Back catalogue: House

Review: Southern Magic is a sub-label of Secret Society Chile, but there is nothing submissive about the sounds of this new various artists 12". Valerio Vaudano soundtracks the end of the party with a big house bouncer full of vamping chord energy and euphoric little vocal stabs that cannot fail to send people home happy. Luca Piermattei then welcomes you to the after party with scuffed up and frazzled deep house drums under mind melting synth modulations on 'Quilmes.' Flip it over for VICARI's fizzing but feel good tech house on 'Residual Bitterness' and Lootbeg's brilliantly futuristic 'Transitions,' which is alive with alien lifeforms and a crispy tech beat.

Review: 'Celestial Dance' is Tommy Vicari Jnr and Loopdeville's latest, collaborative contribution to new label Foxtail. 'Go Again' and 'What Kind Of Love Is This' draw on the slung-down timbral strength of amapiano's log basses for reuse in crowd-busting house groovemanship: we hear giggly knock hits stiffening otherwise angelic house ambiences, making for staunch low-end scaffolds. Loopdeville's B-side is the real hoot, meanwhile, as crowd murmurs and restless rhythmic petri cultures heard to come to life across 'Los Pollos', before the r&b inflect 'Do You', which samples what sounds like Miguel, closes on a potent tearjerker.

Review: Following some great releases by Madrid legend Casbah 73, Secret Rendezvous and Moods, Kraak & Smaak's Boogie Angst returns this week with a new one by German-born/Amsterdam-based Marcel Vogel. The Lumberjacks In Hell chief serves up five typically disco oriented cuts on Games Change; there's the boogie-down vibe of 'Head Back In The Game' featuring a smooth vocal, followed by the late night mood music of 'Keep On Stepping' (extended) featuring another brilliant vocal performance by talented singer Lyma. Over on the flip, they treat you to the low slung affair 'Funk Money' and truly the sensual number 'Popping My Cherry'.

Review: The latest V/A sampler record by Toolroom Records comes in the shadow of unfortunate news in regards to singer Kathy Brown, who, last we heard, was battling stage four cancer. Brown is the original featuring singer of Praxis' 'Turn Me Out'; her vocal contribution to the track has since gone sampled by many a deep and jackin' house producer, owing to its standout "work me with temptation" lyric, whose simple injunction and passionate delivery would seem to bottle the essence of an era (of overwork, of temptation, of desire). Now Toolroom continue to dedicate their latest releases to Brown in her honour; this time, her 'Turn Me Out' vocal is reworked into 'Turn Me Deeper', featuring a star cast of organ-synth peddling, deep house foundation-shattering producers (Wh0, Mark Knight, James Hurr), backed up by contributions by the likes of Shadow Child, Low Steppa and Maur as addenda.

Review: French label Cairo Xpress debuts with a first-ever vinyl outing and a fine one it is too, with six stylish house outings from an array of fresh talents. Wilt's 'Beoyon' has lovely gloppy drums and bass looping under harmonic chords - it's simple but effective. Hermit gets more full-bodied with his textured 'Who Dunnit' and DOTT strips it back to bumping drum track workouts on 'Twitching Softly.' There is more irresistible bounce to Lucho's 'Mesh', Artphorm layers in some old school pianos to 'Daown' and HATT D shuts down with maybe the best of the lot, 'Contrasts In Life,' which is a broken beat, analogue sound with celestial energy.

Review: Lake Haze's third album on Shall Not Fade is another triumph with his signature shimmering melodies strung out over lush beats. Drawing on house, disco, garage and broken beat it is a rich affair with a strong UK vibe. There is elegance and symphony to opener 'Xyleac' that immediately gets your head amongst the stars. 'Diluspth' keeps up the majestic synth while 'Bbyncole' is double-speed techno with balmy celestial synths and hurried bass that locks you in. Tender ambient pieces like 'Shores Of Eternal Life' reset the mood and then the second half is a series of shorter sketches packed with electronic soul.

Review: RECOMMENDED
The DJ Kicks series has managed to outlast the vast majority of other DJ mixes we can think of - the good, the bad, the populist, and the plain cash cow. Even the mighty fabric compilations have rebranded and rethought, bringing the original legacy, FABRICLIVE included, to a respectful end at 200 outings. Strange, then, to think, that !K7's mighty offering to the world of "What should we listen to at the afters?" has arguably managed to become more relevant as the years have flown by.

There was a time when the series existed at the lighter end of club fare, with some examples barely even matching that description. These days, though, there's often a dance floor heaviness central to the selections, with Jessy Lanza's broken, bass-driven set a case in point. Pointless attempts to describe the music, and lazy track list namedropping aside, this is energy-packed, heads down, futurist stuff packed with infectious percussion.

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: Will Long aka Celer, Mississippi-born but now permanently resident in Tokyo, intensifies his investigation in personal house music with the fourth edition in his Long Trax series. A quartered circle of evolving textures of at first seemingly diminutive character, this manifest impression is dashed once we learn that each track on the record is given its own side, allowing each ample space to unfold within an economically restrained formula: dry drum machines, subtle chords, hygge bass. Clearly an ode to productive limitation: 'The Right Choice' tosses us the first chord against gambolling percs, while 'You Cannot Reform A Sin' brings marching, DC-offset acid. The release redresses historic wrongs too, using carefully extracted, recorded samples of key voices in the Afro-American civil rights movement.

Review: Berlin via L.A. based Acid Test has a new one out this week on their Avenue 66 sub-label, which is focused more on leftfield electronics. It comes from esteemed German producer Jens Kuhn aka Lowtec, known for his releases on Out To Lunch, United States Of Mars and Playhouse who presents some rare and unreleased cuts from the vaults on Easy To Heal Cuts. As expected, there's dusty and understated fare aplenty on this one; from the contemplative night moves of 'Going Nowhere', or the low-slung mood music of 'Red Sparrow' (another alias of Kuhn's) to the bittersweet minimalism of 'Nature Thinks For You' and the sun coming through the blinds on Monday morning vibe of closing cut 'From Moment To Moment' - we're sure glad these tunes saw the light of day.