Review: Sundries' Disco Goodies series, which rounds up the best of the label's digital releases and presents them on multi-artist EPs, reaches its fourth instalment. It hits home hard from the start, where Berobreo's 'Soul Driven Dynamics' provides an attractive mix of 1970s orchestral soul samples and rubbery deep house beats. Experienced re-editor Oldchap brings the goods with a lightly tooled-up and beefed-up rework of an orchestra-sporting disco gem ('Coloridos'), before X Gets The Crest delivers a percussive, hot-stepping and filter-smothered re-wire of a much-loved Cymande classic ('Still Come Home'). Over on side B, Alexny's heavy disco-funk re-edit ('People Says') is joined by a hazy and horn-heavy revision courtesy of Sould Out ('City Gal') and the pitched-up disco loop-funk of 'Since You Came' by Workerz.
Review: Nervous will forever be etched in the heart of house music lovers. And even after all these years the legendary New York labels continues to serve up the gems. This time out they call upon the one and only Kenny Dope, one half of Masters At Work and a legendary DJ and producer. He adds his famously characteristic warmth and soul to Kenny Bobien and Wheeler Del Torro's 'The Sun Will Shine Again.' It is a gloriously sunny tune with lively, skipping and South Hemisphere tinged beats, a great vocal and plenty of percussive action. The instrumental strips it back to more direct beat work. Both sides bang.
3kelves & We Are Neurotic - "Laguna Reservoir Funk" (4:00)
Naux - "Foxxy Cleopatra" (6:18)
Partner Music - "People Should Romance" (5:15)
Review: Moiss Music is dropping two slabs of heat this month - their sixth and seventh EPs overall. Both are various artists' collections with plenty of 'floor-facing disco fun. Mathew Ferness opens this one with 'Paradisio' which has plenty of inspiration taken from late afternoon dances somewhere like Ibiza. 3kelves & We Are Neurotic get you working your feet with the busy percussive grooves and squelchy synth funk of 'Laguna Reservoir Funk' while Naux brings lots of loopy fun and throwback vocal goodness to his steamy 'Foxxy Cleopatra.' Partner Music rounds out the EP with the most energetic and busy of the lot - the restless melodies of 'People Should Romance.'
Review: The late great Whitney Houston has many hits in her back catalogue and plenty of them are ripe and ready for club-ready reworks. J& E Project do just that here by reworking her belting diva classic 'So Emotional'. First off they extend it with more drums for the dance floor, some 90s piano house chords layered in and splashy cymbals to make it all the more immediate. The vocal remains iconic and is sure to be sung back whenever this one gets played. A radio edit and instrumental also feature on this flashy pink vinyl.
Review: A top value for money opportunity here, as Moiss Music deliver the latest in their sweet and sticky Jam series of various artist 12" line ups, bringing you no less than six bubbling, vivacious disco triumphs from six artists. Khemir's 'Disco Bandit' kicks off proceedings, a production that sounds like it was made by a band of around 45 musicians, a proper cavalcade of strings, brass, brazen disco thump and beautifully bold vocals. Wurzelholz's 'Prince' goes for a bit more economy but with a slinky funk bassline like that - not to mention the occasional exclamation from the purple overlord himself - it's equally devastating in dancefloor terms. Among the other highlights, 'Golden' by I Gemin has the feel of a lost Daft Punk flip tune and Cosmocomics' 'Glamorous Garcon', boasting 70s-style synth bubbles that are as cute as they are retro. Tasty as ever.
Mark Knight & James Hurr - "You Take Me Higher" (6:12)
Friend Within - "Chain" (5:43)
Martin Ikin & Winnie Ama - "Control It" (4:51)
Flashmob & Raumakustik - "Club Talk" (5:45)
Review: Toolroom's 'sampler' series, which rounds up previously digital-only releases and sticks them out on action-packed 12" EPs, reaches its sixteenth instalment. Given the format, you'll be unsurprised to discover that there's plenty of bona-fide peak-time heat on show, starting with Mark Knight and James Hurr's excitable, filter-heavy, string-laden disco-house bomb 'You Take Me Higher'. Friend Within offers a scintillating blend of heavy acid bass, glassy-eyed female vocal samples, weighty beats and subtle disco samples on the superb 'Chain', while Martin Ikin and Winnie Ama opt for even heavier drums, warped bass, creepy electronics and dead-eyed spoken word vocals on the sweat-soaked 'Control It'. To round things off, we're treated to the tech-tinged funky house bounce of Flashmob and Raumakustik's percussion -rich 'Club Talk'.
The James L'Estraunge Orchestra - "Broken Spells" (8:08)
Nico Lahs - "Happenstance" (5:58)
Review: Local Talk has quietly but assuredly become a vital voice in there underground. It has done so over the last 13 years and now makes that occasion by doing what it does best - serving up timeless club sounds that mix under many different subgenres. This is another feel-good offering from four of the label's talents or as the label puts it, "producers that we love and respect." There is funky bass and soulful vibes from the Soul Renegades opener, Wipe The Needle's 'Light Years Away' is a more serene cosmic journey and The James L'Estraunge Orchestra offer a broken beat and jazzed-up dancer in 'Broken Spells.' Nico Lahs brings some cuddly depths to his slow-mo house jam 'Happenstance.'
Flying Fish (Alexis Taylor & Pilooski remix) (5:46)
Nothing (Richie Stevens Smudge remix) (4:39)
Review: Two tracks from the Modfather's current 66 album get the remix treatment, with the A-side seeing Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip joining unlikely forces with Parisian DJ and producer Cedric Marszewski aka Pilooski for an overhaul of 'Flying Fish', before the flip hosts 'Flying Fish' Richie Stevens of virtual band Spacemonkeyz works his magic on 'Nothing'. Weller's remixes have been well chosen and generally top drawer ever since Brendan Lynch reworked 'Wild Wood' back in the mid 90s, a rich tradition that continues unabated here.
Review: The Take It Easy label returns with a red hot one and limited edition one-sided 12" that features a Bugsy 'ReDrum' of Wema's 'Kiherehere' cut. The original artists are a five-piece Tanzanian outfit founded on community and they have a global approach to sound that plays out here. In Bugsy's hands, it becomes a club-ready cut that fuses house and techno with the original's traditional Tanzanian instrumentals and Afro-Latin rhythms. Add in a fiery vocal and the sort of unrelenting drum funk that sends crowds mad and you have another standout from this fledgling label.
Wh0, Mark Knight & James Hurr - "Turn Me Deeper" (feat Kathy Brown) (5:23)
Shadow Child - "Rising High" (7:31)
Low Steppa & Tony Romera - "Dance To The Music" (5:21)
Maur - "Disco Tool" (6:33)
Review: The latest V/A sampler record by Toolroom Records comes in the shadow of unfortunate news in regards to singer Kathy Brown, who, last we heard, was battling stage four cancer. Brown is the original featuring singer of Praxis' 'Turn Me Out'; her vocal contribution to the track has since gone sampled by many a deep and jackin' house producer, owing to its standout "work me with temptation" lyric, whose simple injunction and passionate delivery would seem to bottle the essence of an era (of overwork, of temptation, of desire). Now Toolroom continue to dedicate their latest releases to Brown in her honour; this time, her 'Turn Me Out' vocal is reworked into 'Turn Me Deeper', featuring a star cast of organ-synth peddling, deep house foundation-shattering producers (Wh0, Mark Knight, James Hurr), backed up by contributions by the likes of Shadow Child, Low Steppa and Maur as addenda.
Review: Fronted by Dane-dame Sannie Carlson, Whigfield was backed by various producers and engineers over the years, main among whom was the towering Larry Pignagnoli. *The* song to commemorate Whigfield by, 'Saturday Night' is a Europop and Eurodance trailblazer, harking back, perhaps, to a more glamorous time, where fashion designers rubbed shoulders with models, PR girls and riviera DJs for Italian and Danish upper crusts. Carlson would record 'Saturday Night' after meeting fellow DJ Davide Riva, who was also part of a music production duo. In three days, an (in your mind-) sticky, bubblegum-popping opus would be written, with a nursery-rhyming refrain and a jaunty na-na-na hook epitomising the notion of a "hair-dryer song", a term coined by Simon Cowell in reference to the song as a precursor to Rebecca Black's 'Friday': "the kind of song girls sing into their hair dryers before getting ready to go out."
Baba O' Riley (live - Qwartz extended remix) (6:54)
Baba O' Riley (Qwartz dub remix) (6:55)
Review: House lover and studio wizard Qwartz has been at it again, with 'it' being editing some classic rock tunes into club-ready sounds for DJs and dancers. This time he tackles 'Baba O' Riley' firstly with an extended mix that brings all new life into The Who's original. It has a prickly low end with eerie guitars and disco motifs making it a raw, heads-down sound. The dub remix brings a little extra low-end weight.
Review: The sounds of Stevie Wonder are destined to live on forever, such is the universal appeal and enduring musicality of what he does. When you have artists reworking the originals into different forms, that is also going to help them endure and that's what we have here with a couple of house mixes of his classic 'All I Do.' The Vocal House Remix is first and goes heavy on the filters while laying down some lovely soulful grooves that never quit. The Jazzed instrumental remix then pairs it back a little and allows some magical melodies to shine over more laid back grooves perfect for sunny sessions.
Review: Stevie Wonder has many classics in his incomparable oeuvre and many of them have been remixed with varying degrees of success. 'Paradise' is one from the mid-70s on his Songs in the Key of Life album and here it gets a house rework. It's got some brilliantly dusty Motor City house vibes to it with busy synth arps riding up and down the scale next to more smeared, serene chords. The flispside Kneedeep dub is more percussive with chopped-up vocals, disco-fried beats and a little more vibrancy to it for some playful party times.
Review: Wonder by name, wonderful by nature. Man like Stevie has cooked up countless irresistible jams and so many of them are perfect for club-ready edits. That's what we have here as one of his most upbeat and feel-good jams, 'If You Really Loved Me,' gets a tweak with some modern flair. The drums are flipped into rolling and soulful house beats while the joyous vocals and horn stabs remain in place. 'I Wish' then has a more peak time feel with a blend of disco synths and lively vocal ad-libs, while 'In My Mind' is a nice laid-back and blissed-out number for cosy sessions.
Review: There seems to be a richness of cultured new edits dripping at the start of this New Year. This 12" is proof of that and it finds the great Motown legend Stevie Wonder have his impeccable sounds just subtly tweaked to give them a little extra heft on modern sound systems. 'Do I Do' (House remix) kicks off here with nice disco loops and funky drum patterns that come alive with some steamy sax energies. The timeless 'Superstitious' then gets beefed up with some echo on the majestic synths and more weight in the drums. It's fun and funky perfection.
The Wonderland Band - "Thrill Me" (Joe T Vannelli Classic mix) (5:51)
The Wonderland Band - "Thrill Me (With Your Super Love)" (8:05)
Pure Energy - "Party On" (Vannelli Bros Classic mix) (7:31)
Pure Energy - "Party On" (8:24)
Review: Use Vinyl looks back to two iconic tracks from the 70s and 80s here for source material for a new remix EP by the Vannelli family. Joe T remixes 'Thrill Me' by The Wonderland Band into the sort of direct and funky house sound that brims with early dance music charm while the Vannelli Bros offer their rework of 'Party On' by Pure Energy which comes with plenty of energy for club contexts. Both tracks are presented as Classic Mix versions and bring plenty of new life to the original hits without forgoing the timeless, catchy and meaningful melodies that define the originals. House music like this is as authentic as it gets.
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