Deep House Recommendations July 2012

Review: Imperious Spanish imprint Deep Explorer reached release number 26 this year, with a split EP featuring Altered Moods boss Malcolm Moore alongside long time Explorer Bjak (real name Brian Cullen). Bjak's two cuts - "Rhythm Of Love" and "Purple Fire" - are both produced with typically immaculate poise, but it's the sultry nature of the latter cut that had everyone at Juno HQ swooning. Malcolm Moore meanwhile served the swooping chords and rock hard bump of "Love (A Perilous Thing)", which features an ethereal vocal contribution from Debra Jones-Davis, who talks about the dangers of the "L" word while the lush arrangement works deep below in the mix. Jenifa Mayanja rounds off a consummate package with a shuffling, Latin-influenced remix of "Love (A Perilous Thing)".

Review: Malcolm Moore's Altered Moods imprint comes through with the self styled "deep as fuq" Love's All Right EP featuring contributions from Dubbyman, Amir Alexander and Mr Done! The well respected Dubbyman marks his debut production on Altered Moods with the sublime "Love's All Right"- a track naturally brimming with his signature jazzy touches and lolloping beat down groove. It's complemented by an altogether housier remix from Above Smoke who does a superb job in cloaking elements of Dubbyman's original production in a hazy sheen deep beneath an infinitely rise rasp of a groove. Turn over and Mr Done! (aka Mr Moore) gently rolls out a melange of widescreen chords and shimmering pads over the ever rippling rhythmic snap of drums that drives "Diamond" forward, whilst Amir Alexander wins the prize for the most apt title on "Woozy!" a tightly wound driving house track whose undulating textures will cause travel sickness for years to come.

Review: It was certainly a big year for DJ Steaw, having released on Traxx Underground and Local Talk amongst others but "Rhubarbe" was probably his most infectious collection of house tunes. "Holing On" is one of those classic beat tracks that just takes you on a journey, with those bumping kick drums accompanied by the seductive female vocals and its smooth, Chicago-filtered bass lines. "Got To Be" is similarly addictive, bringing you Steaw's crunchy percussion and dreamy synths but "Dirty Karma" was our favourite here at Juno HQ - that muffled bass drum scorching its way through lo-fi melodies and chopped vocals is just too awesome.

Review: Last seen laying down some space funk on Space Dimension Controller's newly launched Basic Rhythm label, Italian producer Ad Bourke resurfaces with style via another new label in Scenario - allegedly based in Mongolia. Arriving on a thick slab of green vinyl, the six track Raw Ivy is more substantial than a mere EP yet not quite an album, however it does continues the themes Bourke explored on that BR release, hand picking various stylistic and rhythmic elements and presenting them within his own inimitable palette of sounds. Sitting somewhere between Dam Funk, Floating Points and Mr Beatnick, Raw Ivy is a compelling statement of this obvious talent with the slick analogue aqua boogie of "Guava" a particular highlight.

Review: It was another huge year for Mr .Bashmore, the Bristol kid who surpassed all expectations and he also started his own label, Broadwalk Records on which to release his own material, the first of which was the massive Au Seve. The title track is a perfect fusion of London and Chicago, where hefty doses of sub-bass meet slicing hi-hats and 4/4 kicks, while "Troglodytes" is a peculiar beat workout, where steady drums go head to head with nostalgic flute implementations and a cheeky vocal sample hopping in and out. On the flipside, "First Odyssey" enters more unexpected territories and the regular kicks are now re-shuffled into a two-step inspired anthem - leaving enough space for delayed guitar chords and melancholic vocals to come in and break things down.

Review: One of the most glaring misconceptions regarding I:Cube's excellent fifth album M:Megamix was its format of swiftly veering through the 26 tracks was allowing Nicolas Chaix to lazily avoid the task of actually producing full tracks. This is clearly not the case, with Chaix and Versatile choosing to release extended DJ friendly versions of the album tracks over a series of EPs, with with "YOUROCK", "Popular Electronics" and "In Alpha" featuring on this latest edition. The three tracks are a nice primer of the smorgasbord of sounds to expect on the album for those yet to indulge, with the bleep infused techy chug of "YOUROCK" complemented by the EBM thump of "Popular Electronics" and the new romantic disco glisten of "In Alpha."

Review: In the five years Still Music's offshoot Stilove4music has been going, it's maintained a level of quality matched by few other labels operating in the edit realm, with some stellar contributions a real variety of producers - Rick Wilhite to Justus Kohncke, Trus'me to Rahaan. Label boss Jerome Derradji has been responsible for some of the finest drops too, and his fourth clutch of Stilove4Music vinyl heat is superb. "Disconnect" brilliantly twists the insides of a disco jam outwards, with Derradji realigning the elements to a constantly bumping house refrain that acid house one moment and delay heavy disco the next. Alongside this, "Whachadoin?" bends a funked out bass guitar riff to breaking point over a rigid drum beat before teasing out the harmonic elements in a manner that will sound great on a large system. On the flip, Derradji lays out some 5am warehouse party is getting deep shit in shape of "Adaptive Control" an original track that cakes the rippling acid groove in all manner of tape dust.

Review: Formerly one half of Leeds post nu rave outfit Ocelot, James Welsh has now settled into a nice deep house groove under his own name, with a well regarded turnout on Hypercolour offshoot Losing Suki the prelude to this rather refined debut for the Wolf Music imprint. Perhaps the only house track to ever be named after a trans-Pennine motorway, "M62" is nonetheless a superbly crafted production blessed with some deep set vocals from Ms Terri Walker! Alongside this, Welsh drops a rather spritely warm fronted homage to his favourite online storage service "Zippyshare" while "Nowt" shows the Northerner to be just as adept at louche beatdown business. Wolf regular Medlar ensures the Lupine House massif are well stocked with a storming remix of "M62" that's got all manner of fidgeting rhythmic intricacies.

Review: It comes as little surprise to us that Nick 'Anthony' Simoncino would eventually release an EP for Brooklyn-based house nerds, L.I.E.S. It seems like a natural progression for both the Italian DJ/producer and Ron Morelli, who has a knack for associating his label with under-the-radar artists of the highest calibre. The title track, though being shaped by a pulsing bassline and a menacing exchange of hi-hats, allows room for the synthesizer to glide the listener towards the euphoric trance of "Mystic Motion", where chirping melodies are surrounded by warm percussion elements. "On A Journey" removes the nostalgia of the previous two tracks by emphasising messages of hope and morality, and there's yet more intricate layering of synth pads and mysticism on "Enigma". Highly recommended.

Review: You can always count on Glenn Underground to tap into a rootsy feeling on his smooth, musical deep house, not least when it's on his Strictly Jazz Unit Muzic imprint. "7th Trumpet" matches mellow keys with psychedelic synth warblings, while the eponymous instruments freestyles over the top of a gently rolling beat. "Funky Disco Fusion" needs little explanation beyond the rather revealing title. "You Are Love" meanwhile gets reworked by Jose Carretas with an infectious boogie bass line, while CVO gets in the thick of the vocal layering on "I Am Not In Love", working a myriad of soulful croons into a heart warming brew.

Review: Will You Dance With Me? That's the question posed by Jamie Read and Felix Dickinson on their latest release together under the LHAS INC moniker. And the answer is uniformly "yes I think I shall thanks", with the track a fine example of acid tinged deep house blessed with typically effective textural embellishments and a ripe old school drum machine groove that harks back to the nascent days of US house without descending into the realm of cloying homage. The original is complemented by a remix from Phoreski that focuses on the haunting synth lines, which along with some robot vocoderisms form the core of a much darker, driving arrangement that comes to be dominated by sparse drum hits and spiralling ascendant laser beams of sound.