This year's first release from Andreas Mügge is the four tracker 'Drive' EP. It is fair to see the industrious producer has found a home at Lucidflow with numerous releases, collaborations and remixes over the last few years. The D.Diggler alias has been a significant figure since the turn of the millennium, who provided a gateway into techno for a generation of DJs looking to jump from a stagnating progressive house scene into more exciting sounds coming from mainland Europe. Sifting through his discography, you'll see names such as Adam Beyer, Andrew Weatherall, John Digweed and Thomas Schumacher calling upon his releases in the past.
The title track 'Drive' is a collection of sonic acute angles being fired towards your eardrums. Hissy hats and off-kilter arpeggios that jut into trippy echoes and discordant harmonies. 'Monoid Reedit' is a pure percussive workout that lets unusual FX and choice moments to drop in order to propel its unrelenting momentum.
While these two tracks represent the signature D.Diggler sound, there are two distinct surprises on here. 'Voltage Controlled (Remastered)' is certainly driving as you'd expect, except the engine is its heavily churning dub swirl which absolutely takes centre stage in front of the kick drum for maximum Basic Channel vibes. Then, and possibly the biggest curve ball of all, is the pure nineties vibe of 'Limelight'. Full of crisp finger snaps, held disco strings, classic Renaissance-era melodies, don't let this one pass by without giving it a run out.