First up, last weekend saw the return of the quickly-becoming-legendary BLOC Weekend, where a 5000-strong rave-hungry rabble descended on Minehead’s Butlin’s Holiday Camp for a three-day barrage of techno, electro, dubstep and Italo. After three years of steady growth, the festival doubled it capacity and aimed for a broader appeal with the likes of Lee Scratch Perry and Afrika Bambatta stepping up alongside more traditional Bloc fare such as Rob Hood, DMK Krew and Surgeon.

The event certainly continues to hold its own as one of the most entertaining, hedonistic and friendly parties going but from time to time this year, musically, it got things a little wrong. For hours on Friday night you'd have been hard-pressed to find anything but dubstep pumping out - and going on some opinions, not very good dubstep either. On Sunday night, two rooms had exclusively Italo/electro-related acts at the same time. Not very good for either fans of the genre, or folk who wanted an alternative. BLOC also likes to take a nod to the old schoolers, but they should've actually checked what Afrika Bambatta DJs these days. It wasn't pretty. Having said all that, I'm nitpicking – these are merely a few slight imperfections in what is otherwise my favourite weekend of the year. There was still an abundance of great music and the parties in the chalets that seemingly never stop make this an unmissable weekend.

Second on the festival-related agenda is the release of half the acts for the 10th Anniversary of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, now known as Movement. A festival originally started out to showcase the music of Detroit, it has, in the last couple of years, increasingly focused itself on attracting non-Detroit artists to play. It certainly makes it a less attractive proposition for out-of-towners, which is a pity as it seems like it's really the only worthwhile weekend of the year for people (like myself) to make the trip. I have drooled at lineups gone by, but this year the likes of Adam Beyer, Benny Benassi and Tiga only irritate. However, it is representing the D with Rick Wade, Carl Craig and Los Hermanos amongst others. The unparalleled financial success of last year’s event is surely why it won't return back to the festival of old. Hopefully the after shows dotted around the city will be closer to a true representation of what Detroit is all about.

Tying in with both, Robert Hood - whose Bloc live set last was one of my highlights of the weekend - has a new 12" just dropped on French label Freak n Chic, complete with a Shonky remix. Well I say new, but ‘Who Taught You Math’ originally appeared about seven years ago on Peacefrog and will be well known to most Hood fans. It's a classic piece of deep, melodic, minimal Hood music. There are so many sounds infused in the glut of European minimal techno of the last five years that originate from Hood that it's truly startling how influential the man has been. So what of the new remix, the reason for this new pressing? One could be mistaken for thinking it's a joke considering how pedestrian and cliched it is, especially with the original on the flip. I hope Rob got paid a lot of money to let Shonky take his bag of hackneyed beats and breakdowns and piss it all over his original.

Originating from Connecticut, DJ Jus Ed first got notice when he was part of a compilation on Omar S' FXHE imprint in 2005, leading many to think he was from Detroit. He cleared up any remaining confusion quite comically last year through his bootleg of Mike Grant's ‘My Soul, My Spirit’, throwing over vocals such as “I’m not from Detroit!, I'm from Bridgeport Connecticut!". Grant did not see the funny side of it, but so be it. He should be less worried about a jokey bootleg such as that and more so with making some new music, which has been few and far between since he first appeared in the late 90's.

Jus Ed on the other hand continues to excite with his latest cut ‘UQ-020’ on his own Underground Quality imprint. Out of the two, ‘Sweetness’ is the one. A speedy house cut with an intense high-hat rolling from the very first beat it reveals itself to be a more touching club track as it unfolds. Snare roles keep the groove building but they are undercut by deep, minor chord melodies later on. Mastering keeping a song interesting for both the home listener and for the dancer is hard to manage, but it works well equally in both environments. Much great techno and house over the year has eschewed the idea that dancefloor music has to be a purely euphoric experience – ‘Sweetness’ continues in that tradition. On the flip ‘For Give My Son’ is a deeper more laidback affair but continues in a similar vain melodically.

Matt Chester is a producer who has always seemed less the sum of his parts. On paper his songs should be brilliant but too often he tries that little bit too hard - where he could have show some restraint, he puts too much into his music, making it less satisfactory. On his new EP, ‘Endless Days’ on his 11th Hour Recordings, he has succeeded in getting the balance right. The three original tracks here flip between bass heavy electro and straight up dancefloor techno, imbued with a sense of urgency, intensity and just the right amount of off kilter wonk that is missing from a lot of newer Detroit influenced techno. The finest moment is found on the inside of the B-side; ‘Down And Out In EC2’. Also appearing is Underground Resistance's DJ 3000 who adds a remix of the lead cut ‘Kick it’. 3000 is another producer whose work I've been left wanting by, but here he too hits the spot with an old school style Detroit melody that appears out of nowhere a couple minutes into a relaxed work out. Fans of UR should lap this record up with glee.

Mojuba is one a series of European labels from the last few years who've made a point of releasing small runs of stamped 12"s to pacify the vinyl junkies while not ignoring the digital world. The latest of these is from Japanese producer Stereociti called ‘Early Light’. Both sides contain a nice analogue feel to them with the late-night feel of ‘Waiting For Your Call’ exploring the deeper territory. The A-side calls out the fakers with vocals such as "Don't come around here...House music is not for sale, please get out of here" backed with a jacking percussion line more interesting than any amount of Oslo releases, or any other of those middle of the road tech house labels one cares to mention.

The highly influential Dutch gang Clone are nearing the end of their main label with just a few more releases on the horizon. The latest of these features the varied talents of I-F, Craig Richards and Fred Ventura. First up Richards, an odd choice, re-edits the I-F/Ventura collaboration ‘I Cut My Heart Out’ and tries a little too hard, all busy squelches and tweaks that irk rather than satisfy. Fred Ventura's ‘I'm Not Ready’ has no such problems. It's a high-energy Italo hammer fuelled by tub-thumping arpeggios and Ventura's vocal histrionics which find him struggling, once again, with problems of the heart.

Happily Clone have no intention of finishing their peerless Clone Classics off-shoot which has been relentless in re-issuing amazing, hard to find Italo and house classics. Recently they have moved closer to home, repressing some brilliant Unit Mobius material (the highly influential Dutch acid group from the 90's) over the space of two ‘The Golden Years’ EPs. As dance music cliches go, “they don't make 'em like they used to” is a classic. Well, if you can point me in the direction of somebody doing what Unit Mobius did so well then, in this moment in time, I'd be more than happy to take that last cliche back.

Finally, the latest from Chicago label Eargasmic Recordings comes from Chicago Skyway, called, ‘Bells’. All three tracks - four if you separate the two edits of ‘Bells’ - take their musical cues from older Windy City labels like Trax. They don't profess to be trying to do anything new but it doesn't stop them from being brilliant, raw, visceral house that wouldn't sound out of place on today’s dancefloors. You don't always have to be tryin' to reinvent the wheel, y'know?