Juno Recommends Minimal / Tech House: September 2022

Review: Following six years of increasingly impressive EPs for such labels as Distant Hawaii, Bokhari and Lobster Theremin, Sweely has finally got round to producing a debut album. Slightly more eclectic than his 12" singles but still dominated by spacey chords, intergalactic electronics and tactile grooves that sit somewhere between tech-house and techno. Closer Energy is a quietly impressive collection that puts mood and melody front and centre. Our picks of a very strong bunch include the electro/analogue deep house fusion of 'Keep On Rock'n', the late 90s UK tech-house lusciousness of 'Techy Sunrise', the acid-flecked micro-house squelch of 'MiniLook', and the two hazy ambient cuts that top and tail the LP.

Review: Gene on Earth has become one of the new school's finest DJs and producers. His Limousine Dream label is also one of the most hotly admired and each 12" sells out in quick time as a result. This latest is another sleek mix of breaks, techno and house from Duowe & Picasso. There is a gritty bump n grind to 'Body Glitch' that makes for late night menace. 'HAL9000' has a nice fist-pumping bassline and 'Trip Hazard' then ups the ante with driving house drums. 'Everl00p' completes the picture with twanging bass loops and tightly coiled kicks that have an inherent sense of fun.

Review: Lion & Lamb is of course the unlikely but cult pub in London that plays hosts to some of the underground's best DJs on a sporadic basis. After a few years of special events there it has recently branched out to become a label. After a fine various artists debut it follows suit with a second featuring electro don Radioactive Man whose 'Golden Mane' is deep and bleepy minimal electro classic. Fat Svelte offers a groggy late night number, Thoma Bulwer's 'Proper Wiggelr' is just that and Silverlining closes with a fresh tech house pumper.

Review: Darius Syrossian's Moxy Muzik label is all about peak-time, sweat-inducing, no-frills, straight-up, well-jacked, classically-informed and robust house music. And that is, once again, exactly what we get here with this third volume of Moxy Muzik Editions. The man himself kicks off with big room techno roller wAFF on a turbo-charged and Detroit-tinged cut, then Lucas Alexander's 'Enter The Who?' slips into more frictionless and catchy tech. Rooleh brings something of a hip house vibe to the bouncing drums of 'Don't Need You' and Fleur Shore impresses with the driving sounds of 'Summer Of Love.'

Review: Chiwax are back this week with a more than welcome reissue of Wax Fruit's one-and-only release Whispers from 1994. This was one of many aliases sussed by Toronto-based producer Ron Allen, who some of you may know for his seminal work as one half of Psyance (with Hayden Andre Brown) who released on Plus 8, as well as his work under the names Aztech, The Apache Project and The R.A.S.E. The late night mood music of the title track is a true zeitgeist from the period in which it was released, while the looped-up disco sampling deep house of 'Just A Party' or 'Mindgames' over on the flip were equally as trendsetting as anything fellow Torontonians like Nick Holder or DJ Sneak were making at the time.

Review: Since launching two years ago, Bristol's We're Going Deep label has consistently delivered some of the deepest and most atmospheric club tracks around. The music they champion is, as many in the West Country would no doubt confirm, "proper deep". That's certainly the case with the tracks on the label's seventh multi-artist extravaganza. Acid Test regular Tin Man kicks things off with a touch of TB-303-doused proto-house minimalism ('I Said Acid'), before Rai Scott takes us 50 leagues below the sea on the ultra-deep, drowsy and hypnotic house cut 'I'll Meet You on the Dancefloor'. Over on side B, Sound Synthesis's 'Necessary Order' is a simply breath-taking trip into deep electro territory, while Roger Van Lunteren's EP-closing contribution is a deep (and deeply psychedelic) acid house trip.

Review: The second V/A from Abartik - and forming part of the Kaleidoscopic Minds series - 'ABA 010' brings together the minimal talents of four select artists from the Basel, Switzerland based label. Clipping and snapping, this is arguably our most 'oontsing', 'boots-and-catsing' of all the tech house releases to hit our shelves this week; 'Celsius' and 'Purge 2' are our slow-burbling highlights.

Review: After a couple of quiet years Ferro's VBX label returns with a bang, as the esteemed Dutch minimal producer links up with none other than Ricardo Villalobos for a run of 'Ferric' jams. Enlightened souls should have some idea of what to expect here, as Ferro's snappy grooves collide with Villalobos' meandering sound collages to create psychoactive termites geared towards twisting out the dancefloor good and proper. This is proper minimal, with the percussion chiselled into fine clicks and pops to leave more space for the trippy elements to weave their magic. The quality comes assured from this new pairing, hopefully paving the way for more collaborations in the future.

Review: Hot on the heels of his well-received EPs on Linear and Midi Records, Ionut Arapu returns to Rawax with two more top-quality tech-house cuts in his distinctive trademark style. On A-side 'First New Dance', the experienced Romanian producer peppers a rolling, bass-heavy groove with cut-up and layered vocal textures, deliciously wonky electronic lead lines, star-fall sounds and the kind of melodic elements more often associated with 1990s IDM. He opts for a deeper, more melancholic tone on 'Undoing', where emotive chords, dubbed-out electronic motifs and intergalactic synth sounds cluster around a sturdy, peak-time ready groove.

Review: Melodic tech from Italian duo Agents Of Time, Afterlife Records' go-tos for the style. Two new songs top up their emotive catalogue; 'The Mirage' moves like an entrancing whirlwind across a landscape of complextro drums and quivering melodies, while 'Northern Lights' hears like we're witnessing just that. But unlike most appearances, this Aurora Borealis makes noise: vinyl crackle and resampled fingersnaps embed a ravey Italo line with deep brassy bass.

Review: Aussie minimal house explorer Litmus has been on the rise for some time, thanks in no small part to a zeitgeist-capturing sound that tends towards the smooth, spacey and funk-fuelled. You'll find no greater example of that personal production style than the title track of this EP for Up The Stuss. Its combination of bold, ear-catching bass, ricocheting vocal samples, loose-limbed tech-house drums and immersive pads is both evocative and addictive. Leo Pol delivers a tougher, more driving revision of 'Plus One' full of old school piano riffs and distorted acid bass, before Litmus pushes the sub-bass up and reaches for intergalactic electronics on 'Mon Dhaba'. If you're after a more summery, deep house flavoured number, his EP-closing hook-up with Black Loops has you covered.

Review: Nuances De Nuit hits the mini-milestone of release number 10 here and does it in a standout fashion. Velvet Velour is behind the music and the opener 'Can You Feel It' is a superbly colourful house cut with futuristic neon lines and serene grooves. 'First Filter' keeps up the freshness with more vivid synth colours, balmy cosmic chords and silky drum programming and 'Cloud Beats' then gets more off-grid with its drums. This most delicious and vibrant EP closes with another cosmic surfer in 'A New Leaf.' Lovely stuff.

Review: It's rare we get such angular and wonky music passing through our floodgates, but this one's too good to pass up. France's Voiceless records bring together their allstars on this 5-tracker of straight soulful stewers, spanning funky 2-step, ghostly organelles, and watery hard house in equally random measure. UK happy house veteran FCE provides the first two bangers, asking us whether we really get it - 'Capeesh'? - while Antoine Sy expands the mind with his xenolalically named tunes 'Ozgor Konecsion' and 'Gounzibus Under Pressur', all minimal mood-meddlers.

Review: You can always rely on the Cocoon compilations to bring you a high level of quality control and an authoritative overview of the state of techno around the time of release. This mammoth six-LP set will give you a lot of music to work with, and it's featuring a dizzying cast of high-end operators starting with the mighty Stephen Brown. Each track gets a side of vinyl to itself, serving as a kind of statement for how much faith the label put in each of these 12 tracks. Amongst the best on this top-drawer comp are Daniel Avery's metallic, spellbinding 'Your Future Looks Different In The Light' and Carl Finlow's lithe electro workout 'Surface Control', but as you might well expect each track is one you'll turn to again and again to give your mix some spice.

Review: Ukrainian tech-house stalwart Silat Beksi almost certainly has bigger things on his mind these days than crafting beautifully groovy, atmospheric and melodious EPs, so it's to his credit that he continues to do so. This 'Special Edition' on Bread & Butter Recordings is a typically strong offering. Check first opener 'Just Play It', an undulating, funk-fuelled affair in which drowsy melodic motifs, spacey synth sounds and echoing electric piano parts rise above a driving bassline and loose-limbed tech-house drums, before immersing yourself in the smoother grooves, dreamier chords and blissful melodies of 'Hero Suit'. Equally as impressive is B-side 'Jungle Meditation', a subtly tribal-tinged deep tech-house/minimal house outing full to bursting with splendid sonic details.

Review: Cheeky ambient tech house (or shall we say, just straight-up 'dance'?) from the Seven Hills camp. This time they welcome Young Adults (Timo Faber and Jeffrey Baardolf), a Hollandaise production duo who have made the temporary transition across the channel and evidently know how to make a sonic splash in the UK. Anglo-Dutch pulsers permeate this nice wax 12", from the mad sampled mutterings of 'Anxiety Bar' to the propulsive, surface-tense, conspiratorial acid of 'Integrated Lizard People' - if he heard it, the latter'd surely be David Icke's favourite tech house tune!

Review: With releases already under their belt from Bilal and Deyayu and a split 12" from Alex Dima and Cristian Sarde, London's Oscuro is shaping up to be one of those destined to take up position towards the top of tech house shopping lists everywhere. That said, the four tracks from Arnic have a cheekier, mor sprightly vibe than a lot of tech-house, the likes of 'Night Children' and their tribute to the Glasgow clubbing institution that is the 'Sub Club' drawing on disco and early Chicago house influences, all within the economic and stripped down framework that put a big smile on a DJ's face when they're in the mix.

Review:  Romanian Favourite Costin Rp steps up the small but well formed Animal Crossing label with a special three tracker that comes on slick blue marled vinyl. 'Once Upon A Time In The West' is a brain cleaning minimal tune with warped tones and silky sine waves weaving their way into the deepest corners of your mind. The clean and abstract sounds continue on 'Again That Feeling' which has superb boucle in the kicks and nice bendy synths bringing and elastic sense of groove. '

The Quiet Before The Storm' then cuts loose on trippy late night melodic motifs, with ricocheting hits and days of synth colours that rise and fall like a lava lamp.

Review: Highly technical new EP from Italy's mega-minimal masters Micro Orbit, who see this 12" added to their Voyager Series, intended as a mission to explore strange worlds - with various producer-explorers in tow, of course. Vendas's 'Surplus' has a happy excess of weight to it, wbike Ali Demir's 'Vuslat' is less on the hard-hitting, but more nimble, side, as distant vocoders weave in and out of motherboard blips and analord drums.

Review: After a pandemic-forced hiatus of two years, the shadowy Rakija series of tech-house flavoured revisions and sample-heavy original productions returns to stores. It's the fifth volume in the series, though we can see no signs of the imprint's high quality threshold dipping. Our man (or woman) of mystery begins in fine form on the A-side, delivering a dense, wonky and potent revision full of sustained organ chords, tribal percussion hits, 21st century tech-house bass and nods towards the early Guerilla Records progressive house sound. Over on the flip, 'Track 2' is a booming, two-step tech-house take on a certified house classic, while 'Track 3' is a beefed-up, jacking and analogue-rich chunk of acid house revivalism with nods to classic hip-house and - more surprisingly - classic disco.

Review: As well as rolling out a reliably high-quality strain of Rominimal since 2005, Mihai Popoviciu has taken pride in demonstrating his broader musical outlook via albums for Highgrade, Poker Flat and Bondage Music. It's the latter Berlin-based label he committed Home to in 2016, and now it's getting a well-deserved repress on tasty coloured wax. The album title hints at the vibe inside there's a noticeable embrace of poppy warmth on tracks like 'Focus' and 'Music 999', throwing Popoviciu's established line in slender club tracks into a different emotional head space which sounds as fresh now as it did six years ago.