New releases last two weeks: Minimal/Tech House

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: Chunky, cheeky minimal house and techno from Murmurations signee Leo Christopher, based between London and Leeds. Stretching his time between DJing, remixes and original productions - there's a very special Leviticus' 'Burial' remix floating about the ether-net somewhere - one can sense that Leo carefully plans his many productions for a wide variety of impromptu situations. 'Decorated' and 'One In The Groin' each bring humoured but ultimately deep shuffles to the dance, the latter track especially proving "garagey" enough to cater to any given proverbial Room 2. The B strips things back to dubbier territory, with the Delilah collab serving hollowed-out vocals, and '080 Lounge' depositing carefully placed bongo hits and chords across a clacking rollage.

Review: Kiria Records drops a sleek EP here from Romanian DJ and producer Direkt, who keeps it refined with minimal grooves and deep vibes. The title track, 'Vintage A,' opens with classy synth work and crisp percussion, setting a hypnotic tone and Cally's remix follows with a stripped-down, razor-sharp rework ideal for subtle transitions and after-hours sets. Flip to the B, and 'Best Kick Forward' lives up to its name and is driven by bold basslines and forward-moving momentum. Closing track 'Fragments' floats on airy textures and intricate rhythms, so it leaves a thoughtful and lasting impact. A polished, versatile EP built for selectors who like it deep.

Review: Principaute de Bowl-Air is a new label founded by DJ Bowlcut, a prominent figure in Seoul's underground scene and on Seoul Community Radio. The label's debut release offers a deep, glitchy minimal house experience and opens with 'Tibetan Bowl', a track built around a Tibetan singing bowl and vocal samples that drop you deep into the surreal world of Bowl-Air. The second A-side, 'The Moment', delivers a hypnotic bassline and glitchy rhythms with a Korean vocal sample repeating 'Now it's the moment you are waiting for.' The B-side includes remixes by DOTT and Rudolf C and closes out a strong debut.

Review: The third release on Secretsundaze's 9FINITY imprint sees Naarm/Melbourne producer DJ Life return to the fold with another batch of psychedelic club tools, balancing UK bass pressure with trippy minimal finesse. 'Utility' jolts things into motion with snaking low-end and warped FX, slipping in and out of jagged tech shapes. The sparring synth jolts of 'Electrolyte' feel more frenetic, its thwacking groove and dubby vocal chops making for a proper headrush. On the flip, 'Breathe' trades upfront energy for depth, layering smoked-out subs beneath lattices of percussion. 'Stay Playful' edges toward tribal house but keeps its sci-fi freakiness intact. Digital bonus 'Love Sensation' eases the tension with clipped garage swings and pearly padsia welcome curveball.

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: Sub Basics's Temple Of Sound is back with new music from Henry Greenleaf who appears under his new moniker, Greenteeth. It is a project he is clearly using to cook up smart back room minimal sounds going off this evidence: 'Loxton' is a slow motion and prowling groove but one with deep, menacing bass and nice louche percussion. 'Jungle Love' is another subversive sound with a snaking rhythm and dubby low ends, dusty hi hats and late night mischief. Last of, 'On & On & On' plays out over all of the flipside with shuffling drums that are light and airy and topped with wispy drones. It's delightfully hypnotic.

Review: Oslo-based Boring Crew Records launches its catalogue with a six-track split featuring Anders Hajem and Henrik Villard. Hajem opens with 'Oasen', a slow-building chugger built from dark low-end and minimal phrasing. 'Praerien' pushes further into low-slung territory, layering tension through repetition and restraint. Perkules strips 'Oasen' back into an even drier mix, swapping atmosphere for sub-heavy functionality. On the B-side, Villard's 'Cowgirl' cuts in sharply with rough drums and a clipped vocal texture. 'Woodfall Temple' takes a different route i slightly swung, more percussive and bordering on meditative without losing focus. Cooper Saver's remix of the same track lifts the tempo and adds layered synth work that edges toward trance but never fully breaks format. The sequencing holds together well with contrasting versions that avoid redundancy i a clear and well-measured first release from the label, with enough variation to keep future output open-ended.

Review: Sometime Trauma Tribe and Spy vs Spy member Christian "Chris" Lloris is now two decades into his production career, though remarkably it has been 12 years since he last released a solo EP on vinyl. 'Echo Ridge', which also marks his debut on Lisbon label Satya, is therefore a long-awaited return to wax. He begins in confident mood with 'Ministrone', a fine fusion of lolloping tech-house grooves, spacey electronics and deep house flourishes, before delivering a chunkier and more bass-heavy slab of trippy tech-house with oddball samples aplenty ('Echo Ridge'). Over on side B, 'Mod Squad' is smooth, squelchy, quietly funky and delightfully off-kilter, while 'Snares Don't Care' is a more hypnotic, spaced-out and bass-heavy affair that's perfect for those "locked in" early morning moments.

Review: Big up to northern powerhouse Burnski for steering his Constant Sound label to the not-so-insignificant feat of release number 50. More importantly, the sounds remain as vital as ever and always evolve into subtle new sound worlds. The mantle for this one is taken by Locklead who brings some fine drum patterns to 'Backup' and pairs them with sliding hi-hats and bubbly synth motifs. It's garage-infused but utterly fresh. 'Wizzord' is a darker tech house with searching lead synths and plenty of pent-up energy, and 'Motherland' brings nice jazzy chord work and atmospheric samples. 'Pink Skies' is a bright closer with contrasting synths - some farting, some smooth - and more high-speed, catchy drums that span house and tech.

Review: Future garage via techno excursivenesses by new producer Loopdeville, whose name sure does sound like a place we'd like to live, London having failed us as of late! On deep purple vinyl first comes 'Celestial Quest', an interstellar undertaking handled with remarkable ease, with little so much as a flickery garage beat and ruminant chords making mellow light of light years. Mihai Pol amps up the danger factor with rogue chord asteroids threatening to pierce the hull; and B-siders 'Nosy Fella' and 'Moonlight' both swerve tactile, with their concussive percussions and vocal murmurations, resounding like unconscious inner workings of the spacefaring mind.

Review: Pilot is one of the many labels in the orbit of the irrepressible James 'Burnski' Burnham. Its next outing is from M High who perfectly slots into the label's classy minimal and tech sound world. Things open up with 'Same Routine' which is a turbocharged sound with frazzled bass and thumping kicks. 'On My Own Supply' has a touch of the old school to it with the unbridled joy of the dancing piano chords and big, bulky beats. 'Same Routine' then gets a space-tech rework from Wodda and Hatori's live Bass remix brings some lush cosmic synth swirls and bumping drums.

Review: Vinyl only record label Purple Print mark an impressive selection with 'Lanao Izany', a fresh EP from the Hungarian artist Daniel Meister, whose snappily produced but well-balanced mixes help bring a reinvigorating freshness to the easily mishandled world of minimal tech. We're not sure what "lazao Izany" means, but the track *is* zany: unmistakable synth santoor and crying vocals make for a mournfully mobile mix on the A track. Meanwhile, 'Delight' and 'Different Places' continue to goosebump us with low bandwidth static SFX and relentlessly snappy hits.

Review: AF1268 turns to the new talents of Nikol, a rising underground soundscaper from Manchester who makes a solid impression with this, his debut solo EP. Already somewhat known for singles on with MASS, his own label, and O.C.D., here he delivers a more fulsome four-track journey that blends modern minimal and electro. The EP features eerie, hallucinatory sounds with ghostly whistlings, acid stabs and hypnotic basslines perfect for more heady floors. It evokes a spectral atmosphere where Halloween meets tech-house while conjuring images of a damp, decaying club beneath a full moon. These evocative and unhinged grooves make bodies sway in slow motion, caught between dreamlike introspection and the rawness of the moment.

Review: With Pattern Gardening, London-after-Leeds imprint Wisdom Teeth yank out an extra gnasher we didn't know we had. As has always been the case, label heads Facta and K-Lone could be said to have curated and curetted a new compilation from the joint dentist's chair, exacting a 22-track root canal with periodontal precision, nearly doubling the size of their V/A ambit since 2024's Club Moss. But on this selective six-track sampler for wax, we've only a further sanding down of a much larger minimal, micro and tech house selection; here's gummy textures and maxillary moods by Polygonia, rRoxymore, Lurka, Sub Basics, and newcomer Jichael Mackson. Clarity and sound design are top priorities, as is the ideal of whitened teeth flashed by the poolside. Snappy, Rhodesy, watery.

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: 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: Bobby Donny's ongoing ACE series of vinyl releases has thus far delivered some genuine deep house treats. This is particularly true of the Dutch label's sporadic, compilation style EPs, which tend to showcase tracks previously released on digital-only EPs. There's plenty to set the pulse racing on EP number four, with highlights including two fine collaborations between label founder Frits Wentink and fellow Amsterdam scene stalwart Malin Genie (the sub-heavy peak-time bounce of 'Ambrosia' and the techno-tempo hypnotism of 'Exopaq'); the ultra-deep two-step house shuffle of 'Comet (Deep mix)' by ZZ Banks; the Italo-house influenced colour of Clovis Chilwell's 'Don't Let The Night End'; and the deep, hazy and dubbed-out brilliance of 'Slow Burn' by Rico Scott.