Back catalogue: Minimal/Tech House

Review: Repeat Records are currently embarking on a multi-part series of longtime DJ Eddie Richards' earliest tracks, and this second journey - that's right - follows up the first waxen time capsule to appear so far. Richards' behind-the-booth adventurousness is often credited as one of the instrumental factors in the spread of house music in the UK, and doesn't 'Time Travel' show it. Lesser known as a producer but still much respected in said niche, several choice slab-grooves from Richards' early noughts numbers are selected here: track two from 2002's 'The Dark' EP, 'Underskopje' from that same year's Kubrickian tech house hurler 'Open The Pod Door' EP, and a legitly deep cut from the AA2 side of Richards' Othersound debut 'Dope'. One for early tech house heads, when the genre was still innocent and real experts reigned supreme.

Review: One of the "Godfathers of UK tech house" (there are many contenders for this unofficial crown), Eddie Richards began the Time Travel series to reposition this snappy sound in its most modern form. Ironically, this means travelling back in time, then revisiting the present with older, better tools. Tech house was born in London, and yet in terms of popularity and influence, it has transmigrated to the furthest-flung regions of Europe and Asia in quicktime. How can we possibly reintegrate its original sound, let alone refind it? A veteran of the unstoppable waterwheel that was Camden Palace, Richards makes as honest an attempt as you can hope for. He doesn't bother with track-titular profundity, instead embracing names like 'Dream2', 'Moody' and 'Eightone8', suggesting tech house, despite the "tech", should be an off-the-cuff sound, one not chiselled and burnished to perfection. 'Danger' and 'Tease' are proper blemished tech house mother-genes, while for the 'Love Is (Dub)' crosses into u-chambered dubtech territory, with a bespoke, rebarred hi-hat to boot.