NM2 (Noir Music) At Juno Download

Review: Coyu and Lopez deliver killer tech-house for this Noir offshoot label. The title track is a rolling, bass-heavy groove; the sub-bass sounds malevolent as it underscores building chord sweeps and a stuttering, Chicago-style vocal stutter imploring the listener to 'make em clap'. It sounds like a combination of the darkest excesses of tribal house and Ron Hardy-style warehouse sleaze. As its name suggests, "Techno Raw" follows a similar trajectory, but here the sound is even heavier and the tempo higher. Rhythms roll in and provide the backdrop against which Lopez and Coyu drop a series of stomach-churning chord sequences and breakdowns.

Review: The underlying approach on Collected is towards toolish, tribal DJ grooves, but that only tells part of the story. While tracks from Fog & Arara and Noir & Westboy rely on conga drums, rolling rhythms and breakdowns bigger than Charlie Sheen's latest identity crisis to make the cut, there are other more subtle contributions here. Sabb & S Elezi's "Sax On Wax" is an effortless deep house jam; Pirupa & Pigi's "Sweet Devil" uses sensuous strings to guide it to the dancefloor and Jay Lumen's take on Collin &b Behnam's "The King", with its massive sample eulogising Michael Jackson, makes a pleasant change from the usual Martin Luther King samples. However, Jerome Sydenham & Timo Garcia's "Mutualism" proves that it's possible to sound inventive with tribal rhythms - as long as you lace them with insistent chord stabs.