Back catalogue: Minimal/Tech House

Review: Jay Tripwire's My Life With The Machines compilation series is doing a terrific job of showcasing some of the umpteen early noughties gems buried in his catalogue and archive of unreleased jams. This is volume four (the first three instalments dropped in 2022) and features seven more slabs of intergalactic, wide-eyed, dub-fired tech-house treats. He begins with a sumptuously spacey and loved-up rework of Mothersole & Haris's 'Dumbek', before adding echoing sax sounds and dubbed-out organ lines to a heady early morning groove on 'What Kind of Voodoo Do You Do?', an alternate take on one of his most admired tribal-tinged tracks from 2002. Other highlights include the ultra-deep after-party excellence of 'Smoothin' It Out', the heads-down excellence of 'Smooth Swimmers (Swag Unreleased)' and the warming shuffle of 'Geometry'.

Review: California's Joe Babylon has been steering his own Roundabout Sounds through some lovely deep house waters over the last few years. Now the producer makes a big statement with his own debut album. He is something of a veteran having co-founded Plug Research back in 1994 and hosted underground events in Los Angeles during the mid '90s. Following on from outings alongside the likes of Rick Wilhite and Rondenion he now brings his own dusty, carefully disheveled house sounds to the fore. They have been crafted using an MPC which gives them their rough-edged appeal and they go from heads down back room joints to dubbed-out minimalism via dream late-night reveries. It makes for a fresh take on a tried and tested house template.

Review: REPRESS ALERT!: Jade Seatle met Jane Fitz at tech-house haven Kerfuffle in Brixton around 2005 or 06 (they don't remember). They bonded that day over records, and a strange story about a pebble. Disillusioned with parties in London, rather than moan, Jade and Jane decided to make their own. Night Moves was born in 2012, after they visited Jenifa Mayanja in Connecticut in summer 2011 and promised her a party to play in London. What then evolved was a journey in music, gatherings and friendship - and a lesson in how a community can evolve from a dancefloor. Night Moves spawned Day Moves, Field Moves, a B2B partnership, and many ridiculous parties in a range of wonderful locations. The records on this release not only represent the sound of Night Moves - all are tried-and-tested NM greatest hits - but also the sound that brought Jade and Jane together, and informed what they do now, where they've been and where they are still to go. For Those That Knoe is proud to invite Jade Seatle and Jane Fitz to present the Sound of Night Moves - only available on vinyl!

Review: Marking over 16 years as an artist, Robert James unveils his debut album Battle of The Planets. A milestone in any musician's career, the LP illustrates the breadth of Rob's tastes and influences, exploring the rugged terrain of planet electronica. Ranging from breaks and electro to house and techno, Battle of The Planets was made during lockdown, a period of creativity and isolation for many artists around the world. Across 10 skillfully produced cuts Rob takes us on an intrepid adventure into the cosmos, where mysterious atmospheres and uplifting melodies sit side by side with captivating dance floor rhythms. Many shades of his personality come through on this album, all tied together by his unique sonic identity; informed by his years spent on the dance floor, behind the decks and in the studio. On Battle of The Planets Robert James presents a distillation of his extensive knowledge and experience into one succinct, highly engaging body of work.

Review: These days, we're all familiar with Jan Jelinek's trademark brand of dusty, dubbed-out, jazz-sampling downtempo explorations. That wasn't the case when Loop Finding Jazz Records, his acclaimed debut album, first appeared back in 2001. It has since become an in-demand item, making this reissue more than handy. It remains a fine album; a blazed shuffle through a sonic world where dub techno, ambient, minimal house, jazz and downtempo grooves and seductive vinyl crackle merge into one intoxicating hybrid sound. It's not showy and over-the-top, but rather becalmed and subtly seductive. In other words, it's still a brilliant album and if you don't own already own a copy, you should add this to your cart sharpish.

Review: Up next on DJ Kicks' acclaimed mix series is Numbers doyen and Glaswegian iconJackmaster. In his own words, the 24-track mix sees the charismatic Scot 'delivering an honest journey, unearthing a serious passion for the obscure boundaries of house and techno.' This double LP lifts out eight of the tracks most other DJs will want to get their mitts on, and joins the dots between his hometown of Glasgow with Denis Sulta's festival destroying bass driven epic "MSNJ", then NYC; with Eli Escobar's gutsy EBM-flavoured 'Tension (vinyl mix)". Berlin's status as a dance music mecca is referenced with Dutch transplant Anno Stamm's dark house stomper "A Night Out With Therese" and the legend himself Ricardo Villalobos, with his minimal techno classic from 1996 "Logohitz". DJ Kicks throw in a CD of the mix too!