Fire Island was a project from UK house vets Terry Farley and Pete Heller, which went out with a bang in 1998 by collaborating with the mighty Loletta Holloway on the absolutely massive 'Shout To The Top'. Now Hifi Sean is getting to grips with the track and giving it a very tasteful re-rub which brings a little bit of Salsoul-speckled joy and passion to the original mix while keeping Holloway's vocal right where it should be out front and soaring. Sean's 'House Mix' is a dubbier, heavyweight affair that should go down well with the tech house crowd, but there's also a super sweet 'reprise' of the main mix which would be the perfect 'moment' in the midst of a set.

Every so often, a compilation comes along and delivers a snapshot of a city's underground music scene at a given moment in time. That's what compilers Rick Wilhite and Delano Smith have achieved with Parabellum Detroit, an expansive and predictably high-quality collection of cuts from some of the Motor City's finest producers. They naturally provide a couple of collaborative cuts of their own - the spacey, late-night techno hypnotism of '11 Minutes of Funk' and the intergalactic deep house drift of 'Neo Solaris', while there are also top-notch contributions from Javontte (the warm, soul-flecked deep house of 'Late Night Love'), Marcellus Pittman (beatdown chugger 'Everybody Party'), Gerald Mitchell AKA Soul Saver (the incredible 'Kaori'), the Moodymann Kenny Dixon Jr ( 'I'm Goin' Back') and Omar-S (a tidy Godson remix of 'VAT 69').

Shanghai-based label have been slipping out delicate, melodic electronics for a few years now, spreading their assembled roster's sound across tapes, 7"s and digital releases. This 12" from Knopha came out in 2018 and was gone shortly after, so it's high time a repress of this sumptuous new age synth dream got sorted. The vibe is distinctly 90s across Nothing Nil, revelling in FM synthesis and laid back atmospheres. Plush chords abound, and the beats fall in soft and sensual formations, even when a cheeky breakbeat slips into the slow-mo pulse of 'San'. A truly captivating 12" with the potential to create some real 'moments' at the right hour of the party.

Fauve Records is tapping into the overlooked sound of 1980s Hong Kong and some of the razor-sharp Cantonese disco that was getting pumped out for the clubs. Following hot on the heels of the Extinct Melodies From The Tropical Moon EP, label founder Romain FX is back on board with MH delving back into the archives of seriously overlooked dance music that, thanks to their editing skills, transcends time in its sheer classiness. MH throws down a tough stomper that could sit comfortably alongside a Yello belter, and a sprightly electro funker for the boogie crowd. RFX veers towards vocodered acid disco shot through with Italo bombast and then seals the deal with some AOR electro-pop with enough punch to go ten rounds with Robert Palmer.

Heralding brighter days is surely the job of Is It Balearic?, a label whose entire raison d'etre is silky smooth sounds for long days spent sipping cocktails on sunkissed terraces. This time around, Max Essa and Eddie C have gone head to head, with the former delivering the original tunes and the latter dropping the remixes. Essa gets into full-spectrum deep house for the baggy crowd on 'Jigsaw Moon', which Eddie C promptly pitch shifts and rubs down with some understated acid. 'Jules Y Cyntia' is a mellower offering, revelling in languid guitar, only to be gently pumped up by Eddie C with a heavy, chugging undercarriage to take you deep into the sundown.

Naarm / Melbourne's Prequel has slipped out a few records thus far, and they've landed in all the right places. Rhythm Section, Local Talk, Distant Hawaii - you can get a feel for the kind of house music he's representing. And yet, as he shores up on Lumberjacks In Hell, what's most apparent is how far out he's prepared to go in pursuit of that deep feeling. 'I Still Love You' is a sprawling, delirious and spaced out exploration that belongs amongst the truly idiosyncratic outliers of house music - your Pepe Bradocks and Theo Parrishes. 'I Said I Wasn't Gonna Fall In Love No More' has a tighter groove, but it's still executed with a dislocated, psychedelic finish which stands well apart from the crowd. 'If You Give Me Another Chance' finds Prequel coming at a grab bag of samples from a crooked angle, but with enough jack to keep the wheels from coming off. Inspired stuff.

The Mysticisms label is doing a bang up job creating a particular vibe on their label. Rather than sticking to a sound, they're pursuing an attitude, an energy. It's rugged and dirty, rooted in no-nonsense old-skool values - a bit cheeky but totally serious at the same time, built for the freaky DJs who like to go a bit off piste. This tenth installment kicks off with Persian's 'Worries In The Dance', shuffling hard on a ruff n' tuff house shuffle and edited with flair by Jonny Rock. Next up Vertigo Inc. presents a giddy rainforest of 8 bit bleeps and wonky synth flute, while Asian Psilocybe Foundation take things slinky and shimmering on the crisp 'Wave Control'. Afrobuddha takes things further out with a powerful African drum exaltation, all dense thickets of percussion and uplifting group singing.

RECOMMENDED Returning in spring 2020 after a 20 year hiatus, and unveiling that work as we veered into COVID-19 pandemic hell, Sonic Boom's Pete Kember risked his comeback being drowned out in a sea of graphs, death counts and first person horror stories, but also set things up well for fans and new discoverers to spend lockdown getting intimately acquainted with that incredible collection of hypnotic synth pop gems. A year on and he's back with Nothing Is Nearly Enough, a self-remixed version of the record. Opening with the same first track as 2020's LP, the evocative, emotive and decidedly surreal 'Just Imagine', the differences between this interpretation and the original only really make themselves known as things pull us deep into the lush keyboard soundscapes. Setting a precedent for the exceptional tunes that follow, the point being this is far from a cash-in of slightly tweaked songs, and a full-blown new trip in itself.