Bestsellers This Week

Review: Session Victim's 2012 debut full-length The Haunted House of House was arguably one of the best deep house albums of the year. Here, they return with their first new material since. Opener "Yes I Know" features their trademark loose, swinging drums, warm chords and classic deep house sheen, alongside a healthy amount of what sounds like organic instrumentation. With the addition of a delicious disco vocal sample, it makes for wonderful listening. Max Graef remixes, turning in a version that sounds like a deeper take on 6th Borough Project. "Glow In The Dark", meanwhile, is wholeheartedly Balearic - a blindingly sunny slice of semi-live disco-house bagginess that should get maximum rotations in warmer climes this summer.

Review: If it ain't broke don't fix it as they say, and this Euro party edits producer is certainly living by this maxim. Here we find the talented producer providing Greek label Timewarp with a selection of his reworks of disco obscurities. As usual it's hard to not want to get up dance to his infectious remixes including the pulsating, arpeggiated 80s night drive of "Yull Disco Breaks (instrumental)", the wah-wah heavy hip-house of "Blast" and the chaotic acid funk of "Nose Dive".

Review: After successfully remixing some very popular dance tunes to widespread approving nods from the likes of Loadstar, Clean Bandit and Naughty Boy, the Bristol duo have returned to the studio to furnish the bass music community with a second EP released on cutting edge label Black Butter. Bringing together house, garage and bassline for that oh-so-now deep house feel with a characteristically twisted outlook, each track is a swarming mass of influences and irresistible experimentation. "Scatter" in particular has that perfect MNL combo of hip-swinging dancefloor compatibility and relentless hard-hitting beats and you've almost definitely already heard the badness of "Levels" on your travels. A definite buy on sight.

Review: Mullet Records continue their quest to impose the sound of the Billboard Dance & RnB Chart circa 1985 on modern dancefloors everywhere, and it's a cause we totally support. Strong, Latino-style female vocal? Check. Timex Social Club-style electro bass? Check. Debarge-style tropical melodies? Check. In short, a winner! Lots of good remixes too, the best being the ever-dependable Elijah Collins who transforms the song from a good retro tune into something more unique and contemporary.

Review: In the last 18 months, Dutch duo Detroit Swindle has come from nowhere to become one of deep house's go-to names. This three-tracker for Tsuba - their first for Kevin Griffiths' label - is another 'must-check' release. Lead cut "Sometimes" is typical of their output to date; deep, stylish, quietly soulful and blessed with relentless riffs that propel the track forwards at a rate of knots. Arguably better is "That Freak Stuff", a slick chunk of deepness blessed with some rougher drums, an addictive bassline and some atmospheric, whispered vocal samples. Soulphiction remixes, turning the track on its head thanks to shuffling analogue drums, a fuzzy bassline and some glistening pianos.

Review: Edinburgh producer Hostage has no intention of losing the heat garnered from a host of important releases on labels like Herve's Deep Thrills and Black Butter. The newfound interest in the deeper side of things is kept up on "How We Go Down" which features buzzing low bass and tough house beats. "Keep Dark" is sultry speed garage, the sparse "Conscious" veers into 4 x 4 territory and ""Show Ya" wraps things up with a warped rave organ riff and some very late night UKF grooves.

Review: It's not all that long since Local Talk's first Talking House compilation dropped. Given the sheer volume of 12" singles from the label - there seems to be one every week these days - it's little surprise to see this follow-up dropping in double-quick time. The label's best material has always been superb, and there are some real gems here. Check, for example, Dirtytwo's clever (and exceptionally well executed) fusion of HNNY's "For The Very First Time" and Midnight Star's "Midas Touch", John Mood's "Basement Romance" (clearly inspired by classic Mood II Swing), and Cle's colossal piano house bomb "The Jam". Oh, and the thrill-packed blast of Balearic magic that is Fred Everything's "Brothers & Sisters (AM Pacific)".

Review: The Legendary Sound Orchestra continues his attempt to provide disco edit lovers with something extraordinary, with a third collection of hand picked reworks. Predictably, there's plenty to enjoy, from his own sparse, piano-heavy version of Silvetti's Salsoul classic "Spring Rain", to the rolling, bongo-laden goodness of 78 Edits' sprightly but loopy "Don't You Know". Highlights-wise, it's a toss-up between Alkalino's baggy disco-soul shuffler, "Have A Ball", and Jimmy The Twin's superb, TR-707-enhanced "Party Down". The latter, a horn-heavy chunk of upbeat disco-funk, is arguably the Bristol-based scalpel fiend's best work to date.

Review: The fantastically named A/Jus/Ted - veteran producers Justin Strauss and Eddie Mars on a collaborative tip - make their debut on Under The Shade. "A Brighter Light", featuring the treacle-thick soul vocals of Jeremy Glenn, sits somewhere between electro-soul, early Chicago house and Balearic nu-disco. As you'd probably expect from the soul-minded Strauss, the resultant track is effortlessly soulful, quietly uplifting and brilliantly produced. The same could be said of the more instrumental Re A/Jus/Ted remix, which blends skittering proto-house rhythms and electrofunk dub elements with woozy modern deep house. Like the original, it's excellent.

Review: Upon first listen to "Serious Clowns", you could be forgiven for exclaiming "oh no! not another re-edit!" Thankfully though this Canadian coast and the countryside collaboration between Neighbour (Vancouver) and DJ Spiltmilk (Calgary) is an original composition that combines sultry arpeggiated Italo disco with an 80s soul mood (a la Imagination or Dennis Edwards). The rest of the EP is pretty funky too: "Look At Each Other..." managing to channel both Plastic Dreams and the Minneapolis sound, "No You Bite It" touches on deep house and best of all is the almost Viewlexx inspired "Red Or Black".

Review: In truth, very little is known about Ten Walls, Dixon and Ame's latest signing to their recently quiet Innervisions stable. What we do know, though, is that he makes some tasty music. Opener "Gotham" is particularly good, slowly building into the sort of deep, sinewy, confidently melodic chugger that Ame and Henrik Schwartz used to do so well. "Epos" is, if anything, even deeper, with intense warmth, and an almost Arabic feel to the intoxicating synthezier melodies. "Moag", on the other hand, is so drowsy it's almost asleep - all atmospheric chords, bubbling electronics and cavern-deep grooves. Whoever Ten Walls is, he's very good.

Review: Dusky have come far in quite a short space with their modern house music interpretations and make quite a decisive move with a high profile transfer from Simple Records to Aus Music. This is still prime, slickly executed house music but with a healthy amount of bass woven into the mix, not least on the fearsome "Alone". A meaty sub line pulses out under the crisp 4/4 while interludes of found-sound percussion come darting in amongst snippets of vocal for a surefire banger. "Dummy" likewise flexes its brawn with pride, from the snappy beat to the punchy bassline, even as the synth elements are intent on sending the track into more spaced-out places.

Review: Roberto Rodriguez's "Lies", previously released with tweaks from Attu, gets a second airing. The sinewy original - a kind of dubwise deep disco-house concoction - is remixed by Satin Jackets and Kyodai. The latter reaches for the heavy Rhodes chords and skippy US garage-influenced drums on his sunset-themed remake, apparently aiming to soundtrack happy evenings dancing on Mediterranean terraces. Nu-disco don Satin Jackets unsurprisingly emphasizes the original's more disco elements on his warm, baggy remake. It's a typically enjoyable and breezy chunk of deep house/nu-disco fusion.

Review: Dani Plessow dons the Motor City Drum Ensemble name with Say A Prayer signaling a return to the production game following his much publicized creative burnout. It's clear that Plessow's period of convalescence has worked wonders, with the four tracks here every bit as deep and dusty as the much vaunted Raw Cuts series upon which the MCDE project was launched skywards. Proceedings open with the two part suite of the title track, laying down fuzzy chords and intermittent vocal swoons over a gritty 909 backbone on the opening track; part 2 meanwhile will have you digging out those Raw Cuts 12"s in order to do a MCDE master mix, such is its immediate warmth and neck snapping drums. Meanwhile, Plessow uses "The Stranger" as a chance to traverse bleepier, rattling techno terrain with superb results, whilst "SP11" is rasping high octane house at its finest.

Review: It's been some two years since Shackled, George Fitzgerald's last outing on Hotflush and it's fair to say the landscape both occupy has shifted some in that period. Both artist and label are fully entrenched in the current UK house explosion and Fitzgerald's return to Paul Rose's label with Thinking Of You seems primed to reverberate across festivals, Croatian beaches and warehouse spaces as the summer months roll on. A prominent track in Fitzgerald's recent Essential Mix, "Thinking Of You" sees the producer continue to refine an approach to forthright house music shown on recent dalliances with Aus Music and Hypercolour and feels almost proto fidget in execution. The techier accompaniment "Nighttide Lover" is drawn from a similar fist pumping palette and features rolling vocal manipulation reminiscent of Switch in his heyday.

Review: The speed at which Bicep have risen through the ranks is staggering. This time two years ago they were bedroom bloggers; now, they're among the most hyped producers around. Here, they pop up on Kevin Saunderson's KMS label with "Vision of Love", th typically tough and wide-eyed chunk of US house revivalism that originally surfaced on their eponymous label last year. It's devilishly simple, with a few key ingredients - big piano riffage, subtle strongs and booming beats - being whisked together to produce a peaktime delight whilst the cheeky usage Inner City vocal samples is what has lead to it being reissued through KMS. Carl Craig edits, delivering a version that expertly teases out the piano and vocal, via a few well-placed drops and effects. It's this version that hits home hardest, but we wouldn't expect anything less.