Juno Recommends Minimal / Tech House September 2021

Review: The Beeyou crew are buzzing around once again, this time with The Digger EP which sees the return of a few label mainstays as well as some new bees entering the hive. Laidlaw & Le Louche kick off the A1 combining for AH HA. Although the name may sound funny, the beat is anything but that with serious grooves and a wicked bassline. The dutch powerhouse that is Julian Anthony returns to the label with the driving thumper Zero Gravity, which also comes with a "dance floor destroyer" warning attached. On the B side Zach Murray & Jake Kav take us deep & bubbly with Force Of Nature before rising talent Harry Felce rounds things off with Tantrum, a solid rave inspired flavour that combines the best of the 90s with a new UK sound.

Review: Up The Stuss is the still young record label from American Chris Stussy. It is carving out its own niche in house music with a spaced out but funky electronic style that nods to the 90s but very much looks forwards. This fifth EP is a split between Djoko and Kolter, and all the tracks are destined for plenty of high profile deployments this summer and beyond. Djoko's trip of tunes include the silky and seductive depths of 'Unknown Territory,' bumping beats of 'My Bad Your Fault' and crisp, kicking future house of 'My Dog Never Barks.' Kolter's 'Your Love My Pain' closes out with a nice airy breakbeat and rubbery bass goodness.

Review: Harvey Jones is on a roll this year, landing releases on Ranges and Echocord and promptly following them up with this refined joint for Ornate Music. He's got a full bodied take on tech house that favours deep, meditative moods but expresses them through bold, richly rendered synth lines and crisp but warm drums. 'New Speak' has a taut house groove powering it, but the mellifluous ebb and flow of the chord line keeps things soft and sensual, while 'Old Speak' plumbs into a dub techno irrigation system without shirking it's responsibilities to the dancefloor. Nail's remix of 'New Speak' amps up the bump, hitting that sweet spot where chunky house music can still cool you down.

Review: The Eastenderz label sets a gold standard when it comes to dubbed out tech house. While always offering functional tackle for the floor, it is never devoid of character, and this new one from Dimmish is another fine case in point. The drums, synths and vocals of 'Burning Down' are so silky that cannot fail to get you in a spin. 'Forget Me' keeps up the seductive but punchy vibes with balmy pads and louche drums and the flip side voyages into space with the squelchy astral funk of 'Pickwick' and 90s-tinged tech of 'Martenitsa'. A great EP.

Review: Gene on Earth has spent the last few years establishing Limousine Dream as an outlet for his productions but has now decided to get other like-minded producers involved. The Sound of Limo, an expansive compilation of previously unheard treats, is his way of introducing us to his new family of artists. There's plenty to set the pulse racing throughout, with highlights including the bouncy and spacey deep house flex of Sweely's 'Shut Up & Stay Home', the pumping, warehouse-ready vibe of Huerta's suitably intergalactic 'Steve's Limo Track', the dreamy breakbeat-house bustle of Liquid Earth's 'Yorbalinda Breaks', the hypnotic dancefloor deepness of Sugar Free's 'Hazme Sonar' and the lolloping, laidback headiness of Roza Terenzi's superb 'Snow Dive'.

Review: The reborn Nu Groove label continues to serve up some rather good new music. The New York imprint's latest 12" is a split affair. Veteran New Jersey producer Harry 'Choo Choo' Romero handles side A, first adding warming, traditional Nu Groove sounds and jazzy disco bass with heavy, tribal-influenced house beats on 'I Love', before successfully updating NJ garage on the organ-heavy 'The City'. On the flip there's a debut from Trilogy Inc, an anonymous project reportedly helmed by "one of the UK's most esteemed house duos of the 80s and 90s". They begin with the stabbing analogue bass, bouncy beats and swirling vocal snippets of '313', before opting for a denser, heavier and more up-front sound on acid-flecked jack-track 'Calling'.

Review: It has been more than 15 years - wow - since German duo Ame secured their legacy in the electronic world with 'Rej.' It is a tune that put them on the map, established their Innervisions label as a vital vice in the contemporary landscape and inspired countless soundalikes. All these years on it finally gets an official reissue and still very much captivates the floor in the same way it did back then. It's an emotive, artsy sound with carefully sequenced synths rising and falling through the scales with long, drawn-out grooves sinking you into a hypnotic state before the hands in the air breakdown and drop. Flip it over and 'Basically Track' is a killer dub tech cut that is just as good.

Review: We might all be locked at home with no prospect of any serious dancefloor action before the end of the year, but when we do get allowed out again, boy will there be plenty of high grade weaponry for DJs to choose from. Aesthetic's 14th EP is one such offering, with four artists all serving up one tech house track each. And what good stuff it is too, with Gruia keeping it light and airy but locked to supple beat, and Ciphr inviting us deep down into a dubby, stripped back cavern of deft sound design and lovely wooden hits. On the back side is Benjamin Joseph's more urgent and direct 'Vice' and a mind melting number from Rodrigo that bends space and time.

Review: Silat Beksi has been busy this year. Remarkably, this expansive double-pack on Burnski's Constant Black label - officially his second full-length excursion and first for six years - is the Ukrainian producer's fifth vinyl missive of 2020. Mate is a fluid, off-kilter and sonically detailed affair, with manipulated jazz samples, oddball spoken word snippets and pots-and-pans percussion mingling with outer-space tech-house grooves, bouncy deep house rhythms, the eccentric stereo panning of Ricardo Villalobos and the locked-in hypnotism of Eastern European minimal techno. It's a sonic palette that guarantees thrills throughout, with Beksi doing a brilliant job of showcasing his distinctive production style.

Review: Over a career stretching back almost two decades, Robag Wruhme has proved to be one of minimal house and techno's most unique producers, with a trademark sound that's become a byword for mind-altering, late-night quality. Fans of the Wruhme sound will love his latest outing on Kompakt extra. Our pick of the pair is driving A-side 'No', where mystical sounds, exotic percussion and sustained chords rise above a thrusting bassline and a rock-solid drum machine rhythm. By his standards it's quite "big", though that's not a criticism - 'No' genuinely sounds like a proper peak-time banger. B-side 'Frontex Freppant' is more in-keeping with his hazy, hypnotic sound of old, with stabbing electronics, looped aural textures and wonky electronics clustered around another tough, weighty techno groove.

Review: Supremely prolific artist SNAD is back with another of his majestic new EPs. It manages to serve up a fresh new take on tech house grooves with precise sound synthesis that is deep and cinematic. 'The Underlying Granular Structure Of Spacetime' is a freeform cut with flapping kicks and hits, nebulous sci-fi pads and muffled vocals from another dimension. Then there is the crisp neon melody and lithe drums of 'Thaw,' 'First Flake' with its deeper drum work and icy cool hi hats and the fantastic closer 'The Extract.' This might be the tune of the EP with its flurry of delicate breakbeats and off-grid synths.

Review: Some two years on from his last outing - a fine contribution to Botanic Minds' excellent Sunset Series - Barut returns to action, this time on Ibizan record shop More Than Music's offshoot label. He's in typically deep and dreamy former on title track 'Cuantiz', wrapping gently psychedelic electronics, dreamy aural textures and pulsing chords around a hypnotic, locked-in tech-house groove. The Miami-based producer opts for a slightly heavier and more druggy sound on tech-house box jam 'Legunia', before reaching for creepy chords, thickset analogue bass and weirdo sounds aplenty on 'Decima'. Piku steps up to remix the latter track, delivering a heavier and more stripped-back take notable for a throbbing bassline and deep, echoing synth stabs.

Review: After a steady run of hot 12"s for the likes of Rutilance and Squeeze The Lemon, Paolo Macri has landed on Lowmoneymusiclove with a bubbly brand of oddball house music to get the party wriggling in all the right ways. 'Dance Traxx' has a cornucopia of cheeky synths vying for your attention, from squelchy bass to wah-wah leads, and the sound palette carries through to the slightly deeper 'Progressivo 4 AM'. 'Hot Wings' on the B side has a little garage organ thrown into the mix with some dreamy pads and a tough beat, while 'Digital Deceivers' gets some twitchy drum patterns into the mix without losing that overriding melodic sensibility Macri is making all his own.

Review: It's been a while since we last heard from deep cover tech house crew OdD, but finally they're back on their own label OdD Music. As demonstrated throughout their discography, the pairing of Damian Daley and Danny Dixon have a unique touch when it comes to their craft, edging a little bite and verve into their productions which is instantly more interesting than 90% of music in the close vicinity. Even the comparatively minimal '1m Pendulum' has more than enough intrigue in the looping phrases darting around the groove. 'Hotep' has an almost French micro house flavour to it, but with a little UK rudeness when it reaches the final third. 'Obelisk' takes the prize though, edging some genuinely moving keys into the mix across a long form, live-feeling techno trip-out.

Review: Corentin Chantrell, aka Occibel, is a Parisian artist who has the decent job of taking care of Tessellate's 10th EP. The young artist has come through with great material for Unanime and INSOUND amongst others, and once again lays down some compelling grooves here, Opener 'Ghosts On The Rocks' is a super spaced out opener with video game synths and pumping electronic house drums. 'Vernal Station' is another interplanetary trip with zippy melodies and bass-driven breaks finished with the crispiest and most snappy of snares. T Jacques remixes the opener into something more deep but just as dynamic and Harry Wills' Thrust Velocity mix of 'Vernal Station' is all bubbly bass and bendy synths, wet hits and dubby house goodness.

Review: A classic to those that know from back in '95 here by Windy City legend Glenn Underground under the Jellybean alias, that originally came out on Relief Records. Given that it came out on Curtis Jones' seminal imprint, they knew to expect a harder take on house on the What The Fuk EP and he sure didn't disappoint. The punchy title cut mixes the best of his singular homegrown style with motifs of neighbouring Detroit, while the hypnotic and bass-driven groove of 'Toot Toot' works like another of his legendary disco edits, as does 'Twilight Dome' (part 2) using loops from the famous Manhattan Transfer anthem and turning it into something more altogether moody and mysterious for the late night. Classic.

Review: Esteemed French producer Franck Roger lands on the Duck It label for the first time here. It is an imprint dear to him because of his Algerian originals and he cooks up a nice warm house vibe as a result. 'Pumpkin' is all balmy pads and trippy synth leads with a hint of Pepe Bradock. The tune is chunky and deep, with nice deft vocal sounds up top to bring the soul. RSlane remixes with a more contemporary and bumping tech house sound but still keeps plenty of the stylish cosmic melody in place. A tidy two tracker for sure.

Review: Following up some awesome tracks by the likes of Idris Bena, Muelsa and Rodrigo Velasquez, Parisian label Paris ill returns with another impressive EP by label co-head Nemo Vachez titled Cyclostomes which features four spaced-out expressions in underground house. From the hi-tech jazz of opening cut 'New Hope' to the deep techno soul of 'Wanna Be Your Reflection' on the A side, the B side looks firstly to New York City circa the early '90s on the swung and spacey garage rhythms of 'Holiday Special' followed by the deep and emotive 'Lil Mermaid' reaching intergalactic euphoria.

Review: Voodoos And Taboos seem to like to put out just one EP a year, and this is 2021's offering. It is also the first release from Phonica AM, a new label curated by a staff member from said store that is aimed at siring up sounds for the afters hours - trippy minimal, tech and electro, in other words. Opener 'Doorway' is actually a banger, with big percussion and hulking great hits. 'If We Were' sinks into a deeper, headier deep techno groove and 'Witch House' gets freaky with wonky 303 and high-speed drum funk. 'Holyday' rounds out with old school jungle breaks and beats.

Review: Ho Chi Minh City-based Rhanamh are back with their sophomore release. This one is by Balinsky, a DJ and producer from Russia and founder of Raccoon's Rules. He serves up the hypnotic open-air bliss of 'Visuality' which is as bass-driven and ethereal as you like it, receiving a rework by Bucharest up-and-comer Direkt up next. He takes the track into tripped-out territory, that is just perfect for getting weird at the afterhours. Over on the flip, we have a deeper and more minimalistic affair in the form of 'Needle Drop' which is perfect listening for armchair contemplation upon getting home on Monday morning.

Review: Enthusiasm is the new EP from Los Angelenos Claude VonStroke and Walker & Royce, described as 'a primal celebration of life and the return of the rave.' The title track is a boompty, bass-heavy and downright orotund dancefloor shaker delivered in the idiosyncratic Dirtybird style that you have come to know and love. Whereas the A side offering was aimed squarely at the main room dancefloor, B side cut 'The End Of The Lime' caters for the afterhours crowd on this druggy minimal house jam that goes blip, blurp and bleep well into Sunday morning.

Review: Following up some great releases by the likes of Sam Haskin and Shacklo, One Of 4 are back with a nice various artists EP that is simply titled OOFF 003. On this one we have newcomer Altered Feast with the ethereal dub house of 'Cyborg' sounding somewhere between Samuel Andre Madsen and the Cabinet Recordings sound, and Amsterdam-based Romanian Dirty Culture finishing up the A side with the groovy and swing-fuelled groove of 'Turning Kisses To Bites'. Over on the flip, JNJS nails that classic UK tech house sound on the main room antics of 'Close Your Eyes' while Israeli producer Mike Sharon delivers some proper late night mood music on 'A Feeling'.

Review: Romanian artist Iuly.B makes a great label debut here on Metereze out of his home country. He serves up three of his painstaking produced and sublimely arranged minimal tech house rollers. 'Presence' goes first with its sci-fi motifs and wispy neon synths. 'Cruising' is a more crunchy and textured tune for the late night hours and then he strips things right back to a taught, pinging kick drum and sonorous bass on 'Exoplanet.' It's a climatic track is constantly, subtle evolving and rich in detail.

Review: Density is a new label from Romania, a country that is well known and loved for its consistently high-quality minimal sounds. Sublee is charged with the first EP and is known as an ambient maestro after putting out some of those under Caesura Limited in 2020. Opener 'Syncopatie' is a warm and bulbous deep techno tune with catchy drum loops. 'Oneseries' is darker and more teeth grinding for those inebriated late-night hours on a darkened dance floor and 'Betteryes' then closes with some wild acid flashes, unresolved and raw tech house drum loops and plenty of smart FX.