Ahmet Mecnun

Exarde delivers another strong release with Ahmet Mecnun's M.E.S.S.A - dark-flavoured electroish techno with trance influences that trace back to Tunisia. This is brooding, atmospheric work that sits in the shadows between genres, refusing easy categorisation.

Mecnun works the murky frequencies here, layering hypnotic rhythms with those distinctly North African melodic traces that give the record its particular edge. There's a weight to these tracks, the kind that settles into a room rather than illuminates it. Trance elements ghost through the production like half-remembered broadcasts, integrated into a fundamentally techno framework that never loses sight of the dancefloor.

Exarde continues its run of serious, exploratory releases. This is music for listening as much as dancing - the kind of record you return to and find new details in, dark corners that reveal themselves over repeated plays.