Luke Slater, one of Berghain’s longest-serving residents, has been making music as Planetary Assault Systems since the mid-nineties, and his first album since 2016 is a reminder of exactly why this project has endured. This is techno that doesn’t rely on predictable four-four patterns and similar build-and-drop structures calibrated for easy mixing, and is instead considerably stranger and more interesting.

Planetary People gives the image of Slater programming loops of very different lengths and then letting us watch how they interact with each other, and the result is experimental with elements appearing and disappearing in ways that feel discovered rather than planned. The album is bookended by pieces without kick drums and then you’re dropped into a cacophony of loops, placing you into a weird world and seeing where things go. Quadrant 10 is built on an uncountable bass pattern with fuzzy white noise in tandem with the percussive hits, while Sermon of the Light Tides deals in overtones rather than distinct melodies, with high synths lines sounding like alarms on a spaceship heard at a distance. The whole record points at something panicked and tense happening in deep space. Retina Burn is one of the more approachable moments, breaking down into cavernous space before delivering a warehouse chugger, and Generation Slip is particularly unsettling as discordant chord pads run underneath a kick drum keeping one tempo while a ride cymbal operates at a completely different speed. Presently My Soul Grew Stronger closes the album over ten vast and patient minutes with no kick drum, drawing everything to a marvellously hypnotic close. Seventy eight minutes is a long and demanding listen, and Planetary People is a unique and immersive journey through a very impressive sonic world.