Immer: Null (Kompakt) - 12"
How do they get the records to sound like that? That distinctive Kompakt brand is all over this sun-tinged 12". Mayer's effort sounded pretty low-key, but had the opposite effect when I heard it at Fabric. But it's the infectious guitar loop of M:I:5's 'Mabstab I:5' that wins over all.

Horror Inc.: I Plead Guilty (Perlon) - 12"
Two years old, but still amazing. Both cuts moved as far as possible from the click-house phenomenon that Akufen first pioneered on his (overrated) album for Force Inc. The twilight flickr on 'In My Garden' actually concerns itself with melodic structure than with beats, but 'The Vanishing' does bear traces of his trademark skip/hop/jump rhythms.

Geoff White: Ince (Spectral) - 12"
Jeff Samuel: Awt (Spectral) - 12"
The Vanisher: Tic Tac Tactic (Spectral) - 12"
Audion: The Pong EP (Spectral) - 12"
In retrospect this seems quite a perfunctory set of tracks from Geoff White. Even rhythmic ideas that motifed his earlier 'Etsche' EP re-appear here. Having said that, it still makes an indelible mark. Just lacks the bite of his earlier work (or the moodiness of his Aeroc output). 'Peach Preserves' being the one with the most kick.

Jeff Samuel once again delivers a 12" of two halves. Four tracks: two are filla, the other two are killa. Answers on a postcard please.

I swear tracks change their identity over time. I heard The Vanisher's effort quite a while before it got released and thought it sounded the shit. But on replay, I cannot find what it was that originally hooked me in. Might have been the Osborne mix but that just seems rubbish. I guess the title track takes the art of clanking techno to refined new levels.

Matthew Dear's raucous Audion project either really pushes the envelope in terms of dancefloor dynamics or is the most irritating house you'll ever hear. I'm of the opinion that it's a bit of both. For DJ's only: this works like a treat at the right moment, but drop it elsewhere and you will look like an utter twat.

Elemental: Deep Under / Sparkle (Hotflush) - 12"
Lower your eyes, furrow the brow and prep yr shoulders. North London's Hotflush impress with 'Deep Under'; chapters rat-a-tat b-lines with molten, growling fx and the occasional stratospheric dub hook. 'Sparkle' isn't as dark, but still has the power to affect.

Boards of Canada: Trans Canada Highway EP (Warp) - CD
No. Move on people. I have. Video's not bad tho.

Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto: Revep (Raster Noton) - CD
A by-product of their recent 'Insen' tour, this see's Sakamoto's gentle, meandering piano taken thru Alva Noto's laptop purifier. The melodies stay intact, but resonance and sustain are mutated into algorithms. Ends with an update of his classic 'Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence'.