Kompakt Germany Vinilo y CD

Review: San Fran's unstoppable and enduring tech house craftsman John Tejada is also super reliable. His sound is well established, but he always does enough with each new release to embellish it a little further. Returning now to his home label of Kompakt, he refines his palette to silky melodies, fuzzy pads and crisp beats that are superbly pleasing for both your ears and your heels. 'Sheltered' is a particularly classy cut of deft tech minimalism, 'Spectral Progressions' expires ambient broken beats with lush pad work and 'Panacea' picks up the pace in scintillant fashion. This might be his best work in years.

Review: Cool, rocking, hard but dry minimal homage to this fantastic Brazilian football player.

Review: On the back of Kompakt's expansive retrospective of his work under the Gas alias, the essential Box, Wolfgang Voigt has decided to deliver a new album - his first for 17 years. Predictably, Narkopop is as cinematic, widescreen and densely layered as anything the German ambient producer has done to date. Over 11 spellbinding tracks, Voigt blends field recordings and droning electronics with sweeping, almost orchestral movements, swirling melodic cycles, and occasional forays into rhythmic hypnotism. The result is a collection of "wall of sound" ambient compositions that does a terrific job tiptoeing the fine lines between both grandiosity and intimacy, and joy and pain. In a word: essential.

Review: You have to admire Alex Warren AKA Kiwi's work rate. Here he makes his Kompakt bow with his eleventh EP since the start of 2018. Vocalist Bestle guests on superb A-side "Hello Echo", a spacey chunk of lilting nu-disco/synth-pop fusion that's so deliciously warm and summery that we believe it will become a sing-along anthem before the year is out. He shifts focus a little on B-side opener "Down With The Rhythm", a more sleazy, analogue-driven affair that sits somewhere between Chicago style acid-jack, effervescent NYC freestyle and bold, 21st century nu-disco, before offering a deep, melodious and melancholic take on acid-electro that could well be the most arresting, ear-catching moment on an EP that's full of them.