Now Is Your Time (A Lost Story) (feat Jenifa Mayanja) (7:07)
Review: This three-track release from a legendary Toronto house producer is a cream example in deep house sophistication. 'Kickstarter (Mainpass)' opens with jazzy, melodic elegance, its slick, clean production exuding class and warmth. The track's deep grooves and epic progression make it very appealing for DJ's. 'Music For Table Tennis' shifts gears with an electro-tinged beat, enveloping listeners in a lush, deep soundscape that radiates beauty and warmth. Closing the EP, 'Now Is Your Time (A Lost Story)' featuring Jenifa Mayanja, blends deep house and techno into an atmospheric masterpiece. The production here is next level, with intricate textures and a hypnotic flow. Rooted in the spirit of New York house but imbued with a contemporary finesse, this is a refined and essential deep house release.
B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition
Sense Of Future (6:18)
Strummer (7:00)
Nightcreeper (7:05)
Cold December (6:35)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***
For the latest missive on his Up The Stuss label, Chris Stussy has joined forces with fellow Dutch star Locklead for a first collaborative EP as Across Boundaries. As you'd expect, it's a bouncy, chunky and melody-rich affair whose four tracks remain focused on the dancefloor throughout. Title track 'Sense of Future' is warming, dreamy and undeniably summer-ready, with talkbox vocals, elongated chords and bubbly electronic lead lines leaping above a thickset bassline and energy-packed beats. 'Strummer' is a more tech-tinged affair - check the meandering, TB-303 style motifs, sci-fi sounds and rolling drums - while 'Nightcreeper' is a foreboding peak-time pumper and 'Cold December' sits somewhere between classic deep house and elastic European tech-house.
Review: There's plenty of hype swirling around this short-run debut from Londoners Adelphi Music Factory, with regular radio plays and appearances in a host of top DJs' set lists resulting in insatiable demand. It helps, of course, that "Javelin" is an absolute beast. Packed with energy, the A-side version sees them generate maximum sweatiness by working cut-up gospel vocal samples atop a loopy, full-throttle, techno-tempo disco-house groove. Honestly, it's one seriously heavyweight rub that's guaranteed to get dancefloors eating out of the palm of your hand. The B-side "Dub" is, if anything, even wilder and heavier, with the little-known outfit utilizing stretched-out, delay-laden vocal lifts and restless piano stabs over ten action-packed minutes.
Review: All that jelly and no toast - like when you find a bomb tune that's unavailable on 12". The new sublabel of Smile for a While is exactly about this. Clubby House Music by well-established producers as well as from lesser-known guys. French guy Alex Agore opens the EP with the Lowtone remix of "What Did I Do" - cut-up Garage House to the maxx. Max Chapman from London delivers another belter; a bassline-driven organ House tune with a minimalistic but very effective set-up. Oleg Poliakov - aka SKAT and one of the guys behind Circus Company - comes up with a sublime but powerful Tech House tune, in the original sense of the genre name. "Jazzve" is a tune by Russian producer Mutenoise. It's maybe the most original, innovative tune on this EP. Full of surprises and cutting-edge elements - hard to compare to anything else around these days.
Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged, record slightly warped***
Primal percussions mix with burring, masc voices and telecom synths on Luke Alessi's 'After Five', a wonderful debut 12" by the Melbourne native. Going in, we're asked by the artist to picture a riotous cocktail party gone a little roguer than polite society usually may ordain, and while, of course, Barry White sultrily hoarsens in hushed baritones down below. In fact, the opener of this record samples Love Unlimited Orchestra's 'After Five', a star track from the side project which White led. Much like White's symbolic identification with sensual, smooth lovin' in the West, 'After Five' follows white's tip that 5AM is the threshold between day and night, and that, after having crossed it, any given raver should expect no less from their fellow revellers than behavioural alterity. Two remixes from Pablo Bozzi and Aldonna go on to "en-trance" the first track, implying baggy-eyed comedowns, while the wild A2 hears us emerge on the sands of a tropical atoll, where coconut castanets and foreshore marimba await to greet us.
Review: Italian disco DJ and producer Corrado Alunni shares his latest nu-disco soul nostrum, 'Make It Feel More', which, owing to the title, is an EP whose aim is to enliven the largely electronic and mechanistic bent of nu-disco with a good bit of live-recorded pizzazz. Such is heard on the title track, which moves naturally through both augmented and diminished electric piano cadences, not to mention slap basses, to be poised against the beats. Then 'Perfect Direction' brings the boughed basses and disco hits to a new layer of chill; with this, and the ensuing 'Keep Moving', it feels as if we've kept finding new rooms, in which new room contains a new type of hors d'oeuvre to try. 'The Beat Goes On' closes on a snappier and vinyl-driven vexation, perfect for the snakier kind of dancer.
Review: Some 18 months after it appeared on Amp Fiddler's ace "Amp Dog Knights" LP, "Keep Coming" is given the remix treatment by a quartet of hugely talented producers. The headline rework comes from Ninja Tune signee Jayda G, whose effortlessly soulful version not only makes great use of the Detroit veteran's brilliant vocals and keys, but also flits between smoky deep house and sweaty, percussive madness. Elsewhere, Jahn Cloud and Meftah offer up some sweet post R&B beats, Julian Dyne re-casts it as a Latin-tinged chunk of beatdown brilliance and Brenk Sinatra does his best impression of Motor City beat-makers Platinum Pied Pipers.
Review: French producer Anaxander follows up great releases by legends Reggie Dokes and Kai Alce on new imprint People Of Earth. He's had a steady output in the last few years releasing on the likes of Local Talk, Dame Music and Tasteful Nudes to name but a few. "Chords & Theories" is delightfully dusty deep house with a swing fuelled rhythm, emotive chords and epic piano stabs. On the flip "Stay Another Day" is the kind of classic early 90's Chicago deep house that's so sincere you could have sworn it was a lost tape from the Prescription or Alleviated catalogue from way back when. Finally "Naked Truth" gets a bit more uptempo on this soulful deep techno jam with rich synth tapestries and syncopated rhythms. Tip!
Review: Stockholm based Ari Bald is up next for Better Listen after inaugurating Honey Butter Records last year with that great release. He keeps on with that deep disco spirit with these four funky and lo-slung jams. On the A side, we have two ergonomic edits in the form of "That Lonely Night" and "Enchantress" respectively which are looped to perfection with some somewhat familiar hooks that gradually build up to that drop! That's where the thumping kick comes charging in and it's sure geared for maximum dancefloor dynamics. On the flip, get ready for the funk explosion that is "Moonshiner" or what could be your First Choice (mind the pun!) in the form of the smooth and sexy late night groove of "Are You Mesmerized?"
Review: Hard Times taps Alex Arnout's Black Logic for a release that feels like a natural extension of the label's deep house legacy. Having spent his formative years on Hard Times the club's dancefloor, Arnout channels that history into four tracks that blend jazz-flecked grooves with rich, soulful textures. The opener is a crisp, funk-laced roller, its bassline locked into a groove that nods to the genre's 90s heyday. 'Back 2 Where We Were' takes a more introspective turn, its warm melodies and fluid percussion creating a late-night haze. 'Blackman' sees Beckford deliver a stirring vocal, weaving conscious lyricism into intricate instrumentation, while 'Jazz Mess' closes the set with free-flowing drums and improvisational energy.
Review: Philpot's Traxworx series got off to a blinding start earlier this year with the dust down from Roman Rauch and label regular Ike and it looks to be quite the promising endeavour if the line-ups remain as strong as this second duel featuring Arttu and Hakim Murphy. Neither artist really needs a formal introduction here and both are well suited for the floor focused nature of this series. Arttu is first up with "Can't Get Down" a collaboration with Kaye that bounces along with loose and deadly intent - if you liked the Geeeman stuff on Clone you will love this pappy, especially when that sax comes in! On the flip Innerspace Halflifer Hakim Murphy goes for the abstract approach on "ES1" which features some superb drum edits.
Review: Los Angeleno AshTreJinkins is up next for London/Tokyo joint venture NCS, who as some of you may know by now: only release in very limited runs: so get in quick! Named after the famed American soft drink that tastes like mouthwash, the Root Beer EP features four servings of lo-fi house which will certainly fit in with the status quo currently set by the likes of Lobster Theremin, E-Beamz et al. The tough and driving vintage techno of "Dead Or Wounded" kicks off the EP in good from, while "Frozen" with its hypnotic chord progression and jagged rhythm patterns create a unique groove that really gets off the grid. Finally, the tribal house tool "Adware Nigga" calls to mind Canadian Hayden Andre Brown's seminal jams from the early '90s, but backed by some L.I.E.S. style analogue techno grunt.
Review: Ah, Hot Creations, home to the hippest house music that cites disco and 25 year-old club anthems as its inspirations. Here, label head honchos Jamie Jones and Lee Foss revived their Hot Natured project for a sweet stroll through smiley vocal house territory in the company of one-time electrofunk revivalist Ali Love. "Benediction" is good for what it is - a vaguely deep, pleasant Hot Creations record - but the real killer here is the remix of former single "Forward Motion" by crusty old US garage head Mark "MK" Kinchen. He recalls those glory days of tough but groovy MK dubs with a rework straight out of 1993.
Review: In the sales notes sent to record stores, Smalleville has described this multi-artist affair as "a club night from start to finish". Certainly, the four tracks are pleasingly varied, moving from the 109 BPM bliss of Makybee Diva's untitled dream-house shuffler, to the energetic acid house/deep house fusion of "Monkeys On My Roof" by L'Amour Fou, a collaborative project whose members include the legendary David 'Move D' Moufang. Elsewhere, Arnaldo delivers a near perfect chunk of Detroit techno inspired deep house hypnotism ("Screaming With A Blocked Nose"), and Chicagoan producer Snad combines sweaty, bumpin' grooves and becalmed synthesizer motifs on the excellent "Excerptz".
Review: Theo Parrish's Gentrified Love series seems to be a collaborative affair. Part two, available separately, contained hook-ups with fellow Detroiters Wajeed and Duminie Deporres. "Ghetto Proposal", which is available in Vocal and Instrumental versions, features sublime contributions from another Motor City legend, veteran modern soul man Amp Fiddler. It's something of a deliciously trippy affair, underpinned by a freaky, delay-heavy groove, fireside-warm Rhodes keys, meandering trumpet lines and - on the vocal version, at least, drowsy female vocals. Both artists jazz influence is clear, particularly in the crunchy percussion hits that begin to dominate as the track progresses. Interestingly, the instrumental moves a little further towards jazzy broken beat territory.
Review: Disco Tape 4 is a compelling collection that navigates the full spectrum of disco's evolution, seamlessly blending house and late-night techno grooves. The Mechanical Man's 'eyes supreme' stands out with its melodic hook that gradually intensifies the energy. It's a slow-burning groover featuring soulful disco lyrics, creating an atmosphere that's both beautiful and entrancing. 'with you' by Just Guess and Tecam takes a funkier route, with a vibrant guitar riff and a soulful house vocal reminiscent of the best Naked Music releasesiideal for setting a warm, inviting vibe. Other great highlights include the other Mechanical man track 'Space Exploration,' a track that dives into deeper techno territory. Its wicked atmospheric groove adds a layer of sophistication, perfect for those late-night moments when the dancefloor craves something more introspective. Closing out the highlights, Ohn De La Noise's 'good afternoon' offers a smooth deep house sound that blends late-night disco into house, creating a seamless transition that's both elegant and satisfying. A very well-rounded record, expertly capturing the diverse influences of disco's enduring legacy.
Review: Described as a "deeply personal and a reflection of the journeys I've taken-both literal and musical," by its creator, veteran producer Brian d'Souza, Auntie Flo's latest travels from Nairobi to Mexico City, Havana and Waiheke Island and celebrates migration, freedom, and connection. Free is certainly the word you'd used to describe his groovy, instinctual but hard to classify sound, fusing the electronic with the organic on the sound palate and utilising everything from loose deep house grooving to Afrobeat, jazz and most things in between. From the YMO-esque 'Nighthawk' to the lush, jittery synthpop of 'Bird's Eye View', the juddering groove of 'Walk DF' - imagine Kraftwerk with an African lilt to the rhythm section - it's varied, quality-packed and transformative.
Jeremy Kyle's Righteous Indignation Silences Us All
A Public Service Announcement
I Seen You Through A Crowd (She's So Cool)
Evening Coming Down, On A Hill Above The Town
Cheers Curtis! (Thx mix)
Talking At Right Angles
Jolly Dillon (Happy Autumn Drinking With Friends)
Review: Ireland's Automatic Tasty (AKA Wicklow-based producer Jonny Dillon) seems to be getting better with age. Having skirted round the edges of analogue techno, deep house and electro since 2008, he really came of age with a pair of inspired singles on Lunar Disko back in 2012. Here, he delivers his fifth full-length, a delightfully fuzzy saunter through good old-fashioned electronica, 8-bit electro, melody-driven analogue iciness and low-key alien funk. There's naturally much to admire, from the Mr Fingers-goes-acid deepness of "Cheers Curtis! (Thx Mix)" and vibrant ZX Spectrum-house feel of "Talking At Right Angles", to the rush-inducing bliss and delightful vintage synthesizers of "I Seen You Through a Crowd (She's So Cool)".
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