Back catalogue: Deep House

Review: French finesse with German fusion... Willis Anne makes his Shall Not Fade debut with this killer 'Movement' EP. As with previous missives on his LAN imprint, the beats roam and romp freely between footwork, jungle and ghetto-tek with strong twangs of Detroit bringing it all together. Highlights include the wonderful layers of organs and vibrant chords of 'Direct Effect' and the fully-swung breakbeats and bellowing sub of 'Unison'. Get moving.

Review: Allnite Music boss APOENA returns with the label's second essential release in a mere matter of weeks. Four slices of exceptionally cool house music, from 'Soul People' with its chuntering organs and inspirational rabble rousing sampled from Martin Luther King to 'Meditation' with its cowbell-enhanced groove and oozing, soulful vocals. The serene glide and billowing synths of 'Jus Dance' and the meditational hypnotism of 'Shapeshifters' complete the package, all going to make one neat selection of tasteful, addictive cuts.

Review: Los Angeleno AshTreJinkins is up next for London/Tokyo joint venture NCS, who as some of you may know by now: only release in very limited runs: so get in quick! Named after the famed American soft drink that tastes like mouthwash, the Root Beer EP features four servings of lo-fi house which will certainly fit in with the status quo currently set by the likes of Lobster Theremin, E-Beamz et al. The tough and driving vintage techno of "Dead Or Wounded" kicks off the EP in good from, while "Frozen" with its hypnotic chord progression and jagged rhythm patterns create a unique groove that really gets off the grid. Finally, the tribal house tool "Adware Nigga" calls to mind Canadian Hayden Andre Brown's seminal jams from the early '90s, but backed by some L.I.E.S. style analogue techno grunt.

Review: It is Edinburgh party-starter Astro who lands on the Lost Palms label here with a wide-ranging four-tracker. The atmospheric opener 'Juniper Ash' has a roomy feel, with cosmic house synth work over journeying drums and some nicely designed claps. 'Gauze' is more energetic with a tech tinge and metallic chords spiraling over the jittery grooves. 'Sanzhi UFO' is one of those zoned-out cuts that lock you in and keep you in a daze between bigger moments and closer 'On A Dub' might just be the best of the lot with its smeared chords, rattling dub tech energy and bouncing rhythm.

Review: Athlete Whippet's first outing on Toy Tonics, 2021's Vesta EP, offered a hugely attractive fusion of Berlin deep house nous and colourful jazz-funk/jazz-fusion instrumentation. This follow-up continues in a similarly vibrant vein, with the duo adding all manner of vocal and instrumental samples and a distinctive '80s boogie influence to their already rainbow-coloured trademark sound. Across the four tracks, the pair confidently skip between rubbery, summery house ('Noguiera'), thrilling P-funk/nu-disco fusion (the throbbing electronic bass, jumpy synth sounds, dreamy chords and tidy machine drums of 'Mesmerise'), cut-up boogie-house squelch ('I Think I See') and shuffling, breakbeat-driven deep house/synth-funk fusion ('Slow Down').

Review: REPRESS ALERT: Gravity Graffiti has been doing great things with its series of split 12"s already, but now the Italian label goes one better for its tenth release with this mighty double pack of heavy hitters. First up is the ever-untouchable Yoshinori Hayashi, who gets as straight up as he possibly could with the freaky house burner "Dissociative." Telephones is feeling particularly dubbed out and groovy on "Kalimbalimbo", while DB.Source and Riccardo Schiro take things strung out and textural on "Montevago". Dynamo Dreesen is in rave mode for the pepped up and delightfully weird "Reactivate", leaving the final side to Oyvind Morken & Kaman Leung's chugging "Tunnel Visjon" and the rubbery side swipes of Acidboychair's "The End (At Any Speed)".

Review: Dobro is a house and disco edits label run by Belarusian DJ/producer Iner out of St Petersburg. For its fifth release, it's another various artists affair featuring a whopping six tracks with appearances from I Gemin on the dusty, boompty and off-kilter 'I Like 2 Party', Paul Rudder & OUI go ultra deep in the tradition of the Three Chairs sound on the emotive 'In The Sky For Our Love', while Bendrik serves up the mandatory late night mood music vibes on 'Chat House' and Swales provides the banger on the funky and tough rolling 'Blue Skies'.

Review: Swiss minimal techno imprint Relikt is back with its first release for 2023 and another various artists sampler that once again showcases a fine curation of all things minimal and deep. On the A-side, you've got Jan Dro with the swing-fuelled tech house groove of 'Through The Tunnel', followed by Alexander Matchak's late night mood music on 'My Favorite Game'. Over on the flip, Mathii similarly nails that classic Cabinet Records sound of old on the sensual 'Motions' followed by Dajku Twins with the feelgood boompty vibes of 'Blue Light'.

Review: This soulful, busy, heated and sultry 12" vinyl record features the work of two of Chicago's most eminent producers around today. On production duties comes Vick Lavender and Carlos Mena, and they're complemented by vocalist Amma Whatt (who appears on the cover), with respect to making a funky housey tribute to soul and jazz and bossa nova, producing a steamy whirlwind of a track that is hard to place, yet stellar. The various mixes are up-front and mega-roomy, but Whatt's vocals hit softly despite.

Review: Back to some of the original roots of the Plastik People label with a new single from Alfredo Norese ft. Aquilla Fearon & Matteo Esposito with remixes from label boss Marc Cotterell, Shaka & Groove Boys Project. Deep Soulful house & Garage on this fantastic release.

Review: Jetaime, staying true to our name, drop yet another large helping of sensual beats, with Volume 2 of our 'Love Session' series.

Today's lesson's in love, are provided by some of our closest friends and label regulars. Each delivering a scorchingly hot original, set to send you into sensory overload.

First up is Okain who, having brought us the incredible 'Acrobat' back in January, steps up again to reveal, what for us, is one of his finest works to date. 'Corner Boys' couldn't be more fitting for 'Love Session'. Its classic beats, sexy vocal sample and hip-grinding, oldschool bassline make it, ok not 'love', but most definitely, SEX!!

Alex steps up himself on track two, and brings us the deliciously sweet and creamy, 'Sundae'. Inventive and ever so tongue in cheek, Alex matches iconic hip-hop, with his modern Parisian beats, to create a perfect party anthem.

From the house-party, to the rave on track number three from, Varoslav. As its name suggests, 'Dancin' Like Ghosts' has a spooky and hypnotic feel. The constant pulse of delicate synths, pierced by hollow beats and piercing hats, together with its demonic vocal, make it a perfect number for those dark cellar gigs.

Finally, and rounding out the EP is Yakine, who delivers a fresh slab of Chicago-inspired house with 'U Dance'. Its killer B-Line, filtered Rhodes and spoken vocal, warms the heart as well as the feet, and make it the perfect track to round out the EP.

Overall a quite stunning collection of tracks, that we are extremely proud of. So come and join us, and get down to some serious lovin'!!

Review: Italian DJ and producer Reekee is normally found heading up his Wrong Notes label, but he's also dropped deep house heat on Sistrum, Roots Underground and Uzuri in his time. After inaugurating the Time To Play label last year, he's back on the label with an astounding new single, 'No One'. The track stretches out on the A-side like a song of this quality should, featuring Anna Cavedon delivering a striking, soulful vocal over some truly blissful chords that come on like space-age Rhodes soaked for months in the sweetest chorus. On the flip, Gary Superfly delivers a smoky dub mix of the track which adds some sizzling, raw drums and tripped out, dirty reverb chords that call to mind STL. If you want to zero in on Reekee's production, the instrumental is also on hand. This is real deal deep house with all the personality you could wish for - don't sleep.

Review: Charitable acts carry more significance than ever right now, and Needs are on hand with another instalment in their brilliantly curated series to give something to those in need while also presenting some wonderful, exclusive music. This one leads in with a truly uplifting blast of sunshine from Telephones before dropping into the edgy, swinging tech-funk of Ciel's "Faye Wong Plays The Strings". Al Wootton is on point with another of his fresh and dynamic twists on the soundsystem blueprint, with a dubby, percussive vibe that should appeal to those who miss proper dubstep. Eliphino completes the set with a squashed and feverish garage thumper that sounds like it has an iconic vocalist chopped up somewhere in the signal chain.