- Mord has a cult following in the Netherlands, especially in Rotterdam, where its chief, Bas Mooy, is from. Go to any Dutch techno gathering and you're bound to spot a Mord T-shirt or two. Then there's Mooy himself, who couldn't be held in higher regard right now from fans and peers alike. The admiration is well deserved and long overdue. The humble, hardworking techno veteran has hit his stride, reaching the sort of audience with Mord that he never managed to attain with Audio Assault, the label he ran previously with Jeroen Liebregts (AKA Radial).
Mord is about two things: talent-scouting and risk-taking. It's also about club music without any trace of hollow or hyperbolic conceits. Mord tracks make you want to lose it all in the rave, from midnight until the last man standing. Herdersmat (Part 9-15) is the second boxset to be issued by the label in as many years—the first having capped off 2015 with a bang. Once again, across seven discs, you'll find contributions from Mord's inner circle (Lag, UVB), several artists with EPs on the label (Sleeparchive, Exium) and a host of new names.
30 tracks seems daunting—that's a serious amount of techno to get through—but all the label's nuances are present. Heard from front to back, it gets weirder as you go along. Part 9 begins all tough and slamming, striking out immediately with a bolshy number from Perc and ending with a more progressive one from Spanish duo Exium. Part 10 then dips into a relatively deeper headspace until Lag's pent-up "Roler." "Breed," by Oliver Rosemann, is the eerie standout here.
Later on, Mord signee Haeken drops a catchy melody line into his "Uncertain Outcome"; Wrong Assessment sets off alarms on "The True Measure"; Pinion and Klankman's tracks work drum machines into riots. "Brontide" and the acid-licked "Syd" capture the skulking, slow-burning banger side of the label. But the best is saved for last. UVB has one of the most distinctive signatures on Mord and the scruffy "Deal With It" aligns itself with his recent The School Of Intolerance EP. Anastasia Kristensen then offers some powerful sound design, while Los Angeles duo 138 impress with their psychedelic synths lines.
In 2015, Rotterdam's longest-serving techno enterprise, Strictly Techno, of which Mooy was a central figure, shut down indefinitely. Mord's presence, meanwhile, has continued to rise. In the last four years the label has become a bastion of modern techno, steered by Mooy's uncompromising vision and decades of experience. Herdersmat (Part 9-15) is proof that both label and chief are here to stay.
Tracklist01. Perc - To The Bone
02. Birth of Frequency - Breaking
03. Damcase - Aleko
04. Bas Mooy - Ravage
05. Exium - Gravitational Pull
06. Oliver Rosemann - Breed
07. Scalameriya & VSK - Silver
08. Flug - Space Buildings
09. Lag - Roler
10. Haeken - Uncertain Outcome
11. Museum - Mars
12. Pfirter - X
13. Wrong Assessment - The True Measure
14. Kangding Ray - Optimum Perkin Flames
15. Pinion - Projectile
16. Progression [UK] - Brontide
17. Jokasti & Nek - t01r
18. Keepsakes - Syd
19. Paul Birken - Raggedy Slander
20. J. Tijn - Belly
21. Tinfoil - Blob Trough
22. A001 - Angino
23. Sleeparchive - The Sick Man
24. Kwartz - Awake
25. UVB - Deal With It
26. Anastasia Kristensen - Going Back In Time
27. Klankman - Achtervolgingswaanzin
28. Vlaysin - One Revolution
29. 138 - Cutting Teeth And Breaking Bread
30. Kamikaze Space Programme - Magadan