DJS: MOST CHARTED - MINIMAL / TECH - MOST CHARTED IN FEBRUARY 2014

Review: ** Repress ** Almost twelve months after he first debuted on Clone Jack For Daze, L-Vis 1990 returns to the Rotterdam label with a 12" that features the first new material under his Dance System alias. First introduced on a mix for DIS magazine that featured a glut of the producer's Chicago influences like Paul Johnson and DJ Deeon, original material under the Dance System name takes a similarly Dance Mania influenced approach. Four tracks deep, this EP demonstrates the New York-based Night Slugs CEO has the energising functionality of Ghetto House down to a tee and look out for "Move It" which sees Connolly draw a direct line to Dance Mania's lineage. Here the producer teams up with Jammin Gerald whose titular vocal hook is thrown about with the same gleeful abandon as the rusted key line

Review: For the Juno review team, Munich record shop turned label Public Possession were one of last year's breakthrough operations with killer releases from Bell Towers, Matthew Brown and Tambien complemented by some fine sleeve design. Marvin & Valentino, Public Possession's founders, team up once again with fellow Munchner Bartellow for some hot new Tambien jams on PP following that excellent ESP Institute 12" late last year. A metallic sticker adorning the front of the record sleeve offers handy track descriptions from Tambien themselves, who state lead track "Overheater" is filled with heavy afro vibes and percussion workouts. For us Hanna Barbera fans however, the real knockout punch from Tambien is "UGLI Elevator" that features some killer cartoon samples!! Final track "Hans Renegade" is the cut the more serious techno selectors will draw for.

Review: Always a sure fire hit for restrained and slender house music, this release on Aspect Music actually finds Thomas Melchior in something of a wistful mood as he lays down some heavy pads and chords over the top of a trademark beat on "The Blessing". It's a drifting affair far removed from his concise style, until of course the record is flipped and you can find him digging into a linear shuffle of highest-grade micro house. Even then, there is more at work in the mix from sassy synth moves to busy percussion sounds that suggests Melchior is fattening out his sound a little these days, and he's not sounding any poorer for it.

Review: It's a good time for fans of 2020 Vision boss Ralph Lawson as his production career enjoys a resurgence thanks in no small part to the high calibre of producers he has linked up with over the years. Chez Damier too has enjoyed some reissue love lately, and their partnership yielded plenty of fruits, including this impeccably crafted tech house burner "The Moment", all submerged chords and urgent rhythmic thrust. "Attraction" with Tuccillo is a lighter affair, dropping some catchy arpeggios and friendly chord stabs into a snappy deep house number, while "Lost In Time" finds Carl Finlow lending a hand for a sultry blend of brooding bass and ambient haze.

Review: Colin McBean is back on the case with yet more of his refined house reductions, whipping up a trio of high grade deep house considerations with all the elements you want from a Mr G record. "P Bar Jam" makes no bones about its inspiration, stamping out an energetic but utterly streamlined kind of club track that makes the most of a catchy chord line without ever pushing too hard, the drums dutifully ticking along, the sub bass wobbling underneath but everything in perfect harmony. It's the same on "Tripped Out", albeit in the context of a more introspective jam that would fare better away from the peak time glare. "End Of Day Jam" too speaks to a more mellow situation, in this case letting some sweet organ notes warm the cockles over a delicate but purposeful groove.

Review: Recently highlighted as one of the labels cultivating The Future Sound of Clapton, the long running Third Ear come through here with a release that's more Future Sounds of Paris! Returning to El Prevost's Ash EP, the label commission Apollonia pair Dan Ghenacia and Shonky to rework "Alley Ally" from El Prevost and D.Ham. In original form the track was already fairly warped - and indeed opened Fabric 70 from Apollonia - but is given a whole new lease of life on this set of remixes. Harder and funkier, Ghenacia and Shonky's respective efforts are complemented by a new "Deptford Dub" take from Prevost himself. Those mistaking dub version for instrumental be warned, this is dub in the traditional sense, heavy on the delay! The OG version is also included for those who missed first time round!

Review: The Achterbahn D'Amour pairing of Johannes "Iron Curtis" Paluka and Jurgen "Jool" Albert (formerly Edit Piafra) return to the Acid Test series with a debut album Odd Movements. Since the project first emerged on Absurd's dedicated acid offshoot in 2011, Achterbahn D'Amour have become mainstays of the series and encapsulated the experimental ethos of the series and displayed a true reverence for the classic 303 and 606 Roland machines. After a relatively low key 2013 with just the two Acid Test releases from regular contributor Tin Man and famed Frenchman Pepe Bradock, Odd Movements is a statement of intent and sits nicely alongside the other Acid Test long players from Recondite and Tin Man whilst demonstrating the format suits Albert and Pakula well.

Review: The first release for both Sensual Rec. and Dario Reimann is a minimally and dour EP of stripped Euro-centric grooves. It's perhaps "Square Dub" and "Take Four" which best present this, both harbouring so much crackly nothingness that without their soft pitter-patter beats they would still be danceable. "Money count Dub" on the other hand is driven by its drums, percussion and acoustic-style atmospheres, while a phase-affected "Being Square" is hypnotic house made petite.

Review: As they hit release number six Chicago's Episodes label reach out beyond their regular circle of producers and invite a fellow Windy City dweller to extol the virtues of outboard gear. Compared to the rough edges of Ike Release, Hakim Hurphy and the label as a whole, G Marcell's approach is a smoother one, allowing plenty of drifting synth lines and gently tempered drums into the mix for a worthy take on yearning techno and homespun house music. From the gentler shades of "I Be Damn" to the jarring jack of "Strange Blu Fish" there is a great focus on futuristic synth lines for all times and places, and it gives G Marcell a character all of his own.

Review: Joakim's vinyl only Crowdspacer label may have launched in headline-grabbing fashion with a collaborative 12" release featuring Jam City and Kindness, but it's subsequently settled into a low-key groove that has suited its output. Crowdspacer 12"s from Yes Wizard, Cray 76 and POV have been geared for the club not the content farm and it's been nice to see the label develop away from the spotlight. Master & Servant, the latest Crowdspacer record sees Cray76 return - speculation is it's the work of Mr Bazooka himself, we couldn't possibly say - and it contains two further melodic tools for the more discerning selectors out there, with "Servant" as good as anything that's been released on Tigersushi.

Review: As well as being a reliable outlet for the refined works of label owner Patrice Scott, Sistrum occasionally dabble in the art of the V/A split releases and they are consistently as on point. This four pronged Genesis Tracks 12" is a case in point, featuring the collective talents of Modular One, Johannes Volk, Marco Zenker and Sharif Anderson. Listening to lead track "Quasar" from Modular One, it's easy to see why Scott was drawn to this apparent newcomer, the production filled with the kind of deepness and purity of sound you expect from the Detroit producer himself. Having remixed Scott for Sistrum back in 2011, Johannes Volk makes his debut proper with the dubby yet elastic sounding "Stream" whilst "Second Flight" from Marco Zenker could pass for a NWAQ jam! Another newcomer rounds out Genesis Tracks in style with "Future Acid Test" from Sharif Anderson wedged neatly between the functional and the psychedelic.

Review: Focusing specifically on one release from 2013, Djebali commissions a pair of remixes to bring other acts into his self-focused label project, starting with Christian Burkhardt and his version of "The Ultimate Dare". It's a heads down affair with stout house drums and a dirty synth hook for the later end of the evening. Hreno and The Mole meanwhile take a different approach when remixing "Sun Rise Way", getting into a deep down chug that speaks to their twitchy musical personalities while keeping a disco locomotion to the track at all times. In between the kinky samples there's time for some warming chords to keep things from getting too alien.

Review: There's seemingly never a shortage of quality Romanian minimal at the moment, and emergent producer Cristi Cons is making a decisive step up in delivering the goods for Seuil's Eklo imprint. The A-side track "Recognize Me" is a measured, stripped-down affair that turns out a hypnotic spread of samples in the distance while keeping the rhythmic elements in the foreground snappy. The B-Side is where this record truly takes off though, as an aqueous and yet tightly honed melodic rub works in between the cracks of pristine percussion, boasting a techno propulsion but with the atmosphere of dubbiest deep house.

Review: The mysterious Owl imprint returns for another round of reduced grooves and thoughtful textures that look beyond dancing concerns to a more arty kind of house music premise. There's definitely a strung-out jazz influence hanging over "Track 1" as typified by the woozy horn samples, but it's matched by subdued strangeness from the additional synth work. "Track 2" is quite a different beast, getting into a tricky electro beat over which to fly a spread of vocal snatches and some oddball bass synth action with an end result that comes on like a modern-day answer to The Art Of Noise.

Review: Recent times have seen Gerd Janson and Phil Lauer focus on developing their Tuff City Kids project into a fully fledged production unit, with a EP on Delsin complementing the usual raft of remixes the pair get involved in, which include Internasjonal, Phantasy, DFA, Visionquest and Mojuba this year. This new Running Back record sees the pair revert to their other successful ongoing partnership, with Janson as label owner and Lauer as artist. Entitled Laui XIV, this four track 12" is the first solo Lauer record since last year's superlative BIS transmission and lives up to the label's billing as "Post-house-proto-disco-trance rockets fuelled by new wave and sound transmissions from middle-wave Caucasus". Lead track "Tyler" is a particular delight, filled with the sort of effervescent, rich sonic qualities that Phillip has made his name on!

Review: It's been a long time, 22 years in fact, but finally Detroit champion Terence Parker makes his way on to Carl Craig's Planet E, and he does so in style. His Life On The Back 9 album is Parker's first full length since his 1998 LP, Strong Songs Album, and it sees the loved DJ and producer dominating more Rhodes, drum machines and synthesisers. He's create a cohesive album of classic American house music to appease the sweaty underground club ("Saved Forever" and "Pentecost" and "God he Is") to the Ibiza podiums ("Finally" and "Hiding In Your Love") to more chilled out environments ("The Friend I Lost" and "The Back 9"). Terrence Parker is back people!

Review: As Assemble continues to deliver the kind of minimal techno that got people into it in the first place, so Daze Maxim steps up to this remit with a distinctive offering that shows off his skills and imagination while injecting some energy into the re-emergent scene. "Beginning An Ending" has some off-kilter chords that punch out of the track to great effect, giving the alien drum set and bubbly bassline a sense of purpose that makes for a distinctive and slightly unhinged dancefloor cut. Baby Ford turns out a remix that smooths out those rambunctious elements with elegant pad lines, hypnotic repetition and the kind of seductive nocturnal atmosphere that only he can create.

Review: If you want three intricate cuts of finely attuned minimal house, Stathis Lazarides and Archie Hamilton got you covered this time. It seems these types of artist put as much effort into making their beats as quiet as possible as what industrial techno producers do making their drums smack you in the face. The hook in "Mormonian Grey" is a warped metallic hit and snare smack that adds lucidness to an already fluid groove, while "Billy Idol" flips the latter's rhythm on its head - toning down any effects - in a track which rolls with same pop that pockets of air make escaping water. London-based Greek producer Alex Cellar remixes this track, defining his beats more than the original, while adding some extra textures and reverberating atmos.

Review: The label arm of multi-faceted collective Moreaboutmusic returns with its first release of 2014, the Prisma EP from Italian duo Rio Padice and Massimo De Lena. Ever the winning combination, you know what to expect from these founding members of the Early Sounds label; raw house and techno music that touches the soul as well as the feet. There's a subtle sweetness deep in opening track "Huge N Net" apparent in the intermittent dolphin-esque warbling and glistening chords that acts as a neat foil to the toughness of the groove. "Lost Ones" will probably be the cut that DJs return to, and is a highlight of this release along with the crunchy delight that is "Note Ignote".