VRNT Vinyl & CDs

Review: Dubfound’s return is tightly coiled and quietly hallucinatory, tracing crisp patterns through fogged rhythm. ‘Coocooz’ jitters with nervous energy, all micro-detail and negative space, while ‘Feef’ drips in slippery percussion and flattened bass throb. ‘Low’ works a more reduced hypnosis — less hook, more repetition — but it’s the Zendid remix that lands hardest, pulling warm subs and twitchy delay into a loose-limbed swing. As ever with VRNT, the mood sits somewhere between Romanian reduction and Pacific Northwest psychedelia with a vinyl-only tactility that deepens the slipstream. Now based in Moldova, Dubfound has long operated just outside the minimal mainstream, building out a catalogue on labels like Sleep Is Commercial, Nervmusic and Rawax. His own imprints — Swoon, Nurum and Zimotik — favour analogue feel and no-frills groove, often bordering on the abstract. This release fits that mould: heads-down, refined and deceptively emotional in its restraint.

Review: Minimal stalwart Jay Tripwire has been as prolific as ever this year, serving up the Narcotic Oscillator EP for The Other Side and collaborating with Cristi Cons on Witching Hour. Now it's time for the Canadian veteran to serve up some boss level beats to emergent label VRNT, holding true to the rhythmic demands of the stripped-down tech house scene while finding plenty of space for expression and innovation in the sound design. 'The Real Life Of John Merrick' is a masterfully sculpted workout, while 'Pleiadian Wavelength' unfurls exquisite melodic and textural synth forms around an understated groove. Herck completes the package with a crunchy, bugged-out version of the lead track which harks back to the crooked computer funk synonymous with Canadian minimal in the mid 00s.