Mysticisms

Review: The Mysticisms label serves up a valuable reissue of the very first release from Nail, the long-serving UK house veteran as prolific now as he was back in the heyday of legendary Nottingham soundsystem DiY. "Cassiopeia" originally appeared on a compilation on Warp, but now it gets a full side of vinyl over which to unfurl its arcane 90s magic. Entrancing synth cascades and stuttering sampler mantras, throbbing b-lines and jacking claps all make for a holy grail deep techno track from the good old days, and Nail has given it a 2019 remix on the flip which brings the spiritual shenanigans of the original into a different kind of meditative, house-oriented context.

Review: The Mysticisms label once more turns its attention to rarefied gold dust from the annals of deep house history, this time shining a light on Soiree Records, which was helmed by cult favourite Drivetrain. Nu-C Zn's "That's How Lovers Be" was an unconventional but oh so sweet curio back in 1995, and now it's been revived with Drivetrain delivering a new mix of the track that lets the smoky keys, plastic sax and gorgeous vocals hover tentatively. UK house stalwart Nail is up next with a bumping, crafty update on the track, while Scott Grooves lays down honey-coated keys that shift the mood of Nu-C Zn's original into a different emotional headspace.

Review: Given his status as an original 1990s hardcore and jungle producer, Peter "Persian" Riley has more right than most to ride the current wave of breakbeat-driven, loved-up deep house productions. Interestingly, Riley's latest 12" opens with a blissfully melodious and squeezable chunk of dreamy deep house (albeit one that boasts a soulful reggae style vocal and some breakbeat shuffle within the drum machine grooves), before the pitched-down jungle breaks come to the fore on brilliant, string-laden B-side "Morning Sun", a shameless tribute to witnessing sunrise at an outdoor rave. The accompanying remixes are predictably good, too. First, Fit Siegel delivers a drowsy, tactile and subtly stripped-back rework of "We Should Shout", before DJ Normal goes full on early hardcore on his thrusting tweak of "Morning Sun".