Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Amygdala, the forthcoming LP from DJ Koze holds the dual title of being one of this year's most keenly awaited long players as well as the album with the most bizarre cover art. Quite why the producer is riding a reindeer hasn't been made clear yet, but this two track 12" does clue us in to to the possibility the album will hold up to such high expectations. "La Duquesa" is one of the few tracks on Amygdala not to feature a collaborator and stripped bare of any outside distractions finds Koze on sublime form; equal parts tender, refined, casual, serious, deep and euphoric. When those strings hit is a joy to behold. In contrast "Burn With Me" is dark, druggy, delicious and decadent.

Review: Pampa has called in the big guns for on this second installment of the DJ Koze Amygdala Remixes series, with Roman Flugel and Robag Wruhme providing two typically intoxicating revisions. Flugel steps up first, delivering a dreamy, lucid and melodic take on "Amygdala" built around restless cymbals and liquid house rhythms. While hardly tropical, the melodies and chords certainly doff a cap to classic 1980s new age recordings. Wruhme reworks "Nices Wolkchen", delivering a typically loose, atmospheric and engaging tech-house interpretation that seems to float from the speakers. It makes an already beautiful track almost implausibly wide-eyed.

Review: The latest Pampa twelve sees label boss DJ Koze share the vinyl with Border Community don Nathan Fake and as you'd expect from two such esteemed knob twiddlers it's a very good look. Fake takes the A Side with the festive sounds of "Xmas Rush" which is perhaps the first Christmas themed descent into brilliantly twisted techno freakout in history. Inherently psychedelic and filled with plenty of acid reflux mind f*ck potential, there's also a warmth to the track that makes it quite special. On the flip DJ Koze presents an equally twisted but totally different dedication to Jamaican left anarchist dub poet Michael Smith, tragically beaten to death by political opponents in 1983. Covering Smith's signature track "Mi Cyaan Believe It" Koze drops a highly pressurized rough minimalist techno beat with added throb potential via the droney melody which presents itself as the perfect backdrop to Smith's distinctive tones (check the track at 33RPM for added freakout potential).

Review: Hamburg's Martin Stimming resurfaces with his first 12" in some two years, aligning with Koze's well respected Pampa Records for a two track release that "magnify the opposing sides of his studio psyche". Given Stimming has graced the likes of liebe*detail, Terminal M and Diynamic with his considered grasp of dancefloor dynamics, this Pampa debut is a smart move and shows he's lost none of his production panache despite the aforementioned absence. Lead track "China Tree" betrays a spikiness that will suit the dancefloor perfectly, with the primal bassline and raw, unpredictable drums really getting a grip on your attention. Those seeking some melodic sweetness from Stimming will be all over the B Side "Southern Sun" where Piper Davis's subtly affected vocals are woven into the very fabric of a woozy, kaleidoscopic production.

Review: Though his career has taken many turns over the last decade, DJ Koze has remained that most illusive of creatures: a minimal-minded producer with an ear for a melody. This fourth full-length, packed to the rafters with big-name collaborations (Apparat, Caribou, Ada and Matthew Dear all feature), continues his move towards the home-listening sphere. So, while many of the heady rhythms and shuffling grooves hark back to his stripped-back past, Amygdala impresses with its woozy songs, genre-straddling fusions (see the modern soul meets deep house of "Homesick" or the steppy, tropical vibes of "Marilyn Whirlwind") and homely atmosphere.

Review: Though his career has taken many turns over the last decade, DJ Koze has remained that most illusive of creatures: a minimal-minded producer with an ear for a melody. This fourth full-length, packed to the rafters with big-name collaborations (Apparat, Caribou, Ada and Matthew Dear all feature), continues his move towards the home-listening sphere. So, while many of the heady rhythms and shuffling grooves hark back to his stripped-back past, Amygdala impresses with its woozy songs, genre-straddling fusions (see the modern soul meets deep house of "Homesick" or the steppy, tropical vibes of "Marilyn Whirlwind") and homely atmosphere.

Review: DJ Koze is a master of his craft, and without even so much as lifting a finger, it's proven yet again with his 10th Anniversary Edition of 'Amygdala.' Known for its experimental yet minimal style - which has since trailblazed in his home country of Germany - Koze's knife-edge productions for the LP were far ahead of their time in 2013, breathing fresh life into an often exhausted genre, while also enlisting the help of fellow titans such as Caribou, Apparat, Dirt Von Lowtzow, Milosh and Matthew Dear. It's a classic album of restless detail and domestic lowercasery. Much-aped, but never outmatched.