Back catalogue: Minimal House/Tech House

Review: The highly politicised Los Angeles collective Ultra Red re-released their superb A16/A17 12" last year. Both tunes were produced entirely from field recordings made during street protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington April 16 and 17, 2000 and became secret weapons of DJs like Ricardo Villalobos & Craig Richards. Now, 'A16' gets remixed by underground titans Losoul and The Mole into two club-ready groovers. Losoul goes first with a dry and minimal take that is textured and deep with plenty of absorbing atmosphere. Next up, The Mole goes for a more propulsive sound with glistening tech house drums and icy pads. Both are artful reworks that take you on a mental trip.

Review: Impressive reissue of sound designers and masters of field recordings Ultra-Red. These unique sounding tracks were first released on the legendary Fatcat label some 20 years ago and kept as secret weapons of DJs like Ricardo Villalobos, Craig Richards and Miss Kittin over the years. Here we have the two long, uncut versions that were never released before. Limited copies!!

Review: A new imprint arises from mainland Europe in the shape of the mysterious Rawax with the debut twelve presenting a quartet of Untitled Tracks from Siberian producer Unbroken Dubs. Given the mood present throughout and the location of the producer, obvious parallels can be drawn with the excellent output from Ethereal Sounds, and that should be recommendation enough for people to investigate. Should you require further enticement, this release opens with wormhole traversing rhythms cutting through the sonic ether, though distant chord embellishments add a touch of warmth to the slightly alien tones that circulate constantly. The subsequent two tracks continue in this manner as Unbroken Dubs seeks to flush the stripped down patterns of drums and fuzzed out bass in ever increasing expanses of sonic dust. It's the final track where a more apparent sense of urgency is introduced as the Siberian lays down a tropical shower of percussion over intrusive chords.

Review: The Underground Culture Tourist is a new label from the artists of the same, aka Moss Shamshad. He has been making music since the eagerly 2000s on top labels like Classic Music Company but now takes the power into his own hands on this self-releases 12". It finds him back in the heart of the classy deep house underground with a debut vinyl release that will immediately turn heads. 'House Music Anthem' is stylish, stripped back yet atmospheric with its rolling drums and cosmic synth work while 'P To You' has a little playful funk to its beatdown drums and steamy chord work.

Review: 12", 180g, Vinyl Only. Limited copies and no repess! Stripped down instrumentation, panther-like drums and bassline pairing, and the odd deep voice booming in the dark is what to expect from these thee handy, playable cuts, that clock in somewhere between the progressive and minimal markers.

Review: The Only Music Matters label is slowly but surely building up a fine head of steam as it now offers up a sixth EP in just a couple of years. As always it is an unknown artist behind these stripped-back and direct-to-dancefloor beats and each one goes long for over eight minutes. That playtime is well warranted, too, as 'AAA001A' is the sort of groove you never want to end: dry drums and hits and paddy bass that are tightly woven together into a hypnotic sonic tapestry. 'BBB001B' is a little more gritty and twitchy to fire those sleep-deprived after-party synapses while 'BBB002B' shuts down with some underlapping tech-house funk and tripped-out designs.

Review: This is a cheeky single-sided affair that contains a gently tooled-up, rolling and rearranged version of a Marlena Shaw-sampling jazz-house classic that is rightly considered something of a dancefloor classic. The edit itself is undoubtedly rather good, subtly adding a little more bottom-end grunt whilst making a little more of the original's snaking sax parts, much-loved vocal sample and groovy jazz percussion. You can decide or not whether the re-edit was needed; certainly, the mystery re-editor has done a rather tidy job on the rework.

Review: Upwellings' latest for his local Lithuanian label Greyscale, 'Lark Dub', is something of a a dub techno masterclass, shifting through subtle echoic phases and left-right-panned chords. The four tracks here imply a journey through some otherworldly cosmos, with curiosities such as 'Fed On Dub' conveying a dark world of unfortunate (or, perhaps, fortunate after all) creatures whose entire daily reference intake consists of dub topi. It's a subsistence living, for sure, but rather than misery, it amounts to a spiritually satisfying, ascetic lifestyle. Remixes from Bluetrain, Ohm & Octal Industries round off the B, pushing through the vinyl crackle into detuned, forward-propulsive moods.

Review: Estonian label Gestalt is back with another blistering and club-ready 12', this time from Utopian Streams. Across the four fresh cuts are explorations of the sound worlds where electro, tech, acid, minimal and breakbeat all collide. 'Dream Shores' is an emotionally intense cut with waves of synth and subtle acid, crisp drums and big bouncing beats. 'Planet JX' is a darker, more downbeat number full of future menace and melancholy and 'Andromeda' is a cosmic workout with fizzing lines and sonar pulses over mid tempo drums. The last cut of the lot might be the best - the dreamy 'Now Is The Time' with its majestic chords and melodies over Detroit house drums.