Monokrak's latest podcast

We've written more than enough about the genius of Monokrak in the past, so you ought to know what to expect - minimal, deep, twisted techno. This month's podcast was composed by the excellent Floating Mind and is very deserving of your time.

Floating Mind - Live from Chez Moi mix

Todays listening is some deep and minimal tech from the Monokrak crew.

Scuba - The Hope (Recondite mix)

Scuba - The Hope (Recondite mix) - 23/07 Hotflush

Hot Flush's latest release is another pretty solid Scuba remix outing, with Recondite offering up two interpretations of The Hope, the deliriously ravey cut from February this year. Rather than upping the ante, Recondite strips away the majority of Scuba's original track, retaining only the distorted voice, and filtering down the bass to a warm, resonant low end. Whilst the two reworkings are intended to conjure different time periods, named Nocturnal Car Ride and Morning Promise respectively, they're fairly similar aesthetically and channel a smoked out, deep-house vibe. Admittedly, the former focusses slightly more on the bass and the lower end, whilst the latter stretches the hi-end synths into ambient/ Kraut waves, whilst winding the percussion down to a more minimal groove.
I'm definitely more enamoured with the Nocturnal cut, but both tracks are solid DJ tools with great potential and rich sounds that will get a few good outings.

9West - Velvet EP

9West - Velvet EP (Dessous, Out now)

Dessous continue to turn out more subterranean house, with a four track EP from Greek duo 9west, who's debut EP for the label dropped last year. I recently praised Steve Bug and Cle's new EP as a return to form for Poker Flat, and now Bug's pulled the same trick with Dessous; this is the kind of rich, late-night house music that the label's famous for. Good shit.

Opening with Chasing Demons, 9west summon up a lush palette of bongo-laden percussion, whispered vocals and loping synth riffs, building a long-running deep house epic from a vast array of elements; hardly devastating, but definitely one to build up with. There's much of the same on the other three tracks, with Moments leaning heavily toward Detroit, ratcheting up the tension via swelling synths and percussive drop outs, whilst the second half of the EP showcases a more dub-friendly palette of delay and comfort-reverb. It's with the latter that 9west shine; their sound's so heavily layered that the more straight-forward 4/4 material can feel a little too complex, whereas when they draw out a single idea over the course of one track, it's far more effective. Velvet's definitely the stand-out number, reminiscent of Trentemoller's Moan with it's recurrent two-note lament and ethereal vocals, whilst The Big Picture is perfect after-hours music that slowly draws the EP to a close.

Rauta (Iron): Finnish Techno

Aki Latvamäki (aka Artificial Latvamäki) makes electronica. His deepset blue eyes stare stoically behind wisps of long brown hair. His wild beard covers a thin, serious mouth. He lives in deep seclusion in the thickly forrested lands of Oulu, jewel of Ostrobothnia, pausing his monastic musical regime only to carry small children to safety across fast-flowing streams. He spends much time alone, his muse the lakes, trees and moss coloured rocks of his homeland.

His music is eclectic, drawing on Folk, Skwee, Techno, Noise & Wonky, and alternates between the contemplative and industrial. His tracks build and develop, skilfully embedding and manipulating organic sounds within the motorik discipline of Techno.

His new album Rauta (Iron) is available from his bandcamp on a pay-what-you-want basis, and comes strongly recommended.

Don't think, Download.

V/A "Great Minds" LP (Mind On Fire)

Mind On Fire are a Manchester based label and "Great Minds" is their first vinyl album, a compilation of 8 tracks by 8 acts covering bases like dub, breakbeat, deep house and downbeat. Founded in 2004, Minds On Fire have previously put out 4 compilations on CD-R, and have covered genres as broad as "Future Beats to Japanese Math Rock (and everything else in between)".

“We liked the title “Great Minds” for the compilation as although
the music may vary it encapsulates the feeling within the collective of everyone thinking alike in seeing past constrictive boundaries and sharing a love of creating and listening to music, regardless of genre”.

I was pointed in the way of this compilation by Lee Andrews. one whose tracks appears under the name LA77 - that track ("Cubed") is great, but the quality throughout this project is very high. This is the first time on vinyl for 6 of the 8 acts appearing, and it's probably not the last either. Well known Manc DJ G Kut contributes the excellent "Dance of the Kuttlefish", which combines wobble bass with Arabic chanting, downbeat heads will find much to like in the work of Neko Neko, Zoir and Woli Wols, Pareesa and Grave Architecture contribute forward-thinking/horizontal leaning dub-ambient, while XXXY drops some very solid deep house with "All Over This". But you can check out the tracks for yourself:

LA77 "Cubed"


G Kut "Dance Of The Kuttlefish"


XXXY "All Over This"


Neko Neko "Fast:


You can get "Great Minds" directly from the Mind On Fire website, Boomkat, or from your nearest quality vinyl emporium.