Back catalogue: Minimal/Tech House

Review: One of the biggest records of the last year gets a full release through Defected with a remix package including takes from A Hundred Birds (with their trademark live house sound) and the Pasta Boys.

Review: Eagerly anticipated second release on Autoreply Music - 3 peak time cuts + 1 DJ tool already causing havoc on the worlds finest dancefloors. Support from Baby Ford, Mark Broom, Rolando, Dana Ruh, Dan Curtin, Samuel L Sessions, Mark Henning, Cesare vs Disorder, Jay Shepheard, Franco Cangelli, Faze Action....

Review: Hot new London based house label Autoreply welcomes Dan Curtin. Support from Anthony Shake Shakir (KMS, Seventh City, Klang Electronik) / Giles Smith (Dessous, Secretsundaze) / Sutekh (Souljazz, Minus) / Lakuti (Uzuri, Sud Electronic) / Mark Henning (Freude Am Tanzen, Einmaleins, Soma) / Colin Dale / Faze Action / Jay Shepheard (Compost Black Label) / Cesare vs Disorder (Resopal, Stock 5, Archipel) / Eddie Richards (Wiggle) / James Mowbray (Four:twenty) + more! Don't miss out.

Review: Over 25 years ago Juan Atkins and Rick Davis (aka Cybotron) created one of the first electronic classics of the Eighties - "Clear". It has influenced the electro, techno and house scenes throughout the world. The original track sounds as fresh today as it did all those years ago. This release is coupled with some great remixes from the likes of Cobblestone Jazz and Troy Pierce.

Review: All-star line-up of remixers on this first of two, possibly three, 12" remix packages for Depeche Mode's "Martyr". Get Physical's Booka Shade is first up on duties and delivers A full vocal mix with his awesome electronic edge.

Review: All-star line-up of remixers on this first of two, possibly three, 12" remix packages for Depeche Mode's "Martyr". Get Physical's Booka Shade is first up on duties and delivers A full vocal mix with his awesome electronic edge.

Review: DJ Gregory's new Defected release, "Faya Combo Sessions", has support from Martin Solveig, Roog (Hardsoul), Audiowhores, Graham Sahara (Pacha Ibiza) and more.

Review: Amazing open-air techno that strongly builds up.

Review: "You Are Here" is the latest release from James Holden's Border Community imprint. Taken from Nathan Fake's critically acclaimed "Drowning In A Sea Of Love" long player, the package features a remix from Kieran Hebden's Four Tet project as well as live versions and a previously unreleased track.

Review: In 2007 Juno Records is ten years old, and we've decided to celebrate by releasing 10 singles throughout the year. Each one is a classic dance track featuring new remixes from the some of the most exciting and established names in the business, including Julien Jabre, Spirit Catcher, Dimitri from Paris, Lindstrom, Troy Pierce, Cobblestone Jazz and many more. These releases will initially only be available from www.juno.co.uk and www.junodownload.com. To launch the series we have pulled out all the stops with the re-release of the timeless "In The Trees" by Faze Action, featuring remixes from the legendary Carl Craig and Jerome Sydenham & Tiger Stripes, as well as the brilliant 1996 original mix. A genuinely huge release, this could be the first of 10 future classics! ***Stop press 19/12/07: the Carl Craig mix has been voted #3 in residentadvisor.net's "Top 5 Remixes Of 2007".

Review: This EP sees the track re-worked and re-edited by some of electronic music's greatest innovators. Carl Craig's epic mix is absolutely astonishing, floor shaking stuff. Baby Ford drops a futuristic minimal masterpiece, while The DFA's take is another definitive disco moment.

Review: Includes remixes from Patrick Alavi and Radio Slave who delivers a 15 minute minimal monster. Now on limited red vinyl.

Review: The Alex Smoke mix is so elegant & languishing that you nearly burst because of joy.

Review: Apparently inspired by digging through their old records when compiling their "Strictly Tiefschwarz" mix, the Berlin boys have delivered an exceptional remix of Phuture's "Rise From Your Grave". Already one of the more modern sounding records from Strictly Rhythm's vast back catalogue, Ali and Basti have tweaked, cut, blended and filtered to perfection.

Review: DFA release 'Emily', the second single to be taken from Shocking Pinks' self titled debut album. Bittersweet and vulnerable, 'Emily' is a hypnotic and moody song that tells the age-old story of longing, jealousy and heartache, in Nick Harte's distinctive shoe-gaze style. It's one of the most personal moments on the record, with a beautiful and fragile overtone covering the rough layers of distortion and noise. The single comes backed with an exclusive cover of Magnetic Fields 'Nothing Matters When We're Dancing', plus remixes of album track 'Cutout' and 'Dressed to Please'. The remixes range from Expanding Head Band (ex-Tussle member Alexis Georgopoulos) and disco-edit scenester Lee Douglas, to techno favourites Deepchord / Echospace and Nathan Fake.

Review: What a tune from Tracey Thorn! "It's All True" is getting support from Pete Tong and more.

Review: What a tune from Tracey Thorn! "It's All True" is getting support from Pete Tong and more.

Review: "Sweat", by Trickski, has support from Balearic Soul, Martin Lodge, DJ Spen, Tom De Neef and many more.

Review: Señor Villalobos is back again on Playhouse so roll out the red carpet for his "Fizheuer Zieheuer" monster which is no longer than 37 minutes!!! Represented here in its full glory, we added Ricardo's special "stripped down to the bone" beat version, the "Fizbeast", to give you the chance to enhance your creative DJ skills and add some extra sugar on top! "Fizheuer Zieheuer" has been around for a while now as a special secret weapon in Ricardo's sets all over the world, causing mayhem wherever he plays it! 100% pure hypnosis, this track plays with certain sounds that you would not really expect from this minimal master. It's the way he uses the East European horns which make it so good, and their integration in the beats that makes the track so exciting. There are slight changes throughout the whole 37 minutes, morphing and transforming the twisted melodic horn stabs all the time, sucking you deeper and deeper into a very very special state of mind. It's definitely an experience and worth a try! Villalobos, master of hypnosis, magician of the groove! And all you black gold enthusiasts, don't forget to check the vinyl version of "Fizheuer Zieheuer parts 1 & 2".

Review: IO Music continues its growth and fine form with Yoshimoto's electro anthem 'Du What U Du'. With this release IO Music are showing they mean business for 2006 and into 2007! Look out for more new material from Tocadisco, Oliver Klein, Friendly and Eyerer & Chopstick all backed up with stunning remix packages. Yoshimoto for those who aren't in the know is a sub-zero cool indie artist from Japan with a hella druggy sounding voice. Originally surfacing in the summer of 2005 the Trentemøller remix rapidly became a standard around the globe for electro tinged dancefloors. IO Music snapped it up and added its own remix from UK don Paul Woolford, added some previously unavailable in the UK remixes from around Europe, smashed it out to radio and TV (with it's stunning video) and bingo an instant summer ultra-cool breakout hit followed. Following the success of the simply massive Trentemøller remix of 'Du What U Du' last summer, London's most cutting edge electro house label IO Music have picked up this beauty for a full release. We've included the Trentemøller remix on the package just in case you didn't manage to get your hands on a copy last year - copies were like gold-dust! This is arguably one of the tightest indie-electro mixes you'll ever hear. Oliver Huntemann (under his H-MAN guise) is responsible for one of the most evil and dark sounding remixes of 2006. This remix is Mos Def geared towards darker dancefloors or moments in your DJ sets. Driving 16-beat drums move this remix and once you're caught up within the tune, you don't know what to do except dance.

Review: Earlier this year, A Guy Called Gerald (Gerald Simpson) made his Laboratory Instinct debut with a "Drop-Tech Infusion" mix of Dell & Flügel's "Superstructure" that appeared on the duo's "Study For A Skyscraper" EP. Now the British acid house pioneer and drum'n'bass legend issues his own superb full-length on the German imprint, the appropriately-titled "Proto Acid - The Berlin Sessions". Having literally influenced generations of music-makers with an incredible discography that's grown incrementally deeper since the 80s, the Manchester UK native and now Berlin resident executes the infectious 71-minute jam with a masterful meticulousness. Drenching Detroit-styled techno in sparkling electro, the set, recorded live in one session using two laptops and a DJ mixer at Gerald's Diehold Studio on February 11th, 2006, flows with a relaxed ease. With one exception ("Auto Rebuild," the third track, is a remake of 1990's "Automannik"), the album's 24 raw, club-oriented tracks are all new and were created over the last year in Berlin. The collection departs from the style of his last full-length, "To All Things What They Need", in many ways, the most obvious being the absence of singing. Asked why he decided to make "Proto Acid - The Berlin Sessions" wholly instrumental, Simpson doesn't mince words. "On my last two albums, I felt pressured to include vocals," he replies. "Nowadays, I feel singers should be put on a bale of hay with a piece of straw hanging out of their mouths while playing acoustic guitar-keeping it real, if you know what I mean. I want to make music for clubs and sometimes you just have to get down and dirty into the machines and, to take it there, you can't hold anyone's hand. Some things just don't need a vocal. What I'm trying to do is keep myself entertained as well as give the punters something new." Asked to describe the album's sound, Simpson says, "To me it's proto acid; it's how I feel house/techno music would have sounded if the whole rave thing hadn't happened in England. When I was younger, I would go to soul and funk clubs and you could easily mix a techno/house track into your set without spoiling the environment. Could you imagine playing a techno track at an r'n'b club today? Things have splintered and fragmented and floated so far apart that funk seems to have dropped through the cracks. I'm one of those preserved creatures that basically loves to use genres as a palette. So when I say proto acid I'm saying this stuff has direct lineage to Chicago and Detroit in the mid-to-late 80s." Don't think that, for Simpson, acid's definition is limited to something as obvious as the 303 either. "I find it really interesting how the TB303 has come to be fetishised as an acid machine," he says. "For me, acid was all about the tweaking of synths and riding a groove, you know what I mean? Like, before the masses thought the Transistor Bass machine was a special tool for doing acid house music, I was already bored with it and had moved on to tweaking envelopes on other Roland machinery, so I never really possessed that value for the 303 like everybody else did. I feel like I followed my own path and was inspired by what was going on in Detroit and Chicago but always did my own thing. To me, the new album is acid and acid's a part of everything I do." On the disc itself, Simpson doesn't waste a moment but immediately invigorates the set with the pumping tribal groove of "Marching Powder" before moving on to the steely funk-throb of "The Strip." The mix's strutting electro strain makes its first appearance in "Auto Rebuild" and dominates thereafter, though its presence is subtly modulated from one cut to the next, at one moment oozing a house vibe and the next techno. While differences distinguish one track from the next (though Simpson avows that his influences are more machines than particular artists, a seeming Drexciya influence emerges in "Droid" and the dark synth-driven "Feel the Heat" while dub rears its head in "Xray" and "Bass-o-train", there's clearly a unified feel to the album. "Skitzoid" casts a mechano spell, "Night Flight" breezily rocks, and the jacking cut "Voltar" broils feverishly for almost eight minutes. Bringing the mix to a chilled close, "Sweet You" floats in a billowing haze of jazzy pianos and locomotive drum brushes before vaporizing in a cloud of cymbal accents. At this stage in his career, one might assume that Simpson has covered every base imaginable, but apparently that's not so. Referring to the new release, he says, "It's the culmination of a dream I've had since I started making music, and that's to take the studio into the club; this album is snapshot of those possibilities."

Review: Angel Sánchez Borges, the man behind AAM (Antiguo Automata Mexicano) takes techno to the next level with his second album and first release with Static Discos.
Previously AAM released the infamous 'Microhate' album on Germany's Background label. Inspired by German kraut and space rock, minimal techno and screwed-up
digital antics, AAM's 'Kraut Slut' is the stuff of wicked dance dreams. Angel Sánchez Borges also records as Seekers Who Are Lovers on the Soundsister label. In a
recent interview on URB Magazine, Borges says his secret to the AAM sound is his love for "My Bloody Valentine, a gentle way of dealing with strange layers of sounds.
I want people to dance to these noisy grooves". Pitchformedia recently described his music in "the glitch/dub/minimal techno vein, with carefully constructed rips and
blips stretched across a wide, white sonic canvas".

Review: Ada makes us dream and rock at the same time. That's why she has put such a spell on us. Great album!

Review: Given that they're already released a couple of inspired EPs on Watergate Records, it's little surprise to find Hamburg duo the Adana Twins mixing the latest volume in the Berlin institution's ongoing compilation series. It's notable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it relies heavily on a string of exclusives and previously unheard tracks, not only from the pair themselves, but also like-minded pals Acid Pauli, SBTH, Lehar, Aaaron, Andre Hommen and Musumeci (amongst others). Secondly, it's also rather good, with the musical Twins conjuring a dramatic, emotion-rich mix that effortlessly joins the dots between heady ambient, melodious tech-house and various forms of smooth and atmospheric late night techno.

Review: ADJD whispers a mysterious male vocal promisingly. Building a dark and subliminally sexy house atmosphere that has slowly morphed into ADJD's trademark, the two Stockholm-New York-based producers who got to know each other while selling records to scenesters back in the Nineties, got their gear together only a few years ago - under difficult circumstances as Alexi Delano had moved himself to New York. Nevertheless, they were finding enough time to get together for some exploding studio sessions full of ringing cell phones that culminate in heavy house workouts that ooze sex and mystery. Now, they are back hotter and more intense than ever - time to celebrate the sound evolution of ADJD!

Review: Whilst a familiar name to European techno fans, Swedish veteran Patrick Skoog has barely registered on the wider dance music radar even with high profile Adam Beyer and Shonky collaborations under his belt. This full-length debut could go some way to changing that. Coming out on Ovum, it boasts a hypnotic, main room-friendly style that sits somewhere between full on-techno, afterhours tech-house and sleepy Germanic deepness. Skoog's percussion programming has always been impressive, but here it stands out particularly on the heavyweight "Nahua" and bumpin' deep house jam "Shot By Light". It's this attention to rhythmic detail that makes "Who Made Up The Rules" a particularly rewarding listen.

Review: Resopal Red proudly presents the long awaited debut album by the talented, Geneva based artist Agnes. Agnes is known for his unusual, deep, dubbed-out minimal techno productions and is also exploring house-influenced rhythms and textures. His album "Dumbles Debuts" contains some incredible and deep tracks.

Review: Long awaited debut album. Influenced by the Detroit sound, Agoria has a unique groove, melody and a distinctive edge to his music. An album bristling with energy, distinctive basslines for the dancefloor, perfectly balanced with ambience & melody.

Review: What's perhaps most impressive about this latest installment of Fabric's peerless mix series is its unashamedly upbeat nature. Agoria has rarely been one to celebrate techno's darkest depths, but even by his standards Fabric 57 is pretty celebratory. While the tracklist itself is impressive - Carl Craig, Space Dimension Controller, Moritz Von Oswald, Cottam, Sydenham and Claussel etc - it's the positive air and all-round gorgeousness of the grooves that really hits home. There are thunderous dancefloor moments, sure, but these nestle side by side with genuine jazz excursions, the blues of Ella Fitzgerald, deep afro-house and snaking, MDMA-friendly synth pop. The result is an impressive mix that will surprise, delight and inspire in equal measure.

Review: After four appearances on Lithuania's Greyscale, Ajnkana delivers his first long player Integers Equations, with more than an hour of "tangibly eerie, atmospheric chords", ambience but not ambient-edged beats and dubby effects either destined for play on deeper dancefloors or comedown soundtracking post-party living room sessions. The titles may be blank as anything, all binary and consisting of 1s and 0s in slightly different orders, but the instrumental, slowly-enveloping tracks have plenty of personality. Fans of Sahko, Chain Reaction and Ilian Tape's more esoteric offerings will love it.

Review: Klang Elektronik is happy to re-release Alter Ego's second album "Decoding The Hacker Myth" ten years after its original release. The album was responsible for Roman Flügel and Jörn Elling Wuttke's worldwide breakthrough. The album's title was a hint at the widespread view back then that electronic music/techno was computer music without any soul. Alter Ego disproved this by producing an absolute counter draft to the dominating hard trance and progressive house sound which it dominated.

Review: The success story of the two guys from Karlsruhe Kristian Beyer and Frank Wiedemann (aka Ame) is showing no signs of waning. Having led the annual charts of Groove and De:Bug magazines, provided Pete Tong with a single of the month and even making a DJ mix for said DJ's BBC show, the Essential Selection. Their hit "Rej" has been christened by Louie Vega and Danny Krivit (Masters At Work) as the "Plastic Dreams" of the new millennium. So here is their first official mix-compilation! Their DJ sets are currently being celebrated everywhere from Miami to Paris and Helsinki, so it was only a matter of time until they immortalized one of their kicking mixes for home use on an official mix album. Sonar Kollektiv label bosses Jazzanova delivered the first in this "...Mixing" series and in so doing earned worldwide thanks for making one of their eclectic DJ sets available in digital format for the first time. The duo from Karlsruhe selection is no less varied as they switch from old to new, through house, disco, minimal and techno. Synth pioneer Laurie Spiegel, who already presented a prototype of the Detroit techno sound in the 70s, sets things off with her "Appalachian Grove 1" which was written in Fortran (an old computer programme, long before Basic or C). The unusual track "24 Hours From Culture II" from 80s Dutch wave band New Musik is to this day a favourite of DJs like Daniele Baldelli and DJ Harvey. He later also used the classic "Woman Of The World" by Swiss group Formation Double on his legendary "Sarkastic Disco" mix. "Stand Up" from Nexus could easily be mistaken for a Metro Area number. Besides Ame another name that is often being mentioned with regards to the deephouse renaissance is Henrik Schwarz. His most striking remix to date is also his most timeless. The way he accentuates the voice of Robert Owens with opulent strings on Coldcut's "Walk A Mile" means it'll still give you goose bumps in ten years. Ben Westbeech is the star of Gilles Petersons new label Brownswood Records. His track "So Good Today" unites the typical Yoruba style with analogue Chicago sounds. God of remixers, Carl Craig's version of Jonny L's This "Time" was previously only available as a promo so for some the search for this jazz, house and techno hybrid ends with this release. The latest addition to the Innervisions label which Âme started with Dixon is Gilb'R & I:Cube (aka Chateau Flight). Their wide tune "Baroque" makes the perfect bridge to Luciano's "Stone Age" which has been a central part of the Ame DJ set for over two years so could not have been left out of this collection. "Flashback 86" sounds, as the title suggest, as though it might have been made in the late 80s, however actually it is produced by Jonathan Burnip who can otherwise be found behind the counter of London's Soul Jazz record store. Derrick May's Funtopia featuring Jimi Polo remix was also previously only available as a promo. It was given to Ame by Dominic Capello, manager of Glasgow's Sub Club. Of course Ame's own breakthrough track, "Nia", must be celebrated once more before it gets slightly quieter, although no less exciting, with Jump Cutz "Deep Introspection #5". This track is another true classic and favourite of Needs Crew that has long been almost impossible to get. And as true Manuel Gottsching fans Ame of course had to include an Ashra number in the mix. Their track "Sunrain" has been a big influence on the club music of today. As a whole, Ame's "...Mixing" is not just a bridge between old and new, club and home stereo. It also serves as an interesting connection between various musical genres which are currently dominating the good metropolitan clubs.

Review: An 2's 'On Air' is a beautiful and innovative blend of electronic deep house and techno. This little treat is out on Was Not Was.

Review: On this awesome album from Ananda, entitled "Bambusbeats" and released on Karmarouge, Gabriel shifts away from the deep melodic minimal numbers and infuses these productions with awesome African based drums and percussion focusing on rhythm and acoustic drums. The mixture of live African drums and twisting electronic melodies is intoxicating and will surely get asses moving. Getting support from Hawtin and Villalobos.

Review: "Rave On Snow" is the top winter event for electronic music. This is a combination of the finest electronic music and all it's variations.

Review: The 29th of May 2004 must have been a gorgeous day. Antonelli performed live in Tokyo, equipped only with an Elektron Machinedrum and a hardware sequencer. Here are the results.

Review: Italic would like to announce Antonelli's new album 'Soulkiller'. It is Stefan Schwander aka Antonelli's 6th album and was produced using analogue drum machines, synthesizers and sequencers only, and recorded live
without any overdubs onto an old-school tape recorder. The result is amazing: Antonelli's house music on 'Soulkiller' is so incredibly rough and emotional that it's reminiscent of the garage rock from the 'Stooges'. The tracks sound as if ESG was doing cover versions of 'Moodymann'. Moreover, you will find flamboyant pop references, from 'Bohannon' to 'Te r ry Hall'.

Review: Apparat's respected position amongst the electronic music cognoscenti has been secured mostly via his overseeing the Shitkatapult Empire and the canon of music released alongside Ellen Alien and the more recent brushed metallic tones of techno drama explored as Moderat with Modeselektor. He isn't, however, known for his DJing abilities, which makes his inclusion in the DJ Kicks series a puzzling one at first. This sensation dissipates however once your ears consume the 70 minutes and 22 tracks on offer here. Ring stated an intention to dispel the notion he plies a distinctly bittersweet sound, and that's always going to be achieved when there's the likes of Ramadanman, Martyn and Carl Craig (in his 69 guise) amidst the tracks. Whislt this isn't, as you'd expect, a technically sensational mix, a definite glitchy mood is retained throughout with some dazzling moments. The harmonious ascent of Four Tet's remix of Born Ruffian's from the industrial mist of Autechre's remix of Scorn in particular stands out. Four Tet's collaboration with Burial marks the onset of another highlight with the swift saunter through Vincent Markowski and Ramadanman that arrives at Radiohead twitcher Thom Yorke's "Harrodown Hill". An engaging selection best heard on headphones at high volume that highlights new aspects with every listen.

Review: The first album release proper on Miami's crucial Narita imprint, from label stalwart Arctic Hospital. A heavy techno album which works both in the club and at home! Arctic Hospital is the icy pseudonym of US-based techno producer Eric Bray, and "Citystream" is his debut album release for Miami's respected Narita label. After a series of well received and dancefloor destroying 12"s, he has compiled the best of his tracks into a coherent full length which adeptly shows the breadth of his skill as a producer. Building on the glacial technological explorations hinted at in his moniker, Bray has forged an album which blends the emotion and epic vibrancy of classic electronic soundtracks with the 4/4 dancefloor crunch so many are eager for at the moment. "Citystream" then is an album that can be enjoyed in two different environments, at home and in the club - something which has proved evasive for countless techno producers in the past. The balance is notoriously difficult to uphold, but Bray has somehow managed it, and neither mood sounds jarring or forced. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to the heady Germanic club music that seems to be packing out trendy nightspots the world over, this album is certain to excite avid techno followers with it's impeccably glacial production styles and dissonant clanging soundscapes and is sure to have followers shaking their boots in wild abandon. A deep record, in every sense of the word!

Review: Over the past decade, Area has successfully carved his own niche within techno, delivering EPs for the likes of Kimochi, Idle Hands and Mindshift Records that combine the spaced-out hypnotism of dub techno and the sparse, locked-in grooves of minimal, with the undulating electronics of Isolee, the immersive escapism of ambient and the buzzing fuzziness of lo-fi house. Where Am I Now, Area's long-promised debut album, further explores this trademark sound, delivering a set that's as icy and impersonal as it is infectious and intoxicating. Highlights come thick and fast throughout, from the intricate programmed percussion and melodies of 'Lag', and the deep space shuffle of 'Moving Away', to the glitchy minimalism of 'Mass Conserved' and the 'Beau Mot Plage'-goes ambient bubbliness of 'Lipod'.

Review: Canadian duo Art Department have all the ingredients of success at their disposal: experience, reputation and, most importantly, hype. With the latter in full effect right now, it's safe to say that The Drawing Board, their debut full length, is one of the most anticipated house sets of 2011. So is it any good? Certainly, those who've already fallen in love with their touchy-feely, melancholy take on house will enjoy it immensely. Like the work of guest Seth Troxler's Visionquest (and, to some extent, Benoit & Sergio), there's a distinct melodic warmth to Art Department's shuffling beats, woozy electronics and half-whispered vocals. It's this, more than anything, which makes The Drawing Board worthwhile listening.

Review: With this impeccably atmospheric, two-disc journey, Art Department becomes the latest outfit to deliver a fitting contribution to Renaissance's legendary Mix Collection. The Canadian duo begins with a dash of hazy ambience, before smoothly shuffling through a selection of superb deep, dub techno explorations from Deepchord, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound. As the first disc progresses, it slowly becomes more melodious and percussive, via fine cuts from Steve Bug, Luciano and Route 8. Disc two sees them in full on powder house club-mode, mixing up tactile, groovy and floor-friendly cuts from the likes of Borrowed Identity, DJ Sneak, Delano Smith and Jasper Dahlback.

Review: The selection process for the Live At Robert Johnson mix series has been flawless so far - with the renowned venue in Offenbach, Germany enlisting Prins Thomas to mix up some delectable disco, Roman "Alter Ego" Flugel presenting his uniquely bleepy new school techno vision and Parisian Chloe selecting refined house cuts on the inaugural volume. The choice of Arto Mwambe for the sixth volume seems a perfect fit; Christian Beisswenger & Phillip Lauer have made some serious remixes in recent times which have keenly blurred the lines between house and disco. The Frankfurt duo provide one of the best mixes in the series to date, eschewing the chance to show off their record collections in favour of staying true to the album title and recording a one hour live set of existing and unreleased Arto Mwambe tracks. The distinctive clap of the Roland drum beating out over hypnotic chords on the intro track "M.T.A.I." sets the mood for what follows - vintage house sounds that veer between classic 90s percussion, deep melodies that draw you in, warm basslines that sit in your cranium and rhythms that set you off. What strikes you as the last kicks of closing track "BTWO" sound out is how well the eleven tracks flow, the mixing is perfectly judged and you are left with nothing but a craving to witness them repeat it in a club setting. Mission accomplished.

Review: Born in London in 1981, Marc Ashken's affair with music began at a very early age. His father's love of blues and soul indented onto Marc's psyche;
artists like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Pink Floyd and Aretha Franklin filling the air of his surroundings, shaping his view of music and the way
he would later approach his art. To Marc, music is therapy, a way to express feeling and emotion relating to whatever is going on in his life at the time.
Unable to follow trends and fashions in whichever genre into which other people have placed him, and with a total disregard for musical 'rules', Marc
continues to make music that represents him as a person. This year Marc has released eps on Leftroom under his full name Marc Ashken and labels
Esperanza and Archipel under his alias Soz Adams. He also was also recently asked to remix Unkle's new single 'Burn My Shadow'. 'Have You Seen
My Dancing Shoes' is Marc's debut album on Leftroom. It is a collection of tracks and skits taken from a period of six months where his whole focus
was on this project. There is a mix of house, breakbeat, techno, minimal and downtempo. Marc plays all the instruments, all the vocals are sung by
Marc, and the engineering and production is all from him. Take the time to sit back in whatever situation you are in and play the album from start to finish.

Review: SAW Recordings is the label of legendary DJ and Producer Satoshi Tomiie. Luca Saporito and Anthony Middleton (aka Audiofly), are the hottest new boys on the block. The release of "Undulation 2" on SAW Recordings is Audiofly's first mixed compilation.

Review: Raw, saw-toothed techno that opens a new chapter for Detroit and takes the rest of the world with it!