Back catalogue: Disco/Nu-Disco

Review: House music's roots are in the church and this new a celebratory various artist collection pays homage to that. The grooves are laced with soulful vocals, churchy chords and big strings that make for grand architecture and grander feelings of joy. Mark Brickman & Yam Who? open with a vocal gem that cannot help but bring a smile, while Wayfaring Strangers pump it up a little more with some funky disco house before Platinum City get you locked in a nice loose, long legged groove that is resplendent with lush keys and big vocal turns. 'Yah Mo B There' has an irresistible 80s vibe and big sing along choruses that will get hairs standing on end.

Review: If you're in the mood for some cosmic grooves, wayward disco and pagan psychedelia, Multi-Culti's Cult Edits series is always worth checking. The imprint's latest offering is packed to the rafters with mind-altering goodness. Inigo Voltier sets the tone with "Ti Amo", a Fairlight-powered bounce through post-Italo oddball electro territory with added mix-80s power-pop guitars, before Angelina Amor reworks a sludgy slab of European industrial/new wave fusion. Youkounkoun's throbbing "Cosmic Yoyo" sounds like post-apocalyptic Italo-disco after a fist full of downers, while Asa Moto's "When The Funk Is On" is a funky but undeniably weird electro-industrial cut rich in delay-laden vocal snippets and metallic percussion hits.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


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: We have absolutely no idea who's behind this hand-stamped 12" - all involved are keeping tight-lipped - but you should certainly give the clips a listen if celebratory disco-house is your thing. It's a brilliantly bumpin' affair that adds a plethora of classic disco vocal samples to a surging disco, bass-heavy disco-house groove rich in savagely edited orchestral sweeps borrowed from another Salsoul-era gem. It's the kind of in-your-face, arms-aloft affair that sounds like it could have been crafted in the halcyon days of disco-house (the 'French Touch' era) in the mid-to-late 1990s. It's available in radio edit and 'club cut' forms, with the latter offering just that little bit more celebratory goodness.

Review: Correcciones Calypso returns from a generous hiatus with the fourth edition of its acclaimed edit series, replete with four re-edits that veer from the subtle to the downright brazen. Thomass Jackson and INigo Vontier invite the French duo Youkounkoun to open proceedings with an insane early 80s edit full of big drums and exotic touches that's been blowing dancefloors all around the world for the past years - and definitely resides in the brazen category, despite a lot of work having gone into it. Olta Karawame make their debut on the series with a powerful, compact edit full of ballsy keyboard riffing and a military-sized kick drum that is guaranteed to have heads banging . To complete the release label bosses Thomass and INigo deliver edits of their own with their characteristic sound, giving this EP maximum a value for money factor and entertainment from start to finish.

Review: French DJ-turned-remixer Young Pulse's popular Paris Edits series notches up seven volumes, this time via a three-tracker packed to the rafters with heavyweight disco-funk grooves. Arguably the best of a very strong bunch is 'Bobo's Reason', a reverb and delay-laden, slightly beefed-up rearrangement of an excitable, horn-heavy disco-soul tune from the Philadelphia school of orchestrated dancefloor fun. There is of course plenty to set the pulse racing elsewhere across the EP though, with the spacey, synth-laden, percussion-rich disco-boogie of 'Beggar's Run' being joined on side two by the high-octane disco-funk weight of 'Bisso's Love'.

Review: Yse Saint Laur'ant makes wonky, left-of-centre sounds for proper underground parties. He's done so for years, and now returns with more of his raw and inventive disco on the sought-after Vinyl Only label. Opener 'Bad Company' pairs visceral arps with glossy pads and soulful vocal, which is stripped away from the 'Better Company' version. On the flipside, 'Don't Look Back' is a more freewheeling and funky feel, with silky basslines and hip swing claps under buttery vocals. Last of all is a classic chug-disco gem. 'Foreign Love' goes slow, with crashing hits and languid bass all topped off by a yearning female vocal that slowly but surely rises into euphoria.

Review: Running Back presents the fourth edition of the Swallow This various artists series, featuring five tracks by five different producers, all straddling the line between 'remodeled deep house techniques and floor mechanics.' On the first side we have the deep, down and dirty retro house shenanigans of Yungruzt's 'Starlight' (feat Eluize) followed by strobed-out rave energy of Baldo's 'Human Connection'. Over on the flip, 9th House delivers the EP standout on the glassy-eyed and bittersweet 'Ara', while Delphi gets a vibe reminiscent of Sueno Latino on the epic '7_11 House'.