Subtil Germany 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Vlad Arapasu's debut comes both at the right time and on the right label, not to mention marking the entrance of yet another masterful Romanian artist to the minimal-tech landscape. Landing on Germany's Subtil Records, this EP will surely earn the man some gigs down at Watergate or Club De Visionaire but, we're happy to say, that the music is pretty killer, too! "Jamies Run" is stripped-back and glitchy on the top end, leaving plenty of funk and drive in its bass; "Healing" pushes further out into the ether thanks to a wacky, shimmering bass, and "Sisco" wobbles its metallic beats amid eerie voices and sharp, corrosive hi-hats. 'Effective' is surely the word...

Review: Berlin's Subtil label serves up a third and final EP of the year here and goes for a varied and vital various artists affair. Blacksketch kicks off with an inwardly reflective bit of ambient, then Andrei Ciubuc sinks us into a deep and dubbed out world of atmospheric mysticism on '9877654321'. Tripmastaz Enterprises then suspend you in mid air with some wispy cosmic melodies and Pirvu offers a beautiful bit of Balearic bliss that has you laying horizontal and gazing off to some distant stars. Martin Glowacz's gentle synth modulations further soothe the mind, body and soul and last of all Togue offers 'Miroir', a beatless and cinematic closer.

Review: Nothing but good vibrations: Romanian vibe maestro Cosmjn returns to vinyl-only imprint Subtil with three more warm, focused, timeless tech grooves. Title track "Vibr8" takes us back 20 years where the lines between genres were barely visible as an elastic analogue bassline pings around linear drums with unhurried momentum. "Bottle" flips for a deeper housier groove with a gradually developing shuffle that wouldn't have gone amiss on MFF 10 years ago. Finally "Gottasay" takes us deeper again with a lush 12 minute chamber piece that's soft in build but mighty in pay-off thanks to a focused groove and deft use of white noise as a melodic texture. Gr8 m8, let's vibr8.

Review: Pepe Bradock's - Path Of Most Resistance is a seminal EP, and not only is the title of this new one from Direkt very similar, but his sound design is just as off grid and curious. That makes his tech house tunes all the more appealing. 'Past Present' is squelchy beats, tinny hist and warped pads that all coalesce around a dry beat. 'Path Of Most Resistance' then gets lost in the cosmos with circling pads and dreamy soundscapes layered up over another subtle metallic drum groove. 'Vitamin' cuts loose at the afters, with alien forms and speedy, overlapping kicks hurrying you ever deep into the night.

Review: Berlin imprint Subtil's mission statement is 'QUALITY UNDERGROUND MUSIC/VINYL ONLY' and that's good enough for us.. They're not wrong either. This time it's the turn of Iulian Ganovici aka Julian from, yes, Bucharest! This follows up his debut on London's FarFromNormal last year. On the A side we've got "Shades" which rolls along delightfully in reduced fashion until that muted bleep melody folds into the fray, joined by some infectiously dusty shuffle. On the flip is "Amburg" which is much darker and atmospheric. There's a lot of restraint in the kick and bass to make way for the creepy monologue and hypnotic pads to do most of the great work. Perfect for the mid-set breather but equally guaranteed to cause a headrush.

Review: Subtil is run by Nils Weimann and Martin Glowacz. The latter teams up with label stalwart Martin Glowacz for the Berlin label's twelfth release, following up some great ones by Romanian tech house heroes Piktor and Vlad Arapasu. The A side features the slinky and hypnotic groove of "Frankonia", followed by the rolling and esoteric sorcery of "Lower". The flip belongs to an epic 13 minute long remix of "Frankonia" by Paul Agripa - of the trio Sahau with Dan Andrei and Serban Goanta. The Bucharest based producer's trippy daydream of a rendition is pure magic and exactly the kind of thing we could have imagined the crowd at Sunwaves 23 trancing out to last week.

Review: Piktor is the latest in a long line of Romanian producers to make their mark in the worlds of tech-house and minimal techno. Previously, he's released just one well-received EP - last year's Lokomtiv 12" on Acid Space - but the signs moving forward are good. Certainly, this follow-up for Subtil is quietly impressively. A-side "Onion Belt" is particularly potent, which the Vienna-based producer working a rolling, tech-tinged groove and wavy, softly spacey loops for 11 mesmerizing minutes. On the flipside, the chunkier, deep house influenced box jam "Juno" boasts some delicious synth motifs and crispy drum machine hits, while 'Senin" sees Piktor wrap a restless bassline and darting electronics around a swinging, Villalobos-inspired groove.

Review: Mihai Pol is undoubtedly the current favourite of Romania's storied minimal techno scene at present, and continues with his consistent output with a new one for Berlin by way of Frankfurt's Subtil here - after some thrilling outings on Telum, Synaesthesia and Ibiza's More Than Music. Pol's signature groove is bouncy and uplifting as heard on the reduced funk of opener "Lost Ark" which was no doubt tested thoroughly on Bucharest's afterhours scene. On the flip, two more cuts await: the tough bass-driven entancer that is the title track ("Making Waves") which could be used to easily lead in to the peak time, or the heady and infectious tool that follows - fittingly titled "Mentalist"

Review: After a run of rock-solid releases on his own GETTRAUM imprint, Romain Raynaud AKA Traumer has decided to mix things up via a first outing on German imprint Subtil. The headline attraction is undoubtedly A-side "Temple", an attractive, ear-catching chunk of retro-futurist tech-house powered forwards by deep, undulating sub-bass, sparkling choral synth-sounds and fizzing, deep space melodies. Over on side B, "Spheria" is an altogether chunkier, deeper and darker tech-house box jam, while closing cut "Fortuna" cloaks a typically rolling, glitch-sporting beat in heavenly chords and the kind of rush-inducing operatic vocal samples that were such a feature of turn-of-the-90s classics such as Orbitak's "Belfast" and the Beloved's "The Sun Rising".

Review: It's the first light of day for both Vrac and Subtil Records, so with no background to go on it's pure face value for this new production partnership. In line with the strong current of minimal records of recent times, there's a range of grooves from linear patterns to breakbeat flows, with plenty of space for sound design and experimentation around those featherweight frameworks. "Pertu" in particular features some playful sounds and samples that echo out in the plentiful space afforded, while "Amp" gets into a more techy frame of mind with its sci-fi synth sounds. "Boariam" rounds things out with a more rolling rhythm and plenty of dubby textures for a less surgical approach to production.