Steel City Dance Discs Vinilo y CD

Review: After first surfacing digitally late last year, Matisa's Steel City Dance Discs label debut finally makes it onto vinyl - and not a moment too soon. Hard to pigeonhole but fiendishly heavy and floor-friendly, the four cuts on offer are rave-igniting workouts that somehow manage to sound both nostalgic and genuinely fresh. For proof, check opener 'Brillatine', where a warped, all-action bassline, fizzing electronics, Orbital-style female vocal snippets, jumpy stabs and pots-and-pans percussion hits cluster around a skittish, warehouse-ready breakbeat. 'Eyeliner' is a slightly more rave-centric chunk of heady breakbeat hardcore revivalism with added M1 organ motifs (and a rap-less accompanying hip-house style tweak from label boss Mall Grab), while 'Lip Plumper' is a muscular, hands-aloft house workout with layered percussion aplenty.

Review: Mall Grab's Steel City Dance Discs label is one of those treasure troves of party music - it can be house or techno or whatever in between, but never is it less than electric. Salute is an Austrian-born artist with a knack for serving up classy party bangers that seem so simple and stripped back but very much are not that easy to make. His artful touch is on full display here with the euphoric loops of 'Sternenhimmel', the summery festival sounds of 'Pleasures' and the bumping house joys of 'Heaven.' Last of all is 'Ultra Pool,' another unashamedly hands-in-the-air, good-times-only house anthem.