#20 Feat. New Releases in Techno (Raw / Deep / Hypnotic)

'One' is the debut album from burgeoning Portuguese techno producer Afonso Esperança aka Backbone @backbone-3 After his 'Gatekeeper' EP (COUNTER033), including the iconic 'Take A Trip' which gathered support far and wide, Backbone stretches out over nine wonderfully detailed and intense tracks. Exploring the modern techno manifest, 'One' is full of positively charged, bassline-driven heaters. The founder of the Vinculum Festival in Portugal, Esperança's unique sound design, vocal FX and tension-heavy arrangements carve a clear course from the heart to the dancefloor. From the tingling ambient intro of 'Mundo Novo' straight into the addictive 'Press To Regenerate' its clear there's countless details to discover forged into these tracks. Counterchange founder Inland straps in on 'Generation Gap', one of the early highlights of the album, with its surging industrial pulse and funky forward momentum. The stunning broken beats and bleeps of 'There Is No Spoon' hit hard and dark while remaining elegant and certainly not over-driven. Every track on the LP is a microcosm for Backbone's sound world and kinetic techno manifesto - he infuses a rich stereo image and silky bounce on stand-out tracks like 'Strike A Dose', 'Minucioso' and 'No Casket Space'. Bringing the album to a close with the night-time drive of 'Ride The Snake', Backbone summons the spirits of his mountainous home region in a hypnotising, shamanic ritual for the closing sets.

BackBone, Inland