A lot of people in the techno scene appreciate the genre's industrial music history, but few can claim to have helped make that history. Fred Giannelli can. Active in electronic music since the 70s, he met Genesis P Orridge in his home town of Boston and he released proto-techno 12s on Psychic TV's Temple Records in the mid-80s. He then joined the band, re-shaping it for acid house, one of PTV's most productive and influential phases. A multitude of live shows fused full-body-contact industrialism with psychedelic dance music and Fred was crucial to the band's impact on records like Sandoz Tab Man and the classic Towards the Infinite Beat album.

But far more important than Giannelli's much-quoted back story in the rebirth of industrialism is his place in techno, where his voice has been crucial from the early nineties to now. He famously collaborated with Richie Hawtin and Dan Bell on a series of acclaimed tracks as Spawn, but he's equally well known for the welter of massively popular EPs he released as The Kooky Scientist on Plus 8. All the while his own Telepathic label has mined a rich seam of righteous, smart techno grooves. With Giannelli recording under guises such as the Acid Didj, Deneuve and Mazdaratti, he's delighted the electronic cognoscenti with accessible but satisfyingly involved music.

Forget dim-witted looped bangers. Fred's a master of seductive, engaging electronic grooves that pack an emotional punch while pushing all the right dancefloor buttons. As handy with a soldering iron as any of iron as any music lab mentalist and fiercely independent of music biz toxicity, he's capable of harshness, but refuses to fall into the isolationist trap. This is alive, energised electronic music that reaches out to the listener and dancer. Custom-made aural excitement is on offer; we'd be mad to pass it up.

[Photo courtesy of Paxahau/Doug]