Minimal / Tech House Recommendations September 2013

Review: Ever since they took on the slightly daunting task of reworking material from the ECM catalogue, the names of Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer have appeared together in numerous label shaped places, mostly in a remix capacity. Perlon collar the first original music from the pairing for the Turbo Sematic 12" and both tracks here find Ricardo and Max working with vocalists. Chilean vocalist Camilo Castaldi a.k.a. Tea Time lines "Mas Profundo Que Mis Pies" whilst New York based spoken word artist Azeem vocalizes "Ambivalent". Despite Perlon claiming this is the pairing getting all "independent and rappy" both tracks bubble away with the minimalist class you'd expect, and the vocals add a palpable element of tension.

Review: In advance of his forthcoming album Beautiful Rewind, Four Tet drops this limited white label offering a hint of what's to come. "Kool FM" is the producer's ode to pirate radio, constructing a stripped back club track bolted together with junglist breakbeats, a hyperactive MC sample, a full-bodied bassline and copious in-built rewinds. On the flip, the "Bliss Mix" strips out the beats and bass for a eerily serene version leaving only wispy pads and spectral vocals. As always with these surprise Four Tet drops, supplies are limited...

Review: It's subtleties aplenty on this joint effort from relatively new faces Nu Zau and Sepp, operating in hushed tones and fragile beat constructions to create immersive wares that reward the patient mind. "Trafic" is unsettled in its scattered drum refrain, skipping on a jazzy offbeat while all around miniscule sonic details fill in the gaps. "Vintage" has a more steady course on which to run, mechanical in its formation but austere in its final impact, championing the less-is-more approach. "Stil Classic" gets into a marginally fuller groove, as a breathing array of percussion and tone takes on an organic lilt in its journey across the whole of the B-side.

Review: TC Studio team up with Onur Ozer for a special 2x180 gram gatefold vinyl release. It's an EP for the DJ and listener that enjoy the finer fidelities of disjointed dance music. A lost piano that loops softly in the distance gives the smoky groove of "Untouched" a melancholic timbre and ill-bent sway, while the horror-thematic keys of "Totem" rise out of a ghostly mist to form a 1930s New York jazz cajole. The pitter-patter of "Lapona" features could-be street soundscapes and half spoken vocal snippets, while "Hotel Pelican" sounds like something that could soundtrack a quirky Jean-Pierre Jeune film.

Review: ** Camera's ready. Prepare for the Repress ** Curtis Jones is never one to rest on his laurels, as his staggering back catalogues as Green Velvet and Cajmere can attest but such is the force of his personality that a new release still feels like an event. "Bigger Than Prince" capitalises on Jones' knack for a vocal that lambasts the less earnest quirks of the dance music industry, while creating the hook to make the track a bomb in the same instance. Production-wise, there's a measured strut to the track with some choice growling bass synths and an underlying disco flavour that suits Jones just fine. On the remix front, Circus turn to The Martinez Brothers to hammer out a rolling, percussion focused version perfect for big room mixing, while Hot Since 82 turn out a similar line in boompty peak time damage.

Review: Defenders of the minimal techno sound long after trend-followers have moved on to pastures new, Easy Changes are back with another release on their own Nervmusic label, further extolling the virtues of lopsided grooves and stripped-down aesthetics in their freaky sound world. The title track gets caught in a nagging refrain that centres around a pint-sized synth note, while the percussion seems to shuffle off it into direct competition with the shards of sound design that cover around the mix. "Nordschleife", has similar traits but chooses to eke them out at a more measured pace perhaps truer to the minimal way of production. Baby Ford turns out a remix of "Ayrton Senna" that bolsters the fragmented nature of the original with a more fixed footing, treading still lightly but with a greater bass presence to satisfy the needs of a soundsystem.

Review: Parisian pocket of operations CrazyJack have little for the uninitiated to go on when it comes to their first release, and likewise Nox is an unknown quantity in his own right, but such doubts disperse instantly when the direct impact of "NMNL" takes hold. It's a funky, European kind of house music that Nox drops with its rubbing bass and cheeky 90s stabs, while the speech features a woman extolling the virtues of house music as we know and love it. Alex Celler gets into a more indirect frame of mind with his remix, working with curious melodic textures to create an immersive and surprising version for deeper situations. Vid serves up the second remix and takes things even further out into leftfield with a lightly applied broken beat dominated by mournful daubs of pad rounding off a gleefully diverse record.

Review: Eschewing dancefloor concerns in favour of a more esoteric mentality, Born Again marks an impressive debut effort for both artists and the Shahr Farang imprint carrying them. The title track does sport a 4/4 undercarriage of sorts, but its refrain is more focused on the lingering piano notes and thin slithers of noise that undulate throughout in a melancholic reverie. "Come Back My Muse", the second offering from Lenta, floats in a dense wash of dubby chords and pads buffed to the point of shapelessness, both beautiful and haunting in its design. Ahu takes up the flip with "Ever (In My Mind)", letting more of a discernible beat sneak in behind the soothing hum, making for a more direct but equally mysterious counterpoint to the more ranging A-side tracks.

Review: Lifting some of the choicest cuts from his contribution to the latest Vagabundos compilation, Cesar Merveille brings to light three exemplary cases for the creativity to be found in minimal house. Ricardo Villalobos' remix of Envoy makes for one of the most soothing turns the producer has made in years, letting a dependable groove unfurl underneath undulating swathes of melody in a truly deep but pleasantly energised excursion. Luciano's remix of Tim Wright is a blast from the heyday of the minimal scene, mixing classic Cadenza rhythmic detail with the swagger of Juice Aleem's MCing and dropping a simple synth hook in for maximum effect. The "No Ears instrumental" of Losoul's "Lies" finds Rob Mello bringing the perfect kind of funk to a slightly spooked out deep house bumper.