Classic Vinilo y CD

Review: Three years after it first dropped digitally, J T Donaldson's Classic Music label debut finally makes it onto wax. The EP naturally opens with the long-serving deep house producer's original mix, a wonderfully sun-splashed and warming slab of electric-piano-heavy deep house goodness marked out by a superbly soulful - but also pleasingly laidback - lead vocal from guest singer Liv E. Donaldson's own bumpin', club-heavy remix - think vintage Masters at Work and you're close - follows, before we're treated to two fresh revisions from other producers. Fellow house veteran Sandy Rivera delivers a typically drowsy, soulful and tasteful rework, before Girls of The Internet re-invent the track as a bustling slab or elastic jazz-house complete with layered analogue synth sounds and heady double bass.

Review: Classic Music Company welcomes a real legend to their ranks in the form of Detroit innovator Robert Hood under his Floorplan guise, which has more recently also included his daughter Lyric. The line-up may have expanded, but the sound remains the same - uplifting gospel house with a very real sense of spirit. 'Right There' has dusty hi hat ringlets and warm organ stabs over an endlessly shuffling beat that will get clubs in raptures. 'Holy Ghost' then gets a little more bouncy with lively chords and clipped vocal yelps bringing the energy.

Review: On their fourth studio album, The Masters Plan, Robert and Lyric Hood - the father-daughter duo behind Floorplan - deliver a masterclass in house and techno that's as diverse as it is cohesive. Released on Luke Solomon's Classic Music Company, this 18-track odyssey showcases the Hoods' uncanny ability to blend the sacred and profane, the light and dark, into a sonic tapestry that's uniquely their own. From the opening chords, it's clear that Floorplan's Detroit roots run deep. The gospel-infused 'We Give Thee Honour' sets the tone, its uplifting vocals and rolling rhythms invoking the spiritual ecstasy of a Sunday morning service reimagined for the dancefloor. This spiritual thread weaves throughout the album, most notably on tracks featuring local Detroit vocalists like the soulful trio Dames Brown, Earthtone, and Lowell Pye. But make no mistake - The Masters Plan isn't all celestial bliss. The Hoods aren't afraid to get grimy, as evidenced by the pummelling beats of 'What A Friend'. Here, they demonstrate their mastery of techno's harder edge, crafting a track that wouldn't sound out of place in the sweatiest basement clubs of Berlin or London. It's this deft navigation between styles that makes 'The Masters Plan' so compelling. The dreamy house soundscapes of 'Feel It' provide moments of blissful respite, while collaborations like 'Fake & Unholy' with label-mate Honey Dijon inject a shot of pure dancefloor adrenaline. What's most striking about 'The Masters Plan' is how seamlessly Robert and Lyric blend their generational perspectives. Rather than a handicap, their age gap becomes a strength, allowing them to draw inspiration from decades of electronic music history while still pushing the sound forward. Ultimately,
The Masters Plan feels like both a celebration and an invitation.

Review: Detroit don Floorplan aka Robert Hood has mastered the art of the loop. He knows how to distill voices, drums and synths to their core components and then let them roll endlessly. The results are magnificently captivating and the case of this last, gospel-tinged and potent enough to get even the most ardent atheists believing. Look no further than the turbocharged gospel-tech and impassioned choral cries of 'We Give Thee Honor' for evidence. Less grinding ad a little more silky is the uplifting house sound of 'Makes Me Wanna' on the flip. Two magnificent cuts courtesy of Classic here.

Review: House music royalty par excellence, Honey Dijon is finally gracing us with a second album after she turned her artistry up a notch with 2017's The Best of Both Worlds. Once again shoring up with her spiritual home Classic, Black Girl Magic finds Dijon celebrating love in every sense of the word, and lead single 'Show Me Some Love' is a fine case in point. There's that twitchy, freaky energy she instinctively brings to the floor, plus some smouldering vocal turns from Channel Tres and Sadie Walker. Elsewhere on the album you'll find breakthrough talents and established legends aplenty, all pulled together into Dijon's sexy, funked-up strain of tech house.

Review: Former Paper Recordings artist Sophie Lloyd apparently started working on "Calling Out" whilst gripped by the January blues. Her intention was simply to make "happy music". To that end, she turned to her gospel roots. The results, shared here on 7" single for the first time, are little less than spectacular. With collaborator Dames Brown in tow, Lloyd's vocals - accompanied by a gospel choir, of course - simply soar above a jaunty, piano-heavy track rich in live instrumentation. It sits somewhere between traditional gospel, house and disco, with a flipside instrumental brilliantly showcasing the quality of the instrumentation throughout. The piano solos, in particular, are breathlessly good.

Review: Whether she likes it or not, Sophie Lloyd will always be known for the unfeasibly uplifting gospel disco-meets-gospel-house anthem 'Calling Out'. That was released five years ago and ever since, she's struggled to embrace it's shadow. With 'Angels By My Side', Lloyd seems to have embraced this, delivering another fine gospel-powered number that inhabits a similar sonic space while being different enough to avoid accusations of treading water. It's genuinely good, too, with Pauline Taylor delivering superb lead vocals over a hybrid gospel disco/stomping gospel sound hybrid full of Hammond organ licks, booming bass guitar, piano house riffs and stirring orchestration. In other words, it's another anthem in waiting.

Review: Following their collaboration in 2023 on Luke Solomon's Classic Music Company, Sophie Lloyd & Amy Douglas return with a remix package of the track 'Sweet Love', featuring the label boss himself. Luke's Always Love Revision of this modern disco anthem ups the ante, adding huge swathes of energy to the previously sensual record. The two-track package also features the 'Sweet Lovin' Mix', which capitalises on the raucous finale from the original 'Love Hangover Mix', making for a worthy mini-comp.