Review: Montevideo mainstay Alejo steps up for his debut on System Error's Flow series with the '1984' EP , a sharp, floor-feeling statement from an artist who both stands out in and defines the Uruguayan figure-ground. As co-founder and resident of the long-running Emile Club, Alejo's instincts run deep, and here they come sluiced though a new channel: four tracks, from '4to En Discordia' to 'Rkr1', offering snarling low-end pressure opening out to estuaries of wiry electro wades. Raw, punchy and tightly engineered, it's music that speaks with the verve of someone who's lived the scene from inside and out the booth.
Review: Following the success of his 'City Smile' EP, Aleqs Notal is back with more ear-piquing goodness in the form of this latest boundary-pushing vision. The EP is said to be unified by a central theme of self-acceptance and covers plenty of ground, from the deep and meditative essence of Chicago-inspired 'Pain Of Truth' to the more loose 'Talk' Em Down' with its snaking bass and eerie chords. 'Crushin'' sits somewhere between the two, with analogue textures and a firmly rooted groove forming the foundation for percussive and synth layering. 'Instant' has brilliantly pinging 909s and humid chords. This is Aleqs Notal at his most expressive.
Review: Glasgow-born veteran and techno heavyweight Gary Beck drops the much-requested ID 'Hopper' on SHDW's Mutual Rytm sub-label, Spectra. He's already well-known for underground anthems like 'Upside Criminal' and 'Fold' but now unveils this long-awaited club cut, which was born from a spontaneous studio session. Featuring a syncopated disco bassline, nods to funk and with an irresistible groove, 'Hopper' lingers long after the dancefloor empties and showcases Beck's production nous in more ways than one. Remix duties go to Bulgarian hardware wizard KiNK, who first delivers a warm, house-leaning version, then flips the script with a high-octane blend of techno and UKG.
Review: Bullet Tooth taps into the energy of old school pirate radio days with not only the title of his new 'Private Caller' EP but also the sounds inside it. The title cut is a pure bad man gem with bad man vocals and bad man low-end oscillations next to crispy 2-step drums. 'Wanted' then ducks and dives with dark moody bass and wobbly synths, menacing percussion and pitched-up vocals. But the best of the lot is saved until last when 'George's Groove' is a deceptively simple but effective garage pumper with speedy drums, playful sax lines and a naughty undercurrent.
Review: REPRESS ALERT!: Drop Music marks a marvellous quarter of a century of releases with this new slab of vinyl featuring some gems from disco funksters Crazy P and the house mainstays Inland Knights. Crazy P go first with 'Disc Odyssey' which is perfectly indicative of their much beloved sound with its low slung kicks and funky bassline. Inland Knights then offer a trio of in demand & unreleased tracks. 'Overnight' is a bumming deep house joint, 'Walk On' has an icy late night vibe and balmy pads and 'Do It Again is a more playful closer, with some killer b-line action. All four, needless to say, are timeless gems, and the fact the last two are appearing on vinyl first the first time makes it an even more desirable cop.
Review: Deenamic steps up on French label Syncrophone with the aptly titled 'Dub Reflections EP'. Having released on high-grade imprints like Neroli, Yellow Jackets, Visions Recordings and Mate since debuting in 2019, David Pradera has been slowly but surely carving out a fine reputation with his profound house sound. His latest effort features four dubbed-out house jams full of atmosphere and texture. Opener '800 Mistakes' sees moody chords drifting over stripped-back drums, staccato noise and understated bass, before 'Hal 2024' maintains the rich atmospherics with simmering swells, driving stabs and propulsive bass notes. The chord progressions on 'Moonbus' echo into the night as a pounding kick maintains the rhythm, while the undulating bass and piercing drums of 'Think It's Not Illegal Yet' combine with a dramatic arrangement for a gorgeously nocturnal finale.
Review: After a period of quiet, Background Rimini returns with its third release, and it's a doozy. This split EP sees Luca Piermattei and Cedric Dekowski join forces and blend their deep love and sharp instincts for electronic sound on one rugged 12". On the A-side, Luca delivers two funk-laced house cuts infused with acid and electro flourishes that are perfectly pitched for both late-night movers and sunrise groovers. Flip to the B-side, and Cedric drifts into dreamy, breakbeat-laced territory with 'Kuhan' before turning up the heat with the floor-filling punch of 'Tremoa' (Remix). Club-ready stuff with electric impact.
Review: Fantastic Friends continues to do solid early work in establishing itself as a fresh spot for interesting minimal and tech with this new various artists offering. The label's seventh outing opens up with Nicolas Duvoisin, who delivers his signature blend of subtle grooves with hypnotic bass. Cesare vs Disorder captivates with a fusion of organic rhythms and avant-garde elements that really hits as sweet spot and Unus Emre offers refined textures wrapped in a deep, minimal approach that is always about offering just enough. Finally, Octave rounds out the release with a silky and free-flowing dub tech roller on 'Love The Way'.
Review: REPRESS ALERT!: Few labels do minimal as well as Trelik and in terms of artists, Edward is also as good as they come right now. This perfect pairing opens up with the deeply alluring 'Time' with its woozy pads and smeared chords over warm and rubbery drums. It's a hypnagogic affair then 'Vacuum Tube' has a more menacing air thanks to the wispy and unsettling synth details and clunky hooks. 'Watch Out' brings a more spangled and rubbery rhythm that has colourful details peeling off the beats and last of all, 'Stream' ups the ante with some thudding deep house and widescreen ambient synth work.
Review: Facta's latest for Wisdom Teeth opens with 'Jets', a low-slung, sub-sloshed throb that's quietly become a DJ favourite-Ben UFO has spun it as an opener multiple times and you can hear why. It's bouncy, tactile and disorienting in just the right measure, setting the tone for a seven-track suite that finds the Londoner weaving through dubby techno, cheeky minimal and post-step psychedelia with that recognisably prismatic touch. 'On Deck' pivots into springy broken house, full of teasing builds and frayed edges, while 'Bunt' pairs heavy-limbed bass pressure with pointillist vocal chops. There's a skittishness to the palette that recalls his most textural club material, but these tracks feel leaner, more distilled-sonic matter reshaped mid-air. Even in the most playful moments, like the bleepy funk of 'Swish', there's an undercurrent of tonal oddness that keeps things slippery. 'Fang' and 'Snooze Alarm' slow the pulse, tracing soft arcs across rhythm and dissonance. As ever with Facta, genre markers are melted down into a coherent sonic vocabulary, full of negative space, strange hooks and glistening decay.
Review: New label klaxon! Jus De Rose mergers form the ever-fertile Romanian scene with a first EP from George Gavanescu aka Floog, a minimalist who has put out some 24-odd EPs in less than a decade. His very firm grasp of dacenfloro dynamics is laid bare here with 'Not A SOS' kicking off with a soot-black post-punk energy, rugged bassline and slapping drum funk. 'Talo Bisco' twists cold wave and synth energy from 80s Eastern Europe into a slapping tech house workout and 'Intamplarea Din' is a more stripped-back thumper with a warped bassline and hurried drums that will lead to plenty of weirded-out moments. 'OMB 3' is another proto-techno experiment with cold analogue drums, 80s synths and dehumanised vocals.
Review: REPRESS ALERT!: Burnski's Constant Sound is very nearly at 50 releases and not one of them has ever dipped below essential levels of quality. Kepler has been a regular contributor to this fine catalogue and returns with more of his shuffling, playful and charming garage cuts. 'Recall' manages to be both deep and driving, with cute chord stabs and a smart vocal sample that adds the r&b gloss. 'Flavour' has those old school stabs and filthy basslines and 'Loft Groove' is a bouncy, low-slung number with organic percussion. Closing out another high-grade offering is 'Don't Stop' which brings some dubby chords to a slick, punchy house rhythm. Pure class.
Review: In the mid-90s, DJ Steve aka Pasquale and Luca Lozano, bonded over skateboarding, East Coast hip-hop giants Mobb Deep and boombox freestyles, long before clubs and synths took over. Decades later, a chance reconnection before lockdown reignited their friendship and sparked a new musical adventure. Studio sessions turned shared memories into the sonic fusion that is Closed Circuit, a raw blend of electro grit, B-boy swagger, Warp-inspired house and dusty vocoders. Roman Flugel adds his own sharp remix, while the sleeve features nostalgic photos from Lozano's early 2000s London rave days. Proper tackle, this.
Review: Bucharest's SEPP brings his sleek, late-night minimalism to _NRV with three tightly built DJ tools that reward close listening. 'Feeling Ma' Bass' opens with a thick low-end throb and clipped vocal pressure, subtly layering loops that spiral into a locked-in hypnosis. 'Body Language' keeps the energy taut, working crisp drum hits and delayed FX into a taut, heads-down groove. Closing cut 'Do You Love Me' dips into a darker mood, balancing grainy textures with a filtered vocal loop that teases emotion without overstating it. There's a strong sense of restraint across all three-this is dancefloor material from a producer who knows exactly where tension lives.
Review: This new various artists EP via Berlin label Rockets Audio is a bright collection of belligerent, boxout beats, filed under the tag "fight music": a genre name which, by our account, very few other records share in. Though not particularly any more jingoistic in sound than the average knockout minimal breaks record, this one is still a multi-ringed set of winded body shots, and an all-round demo of Rockets' rope-a-dope roster, each of said artists punching well outside their weight classes. All remixing Sepp's titular 'Fighta' - itself a fortified set of padded facial armaments encasing a softer, funkier core of pads and vocal pump-ups - the one-punch KO this round, however, has to be Cesaire & Disorder's remix, which splits open the cheek protectors with extra dynamic, agile breaks design.
Review: REPRESS ALERT!: As Soul Capsule, Baby Ford and Thomas Melchior made some of minimal techno's most accomplished records. It has been many years since they stopped turning out new material - sadly - but their archive tracks are still in hot demand and undeniably relevant. While 1999's 'Lady Science' might be their most famous offering, this EP from 2001 on Aspect Music is no less vital and it will currently cost you well over L250 on second-hand markets. It is Ford's Trelik label who reissues it here in all its glory: the entirety of the a-side is taken up with 'Law Of Grace,' a delightfully deep and breezy minimal dub house roller with pensive chords draped over the frictionless drums. 'Meltdown' has a more experimental feel with brushed metal drums beneath a wordless vocal musing. The cult 'Lady Science' (Tek Mix) is also inched with the whole package being remastered by D&M to make this one utterly essential.
Review: REPRESS ALERT!: It's reissue time for one of the most in demand records from the Trelik catalogue, featuring Baby Ford and Thomas Melchior under their Sunpeople alias. The flip side's opening track 'Check Your Buddah' is probably the best known of the four tracks here, with its spacious echoes, mantra-like voices and heads down beats, but there's plenty to be said for the other three. 'Lovers Eyes' is an equally dubby techno affair, but pinned down by sturdy, infectious beats, 'Sungods Wedding' is blessed with churning, warm bass action and just a smidge of cowbell and 'Make It Right' is properly hypnotic 3am gear that's a dream to mix and draws in the listener with its imperceptible builds and three note bleep magic. Worship the Sun!
Review: Philadelphia-based producer Sweater lands on MME with four vividly imagined club tools that fuse house, electro and sci-fi atmospherics with a tactile, floor-focused energy. 'Mighty Morphin' opens with loose-limbed drums, soft chord flashes and a buoyant groove that glows with warmth and movement. 'Body Scan' follows in darker hues-ghosted vocals and a rubbery bassline orbit around crisp percussion and flickering synth detail. The B-side leans heavier: 'Escape The Future' dives into dubby, low-slung territory, rolling out a shadowy pulse designed for dim, smoke-filled rooms. 'Hydro Pump' closes on an electro tip-playful but tight, its blipping leads and darting textures skimming over nimble, broken rhythms. Smart, weighty and imaginative, it's a bold step forward for both artist and label, primed for the more adventurous end of the night.
Review: The Fresh Tunez series continues its hot streak with drop number five and it comes from rising Italian producer Vithz. Over the past year, Vithz has made worldwide moves and played from New York to Shanghai and Milan to Melbourne, apparently while crafting this strong new release featuring four stripped-back tracks that weave house, Balearic vibes, breaks and minimal grit into a refined yet raw sound. 'Night Tales' is a humid, sweaty throbber for the basement, 'Break Me' spins out on spacey breaks with curious synth motifs and 'Que Haces' brings a more playful and funky twist to switch up the rhythms when you need a break from solid four-four. 'Intense' is a heady one with a low-key but intimate feel and nice frayed edges.
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