Douglas Greed

Review: Ten years of tech house powerhouse Exploited's exploits - pardon the pun! A born and bred Berliner, Shir Khan started the label in his home city in 2007. The imprint now plays host to a who's who in the current tech-house climate - including Adana Twins, Doctor Dru, Claptone, Joyce Muniz, Urulu and Cocolores to name a few. Its artists have been receiving full support from tastemakers such as Pete Tong, Soul Clap, Wolf & Lamb and Kraak & Smaak. All the usual suspects appear here: many golden oldies and even some newbie surprises too - perfect for the Christmas season and to forecast trends moving forward into 2018. To prove their relevance, they've served up a whopper of a compilation: over five dozen tracks showcasing their illustrious discography. We are certain that these are timeless grooves and will prove to be just as relevant another decade.

Some of these go as far back as 2009! Take for instance Malente & Dex feat. Analogik's "Gipsy Kings" which homed in that whole loopy latin house trend - popularised by similar tunes like "We No Speak Americano". Swedish electro house dons Zoo Brazil appear as well, with their 2012 dancefloor hit "Rock The House", then get deep and slinky with Moodymanc's 2013 sleeper hit "Joy" (Ralph Lawson Dub). They were even doing jazzy/dusty deep house as far back as 2011, like on Homework's "Whipped Cream". Remember Serge Santiago's remix of Murphy Jax's "Let's Get To It" featuring the inimitable Mike Dunn? It's here!

But when best describing the label's success thus far, we'd have to give honorable mentions to the true staples of the label. The legendary Chicagoan James Curd (formerly one half of the Greenskeepers) has kept on going from his new home of Adelaide, Australia and served up some of his best work in years. The emotive and bittersweet "Forever My Friend" is just one example. Likewise, Belgium's Compuphonic appears several times also - his recent hit from earlier this year "Metropolis" appears in all its soulful and evocative glory. Here's to another 10 guys, cheers!

Review: Douglas Greed (real Name Mario Willms) is a DJ and producer from Jena in Germany that has had a number of releases on local imprint Freude Am Tanzen over the years, in addition to white label releases on his own (secretly) eponymous imprint. For his new one entitled "Full Moon" (feat MAMA) it appears courtesy of Waze & Odyssey's esteemed UK imprint based out of London. It's a dreamy and evocative deep house number with a mesmerising bell melody and the aforementioned MAMA's charmingly angelic vocals. Second offering "Diver" is a slinky and melodic tech house groove that's perfect to the set the mood in the early evening and will appeal to fans of the Poker Flat or Dessous sound.

Review: East German producer Douglas Greed is back for Jena institution Freude Am Tanzen, following up great releases on Infine, Gigolo, Kindisch, Lebensfreunde and BPitch Control with some driving late night tech house on "Enemy": the track covered in a nice layer of dust and rust plus that bouncy Juno style bassline works a treat on this dark horse. Elsewhere, "No Talking" dives a bit deeper into more sublime and dreamy territory much like fellow countrymen Robag Wruhme or Roman Flugel can at times. The EP ends in style with "Gdur", a bouncy, uplifting and up tempo groover featuring shiny and erratic arpeggios over skittering hyperaware rhythm patterns plus rolling bass.

Played by: Big Dope P, Juno Recommends Minimal Tech, Matt Darey

Review: German producer Douglas Greed veers away from techno with the title track of his latest album. Like many of the Bpitch artists, his track inhabits a middle ground between indie melancholia and electronic drama, with introverted vocals unfolding over breathless synths. What then of the remixes? Seth Troxler provides a chugging remix that midway through reveals shiny, trancey synth lines, while Chloe opts for one of her trademark electronic house rehapes, all pulsing basslines and acidic spirals dissecting the vocal. dBridge's take is more low profile than usual, with doubled up beats underpinning searing guitar and Marco Resmann delivers a dubby version, full of sensuous string passages.

Review: Listening to this compilation, it's clear that 2013 was a banner year for Ellen Allien's label. No longer so focused on stripped back techno - although the hissing noise and dark bass tones of Camea's "Black Sparrow" provide some connection to Bpitch's back catalogue - Best Of focuses on the area where pop and electronic music meet. The tumbling drums and plaintive vocals on Eating Snow's "Siamese Twins By Choice" could be early period Sting (that's a compliment by the way), while Dillon's "This Silence Kills" is a beautifully fragile serving of ethereal electronic pop. Bpitch can still rock the house when required, as the nasty acid of Snuff Crew's "Bass" demonstrates, but the real highlights of Best of 2013 are the label's leftfield excursions.

Review: Douglas Greed was always one of the more interesting minimal house producers, and on Recombinated he shows why he still enjoys that status. "Aenima" starts life as a tribal house groove, but soon slides into a droning, bass-heavy affair, oozing sinister intent. "What Is My Territory" continues in a similar vein before veering into a reflective reverie. Meanwhile, "Schwarzteemagen" in its entirety is a ponderous affair, led by shaking percussion and a bluesy slide guitar. True to form though, Greed keeps his audience guessing till the end, and on "Lopez" brings the EP to a close with grinding, abstract rhythms.

Review: It's not hard to tell that Mario Willms aka Douglas Greed is an experienced, adventurous producer and this release on the Wighnomy Brothers' label pushes minimal house in new directions. The title track starts off as standard stripped back groove, but soon descends into detuned chord and bassline kookiness. "Play The Game" is the most typical minimal track here, but even it sounds different thanks to its buzz-saw bass and hissing percussion. Best of all though is "The Right Man For The Gob", which takes inspiration from older minimal records and combines the yelping analogue riffs of classic Dan Bell with a predatory bassline.