Compilation Recommendations April 2015

Review: For deep house diggers, Soichi Terada has long been a source of inspiration. While he's still active, it's the early '90s material he released on the Far East Recordings label - an imprint he founded soon after his graduation in 1990 - that most excites. Following the 2014 re-release of his sublime hook-up with Nami Shimada, "Sunshower", Rush Hour has decided to put together this excellent retrospective. Compiled by self-confessed fan Hunee, Sounds From The Far East contains a mixture of hard-to-find Terada originals, collaborations, and tracks by fellow Far East Recordings artist Shinichiro Yokota, all in the label's trademark melody-rich, evocative deep house style.

Review: Moscow-based Roman Impish has previously been in no hurry to develop his Occulti Music imprint, laying the foundations some ten years before dropping the label's first 12" in 2013. Here, the label makes it to the CD format for the first time, with Impish gathering together an impressively entertaining blend of eyes-closed liquid D&B goodness, half-step rollers and tech-tinged dancefloor jams. With contributions coming from label favourites and newcomers, there's plenty to enjoy, from the piano-and-jazz guitar-laden shuffle of Malaky, Skeletone and Satl's "Future Blues", and the warped bass and hazy, Arabic horns of Agbo's "The Maturity", to the immaculate D&B jazz of Soligen and Type 2's "The Plan".

Review: Here's something to raise the spirits of househeads everywhere: a two-disc mix of vintage Strictly Rhythm material - mostly from the New York house and garage label's 1990s heyday - by Get Physical founder DJ T. More excitingly, the package also contains unmixed versions of the German veteran's selections, each of which he has re-edited. Happily, his selections are spot on, and for every well-known classic - Hardrive's "Deep Inside", Wink's "Higher State of Consciousness", Phuture's "Rise From Your Grave" etc - there are countless other deeper, even more essential selections (see KDope's "Watch This", Sneak's hustling "Keep On Groovin" and the nagging cyber-funk of Mood II Swing's "It's Gonna Work Out"). In a word: essential.

Review: With the annual Miami Winter Music Conference in full swing, veteran DJ Pete Tong has joined forces with UK bass upstarts Gorgon City to mix a celebratory volume of his All Gone series. The Radio 1 man handles disc one, joining the dots between the fluid, yearning tech-house of Matt Tolfrey, the booming tribal rhythms of Franky Rizardo, and the trancey, progressive-tinged deepness of Guy Gerber and Puff Daddy. Unsurprisingly, there's a more robust, in-your-face feel about Gorgon City's disc, as they quickly work their way through sub-heavy, garage and acid-tinged offerings from ZDS, Jimmy Edgar, James Barnsley and Jesse Rose & Troze.

Review: On previous instalments of the Spiritual Jazz series, Jazzman has showcased a variety of largely obscure instrumental cuts from the United States and Europe. Here, they change tack, instead celebrating the often-overlooked vocal end of the genre. The results are, unsurprisingly, largely magical, from the urgent, conscious brilliance of The Singers & Musicians of Washington High School's "Ladder" and the baked beat poetry of Dr Haki R Madhubuti's "Rain Forest", to the guttural wailing and pained freestyle vocalising of Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite's "Tears For Johannesburg (Edit)". Naturally, there are some well-known names present - Pharoah Sanders, Charles Mingus and Norman Riley, for starters - alongside artists who will only be familiar to hardcore jazz diggers.

Review: With the annual debauched jamboree that is the Miami Winter Music Conference in full swing, Ram Records has decided to unleash a celebratory mix from party-friendly D&B/hardcore fusionists June Miller. Predictably, the Utrecht-based duo goes hard from the off, beginning a typically fun and sweaty mix-up with the bombastic delights of Loadstar's "Under Pressure (VIP)". While there are plenty of dark and twisted moments throughout the action-packed 28-track journey, the duo wisely slips in some deeper, funkier and more melodic cuts, with "Nocturnal Stories" by Salaryman, Loko's soul-flecked "Hold You Tight" and the old school jungle flex of Chroma's "So Alone (VIP)" standing out.

Review: Be prepared for a daring ride through the imagination of a truly unclassifiable force in British electronic music, as Mumdance delivers a veritable statement of a Fabric mix. Far from plying a safe and steady club rocking trade, the London-based producer swerves wildly about across the run time with excursions into noise and sparse avant-garde states before sliding into twitchy techno only to be waylaid by dismembered jungle breaks and bass stabs. There are swerves around every corner, and each turn goes deeper into the nether regions of Mumdance's mind before the mix barges its way to the top via a deft progression from grime to nostalgic hardcore.