New releases last two weeks: Funky/Club House

Review: Swiss producer and DJ Lea Lisa gathers together some of her favorite tracks to play out with in a double pack compilation for Favorite Recordings. As you might be able to tell from some of the artists and tracks on here, Lea likes her house music deep, tracky, sometimes soulful and verging on proper techno. Featured here are key tracks like 'Ekeyz' from Pure Science, the club mix of 'Be There' by Kerri Chandler and 'Blax Thanxs' by Abacus. One very desirable addition is the early 90s gem 'Emotional' by Think. This very strong gathering of deep house tracks may be one of the best this year. Act quick and grab a copy.

Review: Magic Number is Ross Hillard, a downtempo and orchestral composer whose engineering and bass playing can be heard on an array of releases, most notably for the likes of his own house favourites including Louie Vega, DJ Spen, Kerri Chandler, Lay-Far and Atjazz. Now debuting his first record on the latter artist's eponymous label, Badly Written Songs sounds like a slice of humble pie, but it's actually well-thought out title: in Hillard's own words, "(it's) a tongue-in-cheek reference to how transient electronic music can be." Thus, writing songs in this genre might not have been the most sensible and sustainable idea - but we all love house music, so we put everything into it, hoping that people don't discard it too soon. True to an engineer's tastes, the album is ultra-dynamic and bright throughout, serving up a consistent guest-vocal steeze reminiscent of Charles Webster or Herbert's gravitas.

Review: You'd be hard-pressed to find a collection of euro house and dance music more chock-full of hits than this. In the vein of the early 90s dance compilations, Music On Vinyl gathers two discs packed with landmark dance records and massively popular crossover tracks like Haddaway's 'What Is Love', 2 Unlimited's sports arena classic No Limit', Snap!'s timeless 'Rhythm Is A Dancer' and the worldwide hit 'Pump Up The Jam' by Technotronic. The great thing about this release is the inclusion of many other lesser known but memorable gems like T-Spoon 'Sex On The Beach' and Twenty 4 Seven's 'Slave To The Music'. A whopping 27 tracks in total to take you back to the days when dance music owned the airwaves and the clubs.