New releases last two weeks: Minimal House/Tech House

Review: Three Es would be some trip, and EEE also symbolises guaranteed good times in the club. The mysterious label and eponymous artists keep on rolling out essential tech and minimal cuts that are smartly designed and authentic, but also with anthem potential. Maybe that's why each one is a one-sided 12", to really allow the tune room to shine. In this case, dusty drums with a hint of garage swing and shuffle are paired with melodic baseline motifs and colourful synth patterns. It's a good time groove with plenty of heart.

Review: Paris-based artist Alex infuses his latest 12" with emotional clarity and cinematic weight, charting two personal chapters across a vivid stylistic spectrum. 'Colors in the Rain' unfolds slowly, stretching over nine minutes with plush chords, detuned synth spirals and muted percussion - evoking a kind of romantic unease that teeters between beauty and disorientation. It's club-ready but drenched in feeling, moving with the pacing of a memory. On the flip, 'Drama Major' leans further into a kind of pop-noir introspection: melodies rise, fragment, then reform with aching insistence over blown-out kicks and heavy low-end. Mastered at Dubplates & Mastering and distributed by Yoyaku, the record is technically pristine, but its emotional core is what lingers. Club music, yes, but made from the same raw material as heartbreak. Alex doesn't just score his own past here but offers a blueprint for others to make sense of theirs.

Review: Belgian label Music Man Records continues its deep dive into local club history with a standout 12" drawn from a wider retrospective on Destelbergen's legendary Boccaccio club. This release centres on the early house and techno that defined its Sundays-an alternative narrative to the better-known New Beat story. The A-side opens with Steve Poindexter's 'Computer Madness', all skeletal drum patterns and jacking minimalism, before UK crew Age Of Chance explode with 'Time's Up (Timeless)', a proto-rave anthem remixed into cut-and-paste chaos. On the flip, LFO's self-titled 'Leeds Warehouse Mix' drops like a techno blueprint-bleep-heavy, bold, and unmistakably northern. Closing the set is Alice D In Wonderland's 'Time Problem (Techno Speed Work)', a hyper, squiggly take on acid techno that feels like a high-speed trip through late-80s futurism. With selections curated by Olivier Pieters and Stefaan Vandenberghe, this 12" captures the rawness, friction, and thrill of a scene that still resonates across Europe's underground.

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.