Once in a while after you have skipped through the same Cd’s and skipped the same ones again and again, you pick out the one you’ve been missing and the CD rolls onto the track you can’t believe you forgot, really how did I forget about this. A lot of techno is timeless, not bang bang, not acid but proper techno, it doesn’t involve the sounds and fashions of dance music, it’s the repitition, the rythm and the twitch to dance.

Renato Cohen is Brazil’s finest percussive techno export, and this tune is from 2005 and still sounds fresh as a dirty daisy, and he’s so nice when I told him i couldn’t get hold of it he recommended a free download, it’s nice to be nice tech heads.

Shunt, located underneath London Bridge station, is one of the biggest club spaces in London., it doesn’t class itself as a club, more of an arts center with various artiness taking place throughout the night.

When you first walk into the venue it feels very eerie and claustrophobic due to the fact you’re under the station and that oh so London dampness gets in the nostrils, but not in a bad basement way, you have the feeling that it’s the kind of cavern where people get trapped in an S&M party, where you meant it when you said ‘NO!’

The main entrance hall takes you down past the different sights such as a blissful coat hanger hanging from the high bricked arches or a dinner table set up, every weekend there are different installations to surprise and stimulate.

At about midnight a band begin to play on a stage set up earlier in the evening. The band in question is 10 Benson and they kick up a Storm, a true counterpoint to the evening’s rock n’ roll niceness. Proper rock music that gave us the sensation we were in a Tarantino film and were about to be eaten by vampires (there were a few around!)

A cross between Fabric and the Foundry, you will not be disappointed to find a unique venue for a night out here.

So with all the, ahem ‘French’ dance music knocking around at the moment, you tend to expect a certain sound.

Remain is different, combining dark electronica and techno with a tasty faceless video to boot.

Representing the other side of the French sound the darker, more reserved, epic place.

During the heady back slapping Brit-Pop days an album emerged from DJ Shadow, his debut, it made a statement as a true landmark long player.

1996 Endtroducing: So it’s in the chubby book of records as the first totally sample made album, containing nearly 100 of the blighters and often appears in those most important chart things, you know the ones written by commercial magazines twice a year when Bono can’t appear with his tongue out. That aside Endtroducing is a slow burner yet instantly accesible and forever surprising. The influences he merges are wonderful and the vocal exerts poignant. From the stunning ‘building steam with a grain of salt’ to the percussion brilliance of ‘Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain’ the album explores many avenues. But what stands out most over time is the drum programming, Shadow displays the understanding of rhythm a top session drummer would admire, intricate patterns merging with age old melody, off kilter delay hits with accapella vocal joys. The kudos he received is well documented but utterly worthy.

2002 The Private Press: So Mr Josh Davis kept us waiting 6 years, fans always get itchy after a couple of years and expect big things, but the beauty of shadow is expecting the unexpected, there was no way someone who made Endtroducing was gonna make another. If anything the sound of the album has a wider range in terms of genre: poppier, funkier and less complete sounding than the debut. The dancefloor smily ‘Walkie Talkie’ and shimmering ‘six days’ show Shadows chart potential, while the tubular bells esque ‘giving up the ghost’ re-inforces his grasp of atmospherics. The Private Press displays a move forward with a new sound, but still the trademark drums, melody and vocal cameos. It all builds to the end of the LP which in my opinion is 20 minutes of the finest music i’ve ever heard.

2006 the Outsider: Not so much The Outsider as the everchanger and we love him for it, The Outsider saw a brave shift and change in equipment, less of the MPC’s and more Pro Tools. There is a maelstrom of Hyphy Hip-Hop, indie leanings and popular tendencies. But it seems to have less flow than its predecessors, and certainly fell foul of the critics, but at the same time Shadow established himself as a first class commercial hip-hop producer, Highlights include the smooth groove of ‘backstage girl’, self-penned epic opener ‘The Outsider’ and The semi-Kasabian collabaration ‘The Tiger’. On criticism that it’s nothing on his debut shadow said ”people need to decide whether they are a fan of the artist or the album”.

This isn’t a review it’s a homage, Dj Shadow is a Pioneer, but a true pioneer not one of those label on box types, we anticipate the new album but more so the direction in which he turns.

Hailed as the antithesis to mainstream Melbourne’s indie scene led by souless rockers Jet, HTRK embody dark, slow, brooding filth.

Pronounced ‘Hate Rock’ the band sit alone and sound truly original, with lead singer Jonnine Standish’s lyrics hypnotising you into a light, enjoyable depression, with epic tracks suiting late, rain swept nights.

It’s a rare thing to find a band following a line running in the opposite direction to most, but this band wouldn’t have it any other way, we’d copy the link but turns out there too aloof for even that pleasure.