Back catalogue: Minimal/Tech House

Review: Omar S and Shadow Ray hooked up back in 2005 as Oasis and turned out a low key classic with Collaborating. It's an essential double album packed with signature Motor City heat and dishevelled deep house workouts for mind, body and soul. Things open with the slow paced crawler 'Oasis 4' then take in 'Oasis 11' with its pinging percussion and stripped back grooves, the standout 'Oasis 1s-1/2' with its gorgeously melancholic synth bleeps and heart melting chords and the darker energy of 'Oasis 7'.

Review: New Interplanetary Melodies is a great name for a label and it also sums up the sounds of this new album from Sindaco. It's a beautiful mix of exploratory soundscapes, organic percussion and lush melody that unfolds in charming and captivating ways. Found sounds add more real world details to these tracks which range from lazy downbeat jaunts on a wide open savanna to more dynamic deep house trips through the cosmos. Worldly percussion, exotic melodies and unique instruments are all deployed to mark for multi-layered tracks that work equally on brain and body. It makes for a triumph of a record that is experimental yet aborsbing and packed with great detail.

Review: Dutch industrial techno producer Parrish Smith created Light Cruel & Vain over the course of nearly three years. Each track on the record was originally conceived solo, then further realised with the assistance of contributing musicians Sofiane Brahmi and Javier Vivancos. The collaborative where no studio sessions occurred due to the pandemic - the full collaboration conducted remotely. Notable tracks include the seething post-punk swagger of "Black Scarlet" or the brooding industrial rock of "Sway", to the industrial strength breaks of "Never Break Faith" and a frantic techno banger towards the end "I Wanna Be An Idol".

Review: After being commissioned to produce several 'interlocking' ambient pieces for an art gallery piece in LA, Brian Foote and Sage Caswell decided to take the concept of 'audience crossfading' to the next level, creating an entire ambient album using a particular sonic technique. Over five long pieces from 'Waterwheel' to 'Smiley', their aim was to evoke the feeling of bodies moving in thoroughfares. The tracks are long-exposed movements captured in ambient space, blending rhythms and soundscapes for chillout rooms that exist only in memory now.

Review: Sarah Sommers' inaugural album HeartCore was captured live at Princess Tower Studios in Berlin. Clocking in at 74 minutes, it's a vibrant fusion of dance music genres fuelled by Sarah's profound passion for electronic beats that span various eras. From dub to techno, house to dubstep, and drum & bass to breakbeat, the record showcases all that and more across nine tracks extracted from Sarah's live sets and previously performed across Berlin clubs in 2022 and 2023. A testament to her lifelong love of the music, this LP epitomises authenticity and comes on lovely gatefold neon pink wax.

Review: Wolfgang Voigt's Studio 1 and Freiland are landmark examples of 1990s minimalist concept techno. Studio 1 defined a stripped-down, hypnotic approach, while Freiland explored a more experimental, textured sound. This release features two discs with each of those differing approaches served up, but the second compiles the best of Freiland into a continuous set. Both showcase Voigt's pioneering vision and knack for marrying great precision with an absorbing atmosphere in a way that remains influential today. Essential listening for techno-purists and fans of the avant-garde.