Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Get yourself geared up for festival season with some fierce party starters certified with the Glitterbox stamp. Melvo Baptiste leads the charge with 'Sweat', a sizzling disco house stomper with Dames Brown giving the biggest diva energy on her show-stopping vocal. Lovebirds bring unbridled joy on the Philly string swoon and slinky b-line funk of 'Burn It Down', while Art Of Tones & Inaya Day keep it peak time on the sassy strutter 'Give My Love'. Young Pulse & Fleur De Mur complete the set with 'Smooth Sweet Talker', another bright and bold vocal cut par excellence.

Review: Demi Riquisimo's 'A Lifetime On The Hips' sublabel returns to make it a hat-trick of releases for 2023 with the impressive 'Body Move' V/A, featuring eclectic club cuts from Dreamrdreamr, SY, Papa Nugs, Elfenberg, Absolute. & Ysanne. Dreamdreamr's emotive 'Zone 4 Booty Call' kicks off the A-side; it's a track that effortlessly fuses elements of deep house, trance, and r&'b, setting the the tone perfectly for an EP not bound by the borders of any genre. The titular 'Body Move' by SY is up next; a no-nonsense house chugger with flourishes of Italian 90s progressive and acid - a perfect modern interpretation of a foundational strand of club music. The A-side wraps up with one of 2023's most exciting prospects Papa Nugs and the vocoder infused, percussive, twisted jam 'Loosey Goosey'. The flip picks up right where the A-side left off with Elfenberg's 'Solarplexus', a cosmic, evolving and psychedelic interpretation of house. After, UK mainstay Absolute offers a 'Devastating Rhythm', a peak time techno floor filler that sounds like a Frankenstein mix of seminal imprints Dance Mania & D'jax-Up-Beats' output - proper gear. Finally, drawing the curtain on the 'Body Move' V/A is Ysanne's 'Tisno Tango'; a slightly more introspective cut, but with more than enough groove to make you dance, a perfect closer.

Review: Cimedirapax opts to welcome no fewer than four artists to its fourth EP, and they all take one track each. There is plenty going on with MoYA81's 'The Way We Like' from electro crash drums to wonky Italo melodies to withering sci-fi disco effects. Yu's 'Another Call Me Bad' rides on cascading synth arps that never let you settle for a moment and Gianluca Pellerano's 'Alienated Theater' then explores slamming tech house with electro style melodies bringing a cinematic vibe. NND cuts the most loose of the lot with sheet metal snares and wispy synths, prying bass and crisp tech funk drums on 'Incomingtransmission.' Innovative stuff all round.

Review: Not in fact the work of a studio duo, Promising/Youngster is in fact the chosen name of electro investigator Diego Cadierno. Cadierno has found a supportive home in Analogical Force, who he returns to with this finally constructed EP of needlepoint machine funk spread across four tracks. There's an electronica slant to his music, not least on the likes of 'Frozen' with its fragile melodic threads and crispy, introspective beats. But 'Amen' and 'Highway' also feature plenty of slap to get a dancefloor moving, if that's what you require from your fresh electro grabs.

Review: Fresh Sounds #000 is a new and unique series, limited and numbered to 150 examples thanks to the efforts of its parent company Ribo Cochlee. For the very first edition of the series, a mockley crew of newcomers come to the fore, be they DJ Moar, Disco Flegrei or Holdtight. Centring on woozy jazzdance and disco with an airily produced bent, the highlights on this one have to be Flegrei's 'Titamesque', which basks in a kind of sexy sophistry procured by the heady combination of live drums and a (we think) muted bass clarinet, and Yured Jones' 'Far Away', which breaks from the genre prescription for a more cinematic breakdown.

Review: Insense has put together a tidy 7" featuring a rendition of Pharoah Sanders' 'Moon Child' which was first specially crafted for the compilation album Incense Music for Bed Room. It is a lush and spiritual sound led by gorgeous wind instruments and fluttery melodies over gentle and persuasive rhythms. On the flip, Yoshiharu Takeda's 'Bliss Of Landing' is another escapist sound with more of the same. A lovely 45 rpm for those quiet moments.

Review: The Supervision (garage) label has put together a crack team of artists here on a sizzling six tracker that digs into many different forms of garage and 2-step. Xander's 'Save Me' is a minimal bumper with metropolitan sound effects giving it some edge, while Yosh explores a more dry and crunchy percussive sound on 'Quest.' Alvva's 'Lost In The System' is in a hurry to get you locked in and the three flip side joints take in the low-end wobble of Hermit, Phasmid's sweet vocal cut 'Better Than Never' and Dunman's blissed out 'Summer Breeze'. A very useful garage outing with shades for everyone.

Review: Midlands duo Y U QT are new school garage heads with a great brand, youthful energy, and the ability to craft slamming tracks that destroy dancefloors up and down the country. That never happens at the expense of quality, though, as this latest 12" on their own label shows once more. These rave ready cuts mash up plenty of different sub genres and show the pair is always subtle evolving their sound following chart toppers like 'You Belong To Me', viral Boiler Room sets and sold out shows across the UK. It's no wonder their music gets played by the likes of Bicep, Ben UFO and Octo Octa when it makes the sort of impact that this EP does.

Review: Pleasure of Love reissue imprint, New Islands, launches with a quiet stormy, soulful Balearic stunner. Kim Yaffa's 'Once Bitten' was recorded in LA and released on a 1989 private press 7", only to be buried in American record bins for decades after. A re-emergence of Yaffa's music on the internet in the last couple years has reached a fever pitch, with collectors thirsting after copies of the record. Now, New Islands has worked directly with the artist to deliver an official reissue, professionally transferred from the mixdown reels, carefully restored, and remastered. The track is an effortless class-act pop tune, with 80s blue eyed soul / Sade inspired sounds, and unknowingly Balearic production that renders it timeless (it's reminiscent of Linda Di Franco, Edie Brickell or 80s Fleetwood Mac). The 12" is rounded out by new mixes from Michael David (Classixx) and Nick the Record & Dan Tyler (Record Mission).

Review: There is scant little information out there about Yoanson & Karamie. What we do know is that they were young artists from the French African diaspora who met with Nessim Saroussi and his label Ness Music in the late 80s and were encouraged to record the music presented here. It is their only official EP and it is a brilliant mix of Afro-tropical percussions, disco, electro and vocals that call to mind the likes of Arthur Russell. Philippe de Lacroix-Herpin is the man festered here as Prof Jah Pinpin and he brings some of his signature saxophone brilliance to flipside jaunt 'The Final Bird (Le Temps D'une Vie)'.

Review: Following the release of the (rather good) multi-artist EP, Balance, Satya is back to serving up solo showcases - in this case a third label outing from sometime All Day I Dream contributor YokoO. He begins in typically warm and woozy fashion, wrapping rising and falling analogue synth sounds, cut-up vocal snippets and tech-tinged electronics around a deep-tech groove ('When I Wait Next To You'), before reaching for more minimalistic beats, trippy noises and wobbly, UKG style sub-bass on 'I Look at You'. 'I Want More of You', which boasts selected vocal snippets from a late-80s classic, is pleasingly dubby, dreamy and ultra-deep - the EP's most potent moment in our book. German duo Superlounge's accompanying remix is a little breezier and looser, despite the presence of locked-in tech-house beats.

Review: youANDme has always been an important cog in the wheel of underground house and techno and his recent PPPPP was another fine project that has also spawned plenty of equally brilliant remixes. This is a second collection of them and it kicks off with the Polish master of perfect loop techno, Head High aka Shed. His bulky, barreling drums and big percussive loops come with plenty of bounce and raved up vocals. After that come Ian Pooley's dub, and Johannes Albert's deep house trip. Sasha, Roger Sanchez and Laurent Garnier have already been banging these so now it's your turn.

Review: YTP, Raw Takes, Ole Mic Odd & Alonzo, and Chupacabras are all back once again for some more authentic sounds from the underground. These more than able producers land on a hand-stamped translucent green wax 12" that marks the second installment in the Source Material Various Artist series. Just like the first, this is a monster outing with four searing electro cuts that bring intergalactic warfare to any party. '116ctro' is a visceral cut with corrugated rhythms and zippy synths. 'And We Rock' has a funky broken beat and tons of reverb and 'Compassion' slows it down a touch but has lashing synths and thunderous kicks to keep you moving.

Review: While legendary London proto-punk outfit The Boys carved out a lasting legacy and notable, if admittedly minute, impact on the early scene, one of their most bizarre and sought after contributions is the Christmas themed record released in 1980 under the pseudonym The Yobs (a very complex anagram). Credited under the aliases Noddy Oldfield, Ebenezer Polak, Kid Vicious and H. J. Bedwetter, the LP offers their very own shitheaded renditions of seasonal classics from 'Jingle Bells' and 'White Christmas' to more folk and biblical pieces such as 'Auld Lang Syne' and 'Silent Night'. If you're a Chrimbo punk sick to the back teeth of all the versions you hear repeated ad nauseam each year, then this reissue of The Yobs heading towards the exit on their own ludicrous terms is a vital stocking filler.

Review: Larry Young's Unity was released in 1965 and has endured with a fine reputatopn for being a rather innovative work in the jazz realm. As a pivotal figure in the post-bop and modal jazz movements, Young's innovative organ playing redefined the possibilities of the instrument. Unity marked his debut as a bandleader and he did so alongside an exceptional lineup that featured Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, and Elvin Jones. The title track is a mesmerizing 16-minute exploration that showcases Young's mastery of the Hammond B-3 organ as he creates a spiritual and avant-garde atmosphere. The album's fusion of hard bop, modal jazz and experimental elements solidified Young's place in the pantheon of jazz greats you need to know, if you don't already.