Review: New label Taf Kif kicks off with this classy VA package from some cool cats who know how to lay down a slick groove or two. First up on this distinctly 80s-styled package is Axel Boman, who brings some of his signature sparkling melodies to a synth-pop indebted jam entitled 'Oasis'. Meanwhile Velmondo follows up with something a little more trippy and adventurous on 'Echo Welt', before MLiR inaugurates the B-side with the sultry tones of 'It's Baby Time'. Lusille completes the set with the hazy Afro house deviations of 'Une Longue Route', riding a swung groove that offers something different from the everyday cookie cutter house we know so well.
Review: Be Strong Be Free debuts a new series here, Mellow Magic Worldwide, which will offer up a series of DJ weapons that have been produced by "worldwide studio buds." The first one opens with some superb tackle from Gold Suite whose brilliant 'Crush' is a slow-burning 80s jam and emotive rollercoaster that has made a real impact during road testing experiments. On the flipside is the mysterious Mancunian Visions Of Eden who debuts on vinyl with a lush deep house jam 'When It Has Past that has a subtle Balearic charm. Lastly comes Murrin who heads up the Puca Sounds label and co-runs Berlin party Fandango. His 'Maybe Tonight' is a late-night cosmic delight.
Review: The Valley and the Mountain aka TVTM aka Josh Dahlberg makes a bold return with 'A Number of Northwests', an EP which tells the tale of an artist in transition. Quite literally, that is, as he moved from Detroit's westside to the very far edges of the Pacific Northwest. Musical this is a stylistically diverse offering with four cuts starting with the mid-tempo smooth grooves of 'Bretton Drive' and glistening synths and pads of the cosmically minded 'Grand River Slide'. The chugging 'Ramps to Nowhere' is a dubbed out afters classic and then the one and only dusty deep house don DJ Aakmael remixes it into another cuddly classic.
Review: Daniela La Luz is no stranger to Rawax's stable of labels - she's previously released on most of them at different points over the last decade- though Global Transformation marks the first time she's appeared on any of them as Vanilla. The Berlin-based artist sets her stall out with the raw, punchy and occasionally sparkling title track - all woozy keyboard riffs, weighty electro-meets-house beats, tipsy chords and heavy bass - before opting for a deep, druggy, acid-fired and percussively propulsive vibe on 'The Last Window of Time'. Elsewhere, 'Animal Queendom' sees her wrap echoing, dubbed-out and reverb-laden synth riffs around a tough and locked-in beat, while 'All Together' is built around the twin attractions of sturdy, slightly off-kilter machine drums and jazzy electric piano motifs.
Review: Louie Vega's Expansions In The NYC album remains a classic of the house master's vast ouvre. It was an all-star affair from the Masters at Work icon which same him pay homage to New York disco, boogie and house with fantastic musicianship, arrangements and vocals from a superb cast which includes Peech Boys main man Bernard Fowler, Honey Dijon, Cindy Mazelle, Moodymann, Kerri Chandler and his son Nico. Two of the cuts from it now make their way onto this 12" on Nervous in the form of the soulful delights of the sooth a-side 'Another Day In My Life' and the jazzy, piano laced dancer that is 'Deep Burnt' (feat Axel Tosca) on the B-side. Life affirming stuff.
Review: Another Face launches with a fierce various artist affair here that showcases some of Italy's finest production talent. Luca Vera kicks off with 'Feel Better', a raw and texturally rich cut that brings angst and energy to the dancefloor. DJ Rocca explores a much more horizontal and heady house groove steeped in classic dreamy Italo melodies on 'Epsylon Club' then Rame's 'Bow Down' carries on with colourful synths bringing to mind a sunset dance by the Med. Luca Distefano shuts down with shuffling, dusty, jazzed-up deep house funk on 'Be Kind' to close out a diverse first EP.
Review: There's long been debate about the definition of "deep house", with different DJs, producers and labels offering their own interpretations of what "deep" means musically. In our opinion, you'll struggle to find better examples of pure, properly deep electronic music than the tracks released by Bristol's We're Going Deep label. Here's Exhibit A, the Facebook group-turned-label's sixth multi-artist EP. It begins with a wonderfully spacey, sci-fi-fuelled chunk of intergalactic deep house/deep electro fusion from Versalife and ends with the Larry Heard style stargazing of Morthen Kiang's 'Enter The Dream'. In between, you'll find the softly shuffling, deliciously dreamy deep electro of Mariska Neerman's 'Twin' and the deep, acid-flecked house hypnotism of 'Counterpoint' by Analog1.
Review: This tasteful Spanish label always does a fine line in traditionally inclined deep house. Their latest drop brings together the talents of Andrew Lozano and Trevor Vichas. 'Don't U Feel It' kicks off with a playful skip in the drums and one of those spoken word vocals that add plenty of atmosphere. It's Demuir who remixes this one with even more light-hearted groove and jazzy Rhodes chords. Lozano and Vichas then offer 'With You' which keeps the dubby, smoky, frayed-edge house sounds rolling and 'Feel The Heat then brings a more upright groove with driving hits and swirling pads that speak to the soul.
B-STOCK: Slight surface marks, record slightly warped
How Do You Do It? (4:14)
Living Without You (5:15)
All I Want To Do (5:53)
How Do You Do It? (The Poptastic mix) (6:29)
Everybody (4:51)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Slight surface marks, record slightly warped***
'How Do You Do It?' We'd like to ask Victorious much of the same question, as his reissued four-track EP via Sex Tapes From Mars is a serious befuddler, leaving us with just that question at the tips of our lips. First released in 1997, this is a long-lost soulful vocal house seducer from the genre's golden era. The record became a quick cult favourite, and its status among heads has remained exalted to this day, going for obscene prices on the 'ogs (there should, of course, be more regulation). Victorious aka. Victor Davies hailed from Canada and had already released one other EP before this one, via the serendipitously named Sex Records. But 'Liquid Squid' is really the teuthid oozer of choice, its lustrously sweet vocals sounding as if they'd been sung in secret by an illegitimate lover and its various analogue knocks and hums working to splashy effect.
Review: Viewfinder returns to Rescan Records with their third release on the label, a four-track journey through house and techno. The A-side offers two straight-up house cuts, 'Solace' and 'Let Go', featuring infectious grooves, sampled percussion, and catchy stabs. Flip the record over for a techno turn, with 'Roxtone' pushing the BPMs higher and delivering a high-energy workout. Mihail P closes out the release with 'Natural High', a hypnotic blend of breaks, bleeps, and ethereal pads. With its diverse range of sounds and infectious energy, this release is a must-have for any fan of quality electronic music.
Review: Last time out Andreya Triana and The Vision (AKA KON and Ben Westbeech) took us to "Heaven" and back. For their latest single they've asked us to gape in wonder at some suitably sizeable "Mountains". In its original "Extended Mix" form (side A) the track is soulful, slick and seductive, with Triana's superb vocals rising, mountain-like, above a musical panorama rich in dreamy chords, jazz-funk bass, gospel pianos and club-ready beats that sit somewhere between deep house and disco. Danny Krivit is the man at the controls for the flipside remix. He stretches out the track impressively, making a bit more of the spacey synths, guitars and bass while re-framing the track as a soaring slab of piano house brilliance.
Review: Orlando Voorn has always been said to provide a link between the techno scenes in Detroit and Europe. His sound certainly blends the best of both worlds and this new one on Kompack is another fresh offering packed with personality. 'No Cellphones' has flashy synths and clap-laden drums to get your hips swinging, 'Raise The Bar' layers up pixelated melodic rain that sounds like a beautiful fax dial tone and 'Tech IQ' takes the same almost 8-bit melody synth and has it freewheel over mid-tempo drums. 'Swingtech' closes with some nice string elegance and deep beats.
Review: Leon Vynehall's stunningly picturesque "Midnight On Rainbow Road" was one of the undoubted highlights of Gerd Jansen's second Musik For Autobahns compilation, which was released in the autumn of 2015 by Rush Hour. Here, it gets a deserved single release, with the original - a hypnotic, driving-inspired blend of fluid electronic melodies, a wispy percussion and Jonny Nash style glistening guitar lines - being complimented by a brand new "Beat Edit". This adds a slowly unfurling, head-nodding rhythm that takes the track further towards Detroit Beatdown territory. In essence, though, it sounds like an early '90s ambient house jam. That's no bad thing, given that Vynehall seems to have emphasised the sun-kissed beauty of the original in the process.
Review: Originally debuting on Well Rounded Records' Housing Project sub-label in 2012, Leon Vynehall has since become one of the UK's most in-demand of the new wave of young house producers. He's released subsequent records for George Fitzgerald's ManMakeMusic and Will Saul's Aus, and most recently an album on Martyn's 3024. Vynehall is now in cruise control and he lays back on Clone's Royal Oak with what will prove to be a favourite with DJs this summer. "Butterflies" is this record's piano-driven house jam, but really it's all about "This Is The Place", a loved up peach of a production with the strength to appease the underground and crossover into the mainstream.
The Emanations - "Rhythm Is Easy" (feat Janet Planet - Che Luca Lucid Rave mix)
Review: The fully mixed version of Confidence Man's debut Fabric mix record is here on CD. In contrast to the selectors' LP version - also sold by us - this full version is a seamless, singular slab of optical laser-read musical licence, espousing the central vibe-theme of Confidence Man's message: have confidence. Well, except for want of a receiving ear, we find ourselves tentatively able to confide in Confidence Man's Fabric mix ("better than therapy" joke happily dodged) as a substitution in the meantime; for it too shows us that real, authentic, and boundless confidence can, believably, indeed, be found in bouncy dance exclusives available on CD only. Among these are Patrick Prins' kitsch chipmunk banger 'Fiesta Conga' and Cygnus X's steezy-cheesy trance stutterer 'Positron'03'. With both many a throwback and a present promo in tow, Confidence Man dice up and dole out a small slice of their huge stash of their patented auricular confidence dust.
Review: Given the series' longevity and high standing, it's genuinely an honour to be asked to do a DJ Kicks mix. It's for that reason that most contributors genuinely raise their game, delivering something that's not only memorable but exquisitely mixed. That's certainly the case with Tristan Hallis AKA DJ Boring, whose DJ Kicks workout slaps hard. Starting with the woozy ambient colour and dubbed-out Balearic vibes of Anthony Napes, Hallis drifts through reverb-laden electronica, blissful downtempo soundscapes and oddball outsider house, before increasing the tempo, intensity and hands-in-the-air factor immeasurably as the mix progresses. It's vibrant, kaleidoscopic and endlessly entertaining, offering a melodious, ear-catching and celebratory take on house, techno and UK bass packed to the rafters with exclusive tracks and little-known treats.
Srirajah Sound System - "Si Phan Don Lovers Rock" (feat Molam Inteng Keawbuala)
Perikas - "Laberinto"
Leo Basel - "Quelle Drole De Vie" (Nick The Record & Dan Tyler re-edit)
Mac Thornhill - "No Way To Control It"
King B - "Love Is Crazy"
L'innovateur Djoe Ahmed Et Le Zoukabyle - "Amek Amek"
Champagn' - "Bel Ti Negress"
Androo - "Lyriso"
Hidrogenesse - "La Carta Era Muy Larga" (dub)
Love Isaacs - "Surprise Surprise" (Joao Gomes & Dan Tyler Are Predictably Delayed rework)
Kajou - "Tet Chaje"
Conjunto Baluartes - "Nira Gongo"
Land Shark - "Tie Me Up" (The Nas-T version instrumental)
Rick Asikpo - "Let’s Get High" (Nick The Record re-edit)
Pellegrin El Kady - "Seiva De Carnaval"
Lee Jackson Band - "Call On Me"
LTA (Love The Action) - "What Comes To Ya?"
Urban Volcana Sounds - "Ame No Uta" (Rain song - extended version)
Review: Those on London's crate-digging underground should be well aware of Tangent, an eclectic, anything-goes party created by esteemed record collectors John Gomez and Nick The Record. With a little help from Mr Bongo, they've curated this compilation featuring some of their favourite selections from the party - the vast majority of which are either obscure, rare or overlooked. It's a predictably impressive selection all told, with the pair bouncing between digital reggae-infused global grooves (Srirajah Soundsystem), mid-80s French jazz-funk-synth-pop fusion (an exclusive edit of Leo Basel), quirky riffs of the Pointer Sisters (Marc Thornhill's 'Automatic'-inspired 'No Way To Control It'), zouk, proto-house-era Balearic brilliance (Androo), squelchy AOR synth-disco (Hidrogenesse), heavy Latin percussion workouts (Conjuto Balurantes), dub (Lee Jackson Band) and much more besides.
Johnny Dangerous - "Dear Father In Heaven" (Mr Marvin House Of Dreams mix)
Psychedelic Research Lab - "Keep On Climbin'" (mix 2)
Blow Out Express - "You're Mine" (Sound Factory Bar mix)
The Dance Kings - "Climb The Walls"
Buika X Kiko Navarro - "Mama Calling" (Tedd Patterson remix)
Cassio The Cassmaster - "Getting Hot" (Broad Market Street mix)
Maydie Myles - "Keep On Luvin" (West Tribe beats)
Michi Lange - "Brothers & Sisters" (radio mix)
Shaboom - "Bessie"
D:Ream - "U R The Best Thing" (Def club mix)
Sir Lord Comixx - "Soul House"
Honey Dijon - "Finding My Way" (feat Ben Westbeech)
Art Of Tones - "Praise"
Waajeed - "Right Now"
Black Joy - "Untitled" (Solid Groove remix)
Review: Honey Dijon is exactly the sort of artist you want to hear from in the DJ-Kicks series. And she more than comes through with tracks by Blackjoy, Art of Tones, Shaboom, Kiko Navarro, and a brand-new cut from Dijon herself. Known as a fashion icon, activist, Grammy winner, and DJ, Dijon has achieved success on many fronts but always brings with her a sense of authenticity and a through line to the roots of house in Chicago. The 19-track mix marks her first commercially available compilation and showcases her deep knowledge of house music as she blends forgotten classics, dollar-bin finds, and modern tracks, including one of her own.
Review: London-based DJ and producer Steven Julien's music blends contrasts and has done so across more than a decade on labels like Eglo and his own Apron Records. In that time he has explored various styles, from house and techno to soul and boogie, often drawing on his own life experiences for inspiration. His eclecticism extends to his contribution to !K7's wonderful DJ-Kicks series in a mix that features artists like Ryuichi Sakamoto and Todd Edwards along with Julien's own tracks. The mix takes you on a proper ride from a peaceful afternoon to a euphoric night on the dancefloor, with plenty of big moments and killer jams along the way.
Review: Z Records proudly presents volume 3 in its 90s house and garage compilation series, this time presented by Jeremy Underground, a man who should need no introduction when it comes to all things house and garage. Underground (assuming that is his real surname) shares his third house selector's compilation on this one, digging deep, deep inside his record collection, making a spectacle of his ability to decide, to delimit, to include, to exclude, to tastefully separate sonic wheat from chaff. As has become obviated by this series, some of these knocky 2-steppers - these garagey housers - are to here be released on one flavor filled CD & vinyl compilation. So attune your ears to its private exclusivist 2-step grooves; avariciously launch your energies at the attainment of mid-2020s UK garage DJ royalty, till your forefingers and thumbs bleed from all the spindle pinching.
Review: The Mellophonia label offshoot Fusion Sequence won us over with its well-presented and great-sounding first EP, and now a quick follow-up does the same. This one is another various artists affair that starts with some nice futuristic robot disco from Vanity Project. There is more organic and lush Balearic from Bobby Bricks and Pacific Coliseum follows that spine-tingling Ibiza sunset vibe. On the flip side, there is everything from late-night electronic house to lazy disco via Sorcerer's blissed out 'Just For Love' which would entrance any dance floor. There's as much quality as there is variation on this one, which makes it a useful EP indeed.
Review: There is a wealth of talent on show on the third EP from the Fusion Sequence label which has put together this six-track deep house sizzler. The Variable Club' 'Biorhythms' is perfectly warm and dynamic for cosy backroom moments and Alpine DJ then brings an old school piano feel to 'Pepe Nony' before A Vision Of Panorama zones you out on lush chords and reverential keys on 'Kissing The Sun.' The flipside offers the more dark and heads-down 'Many Stories' while the blissed-out and feel-good grooves return with Common Mode's 'Bassface.' Body Corp shuts down with the slower, seductive sounds of 'Take It Or Leave It' which rounds out a top-class EP.
Pete Oak - "The Chase" (Rafael Cerato Cinematic remix - Anii remix)
Weekend Heroes - "D-Compression"
Darkline - "Supervolcano"
Tube & Berger - "Ruckus" (feat Richard Judge - club edit)
FOTN - "Sky Marching"
Arturo Hevia - "Raices"
Jeremy Olander - "Pinkerton" (Finnebassen remix)
Solee - "Hyper"
Rex The Dog - "Teufelsberg"
Sebastian Leger - "Goliath"
Moderat - "Running" (Ame remix)
The Orb - "Just Because I Really Really Luv Ya"
Bob Moses - "Tearing Me Up" (Tale Of Us remix)
Luke Santos & George Yammine - "Pleasantly Painful" (Ryan Davis Revision - original mix)
Saccao & Different Me - "Ship Of Fools" (feat Thomas Gandey - Florian Kruse remix)
Joal - "The Magician" (Several Definitions remix)
Raw District - "Taking You Down" (Habischman remix)
BOg - "Borders"
Just Her - "Follow You Down" (Acapella)
James Kininmonth - "Tunnel Vision"
Squire - "Philanthropy"
Blausch - "Parallel Hymns" (Far From Mars remix)
Solarc - "Dust City"
Purple Disco Machine - "Walls" (Monte remix)
Room 99 - "Fever"
Kolsch - "Grey"
Booka Shade - "In White Rooms" (Jonas Rathsman remix)
Review: Global Underground launched the Select mix series as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations. The format is deliciously simple. The team behind the label selects a bunch of great tunes, and then edits, rearranges and mixes them together into two seamless, thrill-a-minute DJ mixes. This second volume boasts 31 tracks and remixes from artists as diverse as Joris Voorn, The Orb, Florian Kruse, Rex The Dog, Bookashade, Purple Disco Machine and Tube & Berger. Six of the tracks have never been heard before - though they haven't specified which - making it a journey of discovery as much as pure entertainment.
David Holmes - "Hope Is The Last Thing To Die" (feat Raven Violet - Daniel Avery remix)
Saint Etienne - "Like A Motorway" (Chemical Brothers Chekhov Warp vocal mix)
David Holmes - "It's Over If We Run Out Of Love" (feat Raven Violet - Darren Emerson Huffa remix)
The Parrots - "It's Too Late To Go To Bed" (Confidence Man remix)
Working Men's Club - "Ploys" (Erol Alkan rework)
Monkey Mafia - "Blow The Whole Joint Up " (Let's Slash The beats mix)
Mattiel - "Cultural Criminal" (Raf Rundell's Salty Man dub )
Espiritu - "Baby I Wanna Live" (Monkey Mafia Terminal mix)
Audiobooks - "LaLaLa It's The Good Life" (Herbert Vaccine dub)
Confidence Man - "Luvin U Is Easy" (Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs remix)
Flowered Up - "Weatherall's Weekender" (Audrey Is A Little Bit partial mix)
Review: Having devoted volumes three and four of the ongoing 'Heavenly Remixes' series to reworks by the late, great Andrew Weatherall, this double-disc follow-up offers a more eclectic selection of reworks drawn four almost four decades of Heavenly Recordings releases. As with its predecessors, it's a fantastic collection packed to the rafters with highlights, from the shuffling synth pop-goes-dubby nu-disco flex of Ewan Pearson's dub of Out Cold's 'All I Want' and the squelchy, acid-fired indie-dance excitement of Confidence Man's rework of The Parrots' 'Let's Go To Bed', to the psychedelic big beat brilliance of the Chemical Brothers 1996 take on St Etienne's 'Like a Motorway', the 80s new wave-goes-industrial funk excellence of Trevor Jackson remixing Raf Rundell, and the creepy late night techno hypnotism of Daniel Avery's inspired revision of David Holmes.
Caramel Chameleon - "To Create Is To Live Twice" (6:16)
Perseus Traxx - "Something More Than This" (7:03)
RAG - "ZAVONDJE 303" (7:06)
Raving Kid - "Edgware Acid" (3:56)
Mutex - "Road To Atlantis" (4:31)
Kreggo - "Hearthpulse" (4:29)
Steifl - "Omega Point" (5:33)
Korre - "Black Over Blue" (5:35)
Pitto - "Acid Rolo" (6:28)
Endfest - "Shari Vari" (7:07)
Dwaalgast De Beer Uit Allekmaar - "A Wave Goodbye" (4:22)
Review: Netherlands-based 030303 Records is back with a fifth installment in its various artists series. As with the previous four editions, this is high-class electronic music pure and simple. Caramel Chameleon kicks off with a good time mix of cheery melodies and chattery drums, then Perseus Traxx brings his signature analogue murkiness to the lo-fi house trudge that is 'Something More Than This.' Elsewhere you will find quietly optimistic cuts like Raving Kid' restless 'Edgware Acid' or the dream house reveries of Kreggo's 'Hearthpulse' amongst many other varied treasures.
The Milano Undiscovered series has been expertly overseen by Fred Ventura and now clocks up a third installment. It again delves into Milan's dynamic techno and house scene between the years of 1988 and 1992. Unveiling a trove of unreleased demos, it highlights the city's burgeoning underground culture during this period. Influenced by the pioneering sounds of Chicago, Detroit, London, and Sheffield, Milanese producers embarked on a creative journey, crafting their own distinct interpretations of electronic dance music. These demos offer a glimpse into the innovative spirit and diverse sonic landscape that defined Milan's contribution to the global dance music scene during this transformative era.
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