New releases last two weeks: Minimal/Tech House

Review: The creative partnership between Tiga & Hudson Mohawke expresses a mutual love of "hardcore romance," a liminal state where the bounds between euphoria, melancholy and the raw power of friendship disintegrate completely. Recorded in Los Angeles from 2019-2023, these commonalities ebbed and flowed through various recording sessions, culminating in their debut album - L'Ecstacy - the sounds in which "all come from the same place, the same musical universe," in Hudson Mohawke's own words. Referencing the album's locus of bouncy elasticity and cinematic gloss - "we're building a particular kind of zone where it all fits together. A place lost in time." With guest appearances by luminaries like Abra, Channel Tres, and Jesse Boykins III, as well as album artwork by Wolfgang Tillmans, the result is delivered with "no apology, no cynicism, no irony, no winking."

Review: Premier dub techno outlet Greyscale from Lithuania welcomes back Lotech/Hijack following the success of his last album here, Static Phase. He has served up another full length's worth of sublime deep dub techno explorations here, and that marks his rather remarkable 36th full length in total. Winter Constellations is inspired by the Canadian's love of star gazing and the vastness of space and results in plenty of widescreen and cinematic tracks that are subtly detailed with celestial moods. From the power of 'Let's Forget Who We Are' to the infinite depth of 'Auriga' via the airiness of 'Night Sky Dreaming' and 'Horologium', this is another masterfully immersive work that really exploits the album format.