Back catalogue: Minimal/Tech House

Review: Dan Formless' "Fried All Day" is a minimalistic tech house track that becomes the second release for the upstart label Bank of Switches. The original track is characterized by its repetitive beat, sparse instrumentation, and hypnotic atmosphere. The title 'Fried All Day' evokes a sense of exhaustion and overindulgence, which is reflected in the track's strangely hypnotic rhythm and quirky sounds. The Alex Arnout remix takes a more driving approach, with a more upbeat and melodic approach. Overall, this record is essential for lovers of minimal tech house and techno. Showcasing Dan Formless' unique and uncompromising style he is bringing the fun back to dance music enthusiasts with this one.

Review: Kompakt have billed their latest collaborative spiritual house release - three groove sandwiches shared between Deer Jade, David Hasert and Nicone - as an antidote to the all-to-prevalent late-winter blues and lack of sun, an affliction that seems to blight ravers in particular. Aside from canvassing for more outdoor and/or glass-roofed venues, all we can do in the meantime is weight the tonearm and jog-start the disc; 'Jukurpa' and 'Wasting My Time With You' are just the course of sonic vitamins us daywalkers need. The former is a deep, righteous blur of just piano tritones and circumscribed handholds around fires, as weighted knee-slaps and impacts evoke the feeling of a collective ritual come out-of-body experience. 'Cosmic Dream' returns to the very same rave spot at nighttime; at this point, it's all gone a bit lunar-psy, but the desert winds and temperate nighttime heat allow ample energy for continued soul flight.

Review: Shewey Trax welcomes California-based Delicate Instruments aka Delinstr for a pair of cosmic new cuts that he serves up as two different mixes each. Opener '2 Another Planet' (Superspace Breakdown mix) has sugary video game melodies raining down like old school Mario or Tetris over thudding deep house kicks. The Delisntr Speed Down mix brings some twitchy acid details while 'Solamente' (Problems mix) is another beguiling mix of 8-bit melodies and supple drums that tap out hypnotic patterns while floating through space. The final Synth mix of the same cut is a more widescreen and far-sighted take to close out a perfectly astral EP.

Review: Minimal production/DJ master Ricardo Villalobos enjoys a renown that lends him just about enough credo to release anything he likes whenever he likes and this latest pair of remixes of Paul Desenne's (in collaboration with Alonso Toro and Pedro Vasquez) 'Isiminaimanin' - the lead track from his gemlike Venezuelan gem of an album, Alzheimer - is a case in point. A furtive legend of the Venezuelan folk underground, Alzheimer, which was released back in 2001, expressed Desenne's talents and tastes, expansive outwards from his own Latin cello home-stretch and into further-afield wildernesses such as the Venezuelan cuatro (small guitar), Hawaiian bamboo clarinet, and electric cello - all instruments in constructing totemic, tribal, conceptual flights of fancy. It's this eclecticism on which Villalobos evidently feeds, with his two mixes expressing both fast and slow minimal-tech iterations of Desenne's mysticism.

Review: Sushitech is back with another of its sublime vinyl-only projects and this one focuses on the work of Dexter. There will be three 12"s in all that draw together some of the producer's finest moments. He is a truly cult figure amongst those who know and he served up a fresh take on tech, acid, dub and house between 1997 and 2004 when these tracks were first made - if you can find any of those original records prepare to pay loads for them, or else dive into Past Moves I. It has a brace of slick, tightly programmed cuts underpinned by rolling pads with lovely lo-fi pads up top. Heady stuff.

Review: Past Moves III is the final instalment of the vinyl-only series served up by Berlin's ever-well-curated and cultured Sushitech label. It is another essential 12' that packs in plenty of heat from the long-time UK favourite. His records are hard to find and expensive when you do and this collection highlights some of his superbly blended acid, dub, tech and house grooves from back between 1997 and 2004. On this one, you will find a pair of weighty, warm, and dubbed out tech cuts with bounce in the drums and Detroit soul in the pads. Timeless stuff.

Review: The second part of Sushitech's three-part vinyl-only series looking at the work of Dexter is another 12" doozy. The UK underground mainstay has been behind many cult and much sought-after records over the years and they all fuse obscure dub and acid tech house in smart ways. They were recorded between 1997-2004 and if you can find any OGs then you will be paying upwards of 100 quid for them. This slab has three driving but deep sounds carefully detailed with wispy pads and filtered vocals for perfect backroom deployment.

Review: TV Hill Records starts things off rough and curiosity-rousing, with a technical itch from OG AG (Andrew Grant) in collaboration with fellow producer Dimneonsum. A mid-paced deep techno calculator, 'What's Up Everybody' pares back any semblance of emotion for pure robotic urgency, with every sound moving in juddering clockwork lockstep in an abstracted world of pure, preservative mathematic topology. Opener 'San Fran' pits nervous FM loops against an equally anxious Shepard-tonal riser, while calmer moments such as the beatless 'Drakey' still disquiet with their eerie glassiness. One for the bleepy heads, the only humanistic element is the revelatory vocal sample on 'Found Out'.

Review: The cultured Satya label is back with more tasteful and tasty deep hose soundscapes, this time from Distilled Noise who brings a future feel to the grooves. The opener 'Drained' is a slick cut with tech percussion and cosmic melodies floating up top. 'Mind Eraser' then ups the pace but keeps things warm and heady with nice swirling pads. 'Retreat' is another silky smooth sound with warped, muted, smeared pads adding neon colour to the beats. Last of all is 'Verona Posh', a more astral and progressive house journey with diffuse colours and dynamic drums.

Review: Nu Groove is one of those labels that everyone who knows recognises as having played a key part in the early house movement. Based out of the New York scene on the East Coast it had a distinctive 90s deep house sound which DJ Steaw now taps into but with his own twist. His grooves are jacked up and analogue, densely packed but high on warmth and soul. 'Take It There' is a prickly opener and 'Seascape' then brings some acid. 'Close To U' has a more low-slung groove that is peppered with raw claps and last of all, 'Exotica' brings some cosmic synth work to crisp, funked-up and electro-tinged rhythms.

Review: DJ Tijzza from Berlin overturns his lapels for a look into his latest illicit wares, this time taking the form of a pair of 'Nasty Tools' to top up Mood Waves' Rap Moods series. Said Rap Moods are essentially dirty house cuts interspersed with obscure hip-hop vocal samples; this is indeed a form in which you cannot go wrong. 'Rap House Jam' compels us to depart from the sofa and relocate to the street floor, with a four-bar vox from god knows where furthering our motivations ever-forward; 'Micro Twerker' is bassier and sparser, but brings proper energy when the thematic "shake yo weight" sample is heard.

Review: Joe Babylon's cultured US label Roundabout Sounds has never rushed music out but when it does serve up new material it is always timeless and top quality. This latest EP is the first installment in the new All Hands series and it features some real house heavyweights. Frits Wentink kicks off with the mystic and lo-fi depths of 'Jellyfish, then DJ Aakmael layers up his soft edge chords and cuddly kicks drums with some muted horn motifs that bring the romance. The label head brings some upright drums and spoken word lyrics for a beautifully warm sound and last of all Detroit royalty Rick Wilhite links with Jon Easley for a final blissed-out and breezy deep house day dream.

Review: Originally released in 2012, '> album title goes here <' is the sixth studio album by Canadian electronic music producer & composer Deadmau5 (Joel Zimmerman). The 13-track album features a handful of Deadmau5' biggest hits, including but not limited to: 'The Veldt' with Chris James, 'Professional Griefers' with Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, 'Channel 42' with Wolfgang Gartner, and 'Telemiscommunications' with Imogen Heap. Now reissued for an even-more contemporary audience, this latest coloured vinyl version provides a new window into the world of the helmeted muroid cynic, and the humorously updated progressive house sound he helped trailblaze.

Review: A sprawling, typically irreverent effort from the ever-prolific DMX Krew. With each unfolding track, Edward Upton charts a new tributary in the Detroit-Berlin-Sheffield pipeline, from the grouchy technoid stomp of 'Bathtime Bobby', to the hazy chillout room introspection of 'Escape To 92', to the dazzled machine funk of aptly named elektro quest 'Desperate Measures'. Another thoroughly satisfying entry in the ever-growing DMX catalogue, Spiral Dance is a sizzling hotplate of timeless electro wizardry.