Minimal / Tech House Recommendations Best of 2017

Review: Having notched up releases on the likes of Raum...musik and Apollonia, Makcim & Levi make the move to Lazare Hoche to deliver another shedload of hard-grooving house bombs for the deepest part of the night. The 1055ml EP is a mixed bag that leads with the title track, which encapsulates everything that's great about the stripped down house sound that Lazare Hoche is committed to. "Sandwiches" meanwhile is a quirky, bugging jam that wriggles under the skin in the most subtle of ways before "Sowhaa" brings a much more hypnotic, pad-laden blend to the table for a soft landing from this feisty 12" of forward-thinking 4/4.

Review: Mystery label Digwah debuted in the summer, with a soul soaked trip into minimal techno territory that was supported by Ricardo Villalobos, amongst others. Like that 12", Something Else is a single-sided, hand-stamped affair, with no information given about the identity of the producer (or producers) involved. This cut retains the late night techno vibe of the original, but with percussion and whizzing electronic noises that recall classic tech-house from the likes of Swag, Rob Mello and David Duriez, rather than Berghain-friendly minimalism. The subtle, party-minded approach is confirmed by the use of cut-up vocal samples from Cuba Gooding Jr's "Happiness Is Just Around The Bend", which also featured on Nightmares On Wax's 1990 bleep techno anthem, "Aftermath".

Review: Och has been a regular fixture on Baby Ford's Trelik label in recent years, and he returns with the late night delights of the Love Unconditional EP sounding stronger than ever. "Sunday Love" is a warm and cosy bumper, keeping the keys bright and breezy while the beat skips away dutifully before the more heads down thrust of "More Journeys Into Swing". The real star of the show though is "Love Unconditional", a particularly gripping track that unfurls seductive synth licks and vocal licks across the whole B side on a one-way trip to nocturnal body jam perfection.

Review: Burnski's debut album DNA dropped on Constant Sound last year, and now the label have called upon a strong cast of characters to do the remix duty on some of the LP's key tracks. Parisian trio Mandar bring a heart-melting tone to "Another Source" without losing their insistent shuffle, while Diego Krause strips things down with a functional broth of minimal minded business. The original mix of "Another Source" gets a fresh outing, and very fine it sounds too. That leaves it to Laura Jones to twist out a hypnotic electro version of "I Like You".

Review: Tech-house's own cockney rebel, East End Dubs, has been busy of late. The master of DJ tools and rhythm-focused box jams kept up a steady stream of releases in 2016, delivering a trio of coloured vinyl treats. His first missive of 2017 comes on psychedelically inclined "splatter" pattern vinyl, but doesn't stray far from his usual musical blueprint. On the A-side you'll find "Swing Riddim", where liquid chords and spacey electronics cluster around an immaculately programmed, bass-heavy tech-house groove. B-side "Lexa Groove" is a slightly deeper and more becalmed affair, even if it does boast a more sizeable bassline and chunkier drums.

Review: Unblock label boss Tuccillo strikes again with another solid release with the EP Black Talk. This is the 5th release on this respected vinyl only imprint that has previously showcased talent such as Tomoki Tamura and Djebali but this time, comes from Tuccillo himself with his unmistakable signature sound.
Headlining track "Black Talk" has a great rolling baseline with plenty of swing with some subtle vocal snippets thrown in here and there.
"Ride on" has a tougher edge with some old school flavours driven by a rhythmic snare with lots of energy perfect for the height of club DJ set
Shopwork offers a more percussive sound over an infectious warm chunky groove, again with some cool short reggae influenced vocal snippets.
A timeless release that can stay in the box.

Review: Artyom Ziobin's distinctive style of minimal house stands apart from the usual thoroughfare of moody, dubby shufflers. Instead the Russian producer reaches for a warm, disco-influenced sound palette which he then slices and dices into sleek, crafty party workouts with lashings of panache as well as studio ingenuity. Following appearances on Bump Foot and Grow Vinyl, the latest outing for Plantae comes via Elephant Moon, with lead track "Amber Light Of Ethereal Shadow" cutting a dashing figure across the soundscape with its busy but nimble mixture of synth splashes and stuttering drums.

Review: Seven years after Superlongevity Five, Zip and Marcus Nicolai's Perlon ushers in its 20th anniversary celebrations with the long-awaited follow up. 18 exclusive cuts from label family and firm friends old and new, Perlon's whole range is on display; from the pensive, restrained and dense house music of Baby Ford right through to the cosmic p-funk of Kalabrese, every Perlon shade and hue is on display. Highlights across the deep, widescreen trip include Villalobos's freaky "Gonzo Funk", the planet-leaping jacks of Spacetravel's "No More" and the late night trooping power of International Anything's "When It's Dark". Super.

Review: After the success of his debut album, Burnski returns to Constant Sound with a 4 tracker designed for the dance floor. "Circuits" opens this new EP - for his own Constant Sound label - with a fiery, electrifying procession of telly drums and fidgety percussion folds, and this is stripped back even further on the magnetic banger entitled "X". Over on the B-side, "Flight 723" aptly takes us on a deeper journey, filled with mysterious synths tricks and imperceptible pad sounds, while "Lost In Translation" clicks away to a more familiar minimal tone, rounded off and sleeked into motion by deep, wondrous gleams of dubbiness.

Review: As swathes of DJs and dancers get ever more into classic and niche electro from the 90s, Groovepressure has reformed to bring back some of its highly sought-after releases and keep the Discogs sharks at bay. With a fresh re-master and some new mixes to boot, the label makes a wise choice for its third reissue by picking up the record they first put out, Resonators' "Shuzzbuzz". The original mix and its B side "Booma" sound better than ever with a bit of modern spit 'n' polish, but then Robin Ball's electro and house versions of "Shuzzbuzz" push the classic into exciting new realms without losing that all-important old-skool flavour.

Review: Here's something to excite all those who like their stripped-back techno to come with a heavy dose of soul. It features Chilean minimal maestro Ricardo Villalobos join forces with Chez Damier and Ben Vedren's H2H project. On the A-side, Villalobos delivers a superb remix of "No More", wrapping lusciously soulful vocals and languid piano motifs around a typically bouncy and left-of-centre minimal techno rhythm. On the flip, Villalobos joins Damier and Verden to deliver a three-part "Conspiracy". Each of the three interpretations has its own distinctive vibe, but all deliver a near perfect balance between soul-flecked deep house, trippy tech-house, Chicago acid and the South American wonkiness that Villalobos does so well. In other words, it's a musical marriage made in Heaven.

Review: There's deep, and then there's the work of Bastian "Baaz" Volker. The German producer's work is rarely less than ultra-deep, and this return to Slices of Life - a label he last blessed four years ago - is predictably hazy and hypnotic. Title track "The Reason" is typical of his style, with becalmed, head-in-the-clouds chords and chopped-up vocal samples reclining over a crispy tech-house groove. Flipside "Ancestors Groove" is a little livelier, both rhythmically and structurally, with chiming blasts of melody and suitably soulful vocal samples riding a backing track rich in bustling bass, bumping beats and drowsy pads.

Review: Since launching last year, Mint Condition has served up essential reissues of material from Iz & Diz (as remixed by Pepe Bradock), Circulation, Plez and Technosoul. Here they've dug up another in-demand and hard-to-find gem, Paul Hester's 1997 UK tech-house classic The Voyage. The EP has aged remarkably well, with A-side The Voyage offering a near perfect blend of heavy analogue bass, swirling pads and shuffling, late night grooves. Flipside "Subsonic Interference" is almost as good, with Hester making merry with bleep techno style sub-bass, bumping drums, and just the right amount of intergalactic electronics.

Review: While he's been plenty busy on his own labels since making a comeback, it's great to see Nail's impeccable form getting picked up elsewhere. Politics Of Dancing is a natural home for his razor sharp tracks, as is evident from the off with the deadly thrust of tech house sizzler "Dub Me 2". "U Gotta Be There" is a more dreamy affair, but there's still a searing heat coming off those beats that will work on all kinds of floors. Cab Drivers are a smart fit for remix duties, and they turn "Dub Me 2" into an even more tripped out twist on the tech house format.

Review: Amphia co-founder Cristi Cons has been rather quiet of late, having previously impressed with a swathe of solo and collaborative EPs in early 2016. Here, the Romanian producer returns to action for the first time in 2017 via a rock solid collection of cuts, which come stretched across two weighty slabs of wax. As you might expect, all four tracks sit neatly into the now familiar Romanian tech-house style, which combines the crackling textures and production intricacy of minimal techno with the head-nodding shuffle of tech-house drum programming. Our highlight is probably super-odd closer "Mutual", which boasts some serious sub-bass and plenty of odd electronic noises, though the slightly more symphonic "Perceptual" is not far behind.

Review: Midlands retrovert Mat Cutler aka Lone returns on Ambivert Tools Volume One. Inspired in no small part by the rich seam of house that he's been excavating with his fine Magicwire imprint, this is where the guy shows you all once again just how dusty and lo-fi things can actually get. Starting off with the early nineties rave stomp of "Crush Mood", on the flip there's some deeper strains of classic throwback sounds in the form of the lovely "Chroma" with its neon lit synths and vintage drum computer sounds working in perfect harmony while "From A Past Life" calls to mind Derrick Carter's Oneiro project from the nineties on this rolling and hypnotic jam which is so damn lush!

Review: Lazy Harts Club man Evan Baggs is not one for keeping up a regular release schedule; in fact, his last single of note appeared way back in 2015. This first appearance on Time Passages has arguably been worth the wait, though. The Neu Rochelle EP offers a quartet of contrasting cuts. For example, compare the rough-and-ready, bass-heavy Drexciyan space electro of "UTL", the rolling, acid-flecked old school tech-house of "Neu Rochelle", and the melodious machine jam that is closer "Still Breezin". Best of all, though, is "All Question All Answers", which comes on like an unlikely collaboration between 'Pure Trance' era KLF, bleep types Sweet Exorcist, and late '90s tech-house jams.

Review: Given the success of the first two installments of the Editions series, it's little surprise to see XDB put together a third volume for his Metrolux imprint. He's assembled another crack team of international contributors, too. Autre and Xinner join forces on opener "Nebula", a fine combination of low-slung techno drums, restless electronics and deep space sonics. Autre goes solo to deliver the fluttering, late night hypnotism of "Seiryu", before Kryptic Universe steals the show with "01309 Stairways", a superb chunk of rolling intelligent techno that features an extended ambient intro. Owen Jay and Brian James round things off with the distorted drum machine hits and woozy riffs of "Chordless" (which, to be fair, is an accurate title).

Review: Here's some fine cross-border collaboration from Dutchman TIJN and Spanish studio buff Bolumar. A quick glance at both producers' bulging discographies will fill you with confidence. This combined experience comes to the fore on A-side "Earth Funk", where helium hip-hop vocal cut-ups, undulating acid lines and fizzing electronics ride a rubbery, floor-friendly tech-house groove. It can be heard, too, within the blissful electric piano stabs, restless electronic bass and swinging beats of "Just In Time", and on "Roowax", which is a hazy chunk of loose-limbed deep house with subtle tech-house overtones. In other words, it's a rock solid EP from two hugely experienced producers.

Review: Lobster Theremin diffusion label Mork returns with Heilbronn's David Willenberger aka TRP who appeared on the parent label last year with the awesome Pano EP. There's more tape hiss, saturation and general lo-fi style shenanigans than you can shake a Betamax at on this one. Starting off with the late night acid shuffle of "The Future, the flipside is where its at though, with the power-house explosion of "M7" getting some rusty swing fuelled fury on, while "Highjacked" gets some emotive style in effect with classic house sentimentality.

Review: Asa Moto duo Oliver Geerts and Gilles Noe impressed with last year's debut EP, the double A-side synth-pop delight that was "Stay Awake/Wanowan Efem". This follow-up for DeeWee, co-produced by label founders (and Soul Wax members) David and Stephen Dewaele, is every bit as impressive, even if its four tracks draw on a much wider palette of influences. Opener "System Naturae" wraps sharp, rave type stabs around a jaunty drum machine groove, deep melody flourishes and warped analogue bass, while "Make Me Prada" is an exercise in alien funk/ambient/synth-pop fusion. On the flip you'll find the bleep-laden analogue house thrust of "Athina", while closer "Syriacid" is a sweaty jog through acid-fired deep house pastures with wayward pop overtones.

Review: Since returning to action last year after a near two-year hiatus, Koos 'Ion' Ludwig has barely put a foot wrong. For Real We Are Not For You marks his first appearance on Toi.Toi. Musik, and predictably continues his fine run of form. On the A-side you'll find "Not For You", a woozy and slippery concoction where off-kilter electronic bleeps and delay-laden blips rise above a skewed, bass-heavy rhythm. Turn the record over and you'll find "Are We For Real", a wonderfully evocative combination of slow-burn acid lines, ghostly chords, low register cello strings, pulsing pads, and mind-altering, minimalist house percussion. It tends towards the melancholic, but is all the more impressive for that.

Review: Since making his debut way back in 2002, Franco Cinelli has giddily hopped between labels, releasing well-regarded material on such imprints as Ilian Tape, Esperanza, Bass Culture, Raum and, most recently, Untold Stories. This first outing on Savor is notable for A-side "Liquid Funk", a 13-minute-plus workout that fixes subtle but spacey electronics to a killer, bassline-driven tech-house groove. There are subtle changes throughout, but for the most part it's a hugely hypnotic, locked-in experience. Elsewhere, the Argentine producer wanders closer to dreamy deep house territory on "Jack Bass", and joins the dots between New Jersey organs and stripped-back tech-house-funk on the decidedly wonky "D-Down".