Up The Stuss Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Chris Stussy is very much one of the contemporary scene's most prominent producers. He has emerged from the Dutch underground to take the global circuit by storm as a DJ but also a studio slickster who fuses tech, minimal, house and breaks. His own label deals in just that and here it offers up a trio of trippy and future facing dance floor delights from Varhat. 'Nobody' is a turbocharged tech cut with freewheeling cosmic melodies and 'Mopho' takes a more deep and breezy approach while 'Breaking Out' (Paolo Rocco remix) is balmy and deft minimal lushness.

Review: As Paolo Rocco sees in 10 years releasing music in the depths of the tech house scene, he's dropping this surefooted slice of peak time club gear on Up The Stuss. 'First Night Out' is an ear-snagging cut with crossover potential, and Malin Genie knows just how to tease out some Lately bass and swirling pads to make for a smoky, early morning roller embellished with a few tasteful bleeps. 'To The Stays & Beyond' sounds resplendent as an after hours jam in its 'Dub Mix' form, and then 'Chi Chi Boogie' closes the record out with a refined, mellow kind of swinger that should appeal to the minimal crowd.

Review: Dreamy and to-the-point deep house cuts from Malin Genie. The shifty, twisty A-siders 'Phaethon' and 'Gamma Gazette' draw on all manner of stylistic influences, from chiming bells, deep BoC-esque pads, and speed-garagey lo-fi-isms. The B-side gets wackier with it, working in calculator bloops, acid buzz-outs and whispery whoops for an overall cheekier affair than the A.

Review: Locklead has been laying down classy house music for the likes of Pleasure Zone, Rawax, Unknown To The Unknown and Hot Haus, so you know he means business. After this sterling run of singles he's stepping to Up The Stuss with his debut album Square One, which deals in eight richly rendered cuts of contemporary tackle that sum up everything he's achieved to date. There's a pervasive deepness at work on 'Light Of Day' which draws you in from the get-go, while 'Bumpin' Headz' revels in shimmering, bouncy chords and Detroit flavoured strings pads. 'Hunting' has a more inquisitive quality as it courses through minimal-tinted grooves and synth riffs, while 'Plants & Astronauts' takes a more cosmic approach to the tech house formula. We could go on but you get the idea - this is house music through and through, presented in pristine technicolour for maximum satisfaction.

Review: Kolter, hailing from Cologne, Germany, delivers a fresh - we don't use the word lightly - new four-tracker, 'That Was Fresh'. Centring nominally on the infamous literal breakbeat vocal sample, this EP plays out as a contemporary take on the breakdances and funk backbeats come electronic dance bangers of yore. Beginning with an impossible-missioned eponymous A-sider, before moving into flat beat electro house of 'This Is It' and the cascading metro-synths of 'Feel', before finally concluding on the retro trance rejoinder, 'I'm Fine, Thanks!', there's really something here for everyone.

Review: 'Breathiness' is one dance music texture not so oft trodden, but that's just what's been achieved on this new tech EP 'Mysteries Of The Universe', pondered by Chris Stussy of Up The Stuss fame. Neon cities bustle and flying cars whizz past, as vocoded vocals caress the low end on 'Hundu Boulevard'. 'Cant' Escape' meanwhile dubs things out further with janky funk and inescapable vocal whispers. A strong new one from the Amsterdam pusher.

Review: A decade or so after making his debut, Greek producer Lee Burton is rightly revered as an artist with a trademark sound and a variety of rock-solid EPs to his name. Chris Stussy has long been a fan, hence bringing him to his Up The Stuss label for the first time. Burton has delivered, giddily skipping between sub-heavy, acid-laden peak-time hedonism ('Sinewaves'), rolling deep house funkiness smothered in intergalactic melodies and spacey chords ('Burning'), deep and acidic techno (the big room ready headtrip that is 'ITICF'), and the kind of immersive, loved-up and acid-flecked house goodness that's tailor-made for those light moments just before dawn ('Love Motion').

Review: For the latest missive on his Up The Stuss label, Chris Stussy has joined forces with fellow Dutch star Locklead for a first collaborative EP as Across Boundaries. As you'd expect, it's a bouncy, chunky and melody-rich affair whose four tracks remain focused on the dancefloor throughout. Title track 'Sense of Future' is warming, dreamy and undeniably summer-ready, with talkbox vocals, elongated chords and bubbly electronic lead lines leaping above a thickset bassline and energy-packed beats. 'Strummer' is a more tech-tinged affair - check the meandering, TB-303 style motifs, sci-fi sounds and rolling drums - while 'Nightcreeper' is a foreboding peak-time pumper and 'Cold December' sits somewhere between classic deep house and elastic European tech-house.