ARAPU Vinilo y CD

Review: Hot on the heels of his well-received EPs on Linear and Midi Records, Ionut Arapu returns to Rawax with two more top-quality tech-house cuts in his distinctive trademark style. On A-side 'First New Dance', the experienced Romanian producer peppers a rolling, bass-heavy groove with cut-up and layered vocal textures, deliciously wonky electronic lead lines, star-fall sounds and the kind of melodic elements more often associated with 1990s IDM. He opts for a deeper, more melancholic tone on 'Undoing', where emotive chords, dubbed-out electronic motifs and intergalactic synth sounds cluster around a sturdy, peak-time ready groove.

Review: MIDI is one of the many labels out of Romania to operate in the bottomless world of minimal techno. The first five releases have done well to establish it and this sixth is another doozy. It comes from the main man Arapu and features just two tunes, one on each side of this 12". The first is 'Explorers,' a waif, floaty light groove that evolves slowly and subtly over the course of its 12 and a half minute length. A minute longer than that on the flip is 'Noir-Jam,' a more dark and winky tune with slippery synthetic sounds, melancholic chords and rubbery drums and bass.