Deep House charts

Review: Dusky enjoy lofty status in the UK underground after many years of putting out streams of assured deep-house goodness. They have done so on plenty of well-regarded labels and now return to Gerd Jansen's mighty fine Running Back for Life Signs Vol 3. Opener 'Wildfire' is a fizzy one with intense synth lines layered up next to ambient pads and dreamy vocal mutterings that all make for a fine post-rave comedown. 'Tea Cake' also harks back to the 90s with a dusty breakbeat rhythm powered by a fat bassline and twinkling keys. Flipside jam 'High' brings piano energy and 'Hawthorn' has an old school Chicago feel. Dusky cover plenty of ground in good fashion here.

Review: Few are better at saucer-eyed, rave revivalism than Victor Shan. He's made a habit of successfully doffing a cap to the early '90s, primarily via collaborations with Tuff City Kids and the booming Chord Memories 12" on Running Back. Here he's at it again, kicking off with a "Piano Mix" of "Work It" that sounds like a long lost collaboration between Inner City and Tyree Cooper. There's a more flustered, UK hardcore feel about "Bassline Party", even if it does contain a classic Chicago house bassline and a swinging, boompty style groove. Flip for a ghetto style "Miami Mix" of work it, plus a couple of handy DJ tools (the hip-house-goes-rave groove of the "Rave Beats" version being particularly potent).

Review: Remember Digitalism? The German duo formed in Hamburg in 2004 and in the years after Jens "Jence" Moelle and Ismail "Isi" Tufekci went on to make dance music that people rocked to. It came as part of the high energy and highly textured blog house scene but leaned more on electro and made them main stage festival favs who made an entry into the DJ-kicks mix series and plenty of epic tunes. Well now after three years out they return to Running Back - the last label they appeared on in 2020 - for some more raved-up electro bangers.

Review: Italian producer Fango has been busily building up his own sound world via his Degustibus Music label, but now he makes a strident move into the wider world with this outstanding record for Running Back. The authoritative tech house label knows its onions, and you can tell why they were drawn to these distinctive, inventive twists on the formula. 'Dimetrodonte' in particular is the kind of freaky workout which will get people paying close attention thanks to some artful vocal sample juggling, while there's some subtly anthemic joy to be felt in the likes of 'Diplodoco' which once again finds original ways to express classic ideas in the tech house tradition.

Review: New to Running Back is the latest record from Raphael Schon, best known for his enduring hit 'Fiesta 2000'; here the Augsburger develops that track's sound with a similarly irreverent set of lub-dubs, six to be exact. Never once skipping a beat (don't panic, palpitators), the likes of 'Baerhit', 'Breathe' and 'Do You Like That' scour the recollective depths of a childhood spent ingesting Italo, house and electro-disco, albeit bringing a modern flair to the mix via warming pad cloaks and janky, intermittent lead synthetic daggers, all to back up the crucial 4x4. Despite its mood of joy, 'Heart Times' was conceived during a very emotionally turbulent time for Schon, owing to its later vocal beltings and emotional groundswells. Danke, Schon.

Review: Long time German electronic innovator is back on Running Back with a very welcome new mini-LP, Cyclone Days. The Frankfurt man mixes up his usual influences - indie-dance, Italo, power pop and house - into fresh and colourful new sounds. Melody rules OK across these cuts as they take in vocal gems and instrumental beats with lottos joyfulness along the way. 'Somebody' with Dena is a standout and timeless anthem for any dance floor, then 'Resonancer' has a retro-future disco-house vibe and 'Friends' is so perfectly pleasing it cannot fail to make you smile.

Review: You always know what you are going to get with Running Back - and we mean that in terms of quality rather than any one particular musical style. Gerd Janson's label does what it wants but never fails to set the floor alight. Here it is Krystal Kevlar who brings his own brand of main room house. Like so much stuff right now, 'Endeavour' has a 90s bent with its sweeping chord sequences before 'Americana' takes you on a deeper and more undulating groove. 'Tokyo Flower' is a festival tune for hands-in-the-air moments and 'Excelerator' then sinks down into more trippy techno territory.