Playedby Romania レコード& CD

Review: Playedby's tasteful brand of tech house and minimal continues to offer up real treats with a new EP from Dick & Mutt called Rassafrassarickarackets, which is not an easy one to pronounce. It is the eponymous title track that kicks off in delightfully smooth fashion. The classic house drums set a nice deep groove which is then embellished with wispy sci-fi pads and lazy chords. It's a superb slow burner that oozes cool. 'Tricox' on the flip is a little more kinetic and punchy but again mixes up fragments of melody, vocal and squelchy bass into something that never stops moving and is bright in colour.

Review: Leading Romanian minimal proponent Dubtil is packed with some literally and metaphorically heavyweight wax via the Playedby label out of his homeland. 'I' kicks off with lush under-lapping grooves and silky pads that mesh perfectly with the lithe bass. It's loose body music followed by 'II', a darker cut with snaking and paranoid bass and crispy hits pinging off the groove. 'III' brings more layers of symphonic sound over tight, pinging kicks that meander onwards and sink you into a meditative state. 'IV' closes out with a more sparse and eerie vibe, occasional hits and lazy dub vibes that cast your mind free.

Review: Romanian label Playedby is dropping a couple of EPs in quick succession and this one from G76 is a leftfield one. It features the same track split over two sides of wax in two parts. 'Volume Figure' (part 1) is the sort of abstract work that you might get from Ricardo Villalobos - silvery and filtered vocals bring a sense of AI futurism to clicking beats and wispy sine waves. The rhythm grows in stature as wet claps and snares join the mix, and on the flip side, it turns into a more gritty and propulsive tech house cut for late-night afters.