Space Dimension Controller - Welcome To Mikrosector-50 album preview

We wrote last year that Space Dimension Controller's first work for R&S was excellent music, packaged up with a ludicrously OTT backstory. Following this up, Space Dimension Controller's latest offering Welcome To Mikrosector-50 takes the cosmic prog nonsense to an even higher level, expanding on the further exploits of Mr. 8040 and his adventures in time travel and treating entirely straight-faced. Regardless, it all sounds pretty good, and we'll post a full review shortly, but whether the concept album improves on or detracts from the sound is another matter entirely...

You know what? Here's some sci-fi for you all to read.

2013
After four years stranded on Earth he has finally repaired the time travel capabilities of his Electropod. His goal was to return to the exact moment in the future of his fateful accident, but due to only having primitive Earth tools and technology at his disposal, the journeys destination was not as accurate as he had hoped and he ended up arriving 5 years later than anticipated.
Now, Mikrosector-50 has changed. It is no longer the strictly governed dystopian planet as Mr. 8040 remembers, where music was controlled by the Tiraquon Security Council and love was deemed unnecessary. Instead people were having fun and love and music filled the streets. At first, Mr. 8040 enjoyed this change and received a huge planet-wide welcome party, but once the party was over Mr. 8040 knew that he had to find his secret lover from before the accident and try to continue what they once had in this new free planet.
Upon returning to his home pod on the Armament Moon and still unaware that it is 5 years later than he expected, he finds the pod to be completely empty, with no sign of his secret lover. He activates the pod's computer and asks where she is, only to find out he is in year 2357 and that there has been no activity in his pod since shortly after he left. Upon learning this, he knows there is only one person he can find answers from, his boss, lead Space Dimension Controller of the Tiraquon Security Council, Max Tiraquon. He meets Max, but something doesn't seem right, there is a sense of hostility.When asked about the whereabouts of Mr. 8040's lover, Max is reluctant to say and tells him that she knows what he had been up to in the past.The women, the nightclubs, the parties. He tells her she's moved on, and maybe Mr. 8040 should too.After this encounter,Mr.8040 tells Max that he is done and leaves,quitting theTiraquon Security Council.
Disorientated and alone in a future no longer his own, Mr. 8040 realises his mistakes, he has done wrong by his lover, but how he will ever see her again to apologise? He leaves Mikrosector-50 and the boundaries of the Tiraquon6 Security Barrier for the distant pirate asteroid colony of EroDru-10. Famous for it's nightclubs, drugs and red light district. He needs to let off some steam, and maybe find a girl, but his game isn't the same as it used to be. Refused by countless girls, a drunk Mr. 8040 gets thrown out of a club and stumbles around the streets of EroDru-10. He encounters a local alien who recognises him and takes him to his nightclub, his guards are down and he takes a cosmic upper to help the night along. Intoxicated on drink and drugs he dances through the night in this sweaty club, before finishing the night with a robotic prostitute at her love pod.
All night he has been trying to mask the pain of losing his girl but reality hits him hard and he decides to go somewhere he hasn't been for years.The place that he built for his secret lover shortly before the accident that sent him back through time. He's not sure what he'll find there, he's hoping for answers, but how could he know. He tells the ships computer to set course for The Love Quadrant.
The Love Quadrant is no longer the same. It's power source had diminished due to the lack of activity while he was away. Instead of the vibrant and colourful cosmic oasis it once was, it was now a dark, grey and cold place. Mr. 8040 now knows that the future is no longer the place for him, that the past had become more of a home. It's time to return to the Quadrasector of the Tiraquon6 Security Barrier to find his main ship. He enters the vessel, and finds that someone had been there, but nothing had been taken and quickly shrugs it off as another attempted looting by an Astro Bandit. Now, in the same location as the accident, Mr. 8040 asks his computer if it would be possible to recreate the accident and send him back through time again. The computer refuses, it's protocol disallowing any action that may put it's user in danger, but Mr. 8040 opts to do it manually. He orders his computer to return to Mikrosector-50 and inform Max of his decision to return to the past. He enters the walkway to his Electropod and begins his journey back through time with a mission of groove.

Blawan - Bohla (R&S Records)

Blawaan - Bohla (R&S Records)
Weirdly swung acid techno from Blawan on R&S records, following his debut 12" on Hessle. The Hessle release had a couple of pundits suggesting that the nimble fingers of production-shy Ben UFO might have put together the twisted beat-logic of Fram / Iddy. But that's what they said about Joe, so I'm beginning to think "it might be Ben UFO" works the same way as "may contain nuts" - highly unlikely, but pretty hard to prove either way. No-one really gives much of a damn about AFX-esque games of Clue at the moment, and frankly, Blawan's music speaks for itself; a bubbling fusion of raw 303 basslines, swung percussion and hyperactive rhythms. Much like Untold's devastating 12" for R&S, Blawan aims somewhere between the classic sound of R&S techno and the warped structures of UKG / Funky, it's acid squelch coming on like a beefed-up Bam Bam, whilst scattershot percussion bounces around, never solidifying or settling. Opener Bohla apes Untold's Stereo Freeze, with it's diving bassline uncomfortably set in the middle of the bar, and garagey beat, whilst Kaz follows a much more technoid imprint, with it's rubber-duck synth grounding the rimshot-heavy percussive workout.
For me, it's all about final track, Lavender though, which borrows a little Bambaata-esque hip-hop groove and offsets it with a squelchy melody, before bringing a dubstep-style wugga bass to the proceedings. Slightly uncomfortable, and oddly pitched at 133bpm, it's set to be a massive cross-over tune for sure.

"It's all house music anyway"

Untold - Stereo Freeze

Untold - Stereo Freeze (R&S Records)
Holy fuck. R&S have been returning to impeccable form following releases from James Blake and Model 500, but with this 12" from Untold, they just raised the game a notch. Opening with a brooding bassline and his trademark breathy samples, Untold builds up a rapid-fire wall of percussion and bass shifts until it all peaks and drops into a lurching, offbeat syncopation. Peppered with distorted synth jabs and wild wobbling bass, it occupies a weird mid-ground between Garage/ funky and Detroit electro, uniting the classic R&S sound with the new school of dance music producers. Make no mistake, it's a dancefloor destroyer alright - a rampaging clusterfuck of styles. The B-side's pretty special too; kicking in on a swung 4/4 beat, a bass melody and a filthy sub do battle for domination, before those rave stabs re-emerge again and it reaches a similarly pounding climax. This is easily on par with Untold's previous anthem I Can't Stop This Feeling - with R&S pushing it, it's going to be massive.