As a general rule I discard a lot of minimal tracks sent to me. My attention wanders all to easily with the repeated refrains. But just occasionally one gets through and holds my attention. Here’s a cracking example of that ability to get through from ProOne79 x Romain Richard. ProOne79 is Italian based producer Gioele Cantoni. He’s from Sardinia and has been a producer since the 90s and that does show on this slightly throwback track. He working with Romain Richard, originally from Lille, France. He moved to Barcelona some years ago. His first musical love is house and techno. Both of them h ..read more

Minimal techno is a genre I almost always say no to. But not today. Switzerland’s Dachshund delivers something really compelling on Cosy Mess. Dachshund is Olivier Doret, a DJ and producer based in Geneva, Switzerland who is also the Co-founder of the Clapper label. He’s been around since 2006 and today we have the title track from his new Cosy Mess EP on renowned label Poker Flat. Cosy Mess is such a misnomer. It’s nothing of the sort. It’s a lovely clean minimal tech house track that politely finds a groove and allows the rest of track to unfold in an unfussy way. What sets this track apart ..read more

If you’re feeling a bit funky I have just the thing for you. Some Middle Eastern flavoured melodic techno from NILU (DK). As you might expect, NILU (DK) comes from Denmark, Copenhagen to be precise. He’s a two track EP out from which featured track Bazaar is taken. It’s invidious to start with a grumble. But I must. This track is only 2:30 and that’s too damn short. Nonetheless for the duration it’s a properly snaking bit of melodic techno. Bazaar takes some nice and deep techno beats and welds then to a squelchy elastic bass and some ultra processed synth lines. And then the killer tom toms ..read more

Nothing forgiving today for you. Today you deserve the smack of firm techno from ASOY, and Sebastiaan Hooft. Let’s start in London, UK with ASOY. His biog explains his background as “It was in the late 90s where a young London born teenage Cypriot boy immersed himself in club culture during its hedonistic period where there was an abundance of choices to experience the most forward thinking underground electronic music; and this is where the tireless musical quest of ASOY was inaugurated.” Here’s new track Chasershade from the Anayen EP. This is a track that bleeds from almost hard techno to ..read more

Starting the week with a really cool melodic techno track from Kozlevchar and Boom Bap Ballade that also drifts into deep house and dub techno. Kozlevchar is from Slovenia and has a four track Empyrean out with Boom Bap Ballade. The featured track is Djebali. No idea why it’s called that. All you need to know is that this is a cool, slightly dark track. If you want more then know this. After the initial beats the bass synths throb with a dub techno vibe. This has an effortlessly hip darkness that’s terribly German. In many ways this is an encapsulation of all good techno sounds from the last ..read more

Go down, deep, deep down with CRSHR. CRSHR is an electronic music producer based in London. Formerly known as Tom Crusher, he is Tamás Fodor born in Hungary but now based in London. He’s been producing tracks for about ten years, starting in trance and progressive house but also now moving into stranger territory. Here’s Temptation from the A Matter Of Perspective release from last month. It’s billed as deep techno. And that makes sense. It has a deep techno bass throb. But the beats don’t quite have that techno punch and give the track a more minimal vibe. Overlaid on top is some elastic mac ..read more

And so I stagger to the end of the week through the blizzard of Friday’s chores. Minimal techno is the order of the day with Pleaxure the provider. Pleaxure is the techno project of Grant Wheeler, a long-time producer/writer and now resident of Baltimore, MD. His work has gone from IDM to House to R&B. But always a bit out of the mainstream. And so it is on Foreverface. This harvests from across that past to produce something with hints of all of it but nonetheless also fresh and defiantly leftfield. Foreverface is a track that has a foot in home listening and a foot in the club. Not an e ..read more

I don’t post minimal tracks. They tend not to hold my attention. But Poland’s Da Vosk Docta gets it spot on with FOXY from the album MAX PLEASURE. Da Vosk Docta is a music producer born in 1991 in Wrocław, Poland. He started by using classic samples before moving on to his own electronic work. He’s got quite a back catalogue. MAX PLEASURE is his latest album, from which FOXY is taken. FOXY is almost five minutes of techno pleasure. It is sometimes melodic but mainly minimal. Despite the picture of someone looking overly refreshed on the cover there’s a surprising sophistication at work. This ..read more

Middle Eastern Minimal House from Cosmicat on Toxic Romance. Cosmicat is a female DJ from Saudi Arabia. That shouldn’t matter. But undeniably it does. I haven’t kept up with change in the Middle East but was surprised that the limited reforms that have taken place since 2017 in Saudi Arabia have allowed such a thing. Among the factors that define rights for women in Saudi Arabia are government laws, alongside strictures of the Hanbali and Wahhabi schools of Sunni Islam, and traditional customs of the Arabian Peninsula. More on women’s rights in Saudi here. Cosmicat is Nouf Sufyani, Saudi Arab ..read more

Don’t be confused by today’s offering. This isn’t Autechre. That’s the name of the track. This awkward minimal techno is by Toxic Positivity. Toxic Positivity describes himself as, “your local, free-range, bedroom producer.” But considering he’s from Sacramento that’s not terribly local to me. At least one change of buses at Willesden I’d have thought. Anyhow, he’s got an improv background that expressed itself in an aesthetic that, “each track is unique and produced from a live performance of synthesizers, and sequencers, primarily surrounding the Deluge. About half synths, half sample-based ..read more