Back catalogue: All genres

Review: This beautiful EP, 'Sunset Thoughts', finally makes its way to vinyl after a digital release back in October. Cosmonection is a fast-rising Frenchman who makes an awful lot of music and is sure to blow up fully in 2024, and for this one, he works with fellow French artists and singer Soren Lyann. 'Bulles' establishes a lovely vibe with its organic chords and colourful little samples over a slick groove, then '"Wakin' Up With You' brings acoustic guitar and indie vocals over a hurried house groove. There is plenty more sun and subtle hints of acoustic guitar in 'Solar' and 'Ballad' shuts down another mix of acoustic strings, ad-libbed vocals and fresh beats.

Review: Cowbeats is back with more fresh future moosic to make you moove. This fourth edition of their self-titled various artists series is another one packed with gems. Kurilo's 'Son Of The Sun' manages to make stuff beats feel funky, while Riku Sugimoto has plenty of snap in his kick and hit combinations throughout 'Coffee On Me.' There is a more cosmic sense of cruising when Solidwood dials you in on his sublime 'Working With Suspect' and Rizzi & Lapucci go for cold, snappy tech house as they offer up 'Mind From Another Kind. Lastly, NND cuts loose on the melodic wild and freewheeling 'FunkyDrome.'

Review: Japan's Thinner Groove flesh out their distinctive aesthetic with every new release. This time around, they welcome none other than Lemmi Ash, KOOLMFL and Sonic Weapon for a collaborative three-track EP of lowercase minimal tech and textural vignettes. The aim of the game is best encapsulated in the label's commentary: "each track can add a distinctive touch to the night, as like completing your cocktail with lemon and/or lime". Each track indeed sounds to the ear akin to how a fruity garnish tastes, with Ash's 'Presence' bringing tart citrine breaks notes to a gracefully held glass vessel. KOOLMFL's 'Atonbow' is drier bitters, barely availing itself of its trembling chords and sampled vox after an ultra-snappy initiation featuring a mere bass and kick-clap. Thinner Groove know all too well that good music is like an excitation of the flavour palate, and that minimality is the thing that lets such flavours sit.

Review: The star-studded Sai Galaxy project returns, bringing together West African legends Steve Monite and Rob with multi-instrumentalist Simon Durrington, guitar maestro Alfred Bannerman, and Egypt 80 trumpet player Bade, for a second EP of vital Afro-disco and soul. Following up 2020's 'Get It As You Move' EP, the likes of 'Sometimes It Rains', the homonymous 'Okere', the truth-to-power 'Rich Man, Poor Man', and the live and swinging coda 'Hold Me Tonight' paint a multifaceted picture of a trio, equally as concerned with groove delivery as they are with narrative storytelling. Most emblematic of Sai Galaxy's approach is their inspiration by analog production techniques of similar Afro-soul albums from the 1970s and 80s, adding a modern touch informed by Simon Durrington's Digital Afrika project.

Review: Daniel Klein aka SIRS impressed us recently with his fine work on Robert Johnson and is now back on his own Sirsounds Records label with a seriously seductive collection of tunes. His The East Is Near EP brings melodies from that faraway land to Balearic beats. The Berlin based talent kicks off with the winky and intricate rhythms of 'Zappelnder Hindu' before 'Treibsand' layers up what sounds like a didgeridoo with loose-limbed drums. The marvelous 'Ocean Dreams' brings upbeat sounds and smart arrangements that are run through with exotic melodies and last of all is a blissed-out instrumental mix of 'Zappelnder Hindu.'

Review: Snips is back with a bang on his own label Barbershop Records. This time out he offers up the fresh Nebuer EP which is a project undertaken in which he mixes up sample-heavy house and hip-hop sounds, all in a style with which he has become closely associated. The artist has recently become a father for the first time and so that life event was a big influence on this studio work and each makes a specific reference to the different steps on his journey into fatherhood. That makes this a truly personal work but also one that never forgets the club and so the beats remain heavy, compelling, and packed with soulful flourishes.

Review: Alongside the wicked new 7" 'Dues And Don'ts / Fraud Fades', Amsterdam producer Soul Supreme simultaneously drops another 45 - of no less import - this time enlisting the fiduciary flows of American producer and emcee Thes One. 'Taking The Stand' includes both the original vocal number and the instrumental on the flip side, with Thes One musing on life's (in)justices, trials and negotiations as Supreme the wunderkind himself segues through wildcard turntable scratches, knocky drum hits and blue-note piano hits.

Review: The genius of Nu Groove's ongoing 'Edits' series lies in the quality of its subtle 21st century tweaks of classic cuts from house music's golden age. You'll find plenty of fine examples of this on the latest instalment, volume four. Check first Nice7's bumpin', bass-heavy and organ-rich take on The Sound Vandal's 1991 gem 'Tonight's The Night', which the producer has successfully stripped-back and subtly beefed up, before admiring Hugo Massien's bleeping, tech-tinged remake of the Burrell Brothers' N.Y Housin' Authority classic 'Apt 2A'. You'll find tweaks of two more Burrell projects on the flip: a pleasingly driving Mak & Pasteman edit of the techno, acid and bleep inspired Utopia Project cut 'File #3', and a blissed-out, chugging and saucer-eyed Honey Dijon and Luke Solomon rub of A.B.T's Donna Summer sampling 'Luv 2 Luv U'.