Minimal / Tech House Recommendations Best Of 2010

Review: 20:20 Vision unleash some more tech house pumpers from label mainstays Audiojack. "Motion Sickness" flips skipping drums and vocal edits over a driving bassline that throbs with warmth, whilst "Shakedown" is all about the piano riffing with the Freerange era Switch drums. Love the 20:20 brown paper bag too.

Review: In addition to delivering the standout Balance compilation for EQ's long serving series and a host of big remixes for the likes of Slam and Robert Babicz, Dutchman Joris Voorn has also produced for Sino and his own Green imprint. A coming of age, the 33-year-old now makes his Cocoon debut with a single track of enchanting, future disco-tech with a driving bassline. Its building sense of drama makes it perfect for the peak time sets of any of the world's biggest rooms. As the 2010 Ibiza season edges ever nearer, get ready to hear this jam booming out across the White Isle.

Review: Modern day Detroit legend Omar S takes a break from promoting his line of Omar S Ice Cube trays to lend his mixing skills to this two track EP from Detroit native Luke Hess. Produced on murky blue marble vinyl, Michigan Central Station contains the type of glacial dubby techno you'd expect from an Echochord Colour release. The disconsolate song titles are more than matched here by the melancholy nature of Hess's productions. "The Problem Of Decay (Greed Affects Us All)" sees chords echo and bounce across the desolate soundscape of gentle pads and kick patterns that drop into the mix with intermittent ease. Over on the other side "Corridor's Solution (A Plea For Change)" goes deeper still, ramping up the bass some and indulging in more cavernous chord patterns.

Review: Stuga Musik, the new offshoot of London based label Autoreply, introduces the unknown artist Och with two tracks of atmospheric minimal techno that takes on more of a personal form than we are used to from the genre.


This release offers a response to the plethora of unimaginative, soulless and empty sounding minimal music that blew up out of all proportion in the mid 2000s. At a time when dance music is full of depth and feeling again, Och injects those sentiments into his minimal musings on this release. "Stops Out" provides the suspense, attitude, tension and overall musicality that minimal is often guilty of neglecting. The title track is engulfed in a wary tension created by deep bass and intense synth stabs. The atmosphere from the track rises up, seeping through the simple breaks and throbbing, deep techno. Cut up vocal edits that have an old school warehouse feel give the track even more personality but it is the affecting Hammond organ sample that really makes the centrepiece.


On the flip, "Stops In" falls into even deeper into atmospheric, almost sinister tensions. A skeletal afro-tech swing is set by shimmering hi-hats and low, murmuring sub bass that collides with chiming synths. As more of an orthodox techno beat picks up, the chilling pads stretch out over the track, giving it a totally enchanting and undiscovered feel. "Stops Out " is a highly engaging, post-modern take on minimal music, or in other words, post-minimal minimal. By bringing more feeling to the disciplines of minimal Och is proving that there is still ingenuity in the genre. Top stuff.

Review: Ahead of his massively popular third album under the Caribou alias, Dan Snaith was quite generous in his praise for James Holden and regularly explained in interviews how Swim was influenced musically by the music on his Border Community imprint. It's seems natural then that Holden would be called on to provide a remix of "Bowls" which is quite rightly bound to get draped in words such as epic, grandiose and colossal. Taking up nearly all the blackness on the B Side, Holden crafts an 11 minute reimagination which rivals his legendary Nathan Fake remix for all round awesomeness. Taking elements of the already distinctive original, Holden twists and moulds them into a kaleidoscopic pattern of sounds which transcends genre pigeon holing.

Review: Baby Ford and Zip continue a fruitful partnership with some uber cool, super deep minimal techno on Pal SL records. "Clean Hands" sees a hushed and soulful vocal wafting over atmospheric synth scratches, ultra low end bass and deft high end clicks and shuffles. "For How Long" is even more reduced, letting the space between the sparse sounds say as much as the sounds themselves. Truly unique sounds from this talented pair.

Review: Support from Baby Ford, Dan Curtin, Chris Fortier, Mark Broom, Marcel Heese, Mark Henning. Appears on Anthony 'Shake' Shakir's Little White Earbuds Podcast. Recommended.