Nothing But... Hard Techno Slammers, Vol. 12

There's a history lesson buried at track 11. 'Acid Flash', signed by Michael Wells a.k.a. G.T.O., plants a foundational figure right in the middle of the twelfth Slammers instalment: the Brit who recorded as Tricky Disco for Warp, as G.T.O. for Mute and React, and who, alongside Lee Newman, took Technohead to number one in a dozen countries with 'I Wanna Be a Hippy'. He returns to acid without nostalgia here: 6:19 at 153 BPM in G-flat minor, a generous runtime that lets the acid line twist at its own pace inside a record where almost everything cuts straight to the chase.

The generational counterpoint arrives at track 23. '12 Stars (Opening Theme)' by Ascendant Vierge is the shortest piece of the batch —2:16— and works exactly as its title promises: an overture. The French duo of Paul Seul, a key producer in Paris hardcore, and goth-pop-rooted singer Mathilde Fernandez crosses gabber and hyperpop from their own label, named precisely 12 Stars, and that crossing shows: at 149 BPM in D minor, it's the least utilitarian, most theatrical moment of the twenty-four tracks.

Between those two poles, PETDuo's remix of luke&flex's 'BODYCRAFT' acts as the hinge. Anne Gelfei and David Merlino have been at it together since 1997 —first in São Paulo, now in Berlin— championing their simultaneous four-deck, single-mixer style, and their reading of the original distils that craft: 4:48 at 155 BPM in B-flat minor, big-room percussion without a single spare ornament.

The rest of the volume orbits those three points, with excursions like Aklow's 'VOID', the longest cut at 7:48. But the backbone is that dialogue between a nineties pioneer, a duo shaking up the French scene and two booth veterans: three ways of hitting hard that, placed side by side, explain why today's hard techno sounds like an archive and a laboratory at once.