ELBEE BAD Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Elbee Bad continues to provide a direct line to the heart and soul of jacking house music with every new record he throws down. After some strong turns on Thema and LaRhon last year, he's now shored up on Solid Groove with a serious grip of club workouts. "Sock It To Me Mao Fao" is an unrelenting trip through tough drum machine beats, while "In The Key Of N 90's" brings a distinctive, rave stab-like tonality to the table. "Bitten By A Zombie" is a saucy tale riding on sleazy bass and a perilous tale of undead interaction, and "Set Up The Warp Drive" pings off grid for a more experimental kind of groove.

Review: Veteran maverick Elbee Bad pops up in ever-unpredictable places, but somehow he sounds just right on Thema. His fearless, deeply rooted take on house music defies imitation, and so it goes across this full-fat EP. "Request Monster" is a lazy groove embellished with strings protesting the culture of requests in the club, while "A Lot Of Jazz As A Child" doffs its cap to Sun Ra in a subtle way that manages to be both mechanical and free-flowing. "If EYE Was From The D" is a more overtly electronic production that sits somewhere in between acid, techno and deep house. "Crossing Dimensions" is an uplifting workout with a sweet vocal turn from an unknown source, and then "Jami Jam Dubb'd" finishes the record off with a primal set of ingredients working round a stout kick.

Review: Jerome Sydenham's Ibadan imprint is back with the fourth volume in the Leads & Bites series, presenting an exciting selection of soon-to-be timeless dancefloor favorites. Chilean producer Massiande follows up releases on Freerange and Phonica with the NYC basement bounce of 'Mainline' and its familiar vocal samples, while The Prince Of Dance aka Elbee Bad gets deep down and dirty on 'Len's House'. Over on the flip, S.A.T. (Sydenham, AYBEE and Trent) team up for a hypnotic trip into the aether on 'Yaphet' and finally some low slung Balearic flavour courtesy of Swedish duo MLiR teaming up with Arnau Obils (aka Velmondo) on 'Calanda'.