Minimal / Tech House

Review: Nina Kraviz has approached her latest single 'Tarde' with cogent flair, issuing several vinyl remix sets to divvy up and complement a full ten-track digital compilation, made up of a star cast of remixes by major artists. On another 12", Kraviz shortens the full ten tracks to a short selection. The tense, and hummingly fun, original track 'Tarde', released earlier this year, is heard in full effect on this record's B-side, coming complemented by Melchior Productions' phattened 'Late Mix' in the vein of flickering tech house. The A-side is taken up meanwhile by veteran endurance DJ Ricardo Villalobos, whose version of 'Tarde' doesn't care a hoot about tardiness less than it does bask in it, slowly unveiling a clockwork mechanism of spitting schematic beats and tastefully placed vocal shouts from Nina's original acapella.

Review: Long-serving Italian producer Marco Passarani continues his newly minted Studiomaster label project with its second instalment, serving a quintet of typically floor-focused jams on 'The Temple' EP. Arguably best known for being one half of the looped-up disco duo Tiger & Woods, Passarani is also known and loved for the more techno-tilted offerings he turns out from his hometown of Rome. His latest work sits somewhere in between his two trademark sounds, starting with the throbbing sleaze of opener 'The Empty Temple', with its purposeful bass, paranoid synths and dirty vocal whispers. The fierce, snare-driven rhythms of 'Night Walker' power grubby bass and glistening synths, while the descriptively titled 'Rotten Disco' offers a brilliantly wonky glimpse of future Italo. The distorted percussion and jagged bass of 'Dirty Hands' are aimed squarely at the floor, while the storming closer 'Cheater's Smile' bangs as hard as nails to complete a suitably stirring and tightly produced set.