Snatch Raw Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Summer may still be some way off, but it's a fair bet that Riva Starr's latest single on his own Snatch Raw imprint will feature prominent in festival sets and at open-air dances. In its EP-opening 'extended vinyl mix' form, 'Vicino O Mare' is a chunky, disco-fied house jam rich in rubbery bass guitar, warming Rhodes riffs, reverb-laden male vocal samples, swirling synths and just the right amount of disco-house style filter trickery. Fittingly, disco-house veterans Shapeshifters deliver the first remix, cannily adding hands-aloft piano stabs to the Californian producer's infectious disco-house groove. Louie Vega takes over on the flip, first delivering a joyous, samba-soaked Latin house 'extended mix' before stripping his rework back to the heavy tribal drums on the excellent 'dub remix vinyl edit'.

Review: As the title suggests, this fine four-tracker is a kind of partner release to Riva Starr's recent album Keep Me On The Dancefloor. It boasts a quartet of cuts, three of which started life as improvised studio jams with collaborators. Australian producer Close Counters features on two tracks: the jaunty, piano-rich, percussion-heavy and Latin-infused summer joy of 'Jinga (Part 1 - Extended Mix)' and B-side opener 'Novolight', a fine slab of sun-soaked organic house that sits somewhere between vintage Italian house and the 21st century disco of Dave Lee. Elsewhere, Naples Bassolino guests on the samba-house magic of 'Jinga (Part 2 - Extended Mix)', while 'Vai Vai (Dub Mix)' is a thickset, mind-altering loop-house pumper.