Outernational At Juno Download

Review: After launching themselves with an excellent EP of slow grooves on Perspective back in 2010, Bristol cellar dwellers Behling & Simpson have proved to be one of the bass-obsessed city's more interesting house exports. After impressing on Futureboogie, Apple Pips and 2020 Midnight Visions, here they pop up on Outernational with their most left-of-centre EP yet. "The Vaults" sets the tone, building carefully towards a frenetic climax thanks to loose, jazz-flecked, Afro-tinged rhythms, a pulsing bassline and all manner of spiritual synth licks. "Slates" sees them move further towards intense, Afro-house territory - whilst retaining their trademark woozy synths, of course - while "Vitamin A" bobs and weaves impressively, all nagging acid tweaks and swinging, low-slung beats.

Review: The afro-tinged rhythms of Futureboogie regulars Behling & Simpson's recent Outernational release get the remix treatment on this fine two-tracker. First up, Belfast's Ejeca continues his meteoric rise through the upper echelons of contemporary house with a radical reconstruction of "The Vaults", transforming its dubby, mid-tempo grooves into a peak time thumper that inspires visions of a crowded, sweaty basement. Last Mood's version of "Slate" is a similarly drastic transformation, taking only the merest hint of vocals and transplanting them from the wonky acid of the original into a peak-time Chicago-inspired piece of throbbing, jacking.house.

Review: The fourth drop on the fledgling Outernational ensures standards are maintained with James Johnston and Ben La Desh providing a track on each side. Glaswegian producer Johnston is in fine form currently, having established the No Matter What label he runs with Alex Agore in the collective hearts of the deep house cognoscenti, and "That Was Now" is a sublime example of embellishing thick set house music with the spirit and soul of classic disco. Hints of glistening strings and a well plucked bass guitar sit deep in the mix as the packed groove builds effortlessly towards a quite lovely drop and build back into a final movement where the subtle disco elements become more prominent. Not to be outdone, Dutch juvenile delinquent Ben La Desh counters with "Drug Carrier", a quite intoxicating burner that's got several distinct rhythmic movements, with the point where some wide filtering introduces a heavy vibing Baltic disco mid section.

Review: Dutchman Kastil is one of a growing number of producers whose tracks straddle the blurry line between disco and house. On previous releases, he has delivered both deep house originals and disco edits, as well a smattering of tracks that sit somewhere between the two camps. This release sits in the latter category, offering flowing jams that add a bumpin' house sensibility to string-drenched disco cuts. Lead cut "Mc Geever" sets the tone, offering a hip-wigglin' head-nodder built around heavy snares, darting synths, big strings and neat vocal samples. "Saved By The Photo", meanwhile, delivers a Tiger & Woods-ish stroll through loopy electrofunk/house pastures, all filters and touchy-feely synths.

Review: When a release is titled Dusty Edits, you expect a bit of old fashioned scalpel work with pops and crackles aplenty, right? Not in the case of this loopy house/disco three-tracker from occasional Editorial and Deep Nota type Kastil. They are, though, delightfully hypnotic, fusing a deep house sensibility with carefully chosen loops from a trio of classic disco and Philly soul cuts (think Tiger & Woods and The Revenge). This perhaps works best on slow-burning lead cut "Still In Love", but check also the head-nodding, string-drenched vibes of "SMD" (a dubby, filter-heavy take on Skyy's disco-funk staple "High").

Review: When quizzed about his debut full-length before a Juno Plus party last year, John Talabot paused for a minute. "It's not really house, more electronica - like a proper album," he finally remarked. It's an apt description. Fin is clearly rooted in house - and the kind of melody-driven, atmospheric tackle that the Barcelona-based producer excels at - but it's certainly not a dancefloor-focused set. There are off-kilter downtempo moments, slo-mo compositions and twisted beatscapes that recall the impossible-to-pigeonhole antics of Hyetal (circa "Broadcast"), Sepalcure and Instra:Mental. Then there's closer "So Will Be Now" (one of two collaborations with Pional), a near-genius chunk of future garage/deep acid house fusion that's so beautiful it almost hurts. As transformations go, Fin is stunning.