Spaced In

Mighty Force continue to put out top quality releases, a slew of them throughout the year and with no signs of letting up just because it's December and Christmas is coming. The latest is five new tracks from M- Paths, the work of Marcus Farley, an EP called Emotivated. The title track- Emotivated (Assemblage Mix)- is a beauty, rippling melodies, whooshes, synth arpeggios and the voice of JFK, the optimism of the early 60s and the space race as an act of altruism.

On A Mission belches in with a synth bass burp and skippy drums, a change of tone and pace, a robotic voice- darker and tougher. Shapes And Patterns mines the techno seam further, busy hi hats and synths that pan across the mix, rapid fire drums. Soaring In Ambience is true to its title, slowing down and blissing out, clouds of space dust passing by, many, many miles away. The EP closes with Tranquility Bass, drones and Kennedy again, chopped up and distorted, along with Apollo mission control. Eventually slo mo drums come in, that push on like pistons. 

Emotivated is at Mighty Force's Bandcamp and well worth your time and money. 

In November Mighty Force released the latest album by Virgo (Yasutaka Sato), a twelve track opus called Collision With Chronos. It's an album rides the space waves too, sci fi techno/ electonica, atmospheric synths and crunchy drums. Decadence is the shortest track on it, a sub- three minute interstellar burst of synths, minimal drums, FX and piano and rather lovely- especially when an angelic choir emerges through the skies. 

The whole album is recommended, as ever with Mighty Force, and you can find it here. 

A Mighty Force Indeed

I don't know how Mighty Force manage to keep the quality of their output as high as the quantity of their release schedule but it's good for all for all lovers of electronic music that they do. Mighty Force was originally a label and record shop, based in Exeter from 1990 to 1995, then moving to London until 1999. In 2019, after a twenty year gap, label boss Mark Darby started up again and since then has put out umpteen digital and physical releases including albums by Long Range Desert Group, KAMS, Boxheater Jackson, Golden Donna, Fluffy Inside, David Harrow, Yorkshire Machines, M- Paths, SubDan and Myoptik to name but a few as well as a series of outstanding samplers and compilations. The entire post- 2019 back catalogue is at Bandcamp. Dive in and pick one- you really can't go wrong. 

This year Mark has seen the release of several albums already. In January D3's Acid Love came out, a nine track tribute to the life affirming and regenerative powers of acid techno, an album with huge bass, thumping machine rhythms, acidic toplines, a love letter to 303 and 808 madness. Follow Me opens the album, a  statement of intent. Acid Love is here. 

In March Virgo's Starta Waves saw the light of day. Virgo is Yakasuta Sato- the album is twelve tracks of superb electronic music, a heady combination of acid, techno, ambient and IDM, music created for home listening/ driving/ headphones, a journey into lush synth sounds, drum pads, throbbing bass and dancing acid melodies. Fictional History cuts the tempo and sets the controls for the heart of the somewhere far from here. Track titles Rift In Time, Days Of Exploration and Zoetrope all perfectly match the sounds they were named for. Strata Waves is here. 

The most recent release is brand new this week, an EP of three new tracks and three remixes of Horizontal Rain from Reverb Delay's album from last year, The Storm Has Passed. The trio of remixes all take the original into new dimensions, launched from the same starting point- Reverb Delay's Detroit and Birmingham inspired dub techno- and firing off into other areas. Paddy Thorne's remix raises the bpms and the intensity while colouring everything with beautifully rich synth washes and chords, atmospherics and rhythms together. 

Reverb Delay's Marcus Farley brings a pair of his own remixes, the Parallel Mix and the Ar Right Angles Mix, rapid fire drums and psyched out synths, the latter a ten minute version. The three new tracks are: Sisters & Brothers, Martin Luther King being deployed in a 2025 techno protest against the forces of Trumpism; Escape Pod which sets out tense and dramatic, then finds itself becoming more light and airy, all the while the drums rattling away; and Shadow Dance, a frantic dance into the dark. The Horizontal Rain EP is here.