Paula Temple

Astonishingly, Paula Temple is the first female artist to be signed to the R&S label in the three decades of the legendary Belgium label's existence, and Colonized is prime R&S material. Temple's releases under her name may have been frightfully sparse over the past decade, but the Leeds, UK-based DJ has kept busy with more hands-on activities, such as developing MIDI controllers and running DJ workshops for local kids. Colonized is an exceptional release of energetic, hard-hitting techno that's surprisingly bright and accessible, given its close proximity to noise. The EP features three originals and two remixes of the title track from Perc (aka Ali Wells), who with his "Perc Metal Mix" manages to impose an even more delicious brutality onto the already exhilaratingly powerful titular number. "Cloned" performs a sneaky switch, taking the tropical rhythms hidden beneath the aforementioned title track and bringing them to the forefront, pushing the driving stomp to the back. Closing number "Decolonization" goes to full-on 4/4, the beauty concentrated in the layers of wordless vocals. There's a reason that techno could be so successfully transplanted from Detroit to the industrial North back in the late '80s/early '90s, and Temple understands that better than most. Taking that mechanical dystopia and turning it on its head, Colonized is every bit as uplifting and utopian as any house track.