Audaz At Juno Download

Review: Portuguese producer Lino "Alkalino" Rodriguez has proved to be a shrewd operator when it comes to the art of re-editing, successfully breathing new life into obscure and little-known disco material. Root Edits offers up seven more immaculate scalpel jobs. Opening with the string-drenched soul bump of "Lucky Fellow", Rodriguez offers up a slick selection of smooth and groovy dancefloor faves. Across the seven tracks, he variously touches on anthemic synth disco ("Jamming", a 'fixed' version of The Jammers' "Be Mine Tonight"), curious Italo (a strange cover of Ace's hoary rock classic "How Long"), disco-reggae, disco-rock and, most excitingly, slap bass-wielding 80s alt-disco. All are re-sculpted with the finesse of a true craftsman.

Review: Portuguese producer Alkalino continues to move further towards deep house territory following early excursions into disco and piano-laden Balearic house. This EP for regular home Audaz is arguably one of his strongest releases to date and features three deep, chunky and decidedly groovy cuts built around spoken word vocals and shuffling percussion. Choose between the bubbling chords and dense disco percussion of "Heavy As Stone", the retro-futurist riffage and goodtime vibes of "Distant Future", and the Italian deep house-aping "Pedal Polarity 3000". The EP also includes a fantastically jaunty boompty/swing/hip-house fusion from Mem that sounds like it's primed for peaktime plays.

Review: Should deep house with just a hint of simmering soul be your thing, this split EP from Jonas Gorke and Mem is well worth a gander. Gorke's contribution, in particular, is excellent. Entitled "December Girl", it offers 10 minutes of delicious but gorgeously simple deep house built around the sparsest of elements. There's little more than a bunch of great loops - a wonderfully evocative piano figure, a teasing female vocal sample, some snappy snares, a nagging bassline and the faintest of strings - but it works wonderfully. Mem's "We've Got Soul" - offered in two different mixes - is similarly simple, but boasts a much more old skool vibe.