Tags: 90s Garage

Review: Funkyjaws Music has decided to offer up its first solo EP here having decided to make the previous four volumes of its Let's Dance series various artists collections. JKriv gets the nod here and doesn't disappoint. First up is the leggy mid-tempo disco of 'Share The Night' with its chattery Chicago house style drums and rasping bass. 'Big Chief' is a brilliant mid-tempo jumble of percussion, toms, hits, grinding bass and lazy kicks and 'Let's Do It Right' then takes off on nice clean piano house grooves full of uplifting joy. 'Acid Fantasies' closes out a truly varied EP with a more raw and direct acid house jacker.

Review: Renowned for his extensive record collection and deep knowledge of house and garage, Jeremy Underground brings his passion to Vol. 3 of Z Records's 90's House & Garage compilation series. It features tracks that are either unreleased or newly digitised from original DAT tapes and vinyl. This edition comes on double vinyl with four sides of glorious grooves, each one of them carefully selected and professionally treated to reflect the golden era of house, taking in rare gems and remixes from Kerri Chandler, Murk, 95 North, and more. Vital stuff.

Review: Endangered Musique kicks off with a high-quality reissue of an EP that deep house heads will either already know or soon grow to love. It was written by Jose Chinga in 1994 and is an alias of an artist better known as Brothers' Vibe aka Tony Rodriguez. The opening tune 'Love Is What You Need' is also the most well-known - it's US garage with low-slung drums and grainy pad work with a simple but effective vocal. 'I Got You' picks up the pace with shuffling drums and a grinding lead before the warm 90s house sounds come to the fore again on 'Let It Go' and 'Riding On A Cloud'. Lovely stuff.

Review: Rosie Gaines will also be synonymous with her smash hit single 'Closer Than Close' (also the name of her fifth album) which now gets reissued by the Demon Record Singles Club. Gaines actually started her career back in 1985 when she perfumed and recorded with The Curtis Ohlson Band but it was when she was a member of Prince & The New Power Generation that she really got noticed. Her Closer Than Close album came in 1995 and soon after she was dropped by Motown, but a remix of the title track a year so so later arrived in club land on bootleg and sold over eight million copies around the world.

Review: Digital Tape Recordings kick out another vital 12" on wax here, this time with a third part of their on going and excellent Deep Dub Essentials series. 24HR Experience is at the helm here with a quartet of house and garage collisions that bring the good times. 'The Heaven Track' is a classic US garage cut with stiff snares and low slung drums, and 'Touch The After World' is just as deep and warm. 'Just A Vibe' is the highlight at the end - nice New Jersey drum with warming organ stabs and a carefree groove that effortlessly sweeps you up off your feet.

Review: Tommy Musto dives deeper into his DAT archives to unearth another collection of mid-90s NYC gems for this essential new 12". These four tracks capture the essence of iconic clubs like Red Zone, Club Zanzibar, Twilo and Sound Factory and at the same time echo the sounds that legends like Knuckles, Humphries and Morales spun during that era. Each one blends darker baseline and jacked-up house drums with moody synths that all add up to a fine batch of beats that deal in pure, classic vibes straight from New York's classic underground scene.

Review: Digital Tape Recordings take it al the way back to 1994 here with the timeless early garage sounds of Dub Essentials Part 1 from 24Hour Experience. It captures the essence of UKG at the time and was first released on the definitive Nice N Ripe label. It has a range of sounds from the soothing depths and soulful samples of 'Feeling's Mutual' to the more clipped and bouncy 'Deeper (5am mix)'. 'Scatter' then layer sup jumbled perc and US house styles with rich organ chords and 'Mantra' again keeps it deep and rather sleazy with some filthy bass. Last of all is the slinky sound of 'Gone Loopy' to round out a classic.

Review: Z Records proudly presents volume 3 in its 90s house and garage compilation series, this time presented by Jeremy Underground, a man who should need no introduction when it comes to all things house and garage. Underground (assuming that is his real surname) shares his third house selector's compilation on this one, digging deep, deep inside his record collection, making a spectacle of his ability to decide, to delimit, to include, to exclude, to tastefully separate sonic wheat from chaff. As has become obviated by this series, some of these knocky 2-steppers - these garagey housers - are to here be released on one flavor filled CD & vinyl compilation. So attune your ears to its private exclusivist 2-step grooves; avariciously launch your energies at the attainment of mid-2020s UK garage DJ royalty, till your forefingers and thumbs bleed from all the spindle pinching.

Review: Duch label Armada Music takes a pan-global view on this new compilation which focuses on the legacy of house music. Called, smartly, House Legacy, it goes from the deepest of the deep in Joe Smooth's still exquisite house hymn 'Promised Land' to the most catchy vocal sounds in Praise Cat's 'Shined On Me' via the archetypal New York dub house of MK's 'Somebody New.' Alongside other big cuts such as Reese aka Kevin Saunderson's 'Just Want Another Chance' are some lesser-known gems from Olav Basoski, Afro Medusa and Gadjo. A vibrant, melting pot and fine cross-section, then.

Review: Unknwn kick off a multi-part double pack series here that serves a deserving light on the work of New York artist Victor Simonelli, who is famous for working with Afrika Bambaataa to help mix the epic 'Planet Rock'. As both a DJ and a producer he made a huge mark on the genre back in the 90s and it is that period which is in focus here. This is a real collectors' piece from the Behind The Groove crew that's packed with vital cuts from the rare mixes of Rain Page and EZ-AL to Cloud 9's 'Do You Want Me' via Solution's 'Feel So Right', all of which provide undoubted proof that he was a man on fire back in those golden early days.

Review: Veneno is the most beloved transgender TV star in Spain and now she arrives on the equally revered Dark Entries label as part of Madrid Pride on June 30th. Cristina Ortiz was a sex worker when she was discovered by the TV program "Este Noche Cruzamos el Mississippi." She became a regular on it with a great sense of wit and a unique way of relaying stories about her work on the streets. Her career in music started in 1996 and has seen her serve up big Eurobeat tunes like 'Veneno Pa Tu Piel' and house cuts such as 'El Rap De La Veneno'. Two mixes of both of those hit tunes are presented here and are enduring gay anthems that will light up any party.

Review: The Peppermint Jam label is buzzing to be serving up a true house music classic from 1991: Urban Soul ft. Roland Clark's 'Alright!' is an iconic track that was originally written and produced by house legend Roland Clark. It now has been revamped for today's house lovers with some modern production heft. Vocal credits go to Roland and the late Ceybill Jeffries of course as both voices remain prominent here but the remixes are massive, with DJ Spen and MicFreak delivering a soulful masterclass featuring fresh chords and an irresistible bassline. Mellow Man, one of Peppermint Jam's early artists, adds a jackin' groove that takes things back to house music's glory days. These mixes are vinyl only so do not snooze.

Review: This vibrant transparent green slab of wax takes us directly to the heart of the D, the Motor City, Detroit. It features remixes of a killer cut by The Seven Grand Housing Authority starting with the Octave One club mix of 'The Question' which comes a warm, humid deep house sound with big chords and diva vocals. The original is included next and then comes a lively rework with plenty of busted loops and chopped vocals from Underground Resistance and their Make My Day mix with brotherly duo Octave One also offers up a dub version that is passionate and sure to get the club in a sweat.

Review: Second time around for Teflon Dons' legendary 1999 collaboration with soul sensation Gregory Porter, who at the time was a virtually unknown artist whose greatest commercial successes were still some years off. The EP begins with the 'Main Mix', a blend of Kenny Dope style broken deep house beats, sumptuous chords, garage-house bass and slick lead vocals from Porter, before we're treated to a 'Bonus Beats' version that wraps spacey synths around the Dons' hot-stepping drums. Over on the flip, the Teflon Dons reach for weighty sub bass, reverb-laden vocal snippets and oceans-deep chords on a superb dancefloor dub, before the 'Original Mix' - a warmer, sunnier and more soulful vocal deep house excursion - rounds off a must-have reissue.

Review: First released on Nice & Ripe in 1994 when it was produced by early UK house and garage dons Grant Nelson, Si Firmin, and David Thackeray, this track has been remastered for the first time. The reissue comes on Digital Tape Recordings and sounds as good as ever, especially given the current revival of original garage. Reminiscent of their iconic 24hr Experience and GOD releases, it opens with the gritty and low slung sounds of '1 2 Luv', features the more thumping 'Sampler', diva vocal cries of 'Groovement' and stripped back version 'Dubment'.

Review: Way back in 1998, Sunship revisited Jhelisa's 1994 single 'Friendly Pressure', turning in versions that made a massive impression on the then still young UK garage scene. This reissue presents the outfit's two original mixes alongside some tweaked new versions of the pioneering 'Into The Sunshine' mix, a rework that combined a swinging garage beat and MK style organ motifs with Jhelisa's sweet, soulful versions and the musical bounce of reggae. At the time, speed garage DJs tended to play the remix sped up, so Sunship have done that (B2), while also delivering a new 2024 extension of their pioneering revision. To complete the package, we also get the second Sunship rework from 1998, the 2-step style 'From Midnight Mix'. If you're a fan of UKG history, you need this in your life.