Back catalogue: Minimal House/Tech House

Review: Some four years after dropping the Soft Pack set on Souvenir, Ruede Hagelstein delivers a follow-up for Watergate (in the process marking the German label's first foray into artist albums, rather than mix CDs). Pleasingly, Apophenia is hugely enjoyable, offering an attractive blend of breezy, soft-focus electronic rhythms and dreamy, Balearic chords with saucer-eyed melodies and some neat musical touches (see the snaking saxophone on "Daylight"). A few friends - most notably Pillowtalk, Hollis P Monroe and Overnite - swing by to lend a hand, but for the most part its' his solo efforts - particularly the wonky techno throb of "Moon Rabbit", pulsating ambience of "Pareidolia" and cheery dancefloor shuffle of "Found A Place" - that really stand out.

Review: You couldn't really get more 'Berlin' than Ruede Hagalstein, former minimal techno producer turned house devotee and long-time Watergate resident DJ. Here he gives a flavour of his recent sets at the legendary Berlin venue by mixing up a decidedly touchy-feely selection of deep house, cosmic disco, Scandolearic treats and atmospheric techno. Its 25 tracks range from the tactile electronics of Prins Thomas to the bumpin' disco-flecked deep house of Losoul, via the glistening goodness of Steve Moore's remix of Lower Dens and the effortless techno-soul of Carl Craig's recent Henrik Schwarz rework. Throughout, it's suitably melodic and full of unusual twists and turns (not least the loose, drum-laden madness of ESP Institute-affilliated band Pharoahs).

Review: After some 12" releases with repetitive, subtle grooves and sound textures Hallucinator uses the space offered on this CD to fill it up with its complete musical vision. Previously released tracks can be found between new, exclusive material. 'Landlocked' is a reminder for the fact that repetition doesn't necessarily mean boredom.

Review: Second time around for the late, great Rai Harakami's second album, Opa*q, gets the reissue treatment. It's long been tricky to source outside of Japan and for whatever reason has not been issued in any form since it first surfaced in 2009. It's an attractive and at times off-kilter blend, with Harakimi mixing and matching ambient textures and enveloping electronic soundscapes with jazzy keyboard solos, quirky grooves, madcap post-techno acid lines, IDM and break-core style beats, and the kind of squelchy and tactile synth motifs more often associated with boogie albums made in the 1980s. It feels pleasingly lo-fi, too, as if a writer of 1980s and early 90s video-game soundtracks had made an electronica album. This edition also includes fine remixes by Ian O'Brien and Max 404, plus two hard-to-find bonus cuts.

Review: Generally regarded as the forefathers of the acid techno sound, Two Guys & Three Boxes is the eighth studio album from Hardfloor. Fans of the vintage Hardfloor sound will not be disappointed with tracks such as "TB Or Not TB" and "Mesmerising Liquids", the latter of which is filled with swirls of symphonically intertwined acid squiggles locked into the relentless chatter of thumping percussion. Hardfloor also make room for housier moments on "The Return Of The Analog Multichrist" and "In Acid We Trust".

Review: Reissue of the classic Concept Series. Special double CD with Thomas Brinkmann variations. Remastered by Stefan Betke aka Pole.

Review: Over 10 years down the line, it's safe to say that Richie Hawtin's 1996 "Concept 1" series stands out as a body of work that perfectly represents the spirit of the time. Marking a year long correlation between musical development and the progression of time, the original series consisted of 24 tracks spread over twelve monthly 12" singles and was strictly limited to 2000 copies per release. However, before the release of the "Concept 1 96:CD" in February 1998, Thomas Brinkmann made the trip from Germany to Windsor to play Hawtin some of his "Variations" of the series. The results were mind blowing - even by Hawtin's standards - opening up a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlapped to conjure up sounds that no one had ever heard before. It started back in Cologne where Brinkmann had employed the "Concept 1" series as part of an experiment together with his own custom built turntable system (including a 30 kilo plate and 2 SME 309 tone arms utilizing both Ortofon and Van Den Hul moving-coil pick-ups). By playing Hawtin's original compositions on his two-arm turntable - slowing down the speed of the records and separating the left and right channels - Brinkmann identified previously unheard dynamics within the recordings and a melodic displacement between the channels. Even the imperfections of the vinyl pressing process added new character to his variations. Essentially the "Variations" contain the same information as the original "Concepts". Like the idea of cloning twins, Brinkmann has taken Richie's DNA and nurtured subtle mutations to create a strangely familiar but altogether different set of grooves, allowing us to hear what he hears by enhancing something that was there but unheard until now in a triumph of sensibility over creativity. In the true spirit of Minus, he has used an unorthodox technique based on theories of alternative listening and experimentation to produce a startlingly different perspective. A scientific yet natural way of revealing the complexity of what was originally deemed minimal. 2007 would appear to be an optimal year in which to re-visit and to re-listen to these groundbreaking pieces, collected here together in a very limited CD double pack and especially remastered by Stefan Betke (aka Pole) from the Berlin based label Scape.

Review: Over 10 years down the line, it's safe to say that Richie Hawtin's 1996 "Concept 1" series stands out as a body of work that perfectly represents the spirit of the time. Marking a year long correlation between musical development and the progression of time, the original series consisted of 24 tracks spread over twelve monthly 12" singles and was strictly limited to 2000 copies per release. However, before the release of the "Concept 1 96:CD" in February 1998, Thomas Brinkmann made the trip from Germany to Windsor to play Hawtin some of his "Variations" of the series. The results were mind blowing - even by Hawtin's standards - opening up a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlapped to conjure up sounds that no one had ever heard before. It started back in Cologne where Brinkmann had employed the "Concept 1" series as part of an experiment together with his own custom built turntable system (including a 30 kilo plate and 2 SME 309 tone arms utilizing both Ortofon and Van Den Hul moving-coil pick-ups). By playing Hawtin's original compositions on his two-arm turntable - slowing down the speed of the records and separating the left and right channels - Brinkmann identified previously unheard dynamics within the recordings and a melodic displacement between the channels. Even the imperfections of the vinyl pressing process added new character to his variations. Essentially the "Variations" contain the same information as the original "Concepts". Like the idea of cloning twins, Brinkmann has taken Richie's DNA and nurtured subtle mutations to create a strangely familiar but altogether different set of grooves, allowing us to hear what he hears by enhancing something that was there but unheard until now in a triumph of sensibility over creativity. In the true spirit of Minus, he has used an unorthodox technique based on theories of alternative listening and experimentation to produce a startlingly different perspective. A scientific yet natural way of revealing the complexity of what was originally deemed minimal. 2007 would appear to be an optimal year in which to re-visit and to re-listen to these groundbreaking pieces, collected here together in a very limited CD double pack and especially remastered by Stefan Betke (aka Pole) from the Berlin based label Scape.