Juno Recommends Minimal / Tech House: July 2024

Review: Baby Ford is back being reissued again and we couldn't be happier about it. Few have ever matched the matter levels he achieved when it comes to deep minimal and tech house fusions. This latest on his own Trelik takes the form of three classic cuts from two much sought-after EPs - Built In and All That Nothing. The title cut is a shimmering and sublime fusion of rubbing low ends and icy hi-hats. 'All That Nothing' then picks up the pace with more dub influences and swaying drums and 'Plaza' has a tech house edge that makes for more driving grooves.

Review: The secretive Only Music Matters label rolls out its seventh EP here and it's from an unknown producer or producers who seem to have a love of tech house. Opener 'AAA001A' is a warped cut for freaky 'floors with trippy vocal details and gloopy beats and bass. 'BBB001B' is more airy and light in its silky minimal rhythms but is detailed with some paranoid pads that keep you on edge while 'BBB002B' rides a nice gritty, propulsive beat and has some wonky, detuned keys adding colour. Another great outing from this low-key but high-quality label.

Review: Steve O'Sullivan returns to Phonogramme Records with his latest EP, Tribal Dubs, a strong three-track offering that exemplifies his mastery of deep grooves and atmospheric textures. Building on the success of his debut on the label, O'Sullivan reaffirms his position as a leading figure in the techno scene with this mesmerising release. The EP's title track, 'No Aura,' sets the tone with its hypnotic rhythms and immersive soundscapes, while 'We Got Dis' on Side 2 delivers a deep, looped tech-house burner that is both hypnotic and irresistibly funky. Closing the EP is 'Tribal Dub,' a sultry and deep exploration of dub-infused house music that further showcases O'Sullivan's talent for pushing boundaries while maintaining his signature style.With Tribal Dubs, Steve O'Sullivan demonstrates once again why he is regarded as one of techno's most respected artists, delivering an exceptional release.

Review: Short Attention Records makes a welcome return here with a new drop of wax that fits the label head into its roots in deep techno sound worlds. This one takes the form of a various artists' EP crafted with an intake feel for cosy floors and who better to kick off in that vibe than the revered Lawrence whose 'Hawser' is a groovy and melodious track. Next, New Jersey don Joey Anderson sets a slow and deep tone with 'Human Kind' which has moody vocals and Japanese artist Takuya Matsumoto follows with 'Three Flowers', a more potent and driving cut with a fine acid bassline. Rounding off the EP is 'Desired Spring' by R/K, a loop-driven deep house gem designed for both listening and dancing.

Review: The latest V/A sampler record by Toolroom Records comes in the shadow of unfortunate news in regards to singer Kathy Brown, who, last we heard, was battling stage four cancer. Brown is the original featuring singer of Praxis' 'Turn Me Out'; her vocal contribution to the track has since gone sampled by many a deep and jackin' house producer, owing to its standout "work me with temptation" lyric, whose simple injunction and passionate delivery would seem to bottle the essence of an era (of overwork, of temptation, of desire). Now Toolroom continue to dedicate their latest releases to Brown in her honour; this time, her 'Turn Me Out' vocal is reworked into 'Turn Me Deeper', featuring a star cast of organ-synth peddling, deep house foundation-shattering producers (Wh0, Mark Knight, James Hurr), backed up by contributions by the likes of Shadow Child, Low Steppa and Maur as addenda.

Review: Scale Factor is a new label about which we know nothing other than acclaimed French house producer Brawther is the man to kick it off. He takes things back to basics here with some club rocking but still deft and stylish club tools. 'Shire' opens up with spinning hi-hats and solid, thudding kick run though with some bleeping sci-fi synths. On the flip is the more wonky and unhinged 'Aferrafters' with vocal fragments and warped synths running through the slick house drums. Two essential jams for DJs and dancers alike from the cultured Frenchman.

Review: DXNBY has dropped only one record as far as we can tell, and that was back in 2021 on the Accussi Records label. Now He's back on the fledgling TRMNL with Ozone, a clear luminous 12" with two tech originals and a remix. The title cut is an effervescing cut with fizzy synths and metallic drums underpinned by a pumped-up, garage-leaning beat that never stops shuffling. 'No Return' is more compact but no less physical and again taps into garage styles but with a minimal tech aesthetic. Last of all, 'Ozone' (Marsolo remix) is more cosmic with layers of synth taking into new realms.

Review: It's reissue time for one of the most in demand records from the Trelik catalogue, featuring Baby Ford and Thomas Melchior under their Sunpeople alias. The flip side's opening track 'Check Your Buddah' is probably the best known of the four tracks here, with its spacious echoes, mantra-like voices and heads down beats, but there's plenty to be said for the other three. 'Lovers Eyes' is an equally dubby techno affair, but pinned down by sturdy, infectious beats, 'Sungods Wedding' is blessed with churning, warm bass action and just a smidge of cowbell and 'Make It Right' is properly hypnotic 3am gear that's a dream to mix and draws in the listener with its imperceptible builds and three note bleep magic. Worship the Sun!

Review: Romanian talent Rhadow steps up to the master plate for his latest vinyl-impressing, 'Indigo', with the pressing plant itself this time leased to the noble vassals over at Bondage Music. Bringing that slippery, high-technical progressive lubricant to the minimal house form, 'Indigo' works in sultry vocal yowls and naturalistic glitches to an overall drum-driven, ritualistic vhybe. 'Coral Lines' demarcates the living ley lines of the various reefs of the world, via similarly subnautical plucks and stabs; meanwhile, Mihai Popoviciu and NTFO bring one remix each to each respective track, flicking things into an ever-so-slightly more disco-ic direction in the latter case.

Review: Few in electronic music have the wizardry on synths as Mathew Jonson, the classically trained jazzman who brings endless invention and rich design to his tracks. Many of them over the years have come on the Crosstown Rebels label and that is where he lands now. 'Tako Tako' kicks off with inquisitive leads that come with a sense of uncertainty and paranoia over thudding deep techno drums. On the flip side is 'Just A Little Bit' with its snappy finger clicks and bubbling drums that are lithe and rubbery. It's another terrific two-tracker from this legend of the scene.

Review: Burnski's Constant Black kicks with yet more robust tech house for considered dance floors. This one comes from the ever-present underground stalwart Diego Krause and he opens with 'Bound', a perfectly driving and deep cut with slinky drums and smart vocals that are brought to life with sci-fi synth effects. 'Munro' is brilliantly lithe and elegant, with wispy synth motifs peeling off a super smooth and slinky groove. 'Phantom' ups the pace with a little more tech house urgency but still plenty of deftly designed cosmic pads. 'Flux' shuts down with kinetic, tightly coiled drum funk and popping neon colours. Great work all around from Krause.

Review: The well regarded Slow Life has always operated in in-between sound worlds that mix up techno, house and electro. It is Will Do who steps up for the label's latest release and once again subverts expectation across four fresh cuts. There is a cosmic energy to the zippy synths of old school tech house cut 'This Is Your Life (4am mix) while 'Final Space' is a more zoned out cruise on loose synth trails and snappy beats. 'Solaris' gets more direct but still operates in an astral world between the stars and 'Obsession' rounds things out with the sort of warming house glow that you want to feel when the sun starts to come up.

Review: PIV Limited is one of those white-hot labels that has its own universe of artists, dedicated fans, and even parties soul in places like Ibiza. The vibes are rooted in house with a slick future feel. Dennis Quinn is behind this new one which has a serious nod to the deep house don Kerri Chandler on opener 'Treat You Right (feat Cheshy)' with its bulky kicks, chord vamps and diva vocal. 'Impressions' has a more heady and blissed out feel with sunny chords and Roy Ayers style vibes. 'Touched' brings some raw, heavy house sounds for the warehouse and a Classy dub mix of the opera brings things to a sweaty close.

Review: Dim Kelly has previously proven to be one All Day I Dream's most reliable contributors, unleashing a series of EPs full to bursting with emotive, soaring and subtly tech-tinged progressive house treats. He has a trademark sound of sorts - think sweeping strings, life-affirming melodies and sumptuously dreamy chords - and it can be heard loud and clear on his latest three-tracker. Check first Mondigo collaboration 'Homily', where eyes-closed male vocals and melancholic piano motifs rise above immersive chords and suspenseful tech-house beats, before admiring the more uplifting and colourful dancefloor bliss of the Maya Safar-voiced 'Like When We Love'. To round off another immaculate EP, Kelly reaches for twinkling pianos, luscious orchestration and more metronomic beats ('Rising Child').

Review: Kristin Velvet drops her debut 12" for Crosstown Rebels with 'Wasp Nest'. The central tune on the record is a quintessential slice of novelty dance music; much like many house and techno hall-of-famers who've cracked one of many formulae for what, exactly, makes an underground hit, so too has Velvet done just that: make your lead line sound like a recognisable sound, either from nature the everyday of life the listener, and then name your tune after it. Patently, the lead line of 'Wasp Nest' sounds like the incessant apian buzzing of a swarm of hornets; Velvet cleverly hard-pans the saw tone to the left and right channels, heightening the sense of angst nigh irritation born of an insect whizzing past one ear; she then indulges a crazed sort of 'dispersing' sound, where the tone expands further outwards in a deeply arresting manner, as if we've kicked the nest and now we're really in for it. Fred P makes a whopping three appearances across the record too, continually reshaping the auxilliary immerser 'Get Down' until the painful thrum of the ovipositor's toxin is soothed. Be quick off the mark with this one, lest you end up stung to the quick.

Review: We'd have never guessed that the (originally) dubstep producer Loefah would land a release on the principally juke and footwork label Teklife and decide, of all things, to give them three acid techno tunes. The linkages aren't as tenuous as it sounds, though: anything more than a cursory listen will unveil the unmistakable Chicago house influences on this otherwise London-born burrer. With the 197 bus to Croydon held firmly in mind, both 'Jump Start' and 'Nines' lay down respectively riveting fidgets, and recall lost fantasies of juke competitions in deep South London community centres, that in reality never happened - though we still know, feel, that deep down there is a more primal dialogue at play between the two cities. On track 3, this dialogue is extended with an official collab with ghetto house pioneer DJ Deeon, whose overt displays of sample-vocalled sexuality put the genre on the map; here, though, he rerubs Loefah's A-side, tubing his acid line through a veritable warp-sped drive, and causing the track to take its fullest flight.

Review: Wisdom Tooth co-founder Facta has always brought plenty of colour to his blends of house, bass and club music. Both rhythmically inventive and dancefloor-ready, his work is also always full of playfulness and emotion. So is the Sun is another EP that follows in that fine tradition with opener 'A X I S' laying down bumping drums and warming sub-bass under crisp hits and whimsical neon pads. 'Innsbruck' is another sugary sweet blend of thudding, rubbery drums and naive melodies that truly captivate. Add in two more charming club cuts and you have a superb return from this ever-green talent.

Review: Since making his debut way back in 2007, Christian Burkhardt has amassed an impressive discography - including numerous releases on such high-profile imprints as Cocoon, Eastenderz, Raum:Musik and Oslo. Here he returns to wax for the first time in four years via a rock-solid EP on Rawax. The German producer begins with 'Dice Pop', a tactile and spacey nod to formative, mid-90s tech-house with added sonic dreaminess, before reaching for shuffling breakbeat-house beats, ghostly electronics and raw analogue bass on 'But What'. Burkhardt opts for a bass-heavy, spacey and hypnotic flex on 'Bee Gees', while 'Twofour' is a druggy and mind-altering minimal house roller.

Review: Vessel Recordings Group is a US label operated by Ira James and next up is Natural Rhythm aka the duo of Thomas White and Pete Williams. They have been working since the 90s on their own brand of house and as this EP shows it is stylish, rooted in tradition but full of contemporary designs. 'Jillybean' is raw, stripped back and perfect for backrooms. 'The Chase' is a slamming cut that pushes on with classic vocal samples twisted into something new, and great swing. 'Son Of Orange' is another lo-fi, high-class house sound with real weight and machine soul and 'Pocket Ops' closes out with dubby techno energy. A fantastic, no-frills EP to get this label underway.

Review: Reboot and Cecile are two names that will mean a lot to long time tech house fans. They have been shaping its sound for more than 15 years so for them to be reunited has some fine nostalgic appeal. This EP opens with 'Ready To Flow' which is a thumping cut that's dense with warped voices and metallic synths. 'Alicat' is a more lo-fi affair with dusty drums and heart aching vocals that add a nagging melancholy to the chugging drums. 'Red House' shuts down with some edgy breakbeats driving along beneath trippy out synth details. Captivating stuff as ever from this German mainstay.

Review: Renowned Curacao-born electronic duo Shermanology are back with a new four-tracker on their cutting-edge label, D'EAUPE. Known for their dynamic sound and genre-blending prowess, Shermanology have become a real force in electronic music with infectious beats and soulful vocals that exemplify their ability to unite diverse influences on the dance floor. This EP underscores that with a quartet of fresh final tunes, innovative rhythm and the sort of characterful sound designs that always make their tunes pop out in any setting.

Review: Fresh French label Digger exemplifies its international focus with an opening release from Minority Retort. Operating out of the Digger record shop in Curitiba, their emphasis on selling the music of local talents with those from across the pond extends well to their original curatorship here, with Retort's focus on kitsch electro and breaks doing well to testify their eclecticism. 'Can't Give Up' and 'Voxes' helm up the A-side with disembodied speak n' spells and one-off motivational vox-pops, all peppered across a well-packed like ghostly goings-on witnessed in a pressing plant; 'It's Me' and 'Barking Dog' contrast to this with flatter, more minimal beats and, in the case of the B, a more experimental, kookier palette of sounds and FX.

Review: The sublime minimal sounds of Atipic are enough t melt the minds of anyone when heard on the right sound system at 5am. Dumitrescu is next up to take the baton for the label and his contribution is up there and is as good as any of the previous 18. '019 1' marries grinding grooves to smeared sci-fi pads and spoken words from a spacecraft's tannoy system. '019 2' is more balmy with some colourful synth motifs and gurgling basslines bring the snappy beats to life. '019 3' rides on deft and dusty breakbeats with sustained synth swirls adding plenty of cosmic energy and closer '019 4' has a more playful side but still plenty of zippy synth work.

Review: Bosko Balos's High Energy EP is a delightful fusion of classic house and techno sounds, exuding a vibrant 90s vibe. On Side-1, the title track 'High Energy' lives up to its name with a bouncy, techno-infused rhythm and a catchy deep groove bassline that strikes a perfect balance between techy and housey elements. 'Auch' (Euphoria mix) follows with its spacey sounds and fun breakbeat, creating an infectious, upbeat atmosphere. Side-2 kicks off with 'Bakda' (Pirate mix), which cleverly samples Salt-N-Pepa's 'Push It', bringing a nostalgic classic house sound to the forefront. 'Let The Bass Kick' closes the EP with an homage to ravey sounds, seamlessly mixed into a house track. This EP is full of fun and energetic retro vibes. These tracks will bring a smile to your face!

Review: Leeds-to-Brighton dance favourite K-Lone (Wisdom Teeth) locks in a fearless new one for Aus Music, his first outing for the esteemed international dance music label. The first of an alleged two new EPs, this first instalment nods to UKG and house flavours, treading the more minimal waters of the otherwise deep and daunting-to-brave K-Lone ambit. We begin on the carefree 'Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah', a bounce like no other; it earns this assessment as such through its stark contrasted use of clippy drums and smeared vocal torpors, making for a dynamic dancefloor dreamspace. Then there's 'Broke Root', which sounds rather like what the name evokes; endlessly trippy and shape-cutting roots curl and furl underfoot. As ever with the K-Lone, noth tracks are polished and rounded with a sense of finesse that only a seasoned UK artist such as him can muster.

Review: We're fully signed up fans of the work that Hedzup has been doing. It's a house label that works at the electronic end of the spectrum and likes to bring in weird and wonderful sound deigns next to their high speed beats. This new VA is a great window into their world for first timers, or another essential 12" for those already in the know. JNJS's 'Two Girls' is perfectly colourful and vibrant stuff with retro touches and future feels, Vern's 'Sunlake' is a nice cosmic cruise and Enzo Leep and Matpri on the flip both keep the silky and seductive sounds coming thick and fast.

Review: Standout Romanian producer makes a welcomed visit to the Rawax camp. The 'Metaphor EP' is a sublime example of superior primetime house music. 'The Wine Glass' is most optimal for dense crowds not worried about a little sweat and perhaps not enough foot space on the dancefloor. In fact, they love that! This is that kind of house music where you get happily drawn to the floor. 'Heal Dealer' adds a bit of acid and a beautiful underlying melody that is perfect for eyes closed listening moments. 'Doremi' is the ideal B-side as the deeper side to things, then the title track finishing off in style. Ali brings a great balance of techno and house to his sound. Rawax puts out a lot of music it seems like and when it's of this calibre, we just say bring us more!

Review: NTFO is back with more of that dance floor goodness on the Sintope Vinyl Series and kicks off this one with 'Richie Rich'. It's a future vibe with spoken words adding intrigue to the bumping tech beats. Swiss talent Aron steps up to remix and does so by layering in a brilliantly flabby bassline and locking you into a hypnotic groove. 'Collider' then brings more lightness with a skippy rhythm and nice lively snares over balmy pads. Closer 'Encore' brings a final flourish of intergalactic synth work and rueful atmospheres over sleek and stylish drums.