Minimal / Tech House Recommendations April 2014

Review: Under the Petre Inspirescu guise, Bucharest based DJ and producer Radu Dumitru Bodiu has built a reputation for intricate, minimal house across numerous 12" releases over the past few years. It was little surprise when fabric invited him to contribute to their long running mix series last year with the resultant fifteen track set filled with unreleased material, adding further credence to the notion that Inspirescu is a bit of a demon at production. Surfacing on mule musiq is pleasantly surprising - the label claim to be massive fans of the Romanian - and the Talking Waters 12" is likely to introduce Inspirescu's typically understated, hypnotic minimal house to a wider audience.

Review: Fred P is never short of ways to get deep, but here he's kicking off a new alias for a slight twist on how he approaches his signature plush chords and hypnotic constructions. Anomaly did previously appear on a Soul People compilation with "Above Below", which appears here as the B2 and represents everything you can love about classic Fred P with its soaring pads and dreamlike finish. Elsewhere there are more rough edges to be found, as on the more abstract roll of "Tunnel Vision" and the moody grind of "Dark Room" with its spooked out synth strafes and poised sound design.

Review: My Own Jupiter is the newly minted label, or Multidisciplinary Art Platform as it's being presented from Nicholas Lutz, Edurne and Birdsmakingmachine founder Ricardo de Azcuenaga. The honour of the debut release for the platform falls on Little Nobody, aka Tokyo-based Melbourne ex-pat Andrez Bergen who has a storied production career across various aliases and genres for almost two decades. It's little surprise then, that The Knock Off is filled with a sense of subtle diversity across the five tracks that keeps you coming back for more. Commencing with the chunky house groove "Bat Rastard" (wait for the vocal sample) Little Nobody draws for a more minimal sound on "Weltschmerz" and "Sense & Senility" whilst "Nobody's Driving" hints at Bergen's hip hop past. Final track "Robota" sounds like The Dust Brothers making house music.

Review: The Parisian stalwart Djebali has been enjoying a particularly productive time since going it alone with his own self-titled imprint, giving rise to a flurry of tracks that show the wider reach the house producer has within him. Here "Reputation" comes in it's "2011 Mix" form, which as it happens is a heated disco treatment that loops in the spirit of Soundstream to create a feverish cut that doesn't need to be fast to be intense. On the flipside his fellow city dweller Point G twists out a remix that focuses on the drums and drops just a light touch of samples here and there to break up the motoring beat.

Review: "The sophomore release on Moss Co. takes a more club-oriented approach.

Ferro's 'Adult Fishing' has been tearing up dancefloors over the last few months, with regular play from Rhadoo and Onur Ozer among others. Its a straight-up, broken beat club tool full of interesting analogue weirdness - a guaranteed people mover! He has also treated us to a locked-groove soundscape in 76 Seconds; a little extra dimension to add to your DJ sets.

On the flip, we have a more introspective effort from AM - a new project from Romania's Arapu. Dropsul Cu Sare is based around a groovy bassline and uses dubby stabs and looming tones to build a suspense-filled mood."

Review: Long standing Spanish minimal techno label Vinyl Club turn to another trio of producers concerned with subtle, intricate pathways to sustained shuffling grooves, with Arapu standing out with his grasp of the pared-down funky breakbeat trend that has been dominating Romanian output recently. Lorenzo Chiabotti has equally slender aesthetics at work, although his rhythm moves in a more typical house strut populated with fine slithers of found sound. DeWalta takes on a stance in line with his work on Vakant, letting dense atmospherics linger heavy around the restrained drum work. In all three instances the producers prove there's plenty of mileage in the minimal methodology yet.

Review: Perennial tech house favourite Steve Lawler is back on his own Viva imprint with a 12" of rock-solid grooves for bigger rooms. "Do Ya" leads the charge with its nagging vocal hook and some poised, straight-up drum programming, but it's the catchy lead synth draped in analogue warmth that will have people shocking out in the dance. If the vocal isn't for you, an instrumental version is included fro good measure. On the flip it's remix time as Hot Since 82 get in on the action with a more dreamy version that piles on the reverb and lets a little light in on the moodiness of the original. Patrick Topping meanwhile takes a more bugging route into bumpy house beats with his version, while the bass comes straight from the Chicago school of hard knocks.

Review: You can always count on Dirtybird to bring the nastiness back to tech house with their bassy taste in tunes, no more so than on this EP which celebrates the annual day time hoedown that is their summer barbeque. Shiba San steps up first with the punchy tones of "Okay", where the bottom end is well placed to knock you off your feet, before Secondcity and Tyler Rowe jump off the top turnbuckle with the leaden sub pressure of their own "I Enter". Catz N Dogz are comparatively skippy with the tripped out layers at work in "Drop It", but no less focused on getting bootys bouncing. Ghostea finishes the EP off with a more steady tempered cut that channels the Dirtybird sound into a more staccato framework.

Review: Spain's Vinylclub have been busy representing more interesting corners of minimal and tech house since 2006, and amongst their most trusted artistic compatriots is Luc Ringeisen, who appears once more on the label as part of their new Vinyl Club Concept series. Ringeisen is in no mood to mess around, keeping just the bare bones of "Beat Design" on show for a crisp exercise in percussion. Meanwhile on "Rolling Drop" he plies a more dense kind of production with plenty of texture and sound design at work in amongst the steady-ticking track. He's joined by Tolga who drops a funkier kind of micro house with a killer shuffle and an absence of frivolous melodies. Funk E meanwhile works on a more attention grabbing fusion of bass and drums with some playful samples that bring the track to life.

Review: Surfacing from somewhere in the Russian Federation, Gost Zvuk Records live up to their name's rough translation of Ghost Sounds on the basis of this debut release from newcomer Aleksei Nikitin. There's versatility to Nikitin's productions here that will serve him well, with the taut, subtle groove and programming on opening track "Tevi" giving the producer the space to lay down some impressively emotive melodic arrangements. The opening bars to "Tebe Nujno Vernutsya" hint that the production is heading for a weird place, yet there's a smart switch up that takes proceedings into bumping raw house with some smart vocal edits. Face down "Inache" finds Nikitin indulging in some gritty dub house whilst "Ostavim" comes from the Gerry Read school of thumping house tools.

Review: It's a busy time for the hotly tipped house music duo, as their recent turn for No Fit State is swiftly followed up by this appearance on D'Julz's ever consistent Bass Culture stable. There's a techno thread at work in the lead track "Pajala Sunrise", what with its peppy tempo range, tweaked siren noise and general sense of urgency, but there's still plenty of the soulful sample selection going on in the midst of it all. "Ressle's Restroom" is a touch more focused towards house music, but it's certainly of the submerged, hypnotic kind, as distant samples fall into a loop and the drums keep pounding without much sign of respite.

Review: Continuing their quest to represent artists that carry the torch for the most stripped back of club tracks, Vinylclub notch up the second part in their burgeoning series with another three maverick movers and shakers who aren't afraid to hold back in the studio. Vladimir Ivanov is particularly frugal with his sounds, as "Slambaban" whispers out a rhythmic command with the slightest of drums. Xandru is in a similar mood, but with a kinked groove that injects that offbeat energy into "Chapo". For something a little bit sturdier, head to the Fede Lijt track "Do It" which gets straight into the micro funk and calls to mind classic Trapez styles in the process.

Review: Purple Horizon marks the debut vinyl release for South Coast producer Sam Smith, an artist who has been immersed in the UK house and techno scene for more than ten years. As a founding member of the Delete events collective he has played alongside the likes of Akufen, Mike Shannon, Portable and Move D in London, Bristol, Brighton and Bournemouth, while continually working in the studio alongside his DJ activities. This first release for his own Nothing Odd Recordings showcases the sound Smith has been honing for years, with a focus on experimental textures and disorientating samples set amongst crisp, rock-solid rhythms operating on the axis between house and techno. With this stylistic approach in mind Baby Ford made for a logical choice of remixer, particularly considering the veteran producer's later forays into dark, hypnotic minimal house and techno as seen on his releases for Perlon, amongst others.

Review: Easily one of the most exciting labels operating in minimal circles in these times, Pleasure Zone deliver the goods once again with the hypnotic charms of newcomer Bacauanu. "Caiarna" may feature some peppy beats, but the delay-drenched synth lines and delicate piano fills are fine-tuned for psychedelic impact. "Cavara" pushes the drums to the front and keeps the chords submerged, but still the sound palette is rich and detailed in all the right places. "Demijloc" finishes things off with the most stripped-down offering, getting heavy on the bass to embark on an introspective journey into subliminal dance music of the highest order.

Review: The fast rising duo with a Midas touch for hooky house music are back with this new single for No Fit State, which finds the pair drawing on different moods within their repertoire with equally catchy results. "Vretis" is a dense and moody house jam with a pining tone to it, caught somewhere between the hushed chords, bass lick and tumbling percussion and speaking directly to the soul. Locked Groove steps up for a remix on the flip that smooths the track out into a safe and steady groover with a polite dusting of acid. Meanwhile the boys are back in action themselves for the last track and it's a nefarious wiggler with crafty noises and a head-nodding groove you just can't resist.

Review: With over a year having passed since his debut album Changing Days was released to massive acclaim, Mano Le Tough returns with more emotive, melody-laden deep house for the Berlin-based Maeve Records. The title track of Tempus is a glittering combination of twitchy arpeggio, Four Tet-like chimes and no-nonsense rhythms, while "Return To Yoz" is considerably darker, pairing a churning bass and elastic with a techy structure that will set fire to any peak time dancefloor. "Sorry Is A Useless Word" finishes off with something a little more experimental, as the kind of melodious keys you might find on a Dial release are interspersed with a loose limbed house beat that is definitely not of the ordinary.

Review: Copenhagen-based Martinez launched Concealed Sounds last year as a platform for expressing the deeper and more experimental side of his house and techno productions. Given that the debut release swiftly sold out at Juno you can call it a rousing success, and this second release from Martinez for the label should prove similarly popular. Bucking convention it's the Sylphe Lydlos Dub from Sylphe pairing Holdie Gawn & Micawber that resides on the A Side, racking up a weighty thirteen minutes of trippy modular sound design in the vein of a playful Villalobos. The original is a few minutes shorter but comes packing a rather satisfying broken techno groove and some truly deep sub bass rhythms.

Review: Issued last year, Maya Jane Coles second album Comfort further established the producer's burgeoning talent for crafting genuine songs as well as supple, late night house music. Strangely given her chosen vocation, Comfort was never released on vinyl so it's great to see Ms Coles label I/AM/ME come through with a deluxe double LP edition. Those who didn't check Comfort first time round will be rewarded with plenty of music that conform to her tech-tinged, atmospheric deep house blueprint as well as some woozy, shuffling, downtempo pop songs featuring guest spots from Catherine Pockson of Alpines, Miss Kittin, Tricky and Karin Park. Maya Jane Coles fans familiar to its charms now have the chance to experience Comfort on heavyweight vinyl!