So you think you’ve heard dirty, relentless, electronic dance music. After listening to this new album, I really don’t think you have.

The album opens with Immerz, and believe me when I say that beats don’t get much dirtier than this little baby. Threatening, juddering sounds gradually explode into razor sharp bass beats accompanied by a mocking, monotone vocal. It’s filthy, frightening and relentless, and bloody great! Without time to inhale oxygen, Ne Travaillez Jamais grabs you by the throat. Bold bass beats, shards of keyboard notes asphyxiated by control knobs, and a vibe that sounds as though it’s been beamed down from the planet Mars. Incredible stuff.

Strassen is next up, with bass notes that have been plundered from the lowest depths, interspersed with whiplash electronic sounds and keyboard shrieks that threaten impending disaster. Then a gruff German basso profondo vocal enters just to make sure that the message of doom is fully comprehended. And just as I thought that dance music couldn’t get any better, along comes Cool. Imagine someone continually banging on your door for a desperate response, well that’s the sound here and it’s akin to a musical wake-up call. Add jagged keyboard and frightening vocal samples, and you have something that’s just a bit special.

This is an album full of innovation and devastating electronic sounds, and there is no better example than the electronic art of Setzt with its blips, wizzes, bangs and pops. The album closes on a lighter note with Schanze, a song with a single plucked string backdrop and what can best be described as the relentless crackle from an old vinyl record. It’s highly original and totally mesmerising.

The shock for me is that while I’m not a dance fan, this record had me pinned back in my seat. It’s designed for those dark, metallic techno cellar dance clubs criss-crossed with gleaming shafts of laser light, drugs by the bucket-load and a dj hidden menacingly from view. If you buy one dance record this year, make it this one. But be warned, this is seriously bad…

4/5