Funny thing this is so much Scandinavian, even without looking up just after two tracks the origin was obvious. If Knife is the archetypical nordic electronic act, this is the uptempo Knife.
Yotto - Hyperfall
Recondite – Silk
After I recently rediscovered techno as club music last fall, I have a much more sensitive radar for music to move the body by. And Recondite is my latest love in this segment, walking along the lines of techno and house. It appeared a few times in some playlist for me but I always just noted that this is great. Then a few weeks ago I methodically started listening through his whole catalog. There are not many filler releases there, lot of beautiful dance music. This latest EP is awesome, too. Slowly building large arches of thumping deep house, surrounded with ambient dreamscapes.
The Black Dog – Post-Truth
Supposedly the uptempo twin brother of Black Daisy Wheel with often melodic but mostly beat focused techno, house and IDM instead of the ambient landscapes. In 2015 these guys totally surprised me with my own reaction of how much I loved their record of the time, and now I feel the same. Lucky that I didn’t create any top lists last year because this one would be missing from there.
Against All Logic – 2012-2017
House music for the day and night. Mostly carefree soulful cruising for when the sun is high, but some tracks are for the night time outdoors dance field with torches burning. This is pretty good, many flavors but all great vibes.
Booka Shade – Cut The Strings
I listened to all Booka Shade releases of 2018 just recently in the year after and there was quite a bit of output to dig through. Cut The Strings was the long player of the year, and a brilliant and beatiful album at that. But there was a long list of EPs, too, with mixed feelings but definitely more pros than cons. I can totally vouch for all the remix EPs from the LP, and the Quantum Leap and Rosebud EPs.
Art Of Tones – Where The One Is
Such good house music that I started a bunch of Spotify playlists with this one and always ended up with great stuff.
Monolink & Acid Pauli - The End
Pleasant house music along the lines of feelings when Paul Kalkbrenner first hit with his Berlin Calling soundtrack.
Kalabrese – Bananenräuber EP
Just good vibes. House, positive, weekend chill.
Four Tet – New Energy
In a way the most accessible Four Tet so far, sometimes odd mostly for the house beats, but still magical like always.
Solitary Dancer – Dualism
Retro synthwave and tech-house.