The Mountain People - Mountain 011.1

Gorgeous, deep hypnotic minimal with a clucky little sub-bass under the beat.  This is minimally sick from one of my favourite Swiss producers.

Roustam - Valparaiso

People talk about the Romanian scene being mega-hot, especially me, but the Russian scene is definitely one to watch out for too with Roustam in particular bringing tracks like this deep, hypnotic beauty - with a subtle sexy ass bassline.

PashnLips - Capriole (SIT Remix)

Light and delicate dreamy minimal track - I'm not entirely sure if this is a 7am track or a 7pm track.

Matrix - Get Out (Kerri Chandler Remix)

You've heard the back-drop before, you've heard the beat before, you've heard these kind of spoken vocals over the top.  But it just works.  You got a brand new VCR for Christmas and now it has a peanut butter jelly sandwich in it.

Fatima Yamaha - What's A Girl To Do

It's a really simple, almost child-like melody, but has a certain unique charm over it's slow deep trance beat.

Florian Meindl - Nights I Don't Sleep

It's all about the really solid, chunky beat.  I used to be a big fan of Florian Meindl as a DJ but as he went much techier, I lost interest.  But this track is superb.

I was a bit of a dick with this - I noted down only the name of the artist and then had to listen to loads of his tracks to remember which one it was.

Auntie Flo - Gods Of War

Tribal tech-house little beast with occasional risers and a changing percussive beat.  Meaty.

Unknown Artist - OWL 003 - Untitled A

These untitled artists don't make it easy for us - this is a slightly broken minimal track with possible woofs, piano stabs, a fragment of saxophone, occasional spoken word and faint industrial noises amongst the clicky percussion - quite a lot to it.

Skull - Bring It Home

Yes there used to be minimal techno in the 1990's.  Like everything it was a bit faster by then.

Sterling Void & Paris Brightledge - It's All Right

Classic house track that has such a good feeling and such recognisable vocals - this will put you on a high if nothing else does.  Often very overlooked.

Has a lot of meaning to me right now.

Colm K - Basics (Emi Edit's Edit)

Background zylophones always make for a beautiful experience, and this shimmering sunrise track with it’s sublime vocals really hits the spot in a I want to hear this at 7am on the Amnesia terrace kind of way.

DJ Koze - XTC

This track is everywhere.  A spoken-word prophesy about the drug, ecstasy.

Emmanuel Top - Dominos

Just a really simple acid groove but you'll get hooked by it.

Jouem - Melian

Gentle dub techno track that warms the heart.

Magit Cacoon - Love Express

A undercurrent of bass, with repeated vocal stabs and a solid beat, bring a track with so much suspense.

S.A.M. - Untitled

Sometimes it's easy to say why a track is great.  Other times it isn't and this falls into the second category.  The solid beat helps as does the general hypnotic minimal style but why I love this more than so many other tunes out there I cannot quite pick out.

Unknown Artist - #FF0066 (B)

A remix of Oh Superman, with a very deep and subtle sub-bass running through, with the percussive beats at quite a clip.  And a glorious 12 minutes long.

Funk E - Morning Glory

Slow and gloomy minimal.  But it grows on you after a few listens.

Osunlade - Pride (Johnny D Remix)

The perfect example of the genius of Johnny D again, he just masters dropping out the beat and bringing it back in again with so much aplomb.  It is house music.

Crihan - Uelden

Hypnotic and slightly bass-driven minimal groove which is absolutely the centre of what excites me right now.

Released in 2015 on Ultrastretch.

Mass Prod - 72 Minutes Of Scrubs A Day

It took me a good few minutes to work out this is a gloriously deep and slightly blippy remix of Stevie Wonder.  Nicely subtle.

Released in 2010 on Bosconi Records.

Pepe Bradock - Surprise (Deep Burnt Edits)

It's seemingly been going around a while but this a little extended edit of a sublime beauty, only released this year (2015) on Atavisme.

Johannes Heil - Die Eigene Achse (Heiko Laux Remix)

Probably the fastest track I have ever listed - there is so much raw techno energy blistering out of this.

Released in 2000 on JH.

Shan - Work It (Piano Mix)

Old school house track that just makes me want to jump up and dance.  I'm just having a little desk boogey instead.  Except it was released this year.

Released in 2015 on Running Back.

Jichael Mackson - Voices

I become more of a fan of Jichael every week, though I'm not yet at obsession stage.  This is a 15 minute long percussive wonder.  Really quite addictive.

Sadly there is no video around any more.

Chris Carrier - Street Talk

Chris Carrier makes really reliable solid house tunes, and this just tickles me that little extra with the tiny little 80's snippets

Released on the ever-popular OFF Recordings in 2012.

Dead Rail - Para Ti

Ram-packed full of charm, with very soft hints of bass guitar over a slowly creeping minimal beat.

¡redream! 11 - A

Almost a kind of country vocal to a minimal track that percussively progresses before going into full-on squidgy verritory, and a touch haunted.  Villalobos-inspired by a mile.

Sound Stream - Sweep Magic

This really has some magic tricks - I know instantly from the first beat that I'd like this and it is a semi-standard feel-good funky house beat but with some twisted low-bass ear-perturbing noise to confuse.

Released on Sound Stream in 2015.

Suciu - Cadru2

Gentle down-tempo minimal track that grooves along for 13 minutes.

Seuil - Do The Left Thing

A very deep subtle sub-bass undercuts this simple underground house track.  Do you love me?

Released in 2015 on Eklo.

Dubfound - D.O.L. (Sascha Dive's Strip It Down Remix)

A gorgeous stripped back minimal hook.  Why is it only 8 minutes long?

Released on Nurum Music - 2015.

Barac - Superlate Check In

Barac has quickly become one of my favourite producers for his long, enchanting, hypnotic minimal grooves that do that really cliched taking you on a journey thing.

Released in 2015 on Pressure Traxx - this guy will go superstar, in a Raresh kind of way.

Burnski - The Hours

Burnski is always a reliable producer straddling the house/tech-house line, and this flits between piano-based highs and a really dependable chunky beat.

Released this year, 2015, on Holic Trax.

The Black Madonna - Exodus

I am becoming such a big fan of this Chicago-based lady.  Not just musically but reading her intelligent output through interviews - she isn't afraid to touch issues many leave alone.  Many people will recognise this - a very piano-based remake of a soulful classic.

This is just an exceptional piece of work and exceptionally feel-good.  Released on Stripped & Chewed last year.

DJ Rush - I Like It Like This (Rush Classic Mix)

Proper old raw sounding house and they just don't make it like this any more.  Pumping.

I cannot find much in the way of information about it.

Johannes Heil - Paranoid Dancer

It's got that early 2000's techno feel to it - with an electro-synth bassline and a much faster BPM than is the norm nowadays.  Lots of energy.

Released on Berlin label, Kanzleramt, in 2002 - sounds very much like an early Cocoon track.

Felipe Venegas & Francisco Allendes - Llovizna

A wonderful, dreamy percussive track that breaks down towards the end into softly grumbling basslines.

Released on Cadenza in 2009 - not sure why it passed me by for so long.

Stephanie Cooke - Holding On To Your Love (Mood II Swing Dub)

An odd mix of soulful house with electronic stabs of urgency.  Would be a really good way to insert some soulful house into an underground/tech house set - or vice versa.

Released in 1996 and the vinyl is just £1.26 on Discogs.  Surely not for much longer.

KiNK - Cloud Generator

Electro-tinged power generating techno that is perfect for Sven.  This is a real grower of a track.

Nikola Gala - Only (Ryan Elliott Remix)

Techno that just does not kick off at all.  It broods instead, injects a few stabs and has this deep growling bassline just underneath.

Tronco Traxx - Drops (The Johnny V. Stole My Sample Mix)

A gorgeous classical piano flitting in and out, over the top of percussive elements and occasional beats.  Really quite glorious.

Focus - Find Myself

Imagining myself cuddling a dolphin on some beach loungers in Ibiza whilst listening to this glorious deep house beauty.  And then the dolphin makes me get up and dance.

I don't know anything about the artist.

Seth Troxler & Phil Moffa - Blue Rawls

Oh this is a bit special from one of dance music's newest legends, and Phil Moffa, whom I have to admit I don't know about.  A gently pulsating opera-themed tech-house track.

Zendid - Wood Lesty (Vid Reconstruction Mix)

One of those 15 minute long hypnotic minimal grooves, but with an added emotive twist - some church service early music - not quite sure how to describe it but it drifts in and out quite gently in the second half of the track.

DJ Qu - SS1

What a brilliant track this is.  A driving house track, with suspense built up, and shuttering claps.  I was hoping the Secretsundaze record label was going to match the quality of the night and this surpasses expectations.

John Tejada - Paranoia

A gently oscillating yet dirty-feeling house track.  Think Sweat On The Walls, but so much better.

Agoria - Bapteme

Another glorious production from Agoria, with sweeping emotive strings like only he seems to produce with such regularity.

Baby Ford & Zip - Morning Sir

Slightly dubby, gentle early morning minimal.  And a touch creepy.

Seth Troxler - Evangelion

Perhaps struggling classification a tad, Seth takes us on a tour of his mind with blippy space samples, snippets of piano and a chuggy tech-house beat.

Coxxo - Speculatii

Just a load of nonsense over a minimal techno beat and I love it.

Adolf Stern - More…I Like

I love a spot of disco and there isn't much I need to say about this - just get down and boogey.  Slightly on the Italo side.

Moodymann - Hangover (Moodymann Mix)

Another really high quality production from Moodymann with soulful vocals, changes of tempo and a drum roll.

Lauhaus - Better Beer

A deep house track with a lot of sensible advice on how to run your life.

Vladimir Marinkovic - Midnight Hunter (Little Black Dress Remix)

It was only my inner testosterone that told me to listen to this, hmm hot woman in little black dress, but I'm so glad I did.  A slowly rising minimal chugger with little percussion stabs.

Homework - Conquered Enemies

So much warmth and sunshine in this deep house cut.  It doesn't do anything unique, just a really good piece of deep house on Wolf Music.

The Trammps - The Night The Lights Went Out (Dimitri From Paris Disco Re-Edit)

So, so funky.  A proper kind of mo-town vocal with a disco rub over the top.  Feel good music for sunny times.

Dmx Krew - Astro Logical

You do not hear enough electro nowadays.  This is a charming little beauty full of melodic snyth stabs.

Jichael Mackson & Audio Werner - Schlamm

A twisted druggy high-hat mess.  Percussive and just rather mental.

Johnny D - Believer

I've long been a fan of Johnny D's creations - it didn't initially sound like him to my ears as it is a more rounded house sound with occasional sampled diva snippets (pleasantly diva, nothing over-bearing), but the way it breaks down subtely and rises back up with gentle authority is so Johnny D and this is so loveable.

So so so good.

Ma Foom Bey - Cultural Vibe

Absolute bona-fide and unplayed classic.  I say no more.

Pan-Pot - Crank

I'm not the world's biggest fan of Pan-Pot, but this is a nice track, steeped in dub techno sensibility, but taking it to more of a tech-house kind of edge with a definite minimal techno influence.

Quite a few years old, seems to have passed me by originally.

Green Velvet & Patrick Topping - Voicemail

LeShaun is back with her voicemail messages.  Those close followers of Green Velvet will know what I am talking about.  This is a really good rounded house track, featuring man of the moment - Patrick Topping, though I was never a fan of his big track "Forget".

B.W.H - Stop

Just the thing for a comedown morning to put a smile on a tired face - a spot of disco, a slight space-disco feel to it and not too much in the way of vocals.

Marquez III - Damn Right

Funky-tipped house track with attitude, vocals with a meaning and some nice claps.  Really got my feet dancing under my desk.

Yotam Avni - UR Sleeping

It's got this nice scratchy sound over this slightly more techno dub techno sound, along with a subtle and short breakdown.  Simple but really good.

Valentino Kanzyani - Chord Release

What has happened to Valentino Kanzyani?  He has gone from producing really obvious and dull tech-house to some really interesting music such as this brooding minimal techno beauty, with a slight emphasis on techno.

You could say this is orgasmic.

Vince Watson - Deja Vu

Really nice calming but warming strings, a pleasant breakdown then more warm strings.  A really nice piece of deep trance.

SIOPIS - Hand In The Sand

A slightly reverbarating beat.  There isn't much to say about this jolly bouncing minimal tech-house track.

Jichael Mackson - Freitag Abend

This is a proper house track by the best sarley-bugger eating smug-druggler around.  It just has a really good house feeling with snippets of German and some chupermarket seckout bleeps.

Electric Rescue - Quarries (A. Mochi remix)

Every since Sven sent me crazy with an insane A.Mochi techno track in Ibiza a few years ago, I have been following this producer.

This is techno that takes no prisoners, with a slight robotic-electro edge to it but just a real stomper

DeWalta & Voigtmann - Semi-Floating Objects

Gosh I love minimal more than 10 years later.  These are two rising stars and the track is a slightly computerised plodding affair over 11 minutes with depth.

Not to be confused with semi-flying objects,

Alexander Skancke - Borg

Underwater minimal with enough bleeps, clicks, ohhs and tsssttssshhh's to keep me amused.

Vid - Estevid

Minimal with a gorgeous rounded deep bassy beat, and some whistling over the top - but the whistling actually works.

Alexkid & Enzo Siragusa - Kilimanjaro 2

This is minimal garage.  This is the first minimal garage track.  This is a whole new genre.  That devastating wobbling bassline is so effective and I can only dream of hearing that on a soundsystem.  Unless I play it.  Which I have done.  Twice.  And it destroyed the floor.

The garage breakdown and the two-step minimal are just wonderful.

Atom TM - Ich Bin Meine Maschine

This has so much going for it - an electronic factory setting, a Kraftwerk feel and German spoken lyrics as he tests the different sound ranges of his maschine.  One can only imagine had I been around in the day's of Kraftwerk, just how much they would have blown my mind.

Atom TM are a band that I have going to have to do some research on, I feel.

Sven Vath - L'Esparanza (Ame Reinterpretation)

Sven has occasionally produced music in his life, not so much recently.  This is an excellent remix of one of his classic more trance-like efforts, by the on-form Ame, released to celebrate his 50th birthday.

And I do regret not going to Sven's 50th birthday in Germany last year.

STL - Something Is Raw

The second fantastic track from the aforementioned Craig Richards compilation - I have heard it before but never knew what it was, and perhaps it made more sense how it was presented too.  It is mostly about the melodic hook.

There is just something about STL's productions.

Raiders Of The Lost ARP - On And On

I discovered this on the truly excellent Craig Richards compilation - Get Lost - it was only a few tracks in and just sent me crazy, in a sober Monday night kind of way.  So much emotion behind the melody, a simple beat and a trance-like drift on occasion.

UBQ Project - When I Fell In Love

An unecessarily inauspicious introduction with a female orgasm - it seemed pointless, but a really warm-feeling house track follows with the words "When I feel in love, I never thought I'd fall for you" on repeat.  Really good house track from 1994 - doesn't sound aged at all.

Ricardo Villalobos - Voodog Part 1

A typically rounded warm Villalobos beak with broken bits and a breakdown with snippets of Mary J Blige.  I played it out and nobody seemed to recognise the vocal.

Really clever remix - the best new Villalobos track in my opinion for a year.

Enzo Siragusa & Alexkid - Kilimanjaro 3

I really like this minimal take on two-step garage - always have to admire when artists are pushing a slightly new sound.

Apollonia - Un Vrai Portugais

A really on-point production, making me dream of standing on a beach in Mexico with a parrot on my shoulder watching the waves.  Musically, it is a very fine house track - as you would expect from this modern house super-group.

SAS - In The Candy Store

Really cool house track that sounds like it is from back in the day.

Actually only from 2010 - £45 on Discogs right now though, eeek.

Ben Vedren & Patrice Lewis - Procrastination

A gentle minimal chugger on one of my favourite subjects.

Barnt - Chappell

Anger, force and bashing drum beats.  Lively and a great way to pick up a flat crowd.

Definitely a producer to watch.

Mathew Jonson - When Love Feels Like Crying

Mathew Jonson is an absolutely wonderful producer, making many an epic track and this is no different with a slow and ponderous light beat and melancholic melody providing the sad drama.  Could be a perfect second-last tune of the night.

Isn't the newest tune ever but has really grown on me over the years.

The Smiths - How Soon Is Now (Maceo Plex Remix)

It starts with a fairly ordinary tech-house beat with a distorted guitar melody over, drops out and then comes back in weaponised format.  Big.

I still love Maceo Plex despite his popularity.  No idea who The Smiths are.  Possibly a band?

Recondite - DRGN2

Best techno discovery for some time, solid and dark, which builds up firmly before going into a wobbly emotional twist and picking up the pace to finish.  Firmer than an anti-celebrity bum and won't break the internet.

Recondite is a star of the future.

The Cheapers - Memories

Am I imagining that The Cheapers used to make gash fidget-house?  Probably.  I could be making that up.

This is one of those luxurious Tale-Of-Us set-end kind of dreamy deep trance efforts, really well-produced and a solid 8 minutes long.

Mark Farina - Dream Machine (Brett's No Fear Mix)

Slightly mental acid-soaked house groover.  I have no idea who Brett is and it is a long time since a Mark Farina track has tingled my tastebuds - this is essential for dancefloors

Luciano - Metodisma

I've heard that Luciano is apparently back on form as a DJ. This track is from 2009, when he last was on form as both a DJ and producer - imagine a slightly more aggressive Villalobos beat with added low-volume screams and you should get the picture.

Gary Beck - Get Together

Party techno about a coffee cup.  Progressively uplifting with claps-a-plenty and a smashing breakdown.  Gary Beck always produces a track every year that could headline a Sven set.

tINI - That's Right

tINI has been a favourite of mine for a few years now.

A warm, chuggy underground glow with vocal snippets and a totally un-EDM build-up to go back to the chug.  Very tasty.  Very tINI.

Renegade Soundwave - Phantom

Oh how wonderful does this sound?  A slightly broken beat house track that possibly helped pave the way for breakbeat, but with enough of a beat, kickdrum and percussion to place it firmly in the house camp.  From 1989.

DeepChord - DC14 [B1 Remastered]

I am really getting into this spacious dub techno exploration, it really could be my new thing.

I don't really know much about them - I know they are from America and have lots of tracks with very similar names.

Patrick Specke - Bitchual Linestepper

What is a bitchual linestepper?  A random girl that steals all your coke at the after-party?  The track is a nice underground house track, a touch floaty and dubby.

Tuccillo - Take My Joy

Tuccillo has been slowly growing into my conscious and fully explodes into it with this groovy house track with intermittent powerful drumming.

Dubstar - Anxious

Underground house dub that gently caresses the ears like a Body Shop massage cream and a hint of rattlesnake.  Sadly stops after 10 minutes - should be at least 30 minutes long.

Alliv Sobol - Toz79

It has taken me a little while to work out who Alliv Sobol is.  A mirror would have helped.  This is just really stripped back minimal that does absolutely nothing.  A little warm bounce.  That is all.  Oh Mr V.

Can you work out who it is?

So Inagawa - Logo Queen

It's like floating along a seabed watching the octopus glide in between the reeds.  Luxurious deep house.

I don't recall ever featuring a Japanese artist on this blog - I am aware there is a good scene in Japan, musically at least.  More researched needed.

Andrey Zots - Useless

Minimal chug-central.  Sit down and chug along with me.

Robag Wruhme – Dakktylaff

Robag should need no introduction to my regular readers - this is the 7th time that his unique quirky masterpieces have been featured - in just 725 (ish) reviews.

I get excited upon seeing the word Robag - each of his tracks is uniquely wondrous in a minimal structure but with so much personality.

A gorgeous deep lowline bassline is a particular favourite element of mine here, along with the percussion and the industrial noises - oh it is just all great.  Robag Wruhme is the man.

Head High - Megatrap (Mix Mix)

Rather squidgy, wonky techno that reminds me of a giraffe on a space hopper.  A touch of vocals too.  The mix mix is the best mix.

First time I have come across the artist Head High - though perhaps he is better known as Shed.

Lawrence - Marlen (Carsten Jost & DJ Richard Remix)

Deep house gorgeousness, perfect for starting your evening at a post-sunset moment in Ibiza - the gorgeousness of the track is obvious from almost the first bar.

Wow.

Cristi Cons - Anatrack

I've been looking for this track for a while, a hypnotic percussive 10 minutes of dreaming about trams.  It drops totally into dreamland for a while but when the beat subtly kicks back in - wow.  A subtle wow.

This is the pick of several good tracks from Cristi Cons over the last 12 months - Mouline, Recognize Me and Change being a few of my other favourite but this stands out so much.

This is just so beautiful.  And yes, he is from Romania too.  Maybe I should move there?

Sepp - Varnav

A long bank of nimbostratus with a snooker shot repeated over and over.  Snooker in the clouds.  It could be pool too.  Or billiards.

Sepp is yet another discovery from the hotbed of minimal, no not Berlin.  Romania.

A very talented producer.

Luc Ringeisen - Beat Design

Another new artist/DJ discovery for me, from France but making a name for himself predictably in the magic city of Berlin.

This is definitely my kind of track, minimal oddness with echoed creeks, vocal snippets, the odd robotic bleep and a tiny touch of jazz.

Enjoy.

Nastia - Maslo

A slightly dubby underground beat, stripped back with snippets of perhaps a Spanish guitar, though the brain isn't fully functionning right now.

A new artist to me - all I know about her is that she is from Ukraine.  I shall be endeavouring to find out more.

The Fumiya Tanaka remix is also worth a listen - nearly 3 times as long as the original.

Johannes Volk - The Awakened Guardians

I've been getting into these dub techno sounds for a while now, they always remind me of fabric in the first hour that it opens - yes I love to be there when a nightclub opens.  This is my favourite dub techno track so far, a science-fiction influenced beauty.