Bleep

Having racked up one of our Albums Of The Year back in 2013 with Needs Continuum, Karen Gwyer's latest full-length offering lands via her recently acquainted new home of Semtek's Don't Be Afraid imprint. Not content with just building on her previous LP and split single with Beatrice Dillon, Rembo cements Gwyer's reputation as one of the most invigoratingly strong voices operating within techno today.

Built upon the foundations of the classic science fiction cycle of UR, the Berlin scene-outsider sound favourited by Workshop luminaries Willow, Kassem Mosse and more recently Ozel AB, Karen Gwyer's spin on the well-trodden path of 4x4 funk has a strikingly singular feel to it, educated by time and a vast understanding of what makes a beat tick over and over and over, Rembo carries a flare that can only come from a well-traversed mind that's been submerged deep within the scene for a long time.

While it certainly is a 'techno' album per se, it's a techno album that functions in the dimensions of functioning as an actual 'album'. Each track, when played in the right context will be a sure shot addition to any DJ's set, yet also has the knack of providing a platform for long evenings sitting in the flat, annoying the neighbours while impressing your mates with the no-nonsense sounds firing out of your stereo.

Tracks like The Workers Are on Strike are pure Detroit dreaming, the pads giving a street gazing view as seen out of a car trawling through the nighttime world occupied by Terrence Dixon, while Why Does Your Father Look so Nervous? tracks down the straight edged crack of the very best Marcel Dettmann bangers and throws down some serious hardcore mission. He's Been Teaching Me to Drive mixes up industrial techno with a strong electro pulse to find the drums literally hammering the speakers with a powerful intensity and skittering breakbeat rhythm that sounds like DJ Stingray mixing jungle.

Much like LNS, Umfang and Nkisi, Karen Gwyer is teaching us a serious lesson of what constitutes good techno in 2017, make no mistake Rembo really is the business.