyl in shrink-wrapped printed sleeve with paper inner. Includes Glide Drexler, Carter's Green Factory and Not Phased.

Carter's Green Factory

Jensen Interceptor - Carter's Green Factroy

Limited edition 12" vinyl in shrink-wrapped printed sleeve with paper inner. Includes Projections, Rift, Thermal Image and Overide.

Silicon Scally - Projections

Limited edition 12" vinyl in shrink-wrapped printed sleeve with paper inner. Includes Cruising, Celular, Tunnel and #1#0#2.

CRUISING

DJEDJOTRONIC - CRUISING

Limited edition 12" vinyl in shrink-wrapped printed sleeve with paper inner. 
Includes Kestrel Manoeuvres In The Dark, To The Scullery!, Stoatle Excelsior and Polyhedron Navigator.

Datassette - Kestrel Manoeuvres In The Dark

Limited Edition Double Vinyl.
Includes Knock Out, My Time Here, It's Bright Out & Typeface 333.
Also Knock Out (Jensen Interceptor Remix), My Time Here (Happa & Jabes Remix), It's Bright Out (Sync 24 Remix) & Typeface 333 (Volruptus Remix).

96 Back - Issue In Surreal - Remixes

The union of Bochum Welt and Central Processing Unit makes perfect sense. Here we have a principal figure from IDM’s 90s heyday linking up with an imprint that has brought the sound and spirit of Rephlex Records into the modern day. As such, it is unsurprising that Bochum Welt’s label debut, the 2019 LP Seafire, has quickly become one of the most vaunted releases in CPU’s extensive catalogue.

A few months on from the release of Seafire, the Italian artist returns to the Sheffield imprint with Seafire Remixes. As well as a pair of new versions from Bochum Welt himself, this five-track set also contains a trio of tunes which rewire Seafire originals - one remix apiece from EOD, James Zabiela and Telefon Tel Aviv.

One can think of Seafire Remixes as chronicling a night at the club in reverse - at least until its final track. ‘More Light (Radio Edit)’ and ‘G1 (Ambient Mix)’, the two Bochum Welt originals which kick things off, maintain the heady glow of Seafire. Both are lovely, wistful lilts, full of gently-pattering drums, pluming synths and keening keyboards. They recall the most cerebral end of Boards Of Canada’s output, flushing you with the warm afterglow of the party as you begin to bed down, dawn just starting to break through the window.

If these opening jams represent the night drawing to a close, the mid-section of Seafire Remixes rewinds to the thrill of the dance. bbbbbb recors mischief-maker EOD and British dancefloor veteran James Zabiela both tackle ‘More Light’ on their remixes, and each producer makes the same decision to gee-up the track with drums. The former’s version plumbs a load of IDM-techno beats into the floaty-light original to give it a buoyant positivity not dissimilar to Andrew Weatherall (RIP). Meanwhile Zabiela’s snapping broken-beat electro rework is pure peaktime euphoria, with 303s squirming gleefully under clattering drums and a needle-gun bassline. It’s a distillation in sound of some of the very best aspects of dance music culture - rhythm, communality, utopia.

Telefon Tel Aviv’s reworking of Seafire’s ‘Color Me’ ends this otherwise-uplifting EP on a more pensive note. Unsurprisingly given the pedigree of the artist, Telefon Tel Aviv’s ‘Color Me’ flip is the most leftfield production on Seafire Remixes. Eerie, spectral synths clatter and churn away atop skittering drums which have a ghost of trap about them. This heady fug sounds very much like the morning after the night before, with Gold Panda, Teebs and TOKiMONSTA all recalled. 

Covering a large amount of sonic terrain - electro, IDM, techno, abstract hip-hop, ambient music - Bochum Welt’s Seafire Remixes EP is simultaneously one of the most stylistically diverse and most aesthetically unified Central Processing Unit releases to date.

Tracklist
A1 - More Light (Radio Edit)
A2 - G1 (Ambient Mix)
A3 - More Light (EOD Mix)
B1 - More Light (James Zabiela Remix)
B2 - Color Me (Telefon Tel Aviv Remix)

RIYL: Daniel Avery, AFX, Boards Of Canada, Autechre

Seafire Remixes

Bochum Welt - Seafire Remixes

Two years after debuting on Central Processing Unit with the acclaimed Aftrmth EP, Nullptr returns to the Sheffield label for the release of new full-length album Future World. Nullptr has created a set of perpetual-motion marvels here, wind-’em-up-and-watch-’em-go electro tunes in which synth lines and 808s weave dexterously in and out of one another to form these lovely interlocking patterns.

Many of the tracks on Future World are anchored by needlegun grooves in the Drexciyan mode. The album’s opening number ‘Arrowhead’, an eerie dystopian-electro take, sets the scene in this regard, and cuts like ‘Cytron’ and ‘Phantom Cell’ also have a rugged bump to their low-end - particularly the latter, which features a deliciously nasty bassline drop about halfway in.

While busybody drum programming persists throughout the album, Nullptr’s fondness for washed-out pads means that Future World also provides the listener with space for contemplation. Third track ‘Sweet Luna’ may be robust enough to do damage on the dancefloor, but its deep chords and relatively muted bassline also push it in the direction of 90s electronica and IDM-techno. ‘Sweet Luna’ opens the door for many of the subsequent numbers to balance driving beats with wistful textures, and while electro remains Future World’s core style the harsh sound of machine-funk is softened throughout by these warm synth tones.

Rather than playing it safe within the genre’s familiar confines, Nullptr instead uses electro as a base from which to incorporate other sounds throughout Future World. ‘Wave Cannon’s bleep-bloop modulars and twittering hi-hats are pure robo-funk, but the track’s jumpy bassline shows off a sense of adventure derived from braindance. There is also the ghost of a breakbeat in Nullptr’s snare programming here, something which lurks in the back of ‘Arvanche’ later in the tracklisting. Meanwhile the uptempo ‘Bit Device’ pushes through to the ruminative techno of Virginia’s early Ostgut Ton releases.

Nullptr throws us another curveball in Future World’s home straight. The album’s title-track closes the record out, and it’s a cut which takes us deeper than anything that’s come previously. Here Nullptr both lowers the tempo and also does away with drums, leaving the listener with little more than some hanging-garden synth pads and pregnant bassline. It proves to be a hugely atmospheric coda for this delightful album.

RIYL: Jensen Interceptor, Assembler Code, The Exaltics, Drexciya

A1 - Arrowhead 5:08
A2 - Wave Cannon 5:23
B1 - Sweet Luna 4:38
B2 - Bit Device 4:03
B3 - Cytron 3:39
C1 - Phantom Cell 5:46
C2 - Arvanche 5:22
D1 - Hakusan 4:08
D2 - Chiron 5:00
D3 - Future World 4:09

Future World

NULLPTR - Future World

Carl Finlow has been one of the most singular voices in electro for over two decades. From the records he makes under his given name to his numerous collaborations and alternative monikers, Finlow’s music is suffused with playfulness and imagination. Silicon Scally is the most prolific of Finlow’s alias projects, and on Dormant, the third Silicon Scally release for Sheffield’s Central Processing Unit, Finlow constructs four pieces of thrillingly futuristic broken-beat electro.

From the opening cut ‘V Electro’ to Dormant’s closing title-track, Finlow’s production is incredibly detailed here. These tracks never stand still, their little cells of synth and percussion always evolving. When combined with some stomping drum programming, the final result is an EP which has that rare balance of endless danceability and genuinely innovative production. It’s the sound of a master creator letting loose while also managing to keep everything in the pocket, a marvel of moving parts.

Dormant’s tone is set from the first booming beats of ‘V Electro’. The track’s dense mesh of dystopian synth nodules will have you thinking of the nastiest, scuzziest Unit Moebius tune - if the aliens came to take you away, ‘V Electro’ is what they’d be playing as they beamed you up. Following track ‘Bode’ tweaks the vibe of ‘V Electro’ in a couple of key ways, jacking the tempo up to around 140 bpm while also incorporating some funk-flexing organ stabs which give ‘Bode’ the flavour of a Herbert production blasted into hyperspace. 

Dormant’s B-side kicks off with ‘Proximity Sensor’, a cut whose steady drum pulse and chunky bass motif take us back to the very earliest days of rhythmic machine music - Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and the like. Mind you, the track’s slinky synth lines are pure Drexciyan machine-funk, a vibe which is kicked into overdrive on Dormant’s eponymous closer. Finlow’s most intense production on the record, ‘Dormant’ is a polyrhythmic whirl which completely sweeps you up, leaving you no choice but to submit to its devilishly danceable impulse.

After a few recent drops which have expanded the sonic world of Central Processing Unit, Silicon Scally’s Dormant EP is a reminder that the Sheffield label still does circuit-frying electro better than anyone else out there.

RIYL: Jensen Interceptor, Unit Moebius, Drexciya, Assembler Code, James Shinra

Silicon Scally - Dormant

In one sense Central Processing Unit is familiar territory for London Modular Alliance - group members Pip Williams (Phil Ventre) and Koova (Gavin Pkyerman) have both dropped EPs through the Sheffield label in the past, the former offering outer-space street-soul on 2017's Outer Limits after Koova had channelled Drexciya for 2015's This Is Not My Future. However, the Cracked Dice EP represents the first time that the trio have come through on CPU in full force, with Simon Lynch completing the lineup alongside Koova and Williams here. Cracked Dice finds them on top form, blending broken-beat machine-funk grooves with latent house and rave tendencies to thrilling effect.

Cracked Dice is ushered in by the weightless atmospherics of its title-track. The combination of synth washes and gurgling electronics here sounds so alien that it could pass for a piece of incidental music from 'The X-Files', but things don't stay that way for long - the track soon snaps into a stargazing club joint in the Detroit mode, one in which spaceship synth wobbles are pushed onwards by lithe, rumbling sub-bass. The combo comes off like an interstellar throwdown between the Midwestern masters of old and modern practitioners of UK soundsystem techno stylings - Lurka, Batu and the like. Following number 'Head Of The Keeper' maintains the energy of its predecessor, warping junglist archetypes around a breakbeat stomp in a manner reminiscent of Special Request.

London Modular Alliance's brand of electro has always been marked out by its playfulness, a feature derived from how snappy drum and synth programming anchor the group's off-the-cuff improvisation. That sensibility is apparent throughout the entirety of this EP, but perhaps nowhere more so than on first B-side cut 'Chemical Peel'. 'Chemical Peel' is at once stiff-necked and rubbery, the hissing hats and old-skool breaks phasing in and out of a boinging bassline which is pure Mr. Fingers goodness. That machine-funk scuttle carries through to closing track 'Lemon Mishap', a piece of insectoid acid-funk so gnarly it will have the crowd convinced that they're hearing the DJ receive an alien transmission in real time.

Cracked Dice sees esteemed electro dons London Modular Alliance whip up machine-funk, junglism and Midwestern house/techno into a quartet of club tools which are as sleek and futuristic as a lazerbeam.

FFO: Baby T, Batu, Jensen Interceptor, Mr. Fingers, Special Request

London Modular Alliance - Cracked Dice

Central Processing Unit, commonly referred to as CPU Records, is an independent British record label, founded in Sheffield in 2012, specialising in electronic music.

Distributed by Kudos Records London UK.

We are not currently seeking unsolicited demos. Due to the volume of digital submissions, it is impossible to listen and respond to each one.

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