Juno Recommends Funky House: February 2025

Review: Pawsa has a reputation for delivering perfect party-starting music, often via funky, sub-heavy takes on tech-house. Who better, then, to remix The Adventires of Stevie V's infectious 1989 anthem 'Dirty Cash' - arguably, Jungle Brothers' 'I'll House You' aside, the most famous hip-house record of all time. Pawsa's 'Extended Mix' (side A) retains the warehouse-ready vibe of the original, placing the vocals, stabs and some wiggly new acid lines atop a squelchy TB-303 bassline and pumping house beats. Over on the B-side there's another chance to savour David Morales' 'Sold Out' mix, a slower, deeper, dreamier and lightly breakbeat driven interpretation that naturally earned plenty of plays when it was first released way back in 1990.

Review: Pawsa and Adventures of Stevie V breathe new life into an iconic dance classic with an exhilarating update, a gesture of Pawsa's innovative production skills adding a fresh dimension to Adventures of Stevie V's timeless vocals. The 'Extended Mix' is a pulsating journey through house music's vibrant landscape, capturing the raw energy of the original while injecting a contemporary twist. On the flip, David Morales delivers a masterful remix, his 'Sold Out Mix' taking the track into deeper, more soulful territory. A real double-sided gem.

Review: The exceptionally named Panty Soaker Sound System bursts onto the scene here with a powerful debut EP on their own self-titled label. 'Hormones' marks the inaugural outing and is a track that ignites the floor while exploring self-empowerment and inner desires. It has picked up early praise from Honey Dijon and is a full-throttle and steamy, erotic house sound that is sure to become a bit of a winter anthem. The EP includes three acid-infused original mixes, followed by the Prosumer HorMoans Remix which is a dark stomper with prickly 303 lines and a heavy groove. For those craving a harder vibe, the LUXE Dark Room Remix delivers a broken-beat reimagining with high-energy that takes you to new heights.

Review: Italo house has enjoyed quite a resurgence in the last few years, with plenty of new releases popping up that sound convincingly authentic in their production and aesthetic. It's always nice to savour the real deal, though, and it doesn't get much more real than the one and only Don Carlos when it comes to direct-from-the-source dreamy 90s peninsula house. Here, the Don compiles a comprehensive selection of classics from the genre. With shimmering pads, soulful vocals and synth-flute leads aplenty, this bygone LP is steeped in both nostalgia and not-so-subtle reminders that not too many of the more recent pretenders have added a great deal to the form. Highlights permeate the comp, from Montego Bay's 'Everything' to Kwanzaa Posse's 'Wicked Funk'. The unabashed positivity of Golem's 'Music Sensations' makes for a welcome addition, as does the driving synth energy of Eagle Parade's 'I Believe'. In truth, the LP doesn't put a foot wrong, transporting listeners to the balmy hedonism of golden-age Rimini. Though it's never good to generalise, the old adage 'Italians do it better' certainly seems apt here.

Review: Toolroom's 'sampler' series, which rounds up previously digital-only releases and sticks them out on action-packed 12" EPs, reaches its sixteenth instalment. Given the format, you'll be unsurprised to discover that there's plenty of bona-fide peak-time heat on show, starting with Mark Knight and James Hurr's excitable, filter-heavy, string-laden disco-house bomb 'You Take Me Higher'. Friend Within offers a scintillating blend of heavy acid bass, glassy-eyed female vocal samples, weighty beats and subtle disco samples on the superb 'Chain', while Martin Ikin and Winnie Ama opt for even heavier drums, warped bass, creepy electronics and dead-eyed spoken word vocals on the sweat-soaked 'Control It'. To round things off, we're treated to the tech-tinged funky house bounce of Flashmob and Raumakustik's percussion -rich 'Club Talk'.

Review: A timely reminder of the enduring power of classic house music. Originally released in 1991, 'Rise Up' is a certified anthem, its infectious energy and uplifting piano chords transporting listeners back to the golden age of house music. This reissue features the original mix on the A-side, a timeless piece of dancefloor history that continues to inspire and uplift. But the real treat lies on the flip, where Vandalism delivers a remix that injects a contemporary twist via a driving bassline and fruity synths. A guaranteed mood booster and a reminder of the timelessness of classic house music.

Review: The King of Pop will always be a source of edit inspiration for DJs across a whole range of genres. His material stands the test of time even if his character does not and that's why we have a couple of new house remixes of two of his better-known hits. First up is an eight-minute take on 'Thriller' which retains plenty of the original vocals and flashes of the basslines and melodies but also bumps along like a DJ Harvey twisted chug disco banger. 'PYT' (House remix) is closer to the original - a playful, body-popping disco gem with smooth vocals.

Review: Back in 2020, Mike Stewart decided to reactivate his B.I.T Productions label - an imprint that originally delivered a string of forthright house and trance EPs in the late 1990s. This multi-artist four-tracker is decidedly retro-futurist in tone, mixing sounds reminiscent of the label's late 90s output with nostalgic nods towards earlier rave sounds. Stewart kicks things off by re-editing and extending Awesome3 & Ondamike's 2021 breaks/electro/rave mash-up 'Ready For This', before "dirty bass" loving rave revivalist Retropolis peppers a sweat-soaked breakbeat with massive piano stabs on '5AM'. Andy M joins forces with original Mancunian rave crew Dream Frequency on the 1992 breakbeat hardcore style rush of 'I Want Your Love', while Stewart picks up his scalpel for a second time to rework the full-throttle rave madness of 'Just High' by A.Plus.

Review: This was the debut single from Italian dance crew Prezioso & Marvin back in April 1999. It soon made waves as an international hit that bothered the top ten of charts around the world. It has all the hallmarks of a Euro dance classic of that time - the happy drums and trance chords, the camp vocals and a sense of optimism that defined the dawning of a new millennium, as well as some hella catchy pop hooks. This white vinyl reissue offers up various different versions for some retro fun.

Review: Produced by a quartet of experienced Italian producers, CRW's debut single 'I Feel Love' was a huge international dancefloor hit following its original release in 1998. Joining the dots between uplifting 90s trance, Eurodance and the colourful and saucer-eyed end of the superclub progressive house spectrum, it has been remixed countless times since. This EP brings together the best of those versions, flitting between melody-rich peak-time joy (the piano-sporting On Air and Red mixes), stomping trance muscularity (the J&R Mix), speed garage-influenced, bass-heavy Eurodance (the RAF Zone version), 21st century hard dance (the buzzing riffs and thickset grooves of DJ Isaac's recent revision) and atmospheric progressive trance (Karl8 and Andrea Monta's extended 'rework').

Review: 49ers were the fivesome of Gianfranco Bortolotti, Luca Cittadini, Diego Leoni and Pieradis Rossini and vocalist Ann-Marie Smith and 1989's 'Touch Me' came as their second ever single after 'Die Walkure', which did comparatively less well in the charts. Ingenious of the association now often made between Italo house/disco and lewd sexuality, this was an early experiment in the style and came without vocals from Smith. Instead, it sampled Aretha Franklin's 'Rock-A-Lott' and Alisha Warren's 'Touch Me', producing a nebulously sexual sound, in which the samples songstresses are made to sound much... tenderer. For the more squeamish among us, there is of course an instrumental B-side.

Review: Prelude is the don when it comes to the dubbier end of disco in the 80s. So many of its releases were staples of the key New York City scene at the time and they have kept their charm over the decades. 'Beat The Street' from Sharon Redd is one of them - a track doused on echo and reverb with dancing synths layered up over analogue drums, cold claps and with her fine vocals soaring high and bright. The vocal is where it's at but the paired back instrumental is also a fine groove for some retro feels.

Review: Hugely successful in Europe but more of a niche outfit in the UK and United States, Italian quintet 49ers (yes, they were named in honour of the San Francisco-based American Football team) delivered a string of Eurodance and Italodance style albums and singles between 1988 and 1994. Beginning with arguably their best-known club hit, 'Touch Me' (you'll know it, even if you think you don't), this two-disc 'best of' features pop style radio edits and album tracks on CD1 and the pick of their extended club versions on CD2. There's some gold on that disc, with the sleazy Italo-house 'Sexual version' of 'Touch Me', the mid-tempo, loved-up excellence of 1988 debut 'Die Walkure (12 Version)' and the dark Italo-house-goes-Danny Tenaglia flex of the RAF mix of 'Keep Your Love' standing out.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Record slightly warped***


After making his mark with a few high-grade edit EPs for Basic Fingers and Razor N Tape midway through the last decade, NYC-based DJ/producer Arsenii returns with a new project, Bliss Street Queens. There are no edits in sight this time, just a quartet of original productions that offer a distinctly nostalgic, warming and colourful interpretation of deep house. He sets his stall out with 'Celestial Frogs', adding sustained, intergalactic-sounding chords, effects aplenty and a brilliant bassline to unfussy beats, before opting for a jazzier, sun-splashed sound on the similarly deep and squelchy 'Find Me'. On 'Enjoy The Sirens' the Siberian exile makes great use of eyes-closed acid lines, lilting chords and emotive melodies whilst retaining his trademark elastic synth-bass, while 'Spiritus Sanctus' sits somewhere between deep house, electrofunk and sunrise-ready electro. Delicious!