Juno Recommends Minimal / Tech House: March 2022

Review: Thomas Melchior's take on minimalist house and techno - wonky and off-kilter, but surprisingly funky, far-sighted and pleasingly atmospheric - is amongst the most accessible and ear-catching around. It's a sound that works as well on albums as it does on singles and EPs, so it's somewhat surprising to discover that Vulnerabilities is his first full-length as Melchior Productions since 2007. It's been worth the wait though, with the veteran producer offering up tracks that combine brilliantly programmed, often off-kilter drums with smooth but druggy basslines, tactile chords, addictive melodic refrains and his usual subtle (and occasional not to subtle) nods towards deep house, dub techno, two-step garage, trippy ambient and the quirky, funk-fuelled eccentricity of Ricardo Villalobos productions.

Review: Steve O'Sullivan invites a trio of artists to lay down some serious head nodding beats for 'Rhythm Method Vol.4'. Calling on one of Canada's trusted talents and solid purveyors of deep grooves Jay Tripwire leads the charge with 'Mung Bean Medley'. There's simply no messing: pushing through a taught rhythmic workout, incessant toms and metallic tones etch deep into the mood - awash with dubbed out atmospherics and crafty touches that more than a give a nod to the dark house dubs of yesteryear. On the flip, 'Hidden Sequence' inject their creative flex, demonstrating the all important art of minimalist bounce with 'Synchro'. The kind of fully swung beats and tripped out twinges that brighten the groove more often than not when 7am comes calling. The svelte bustle and soothing tones of 'Makka' from Fletcher by contrast, soothe the mind and leaves plenty of room to kick back as weary limbs take their toll: a fine tonic indeed.

Review: Constant Sound is back in business with a collaborative EP from label founder Burnski and mainstay Kepler. As you should know by now, this means tech house is the order of the day, but equally these two don't rest on their laurels. 'What We Going To Do?' is a particularly fruity kind of tech house bumper with a garage bent, full-fat low end and a plethora of playful sample tweaks running throughout. 'Free' keeps the skip up, ramps up the bass and drops some classy dub touches into the blender. 'Want It' is on a similar tip, but here Burnski and Kepler take it deeper with some tasteful chords and dreamy FX processing. 'Colour' completes the set with mellow mood to balance out the uptempo thrust of the rhythm section, making for something like a sundown essential for the up all day crowd.

Review: Tech house titan from Leeds wAFF has nothing to prove to anyone when it comes to party starting, riot inducing club smashers. Despite that, here he is launching a new label called Nature and delivering some of the fiercest tackle he's ever presented to the world, with lead track 'Colours' in particular turning heads with its canny blend of rampant arpeggios, catchy vocals and a beat to die for. It's a slickly produced workout which will infect the limbs of everyone in a five mile radius, no doubt. 'Django' is moodier, but no less thumping in the important places. 'Switchin' keeps the pressure up while sliding into a more streamlined house framework.

Review: These three offerings from Michael James might fit into the minimal/tech bracket comfortably but there's a free flowing, shuffling sense of funkiness that undeniably runs through them all that defies all the usual 'shoulder twitch' stereotypes about the genre. 'Signal Issues' employs a panther-like bass hovering under the radar, with the briefest of breakbeat snippets adding the growing syncopation. 'Still Waiting' continues the technofunk mission, a sea of underplayed bleepery augmenting the groove, while 'Rush Hour' has a breezier and more open vibe and perhaps a more classic techno feel, proper graceful like.

Review: Robert James' Body Movement label returns with a double-header featuring the bossman himself along with Kolter. Both 'Planet 90' and 'Planet Funk' are taken from Rob's forthcoming LP, offering a sneak peak of the full-length project which is due early next year. Meanwhile, Kolter (AKA Djoko) adds his own touch to the release with a couplet that demonstrates why he's achieved widespread praise at such an early stage in his music career.

Review: Moscow's Shanti Radio crew enlists a bunch of talented minimal and tech producers for this new collection of tasteful dance floor sounds. Volen Sentir - a veteran of labels like Lee Burridge's All Day I Dram - offers up his signature yoga house sound and new age melodies, and
Hiroko Arakiaki follows one with something just as deep, but this time coloured with an almost Japanese anime movie charm on 'Lion Song.' The dreamscapes continue on the flip with Gorje Hewek & Facundo Losardo's gorgeous harmonies on 'Endless History' and Amonita's 'Ainu' keeping your mind locked into a state of reverie.

Review: Romanian breakthrough talent Pirvu has been turning heads since 2018 with releases for the likes of Rummenigge, Meander, Understory and more. Now he lands on NorthSouth with a bristling, crafty slice of minimal tech house that subdues the minimal in favour of a detailed and busy sound powered by big basslines and hooky rhythms. 'Amazonia' is a particular standout, as catchy and playful as it is serious and deadly for the dancefloor. At times you can hear a whisper of French micro house influencing his sound, but then bassline and garage rear their heads too when you hear the wild low end flex on 'Time'. The references are relative, Pirvu is doing Pirvu and it's sounding very spicy indeed.

Review: The latest release on Club Vision comes from Bassam and MehdiM. Bassam is a French-Moroccan producer hitting the upwards curve of his career at this very moment, while MehdiM is the Egyptian artist helping uplift the scene in Cairo with his Sakanat label and party series. Everything on this record is about big, bright and bold party sounds, hence the title B.O.S.H. There's a distinctly bleep touch to 'Bosh Power' while 'Who Killed The Bosh' takes a trancier direction and 'Bosh In Town' channels a little Italo influence. Through it all, peak time house music is the glue holding these different influences together, and Bassam and MehdiM clearly know what they're doing in that department.

Review: The second vinyl release from burgeoning record label Purple Print finally hits our shelves, and sees label mainstay Delaj deliver 3 new originals and a remix from fellow artist Guy From Downstairs. 'Lost' is a slapping tech house cut that maintains only the best beatific hygiene, being so clean the track could act as a soap substitute. Acid and FM begins to peek through on GFD's remix and 'Take My Time', before 'Jargon' brings slightly more broken vibes to the whole mix. Watch out for these guys, too; they've only gone and added 3 more records to their repertoire since releasing this one!

Review: German producer Daniel Broesecke first appeared on our radar a few years back with the Isacc Hayes sampling 'Get Some More' in collaboration with Silat Beksi on his Vivus imprint that he runs with Tobi More. Broesecke's latest comes courtesy of Sepp and Nu Zau's ever reliable UVAR imprint and features the rolling, ethereal, bass-driven tech house journey that is 'Bless' backed by a moody and abstract remix by Epau. Over on the flip, it's back to Sunwaves in the main tent at peak time on 'Find Your Soul' while 'Isha' equally nails that 'Rominimal" vibe just nicely.

Review: The Midas Touch crew hit a fantastic fifth release here with RWN at the controls. This is prime Romanian minimal from the off. 'Mystic Manners' layers up the whirring machine sounds, ghostly vocals and sketchy beats into something late night and alluring. 'Transitory State' then lifts is head with some nice warm, flowing harmonica sounds up top and more spangled bass and synth work while 'Prerexquisit' is a more watery, fluid offering with crisp claps up to powering along. Prerexquisit (vinyl Speed Adjust remix) is a broken beat affair that rocks back on forth on its heels in catchy loops.

Review: Here comes a bit of hilariously slippery tech house by four artists coming head-to-head in what can only be described as a Mexican standoff set to wax. All associates of the UK's Before Records imprint, no punches are pulled in this subdued, techy and head-nodding poker-haul. Ben Joseph's 'Licked' is an offbeat swing secretion touching on speed garage sweats, while smoother, trancier tones are checked off from Cooper Dodge and Julian Anthony on their tracks 'Adt' and 'Retrograde'. Kicking off the whole thing is Ben Jones' clacking, knocking track 'Playback', cleverly titled in that it predicts what we'll be doing with it.

Review: Back in November 2021, Dave Seaman and Steve Parry's Selador Recordings imprint launched a new series, Magic Black Plastic, as a vehicle to put out classic catalogue cuts on vinyl for the very first time. This second volume naturally follows the same blueprint, offering a quartet of much-played gems from the imprint's vast archive of releases. To kick things off, there's a chance to savour Renato Cohen's weighty, acid-sporting, trance-influenced, rave-igniting rework of Steve Parry's 'What You Make It', before Seaman offers up Charles Webster's punchy, electro-not-electro remix of his own 'Racket Abuse'. Over on the flip you'll find the sturdy, driving and intoxicating peak-time trip that is Antony Pappa and Jamie Stevens' 'Here We Go', as well as a more melodious, 21st century progressive house re-wire of Squire's 'True Religion' courtesy of Hannes Bieger.

Review: Kepler sure is on a roll at the moment; the Leeds-based producer and DJ continues on with his prolific output for his very own Perspective label's third release, with two tracks by Frenchman Noiro. We're really digging A1 cut "Night Run", a ravey, breaks-driven number awash in mesmerising FM synth pads, which is followed by the bleepy tech funk of "Operate". Over on the flip, he hands proceedings over to Frenchman Noiro, who takes things down more of a minimal route with the dubby and hypnotic redux of "Data" being his standout track - tip!

Review: Curtea Veche's fifth transmission in the serii speciale series is a real doozy. It comes from the ever more essential Gathaspar on 12" transparent vinyl, with one track on each side.The opener starts as an experimental mix of single piano keys, tumbling drum sounds, spoken words and mysterious street level charm before a rugged rubbery baseline rolls off into the future. On the flip, 'Op 23' again pairs the weird and wonderful with the seductive and salacious. The bass and drums and gooey, the synths trippy, and it adds up to a perfectly heady late night sound.

Review: The latest drop from the PIV Limited series follows crucial cuts over the past few years from Okain, Joren Edwards, Josh Baker, Paolo Rocco and Chris Stussy. This time around it's M High on the buttons, laying down a fruity strain of house music on 'By My Side' with plenty of funk licks greased over the snappy beat, and a catchy female vocal hook as the icing on top. Jovonn gets serious on the remix of the track, digging into a heads down groove you won't want to argue with, wholly making the track his own. On the B side, there's more wholesome, melodic grooves to savour in the shape of 'Tomorrow Is Another Day' and 'Longing', all steeped in the language of classic house and produced to perfection.

Review: It's been a minute, but UK tech house dons Prok & Fitch are back in business with this collaborative 12" with Italian producer Leonardo Gonnelli. Landing on the mighty 8 Bit, they offer up two tracks of assured, impeccably executed club tools for those who appreciate some sophistication in their 4/4. 'Lullaby' has a minimal demeanour thanks to the scratchy sound FX threaded throughout the track, but it's also sporting a melancholic heart thanks to the understated pad tones and aching vocal samples. 'Hooked' balances the feisty energy of a mean bass tone with the dubby shimmers of its chord lines to create a late-night or early-morning joint for the deepest of dancefloors.

Review: Martyn 'Tijn' Hodgson returns to Aesthetic for the first time since 2020 with Lee Daines. They team up for some pop-sample driven minimal tech house in the vein of ODE or EEE here on the Constant Sound affiliated label's 17th release. The smoky, late-night jazz bar loops with sensual vocals that are underpinned by the pair's dubby arrangement on A side cut "Think I'm Falling" had us moving and grooving. Over on the flip, the bass-driven and hypnotic groove of "The Fourth" heads to Hoppetosse for the afterhours.

Review: Pager headhoncho and master of leisure Markus Sommer comes back on his own imprint with a warm and punchy 4 tracker sliding in smooth like silky houseslippers. Put out your fav sunchair and soke up that garden party vibe from front to back!

Review: Mihai Pipoviciu is by now a master minimalist, someone who always brings the quality each and every time he serves up something fresh from his studio. This latest missive takes him to Germany's Bondage label and he opens it up with 'Azul,' a deep and heady talc with clipped kicks and swirling pads that bring the scale. 'Tristesse' is a cut with its head in the clouds, dreaming of better days. 'Forces' brings us back down to earth with bobbling bass and funky drum patterns while 'Nipon' is the most edgy and textural of the lot - perfect for when things get freaky at 5am.

Review: Oscuro London follow up their drops from Bilal and Deyayu with this tidy split 12" from Alex Dima and Cristian Sarde, offering up a particularly sprightly kind of tech house peppered with 90s techno motifs but rendered in sleek, modernist shapes. Dima opens up the A side with the charmingly bleepy 'Soul Melody' before locking into the heads-down dream reverie of 'State Of Joy'. Sarde's approach on the B-side maintains the stylistic focus dealing in sumptuous pads and crafty leads which evoke the good old days without sounding tired or dated. 'My Best Friend' nudges into electro territory, but the melodic and textural qualities of the track remain wholly aligned with the housier strains found on the rest of the EP.