MELVO BAPTISTE Vinilo y CD

Review: Get yourself geared up for festival season with some fierce party starters certified with the Glitterbox stamp. Melvo Baptiste leads the charge with 'Sweat', a sizzling disco house stomper with Dames Brown giving the biggest diva energy on her show-stopping vocal. Lovebirds bring unbridled joy on the Philly string swoon and slinky b-line funk of 'Burn It Down', while Art Of Tones & Inaya Day keep it peak time on the sassy strutter 'Give My Love'. Young Pulse & Fleur De Mur complete the set with 'Smooth Sweet Talker', another bright and bold vocal cut par excellence.

Review: Defected's colourful and diverse Glitterbox party has been a real success story in recent years and the label embodies that with a great representation of the sorts of sounds you will hear at the party. It's all about full throttle, emotionally intense house, soul and disco and that is exactly the case on Melvo Baptiste's opener 'Gonna Be Alright' (feat Jamie 3:26 & Annette Bowen) with its big diva vocals, piano stabs and hand claps. Mousse T keeps it silky and funky on the feel good 'Take It Back' and Riva Starr brings the swing to 'How It Feels'. Shakedown & Bootsy Collins's 'Funky & You Know It' (Shakedown Work That Mother mix) is a nice sleazy ass-shaker to close.

Review: Defected's Glitterbox off shoot is all about those classic cosmic sounds and OG disco deliciousness. The third volume of veritable Glitterbox Jams is another dazzling one with Melvo Baptiste opening up on a nice smoochy and smooth groove with sleek bass and vocals that immediately pull you in. Yusek then steps up with a remix that is more about dance floor heat, with ducking and diving bass and bigger everything - claps, vocals and stabs. Aeroplane then pull back to a slinky, cheeky vibe with catchy hooks and last of all is Sticks & Stonez & Liv East, a dreamy tune with a balmy mood.

Review: Melvo Baptiste has been a big part of the Glitterbox story to date. He's not only a regular behind the decks at the Defected-own disco brand's parties in New York, Amsterdam, London and Ibiza but also mixed their "This Ain't No Disco" compilation earlier in the year. Here he serves up another cheery, party-starting three-disc mix that gleefully joins the dots between original disco and boogie (see killer cuts by the Emotions, Advance and Lee Curtiss), recent remixes of vintage dancefloor cuts, and the cream of the current nu-disco and disco-house crop. It's a familiar formula but one that Baptiste gets the best from, in no small doubt due to a mix of flawless mixing, superb tune selection and a love of life-affirming, vocal-laden songs.