A month ago the Irish label Psychonavigation released ETA by a new group of musicians: Replicants.

Now without needing to explain further their group name sounds like they make electro right?

Well you’d be correct in thinking that. The four person team of 3 girls and and a guy, based in Budapest, Prague, Bratislava and Dublin make their music a bit different than the majority of electronic producers out there today. Not only are they making their music on hardware (something I’ve started to notice a resurgence in within techno a la the hot shot duo of Blawan and Pariah as Karenn), they also do it in realtime.

All of their music is a ‘live’ recording; that means no overdubs, multitracking, edits. It’s as it was during the time they recorded it. The quad meet up 3 times a year to record tracks, get high & dress up, usually at the same time.

ETA is the groups first public release, which is, they say both a love song and a protest one.

This first tune made public, ETA has nothing to do with Spain. It’s both a love song & a protest song. It declares love for the days when 12-bits were enough, while firmly frowning upon less tangible electronic music made in a window, on a desktop, with 1 finger.

So, what’s their first track they’ve let loose like?

There’s a rawness with how the elements build in. iI’s not overworked, something you’d expect from their working methods. Sharp kopfnicken beats, drops into ethereal synth waves, a sense of silver machine future and overall a proper flow to it; complete with the well placed vocoded sections. Which, naturally, for a track of this style, you gotta have. ETA is pretty much exactly what you want to hear from a hardware only group called Replicants.

Psychonavigation have within their ever growing ranks a tidy collection of producers who they’ve passed the remix reins to. Anodyne delivers a widescreen roller which builds on the originals vibe, beefing up the kicks and showing just why those who rate him, rate him.

Sense, who can be relied upon for deep, introspective IDM with washes of synth and intricate detail take ETA off into the ether with a glitch scene of serene over the somewhat epic 20 minutes. Really lovely work that even at 20 minutes, doesn’t feel drawn out, in fact it draws you in, deep within it..Sense knows what he’s doing.

I’m not familiar with the work of Sirkus Sirkuz, who turn in a big room deep techno effort that the likes of Slam to Sasha might support. Perhaps a bit on the trance side for you lot but there we go.

Finally we have a version from Imploded View, who delivered a fantastic downtempo album back in September in the shape of Picnics with Pylons. An album that’s really grown on me since its release. They continue to impress with a deep dubbed out headspace cut, going for the journey vibe.

Grab

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Replicants – ETA
Replicants – ETA (anodyne remix)
Replicants – ETA (Sense remix)
Replicants – ETA (Sirkus Sirkuz remix)
Replicants – ETA (Imploded View remix)