Freerange Vinilo y CD

Review: Ben Worrall has made many great records as Crackazat, but has yet to make the kind of ambitious, musically expansive, sonically detailed album that many of us have long believed he's capable of delivering. Until now. Evergreen, his third full-length and first for five years, is simply sublime: an unashamedly soulful, life-affirming set that blends superb vocals and jazz-funk inspired instrumentation (think incredible horn arrangements, smooth bass guitar, twinkling keys and glistening guitars) with the luscious, warming deep house beats that have long been his calling card. It's basically the sound of summer 2022 - in our world, at least -and may well eventually be looked on as one of the finest deep house albums of all time. Yes, it really is that good!

Review: Energetic house reworker and go-getter Crackazat has always been hard at it, but it's a rarity for the artist to release a full-blown LP such as this. 'Evergreen', as usual, is a fusion of the clean, bouncy and hard jazz-house style the producer has always worked in, but this time, the producer brings a newfound live feel to his productions. Standouts include 'True Power' and 'Nominee For Love' in this impressive foray through deep house via neo-soul, exclusively released for Freerange.

Review: If you're into all things soulful and Balearic, nothing will please you more than these beautiful blissful beats from Willie Graff & Tuccillio. Give You Up is timeless house music through and through - a guitar and drums intro slowly gets over shadowed by the filtered chorus which takes it's time to fully to reveal the breezy "I just can't give you up" line. Chaz Danier provides two mixes to choose from (check out Chaz's "A Little More" mix to see how far he's taken the original).

Review: During lockdown, when strutting your stuff on the dancefloor remained a frustratingly distant dream, many producers naturally gravitated towards making more meditative and comforting downtempo music. Jamie Odell AKA Jimpster, who started as a producer of laidback beats before embracing deep house, was one such producer. The resultant LP, Birdhouse - his seventh in total - is undeniably brilliant, with Odell showcasing the quality of his musicianship (and song writing skills) on a range of warming, comforting and wonderfully luscious tracks that variously join the dots between trip-hop, neo soul, nu-jazz, ambient and blunted beats. Throw in some superb guest vocals (from both singers and rappers) and you have a near perfect collection of sofa-ready sounds.

Review: Delusions Of Grandeur and Freerange Records chief Jamie Odell aka Jimpster presents the first volume in his Anthology collection, featuring some of this industry veteran's greatest hits and near misses over the last quarter of a century. From the emotive late night vibes of 'Dangly Panther', the influences of mid noughties minimal creeping into the deep groove of 'Sleeper' to the soulful and uplifting vocal number 'I Got A Hold On Your Soul', to the low slung hypnotiser 'Rollergirl' or the late night boogie down vibe of 'Don't Push It' - Odell can be proud of his contributions to the scene which have certainly aged well.

Review: It's now 25 years since Jamie 'Jimpster' Odell released his first record (fittingly on Freerange, the label he co-founded with Tom Roberts), so he's naturally in a retrospective mood. Anthology 2 is his second 'best of' (the first is available separately) and does a terrific job in showcasing the breadth, variety and musical richness that's always marked out his brand of deep house. There's plenty to set the pulse racing throughout, from the late-night simmer of rolling vocal number 'A Love Like This' (featuring a superb spoken word vocal from Diamondancer) and the Latin-tinged deep hip-house of 'One (featuring Casamena)', to the slow-building beauty of 'Late Night Beauty', relaxed haziness of 'Square Up' and the slow-motion house bliss of 'Sun Comes Up', which could well be the best of the lot.

Review: 20 years is a long time for a label and within this timescale Jimpster's Freerange has gone under several evolutions before arriving at its current status as one of the UK's foremost outlets for deep house. Over this period, Freerange has grown outwards from the early forays through sample-based house, deviating into broken beat as well as giving the likes of Switch and Trevor Loveys a break before they went on to pioneer the fidget sound. So Jamie Jimpster has reason more than others to toast Freerange's 20th anniversary with a release as impressive as this 5LP boxset. What better way to start than a brand new cut from Bulgarian hardware wizard KiNK, with his "Roads" followed by a further 19 tracks that canvas the likes of Detroit Swindle, Milton Jackson and Pittsburgh Track Authority as well as plenty of Freerange regulars. A celebration of a deep house institution!