Whenever Anti Gasmask Techno Militia publish another release, an angel must surely be getting gets his wings in heaven. This anonymous group from UK has been modestly releasing their unsophisticatedly-artworked, simply named, but top-notch sounding EPs through Bandcamp for free since February 2014. Years flew by, they kept expanding the catalog with great additions, and all they've ever asked in return is "please download and share the bandcamp page". Each release follows an established formula - 4 artists, 4 tracks, no names, no-nonsense techno music. We've listened to each and every one of their tracks, and here's what we can say for sure - these guys had set the bar high from early on, and they have always been uncompromising in regards to quality of production.

    15.1 opens up at 133 BPM - we're greeted with satisfyingly thudding 4/4 kicks, panning, slick 12/4 hats; to our left - oscillating, unnerving metallic bassline, low-passed wall of hissing noise, to our right - some wooden bats being kicked against the hard surface in the distance, and chunks of looped, unintelligible punk vocals, that get reverberated and multiplied in the breaks. 15.2 utilizes all-analog production, which we can tell from soft noise which is heard briefly before and after all the elements play their part, to deliver an oldschool-leaning 140 BPM piece that consists of sharp 4/4 kicks supported by stressing oscillation in the low ranges, a non-intrusive, rapid metallic arrangement up high and to our right, two loops of moving acidic basslines that get high-passed up and down, leaning slightly to our left along with another, completely different kind of metallic arrangement at 1/4, and centered, half-bar shifted, terse 4/4 hats, that show up together with delayed, right-panned, dense, but soft, noise-shaped hissing bands arranged at 8/4. 15.3 drops off a couple BPM points, opening up with a distortion-laden interaction between the hammer and the metal sheets, with reverberated, sirening, but despite that barely audible in the main sections, suspenseful ambiance occupying the background; very soon, the acid-soaked 4/4 drums kick in, joined by dry, dense, slightly shifted 4/4 hats, and several sets of syncopated hissing bands running against some filtered, noise-shaped pads, trying their best to outgain each other from respective sides of their channels. 15.4 slows down to 134 BPM, making use of wooden-sounding 16/4 kicks that at first turn 4/4 every 8 bars, but at the second section quit that habit and permanently switch to 16/4, panning, densely-arranged 16/4 hats, on occasion joined by ear-pleasing, dry, yet richly filtered acidic walls fractured to serve as percussion component that runs in the same time signature as hats, showing up where it fits best and smoothly disappearing via high-passing; finally, a left-channel-leaning, easy-going acidic bassline that's hanging in there together with some secondary syncopated kicks, only heard in quieter moments of the track, and miraging, droning soundfields in the right channel, that rise and descend successively.

Release Type: VA / EP

Release Date: 5 December 2016

Release Format: Digital

Record Label ● Catalog: Anti Gasmask Techno Militia ● AGTM015

Purchase Links: Bandcamp