Stilove4music US At Juno Download

Review: It many ways, Stilove4music and Al Kent is a match made in heaven. The latter's deep love and knowledge of disco, coupled with his impressive scalpel skills, are a good fit for the label that first brought us the essential edits of Rahaan. "Disco Crazy" is in many ways typical Kent - a long, driving, building tweak of a crazy, dancefloor-friendly disco obscurity that's never less than sympathetic to the source material. "Disco Party", a loose, bass-heavy party jam featuring copious amounts of reverb, is equally fuzzy and funky. "Mystic Merlin", meanwhile, is a rock solid, floor-friendly tweak of disco-funk classic "Just Can"t Give You Up". While it has been edited on numerous occasions, rarely has it sounded this good.

Review: The two-track funk/soul edit release from London duo AM KO proved popular on its original vinyl release, and should prove to be an irresistible proposition for digital DJs. Crucially, both edits - of Fred Wesley's "House Party" and Bernard Wright's "Just Chillin' Out" respectively - have a house sensibility but wisely steer clear of adding extra production tricks and needless extra beats. The best instrumental passages are extended, the breaks showcased and the vocals retained. It's simple stuff, but with source material this strong it would be foolish to tinker needlessly. Crucially, both offer more DJ-friendly versions of killer tunes. Job done

Review: Upon the original release of Carnival De L'Spirit on Stilove4music back in 2008, Andy Ash was an unknown quantity amongst the disco/house cognoscenti - the fact it was a double pack of vinyl made people sit up and take notice. In the period since then Ash has excelled with releases for On The Prowl and the FOTO imprint run by OOFT. Long since deleted, the eight track set is finally available on digital format and still impresses with a selection of well known Latin, jazz and soul tracks dealt a house twist. Such an approach is nothing new, but when it's executed with the panache of the Badu sampling "Erika Wants" for example, it's worth investigating.

Review: The Stilove4music digital bonanza continues with a super cheeky two tracker from Delano Smith under the DJ Mode moniker. The real killer here is "It's Fun To Compute", an old fashioned house bootleg that expertly fuses elements from Kraftwerk's 1981 electro banger "It's More Fun To Commute" and vocal lifts from George Kranz's idiosyncratic pop hit "Din Da Daa". It's fantastically hooky and shot through with original '80s electro flavour, but never descends into cheap novelty. The EP's other cut, "Can You Feel It", offers a solid, filter-heavy house remix of the Jacksons' pop anthem of the same name.

Review: Fresh from putting together the brilliant early house comp 122 BPM, Jerome Derradji pops up on his own Stillove4music imprint with a trio of tried-and-tested reworks. Lead cut "Disconnected" is particularly celebratory, offering a cozy but driving chunk of touchy-feely disco with a European twist. "Whatchadoin", meanwhile, expertly extends a familiar slap-bass heavy disco groove, teasing out a heavyweight groove before dropping into the revelatory vocal. "Adaptive Control", meanwhile, delivers an acid-flecked groove and the sort of spooky synths that suggest that the end of days is nigh. As edits EPs go, Disconnect is one of the more interesting of recent times.

Review: Label boss Jerome Derradji steps into the spotlight on this latest sneaky release from Stilove4music. While previous releases have tiptoed down the thin white line between disco and house, "Play On" is a purist's dream. These are straightforward, ultra-reverential re-edits of obscure, slept-on and long forgotten disco era tracks. They're pretty darn good, too, offering disco heads a variety of dancefloor flavours. There's squidgy, shuffling electrofunk ("Track 4", which should perhaps be titled "Play On" due to the hooky vocal), vocoder-heavy grooves ("Track 3") and two stunning trips into disco-soul territory (tracks 1 and 2).