New releases last two weeks: Progressive House

Review: Two toolroom essentials from Rob Amboule, former London stalwart come Frankfurt familiar. Where years of collecting and playing gradually evolved into Rob making music of his own, it wasn't long before he made the move permanent, settling in around the Main. A late stopover in Paris has now domino effected this new one: 'Wovv Tools' brings 'Melortra' and 'Kopuie', equal parts dance-incenting and vagus nerve-soothing. The B is especially brilliant, cycling through generative hypnotic whirls and sweller padwork.

Review: Deep Dish is one of these acts that made a huge impact in their early years before members Sharam and Dubfire went their separate ways and had just as accomplished solo careers. Fans have long clamoured for them to get back together and though there have been the odd DJ set together, there hasn't been the new music many would love to hear. Instead, this 20th anniversary edition of their George Is On album makes its way to vinyl for the first time for Record Store Day. It includes smash global hits like 'Flashdance' and 'Dreams' as well as 'Say Hello'. It's a great blend of sleek electronica and proper songwriting from the AIranian-American artists.

Review: Something ineluctable about the year 1999 haunts music. It's as though the cusp of the millennium wrought a flurry of pre-terror romance, that last slice of postwar epochal gold reaching an ecstatic, elliptical peak before the crossing of a limp, millenarian threshold. Ernesto's second EP for French label Sour leaves us as loosened and open as any such nostalgic rendezvous could, assuming you were born before the fated date. Over brilliants like 'Morning Sweat' and 'Hardware Boogie', the producer joins the likes of Moop Jr. and Lekind in crafting timbral and sophisticated tactiles, chunked analogue basses and filter-designed keys, deepening and advancing our taste in Gay Paree sensuality.

Review: Corsican label Isula Science drop a fresh brooder of previously unknown electro knowns, this time from label founder Flash FM alongside HDV, Sweely and Man/ipulate. Spanning vertiginous dark acid, then moving on through to dreamatic neon breakbeat and expedient Italo - 'Vol de nuit' especially makes signature use of a classic slap bass synth - they've got us entirely covered here. Enticing bumps in the night from the exquisitors.

Review: Floorfillers deliver the third in a series of original EPs, following three prefatory Edits editions, which first laid out the label's modus vivendi as brim-fillers of the dancefloor. The unknown artist behind this one hears the white horse of reason steered in the direction of paradise: perhaps drawing on a similar and widely recognised French house release of similar repute and name, 'Paradise (Special Edition)' brings string-caked and softly intoned FM leads to an overall peaky emoter. For fans of The Paradise or Rising Sun, this is another bony labyrinth of progressive house bliss.

Review: Detroit dub techno don Luke Hess says that this is his "most eclectic and techno-driven album to date" and that it blends together his signature subterranean sounds with his indelible Motor City touch. It again works well on cultured dance floors but is also a deeply spiritual album that will have your mind wandering to some lovely places. From the opening moments of 'Dokimion' you're sunk into widescreen soundscapes that pair painterly synths with immersive low ends. Cuts like 'Stoicheo' bring serene melodies and closer 'Hiketeria' is a misty, foggy cut that oozes late-night intimacy.

Review: Italian producer Mennie lands on EYA Records here with an EP that hits plenty of contemporary touchstones: techno, retro synths, trance and faster rhythms. 'We Are Not The Plan' has a tech house edge but with cosmic pads and bright melodies, while 'Make It Easy' has playful top lines and a fizzing, textural synth bassline powered by crisp kicks. 'Engine' gets more physical with faster drums and snappy percussive layers, and 'The Story' grinds it out with mechanical stiffness and bleeping synth sequences that bring a retro-future flair. It's all perfectly colourful body music for knowing clubs.

Review: Indo-Ukrainian producer Mayank Saraiya, under his Pontiff Ordric alias, helms the third chapter of the Barbatus series with a new four-track release that continues the label's deep-space electro saga. Based out of the Barbatus label's inner circle, Saraiya not only crafts the music but also handles the mix and mastering, giving this entry a tightly unified sound. 'Secrets Of Nexus' and 'Laboratory's Hazard' pulse with crisp, syncopated drums and shimmering 80s-inspired synths, while the B-side moves into darker, more propulsive territory i 'Ancient Technology' runs on acidic undercurrents and robotic swing and 'The Dawn Of Machines' closes the set with a steady proto-trance march that edges into cinematic territory. It's a new release that never leans too heavily on nostalgia, instead reanimating vintage electro textures with just enough detail and narrative flair to keep things compelling. Riddled with sonic in-jokes and pirate lore, this one rewards both the dancers and the heads i electro as odyssey, with its boots still muddy from the last expedition.

Review: Back by popular demand comes this four track revisitation of the famous 80s synthpop classic, which emerged in December 2024 with the kind of slightly Euro twist in the vocal department you might expect from the Netherlands-based Random Vinyl stable. The Master Mix is perhaos the most poignant, given that its airy, lush pads were put together by the late producer Marc Hartman who very sadly passed away in August 2024 at the far too young age of 58. But all four show due reverence to this monolithic moment in electronic music history, without resisting the temptation to add a little new. Grey-t stuff.

Review: Cracking the back window open, Sleep D aerate our inner herbaria with a gas exchange in progressive techno, letting us in again on their outdoorsy brand of photosynthetic dance music. Always deepeneing their connection to the natural world, the EP opens with 'Green Thumbs' before vine-whipping us into the curious perks of 'Mountain Ash'; both nail a blithe, fairylike spirit, and the flushed-out, unencumbered feel of braving a hike after a cucumber face mask. 'Acheron Cauldron' carries the listener to a volcanic peak, where relentless kick and pulsating bassline brings us to seismic climax, leaving only eerie whispers. Closer 'Magma Flow', finally, is a trance-inducing finale hearing a slowed but thicketed texture, as brambles and stamens cloud our vision of a synth aurora.

Review: Voices In My Head is a time capsule from the house music golden year of 1992. Crafted by the genre-bending trio Some Other People aka Mark Lord, Matt Frost and Steve Jueno, the album is a dynamic blend of deep house, tribal rhythms and breakbeat with bleepy electro and techno that all make it a heady listen as well as a physical one. Each of the eight tracks feels vital and distinct and was born from a studio process that was as spontaneous as it was inspired. Now reissued for the current prog revival after originally being released on their cult UK label Infinite Mass which once rivalled even Warp Records, it features lost gems like 'Ghost House' and 'Orbitality'.