Audiopile Review: Names are important. Sandwell District describes both a musical group and a record label. And it’s never been clear where one ends and the other begins. At heart, Sandwell District has always been an amorphous international collective of minimal techno producers, including Regis, Function, and Silent Servant. The specific ambiguity of the Sandwell District moniker puts it in some pretty exalted company. Unimpeachable techno legends Basic Channel and Underground Resistance did the same trick. It’s like when a pop auteur goes by just their first name. They’re basically saying: I’m like Prince. But Prince himself knew there was more to the name game than that. His own alias was as amorphous as Sandwell District’s identity. So maybe they are the ones who are like Prince? The point is that geniuses use names to sow confusion. The godlike Peter Hammill’s incomparably seminal fifth solo album ‘Nadir’s Big Chance’ was recorded by the contemporary line-up of his band Van Der Graaf Generator, but a single from the album was released under the name Rikki Nadir. Confused yet? Then it’s the perfect time to finally start talking about the new Sandwell District album, ‘End Beginnings’. Like previous Sandwell District full lengths, it gives the appearance of being a compilation. Tracks are credited to the various core and guest producers who contributed, with Rrose being a particularly notable guest. But this time around, that’s misleading. This is most certainly a ‘proper’ album (a series of songs rather than merely a collection of tracks). The cinematic sound design and widescreen drones suggest a narrative element, but what’s the story here? Again, names are important, and the album’s final song is named ‘The Silent Servant’. The inescapable fact here is the tragic death of John Juan Mendez aka Silent Servant in January 2024. Despite its unrepentantly driving beats, ‘End Beginnings’ has an undeniably melancholic beauty. Without ever feeling overly sentimental, it comes across as an extended eulogy for Mendez. This is a tricky aesthetic balancing act but ‘End Beginnings’ makes it sound effortless. And it may just serve to cement the Sandwell District producers’ collective status as unimpeachable techno legends.

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“Where next?” is a question that longtime followers of the legendary but historically elusive Sandwell District will be familiar with. In 2024, that question became ever more potent, and now it seems to have finally received its answer. Since reigniting the flame in 2023 with the rerelease of the seminal Feed Forward, the collective have decided to keep it diligently burning, first with a compilation (bearing the titular question) of necessary classics and unheard tracks, and now with their first new music since the label closed its doors in early 2012. End Beginnings follows the tragic passing of Juan Mendez AKA Silent Servant, a pillar of the label, and sees Function and Regis re enter the game alongside Mønic and Rivet with reinvigorated purpose: “Having a good time”.

Settling into their new home at Point Of Departure, Sandwell District present some of their most focussed and evolving music together. Rhythmically rich from the get go, the album slowly teases out layered thumps and lines of melody and elasticated vocals on ‘Dreaming’, surrounded by wisps of night air. Crisp organic sounds sneak into the beat patterns, but don’t leave them without Sandwell’s signature grit and smoky presence, as with the bubbling Rrose assisted ‘Self-Initiate’ where low sirens intone and usher in urgent percussion, raised to blaring intensity.

The twists and slams of each track aren’t just dark and heavy for the sake of it; through the cavernous atmospheres emerge a desire to really get the motor running, to jump around with “a sense of unbridled fun”. ‘Will You Be Safe?’ does just that as it applies minimal arrangements and maximum force, updating Sandwell’s sound with hard drum elements and an eerie cinematic string done underneath, furthered in the Sarah Wreath featuring ‘Least Travelled’ as twangy guitar turns the lasering, skittery sonics into an action stealth sequence.

Marked by loss but starting anew, End Beginnings comes full circle, as Sandwell District are firmly back with a gripping and triumphant return.