Back in stock: Minimal/Tech House

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


We're never short of new Ricardo Villalobos material and he's generous with his time as a mixer, but this project offers something different from the Chilean mad scientist of minimal. A Mountain Of One are a duo who deal in Balearic-leaning pop with a subtle charm and an adventurous spirit, and they initially approached Villalobos for a single remix of one of their tracks. As a fan of their sound, Villalobos ran with the project and it wound up as a full remix album of seven different versions. On the earlier tracks Ricardo takes a surprisingly light touch, while the later stages find us knee deep in the mesmerising roll of his minimal house, shot through with dubbed out ingredients from the original songs. It's surprising and satisfying in equal measure, showing Villalobos at his best and quite the scoop for A Mountain Of One.

Review: DJ Sneak is in a great run of form right now, which is all the more impressive given that he has been turning out his signature house sounds for more than 30 years now. The self-declared House Gangster recently impressed on Dam Swindle's Heist Recordings label and now makes this way to the always-assured Toy Toncis outlet. He offers up four cuts that veer away from his loop, filter-heavy house into more edgy and late-night minimal and techno but with the robust sound design and compelling sense of underlying groove that you always expect from the man.

Review: This is the thirrd release by the amazing Italian producer Ivan Iacobucci for the Perlon label. The previous two were so well received, this next one was destined to come out sooner than later. Perlon fans know what to expect from their label of choice and Ivan delivers the goods. Those addictively quirky and fonky jackin' minimal techno jams. The title track is that and then some! We especially like the sexy jam 'Waiting For My Love'. Expect the unexpected when you flip over the record as 'Close the Door' is a full-on acid banger that combines high energy techno into what sounds like a video game soundtrack theme song! Closing things out is the wild sounding 'Fear & Madness in the Desert'. We are smiling at the thought of someone playing out these corkers to audience. Expect to see WTF typefaces everywhere!

Review: NorthSouth records has made a strong impact since beginning to release music in 2017 and one fixture on the label who has been featured on almost half of the labels output is Henry Hyde. His knack for throwing genres to the wind and just making fun, upbeat music that works great on the dancefloor, has his talents in strong demand. Check out 'Melting' for a perfect example, or tracks like 'Mire', which remind us of the enjoyment injected into dance music of the late 90s, a time where addictive dance music was devoid of rules and boundaries. 'Sunrise At The Pavilion' might actually be our most favourite as it has the deepest most unique should to us. Every track is a winner.

Review: Jonathan Kaspar returns to Damien Lazarus' Crosstown Rebels for another round of captivating and melodic techno by way of his latest EP 'We Come'. Already having graced the discographic annals of Cocoon and Kompakt, Kaspar's sound is now well established; his pushes and pulls adeptly between big room, dubby trance and broken-down electro and house, never quite placeable in the intermediary spaces between them. One could call it progressive house, but that would be underselling it; 'Flash Point' is the highlight here and the case in point, making masterful use of ducking and distortion to really flesh out the central syncopated stab as a focal point of the track. Nor should Paul Brenning's version of 'Transposed Sky' be missed for a second.