Let me be honest from the outset, I’m not agitating for anything. Just pointing it out. With all the hype that Kompakt gets, one thing goes unnoticed I think. It’s quite the boy’s club. I was looking through their release list briefly tonight and realized that they might have absolutely no releases featuring a woman in their entire history. Kind of shocking, no?

But that’s not to say there aren’t women working in minimal techno. In fact there are many DJs and producers out there and creating, as I mentioned in my review of MIA’s record this year, some phenomenal material. Here are just three:

Ada– Bum Bum, [Rabimmel Rabimmel Rabum Bum Bum 12”]

The final track on Areal’s split 12” that features its four leading lights. It’s the most overtly melodic and epic of the four, so it makes sense that it would finish the vinyl off. Sadly, amid the talk of her new LP Blondie (a disappointment, but you should go get it because it’s still great) and her own 12”’s, I think talk of this track has slipped through the cracks. Which is a shame, because it’s one of my top ten tracks of the year. Easily.

What does it sound like? The experience that I’ve had with every Ada track is that on first listen everything doesn’t make sense. Elements rub up against one another that simply shouldn’t work together. But then one final peg is slotted into place, putting the entire puzzle into relief showing you that never should have been worried in the first place. This track is kind of like that. Try it out, you won’t regret it.

[buy Blondie here, read Ron Schepper’s Stylus review of Blondie here]

MIA– Fade the Pages, [Schwarzweiss]

The most underrated minimal album of the year? Despite the fact that her “River” has been on a number of compilations this year and last, I haven’t heard anyone talk about Scharzweiss much. I recently broke this out for the first time in a few months and it sounded fresh, exciting and more of an album than Blondie or Here Comes Love will ever be. For instance, I think it’s telling that in my review of her record I didn’t even bother to talk about this track.

MIA’s vocals don’t ever reach out far out of the subliminal stage, which is a nice change from the always-up front and center work of her contemporaries. It’s as though the voice is fading right alongside the pages.

[buy Schwarzweiss here, read my Stylus review of Schwarzweiss here]

Markus Guentner and Acid Maria– So Well, [Welttour]

Instead of taking this from Guentner’s Audio Island LP (an interesting counterpart to In Moll), I chose to grab it from the double disc set created by Acid Maria and Electric Indigo entitled Welttour. Each disc is a DJ set by one of the participants and each features a track or two of their own productions. Acid Maria doesn’t seem to produce much, “Melatonin” seemingly her only solo release (which I don’t like much anyway), but she does DJ out often enough for me to want to highlight the contribution that she and others play.

This track, however, is Guentner at the most electro I think you’ll ever find him, letting Maria direct traffic with her voice. Throughout the lyrics deal with her being a girl and how’s she doing “so well” because of it. It’s a nice sentiment and a good one to end this entry on.

[buy Welttour here]