Back catalogue: House

Review: Back ion 2021, the relaunched Foliage Records imprint offered up a killer mix from NYC house legends Mood II Swing, the must-check Deep Rooted. Soon, the revitalised label will release a sequel, with long-serving British deep house don Atjazz at the helm. This sampler EP boasts six of the highlights from that set - all remixed and reworked by Atjazz himself. There's much to enjoy throughout, from the tense, slowly building deep-tech shuffle of Halo''s 'Glorty (Atjazz Galaxy Art Remix)'and the sun-splashed 6am bounce of Atjazz's remix of Dominique Fils-Aime's gorgeous 'Sun Rise', to the dreamy dancefloor wooziness of Ralf GUM's 'AWA' (re-imagined by Atjazz as an Osunlade-esque spiritual house workout) and the jazzy, bass-guitar-propelled broken house excellence of 'On The Road (Vocal Mix)', a three-way collab between Atjazz, Kelli Sae and The Realm.

Review: Untold Stories finally tells their first story in Various Artists form, reaching their hands deep into a forgotten folk corpus to retranslate each tale to we, who only speak house and techno. Described heartily as a ripple-maker, Lebanese producer Nesta devises his own folk fairytale with 'Bouchees A La Reine', with Axel S leading on with a nostalgic and groovy jazzy infused minimal track to counterpoint the A's meaty copra. On the B, Sonus takes the help with a surreal electro-dance burbler on which a winsome voice repeats the word "dreaming". And closing out comes the flat beat knockout 'Like This Girl', an instructive melody for future storytellers.

Review: No matter your particular preference in the deep house world, this various artists' outing from Q1E2 Recordings is sure to have something for you. Mike Riveria & Marco Ohboy, for example, tap into an early sound on 'Euphoria' with its big, brash piano stabs and whistles, while A Soft Mist Production keeps it all cuddly and deep with languid chords draped over gentle drums on 'Upside Down Rainbows.' DatSIM brings in some space-tech vibes for a deft rhythm and neon infused sound on 'Influx' and The Rabbit Hole's 'Tail Groove' has a mad double bass sound jumping about beneath frantic jungle breaks.

Review: This new 12" on Aliens On Wax declares that Chicago Jack Is Back and we are fine with that. The raw, early, street wise sounds of the Windy City are still some of the best house has ever given rise to and that is encapsulated across four new cuts from Gettoblaster and two collaborators. First it's Baggi on 'Throwin' Down' (feat Chip E) then it's Terry Mullan on 'Armando's Ghost'. The flipside has the solo cuts though both feature house legends Chip E and Joe Smooth making this the most authentic package of jack you will have heard in some time.

Review: Floorbound body-occupiers from Papa Nugs and The Trip for Tessellate, blanching wildstyle hip electro and irky rave sounds. With the A-side totally taken up by 'Keep Rocking' in two versions, we've a modish street style version in 'Casa Nova' form and a 'Hip House' breakbeat rendition. Then come the underside dread ones: 'Fearsome' tilts in the direction of ever more raviness with tuned, sandstorming stabs and gated voxes, while 'All Night' takes a dash of speed garage to the mishmash, air-raid sirens sounding through held chords all around.

Review: Label regulars Roberta and Trilaterals are back on Worldship Music to take part in the latest Herald Tarccs instalment. Reelsoul is a new name to join the fun and pens up with 'La Costa' which is a throwback disco house sound with wild melodies and big horn leads vying for attention and getting hands skyward. Trilaterals bring plenty of percussive funk and jumbled drum brilliance to 'Flo Jo' and Teflon Dons taps into a Philly sound with the string loops of 'DONTWANTU2GO.' Roberta's "Hang Back' is a classy little jazz-house number.

Review: After they relocated to Miami, Florida, in the early 1970s, Bahamas band T Connection recorded a string of disco and disco-funk anthems for local label T.K. Amongst their most admired and played releases - the peerless and extra-percussion 'At Midnight' excepted - is 'Saturday Night', which here gets the remix treatment courtesy of popular Aussie disco/house fusionist Dr Packer. He provides two peak-time-ready rubs: a jaunty, rolling, full-vocal A-side remix that lightly straightens and tools-up the groove while retaining the horns, strings, guitar and bass from the band's superb original mix, and a flip-side 'Dubstrumental'. Almost entirely free of singing besides some whispered and yelped backing vocals, it allows the original disco instrumentation more room to breathe while rolling out the band's killer groove.

Review: Rhythmic innovator Reza Terenzi returns with a bold EP that again invites us into her signature genre-bending sound which ranges from ethereal to gritty. As such, this one offers something for every moment-whether it's for deep dancefloor energy or reflective stargazing. Recorded between Berlin and Perth, mythical adrenaline and personal introspection all colour the sounds with unpredictable twists and dynamic shifts along the way. 'Ministry Of Wish' is a spangled sound with lithe synths and fluid rhythms, 'Sweatbox' is a twisted club cut, 'Magnetize Me Baby' is more roomy and percolating and 'Endurance' is futurist minimal.

Review: Tifra ventures into uncharted territory with a four track EP that explores the hypnotic and ominous depths of the unknown. Channelling the spirit of 90s and 00s house and prog, Tifra crafts a sonic landscape of undulating grooves and mesmerizing rhythms. 'Invoke Hysteria' sets the tone with its pulsating energy, while 'Serpent' slithers through hypnotic textures and haunting melodies. The title track, 'Terra Incognita', delves deeper into the unknown, its hypnotic groove punctuated by unexpected twists and turns. Admo's masterful remix adds another dimension, transforming the track into a peak-time weapon. This EP is a journey into the depths of sound, a testament to Tifra's ability to craft captivating and immersive electronic music.

Review: Deep-headed, deeper-bodied dub house, hurtling our way from New Yorkers Dopeus and Satoshi Tomiie. Building on Tomiie's already relatively storied career, this chronological time-clock keeps track of the big smoke's early hours for us: '2AM' and '3AM' build to knifing edges, the latter track especially working from blueprints of overdriven satu-rave and chambered echoic dub techno, basking in hollowness. As we cross into the temporal impossibility of '4:60AM', 909 puff snares and naively high strings are accrued, and by the turn of 'Sunrise', an entire breakbeat has worked its way around our eyelid bags.

Review: Berlin-based Aussie Tornado Wallace has a long track record of tiptoeing the fine line between perfectly judged dancefloor pleasure and the more musically immersive sounds of Balearica and sun-soaked, sofa-ready deep house. He touches all those bases on 'Bitter Suite', his debut for Apiento's excellent Test Pressing Recordings imprint. In its' full length, near ten minute original mix form (side A), the track joins the dots between psychedelic, lightly acid-clad 1993 progressive house and - via waves of instrumentation and positive melodic motfs - the colourful musical rush of the System 7's most gorgeous early-to-mid-90s productions The latter element comes to the fore on the kaleidoscopic, string-laden and slow building 'Symphony Mix', while the 'Bitter Beats' version is a pounding, sweat-soaked drum track.

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


Mysticism's Dubplate series has got a couple of great drops lined up at the moment and this is one of them - a boule pack from German digidub pioneers TVS aka Trance Vision Steppers. This was a project that never made it out of the studio but still cooked up some brilliant sounds, which in the case of this collection come from their earlier period between 1995 - 1999, all of which land on vinyl for the first time here. Fans of Adrian Sherwood, Dennis Bovell and Mad Professor will be head over heels of these dub delights - they are deep and atmospheric, with lush ambient pads, downtempo vocals and stoner synths next to more twisted rhythms.

Review: An artist who continues his tradition of lush, Afro-influenced deep house with a release that exudes groove, musicality and tight craftsmanship. Trinidadian Deep (Damian Lee Ah Yen) has been one of the most consistent and respected names in deep house music for the better amount of 20 years now with his latest record being a perfect example at the quality and musicality of his style. Side-1 opens with 'Orisha Stomp', a percussive, jazz-tinged workout that keeps the energy high with its layered rhythms and hypnotic drive. It's tracky yet intricate, brimming with creative flourishes that make it a standout DJ tool. The title track, 'Light Work Productions', shifts into a more melodic and futuristic space, blending rich strings and deep, rolling basslines with a touch of Detroit soul. It's atmosphere strikes a balance between dancefloor momentum and emotive depth. On Side-2, 'U Are Loved' winds things down with warm keyboard grooves and a soothing, late-night vibe. Its effortless flow and strong playability make it a perfect closer, reinforcing Trinidadian Deep's ability to craft music that is both soulful and sophisticated.

Review: A rarely legit example of raw hip house from Chicago's Tyree & Ungkel Huud, who are, well and truly, tired of this BS - by which they mean illegitimate house music of the wannabes' kind. MC Tyree buckles up for a challenging but knocked-out-the-park verse glided over four mixes, from Wade Teo's opener to an acid killer, decrying the falsity of upstart house producers: "get out my house! You been here too long... matter fact, you can kiss my..." With an instrumental mix on the flip too, you can be sure for a fiery start to your next vocal-soaked DJ set.

Review: Rather significant as old-school house releases go, the chain of influences behind Masters At Work’s ’The Masters At Work (Keep It Comin’ Now)’ is an elusive one. In 1991, Louie Vega and Marc Antony remixed new jack swing titan Keith Sweat’s own ‘Keep It Comin’, a timeless B3 side to round out Sweat’s original Elektra Records release. The track was a snowballer indeed, as it evolved into a standalone B-side in its own right, complementing the garage house classic release ‘Ride On The Rhythm’ on Atlantic Records. Now promoted once again to an A-side, we hear three new and exclusive mixes of thee original dub as well as two variations: Latinesque backing fills and programmable melodics twaddle away in the background of One Take Tito’s mix, while Kenlou and Eddie Mood bring twin yogic, myofibril relaxations to an already contracted sound.

Review: The "fool's paradise" is a classic device, espoused by many a luminary from Milton to Dante, referring to a special kind of metaphysical plane reserved for those too foolhardy to reflect on their lived misdeeds in any of the main three afterlives: heaven, hell or purgatory. It stands to reason, then, that a small band of nu-disco and house proponents should name their label after it, not least for the stupefying power of disco, and/or the sense of having evaded our sins when compelled to dance! A spin-off of Toolroom, head soundsmith Mark Knight gathers four guardian expiators to lead us into the vainest of all discotheques - Joey Vegas, Tenacious, Sgt. Slick, and Tommy Glasses - for a lulling set of automotive power-disco dreams, in which many a familiar sample from our fleshly lives - from the 70s and 80s, to be exact - filter in and out.

Review: DJ Deep and Traumer hatch their collaborative new project, Get-Rooted, merging their own labels Deeply Rooted and getitraum. Their new cross-pollination, Get-Rooted, re-conceives existing tracks in either artists' catalogues, with 'Open Your Eyes' merging into 'Close Your Eyes' hearing DJ Deep abrade raw hypnogrooves, while Traumer opts for a lush, refined production. DJ Deep's 'Insss', meanwhile, graces the B-side as a spruce revisitation of a beloved vocal sample, paired with a drum-driven progression.

Review: First Word Records thrill us with a brand new album from present-day jazz legend Kaidi Tatham. Miles Away marks his sixth solo full-length for the award-winning London label, with ten fresh tracks all performed by the multi-instrumentalist himself. This is a masterclass in forward-thinking, genre-blurring electronic jazz; Rhodes keys, pianos, synths, strings, horns, and flutes flow floridly over roomy percussion and drum intricacies, representing Kaidi's unmistakable sound. From the smooth funk of 'Misty Garden' to the infectious 'Sweet Cherry Punch', the album redshifts a kaleidoscope of styles: bruk, boogie, soul, and even reggae-steppers on the closing 'Ku Deh'.

Review: More of a refinement than a total reinvention TOKiMONSTA's latest sees her subtly shifting her sound while retaining its essential character. While collaborations are present, they serve to highlight rather overshadow, her distinctive production style. This is a curated journey, moving fluidly between moments of quiet introspection and bursts of dancefloor energy. 'On Sum', the much-anticipated link-up with Anderson.Paak and Rae Khalil, is a clear standout. The established chemistry between TOKiMONSTA and.Paak is undeniable, their styles meshing seamlessly. Khalil's smooth vocals provide a captivating entry point, giving way to.Paak's effortless flow. It's a lesson in modern r&b, where soulful vocals meet TOKiMONSTA's signature rhythms and shimmering synths. This double LP isn't confined to 'On Sum', however. It explores a wider landscape. 'Corazon / Death By Disco Pt. 2' is pure kinetic energy, a samba-infused track built for sweaty dancefloors. But the album also makes space for quieter moments, with tracks like 'Eternal' and 'Reverie' offering a chance to breathe. It's here, in these more contemplative moments, that the intricacies of TOKiMONSTA's production truly come to the fore. This release is a statement, showcasingTOKiMONSTA's continued artistic growth, her ability to weave diverse influences into a cohesive and compelling whole. From the high-octane energy of 'Corazon/Death By Disco Pt. 2' to the understated beauty of 'On Sum', this is a journey worth taking.