Disco Recommendations April 2011

Review: ** Repress from the Hands Of Time ** The second Hands of Time Gold release sees everyone's favourite Parisian called Dimitri transposed from the exotic climes of Tokyo to the less salubrious Stoke On Trent for a handful of edits that have wedding disco tackle written all over them! Dimitri's timeless edit of the purple one's "I Wanna Be Your Lover" has long been desired by the disco loving cognoscenti and will guarantee this release a towering presence in the bestseller charts. Let's not forget the trio of cuts that make up the remainder though, with "Just Sayin' Really" and "I Pay A Little Slayer" adding a sprinkle of magic to two soul classics whilst "Dem Oi Garl" is guaranteed to get the uncles on the floor.

Review: The amusingly named Dicky Trisco returns to the Disco Deviance helm for two more expertly sliced retro rarities embellished with his much called upon production talents. Pressed up loud on satisfyingly heavy vinyl, "Night Dancing" is a searing vocal electro funk boogie track revolving around late night neon synths lines, slick bass that hits you between the baby maker and the baby feeders and a bumping groove. Flip over for the more classic disco sounds of "Got To Have Your Dub", all fully orchestrated Philly groove vocal refrains neatly spliced with the main foot stomping thrust. Quality as you'd expect from the much travelled Autodisco resident.

Review: Daniel Solar's Dikso imprint hits the spot on their fourth Super Sound release, with some multi national discoid business that reaches from Germany to NYC via Glasgow. It's the latter that reps first with FOTO boss OOFT dropping the constantly building elastic analogue mid tempo tribalist bump of "Hit For Six", which sets the tone nice and deep. Burrowing further is "Make You Mine" from Autodeep and RoMorri which kind of sounds what you' expect the unholy union of Prince, R Kelly and flexing 303 minimalist bump to sound like. Solar takes up the slack on the B Side with the insistent slick loopy disco house of "Baby's Tears" which aptly demonstrates the producer's talent for slicing up arrangements. Proceedings slow down for the closing gambit from New York producer Soho808 with the sultry twilight disco chug of "Get Up Disco" a gentle cacophony of late night strings, liquid melodies and heart melting vocal harmonies.

Review: Perhaps the most feverishly discussed track to feature on Tiger & Woods breakthrough podcast mix for Resident Advisor arrives out of nowhere on a one sided twelve inch with a cheeky etching - and if you can't read between the lines with regards to the source material then we recommend you don't try and cross the road alone! One of the better moments from fallen princess of modern pop music gets expertly teased and filtered, cut and sliced so that it barely resembles its glossy origins. Anything affiliated with Tiger & Woods doesn't tend to sit on the shelves for long and this limited run of 500 certainly won't!

Review: The second release on the Visionquest Empire that Seth Troxler, Ryan Crosson, Lee Curtiss and Shaun Reeve's quartet act are creating is from relative newcomers, Addy Weitzman and Maurice Knecht, aka Footprintz. "Utopia" is an open hearted mid tempo pop delight, with soft focus lyrics, pop synths and a simple guitar riff that has an hypnotic appeal from the offset. Ewan Pearson's re-trip of "Utopia" twists it into house track with a deeper pitched vocal and more acidic approach to the melody, before the Canadian duo serve up "Golden Dreams", its wailing vocals and dominant drums tinged with an electro chord undercurrent, sliding the EP even further into eighties melancholy.

Review: Our man down under Lewie Day - a Juno Plus 'Ones To Watch' alumni under his Tornado Wallace moniker - heads up the second volume of the We Get By With A Little Help series on Kolour's House Is The Cure sub-label. Day's intriguingly titled "Bedwetter" is draped in those same thick, heavy chords and Motor City atmospherics that accompanied his breakthrough "Paddlin" and "Always Twirling" tracks from 2010; an instant and bewitching delight. This shares the A Side with Delano Smith who serves up "Time Is Right", a kind of lush, no frills deep house cut that one expects from such a respected member of Detroit's current generation. Kiki Navarro delivers "Love Will Be Forever" on the flip, which boasts some nice tropical drums and cleverly arranged vocal snippets. Proceeds from the records go towards the boys and girls club of Detroit, so buying this 12" also counts as your good deed for the day!

Review: UK edits imprint Kat jumps from Chicago to the Far East for their latest release, following that excellent twelve from the legend that is Rahaan with some equally fine reworks from the mysterious Shanghai duo The Horses. They kick off with a subtle take on the Vangelis smoothy "Let It Happen", with the gentle 4x4 kick transforming the track into an upright position. "Backed Up" kicks off with a brilliantly phased filtered intro that drops into a rare groove classic from the Three Pieces that's been bumped up with a nice groove and plenty of neat editing tricks. The best is reserved for the B Side sunshine of "Do You Remember" a mid tempo monster filled with echoed female harmonies and delightfully reverberant melodies!

Review: Full Pupp boss Prins Thomas drops his first DJ friendly twelve on the label for some two years and it's pure dirt! There's a guttural glee to "Lang Tung Ting" which grabs you from the off and keeps you hooked throughout. Rough, gut punching drums are the perfect match for growling acid squiggles that occupy the lower reaches of the mix, with the track steadily accruing warped jacking intent as it progresses. "Tom Peng Pung" offers a shorter, more percussively inclined version on the track which just doesn't retain the same earthy joy as it's longer counterpart. The flipside bump "Ny Maskin" is notable for the increasingly psychedelic surges of guitar that gradually overwhelm your senses

Review: Always keen to indulge in the new talent as well as the established, Under The Shade turn to Alphabet City for their next release. The producer has already turned heads with releases for Traveller Records and the Kojak imprint, but this might be his finest work to date. There's a booming quality that runs throughout the glistening mid tempo bump of "Feels Like" which demands play at high volume, from the solo arpeggios of the opening bars to the crisp drums and frosted vocoder flourishes. Lithuanian duo Downtown Party Network (remember them?) awake from their production slumber with a remix that adds some weight to the percussive bump and introduces a rough new bassline for a totally different kick. On the flip you get another original Alphabet City jam "Love" which spreads some heavy Moroder vibes over rich layers of rhythm. UK stalwart Toby Tobias remixes the track, opting for an upwards reaching synth monster which you need to check!

Review: Italian duo Ajello make a swift return to the Demo Disc imprint with three more rough round the edges cuts lifted from their enviable vinyl archives. The A Side belongs to the rattling unidentifiable brilliance of "Don't Stop Me" which is a killer infusion of heavy organ vibes and loose percussive thrust. The flip commences with the stop-start cod rock vibes of "Tonite", whose origins have been used by other edit fiends (though not with the same intelligence) whilst the final track is a brilliant tweak on Ish's "Don't Stop". Ajello add some bump to the beat and do a stellar job in looping up the rhythmic build towards an ecstatic crescendo.