Toy Tonics At Juno Download

Review: Berlin house head Hard Ton returns to the Toytonics label he inaugurated last year with another round of jacking 90s vocal house. "Food From Love" has all the electrofunk tendencies of his last Toytonics release, combining a raw drum machine rhythm with midnight keys and a rising arpeggio which perfectly complements the yearning Bronski Beat-esque vocal. "From Club To Club" meanwhile wears its rave influences a little more explicitly on its sleeve, with a bubbling acid line and neon house stabs popping off in the background, while the pitched down backing vocals offer a subtle contrast to its companion. "Food Of Love" is also given a rather stunningly deep rework by the legendary DJ Sprinkles, who adds his own meandering bassline and latin percussion elements to give the whole thing a welcome bit of swing, before soaring off on an improvised piano line at the end.

Review: New German imprint Toy Tonics launch with panache and style, scooping up the instantly familiar Hard Ton for the hard jacking, high pitched action of the Not Again EP. According to the press release, Toy Tonics' remit is to focus on Berlin-centric artists whose music references 90s house and German electrofunk, which makes Hard Ton an obvious candidate. The title track "Not Again" is a glorious combination of fully primed drum machine funk, rich analogue bass, raved up keyboard stabs, deviating acid lines and of course Hard Ton's singularly unique holler. The ever dependable Snuff Crew are a perfect choice to remix the track, stripping down the melodic excesses and introducing their own unpredictable acid refrain and uber raved stabs to give the track a fresh look. Hard Ton's "In This Moment" throws down expansive keys and pads over rigidly framed "Set It Off" drums and it's given a looser, uplifting, almost 90s freestyle sheen by Dimitri From Paris and DJ Rocca.

Review: Having previously impressed with an EP of shuffling deep house disco on Gazeebo International, Australian musician/producer Jad Lee drops an EP of woozy, floor-friendly deepness on Toy Tonics. "Do It Get Up" is indicative of his trademark sound, delivering a strobelight-friendly fusion of chunky bottom-end, wiry synths and thickset chords. Kolombo remixes, offering up a delightfully wonky, stripped-back version that sounds like Sweet Exorcist making nu-disco, under the influence of helium. "Tipsy" throws some weighty electrofunk bass into the mix with impressive results, while the boogie sampling "Lovin" tickles and teases with its blend of jackin' beats and Tiger and Woods-ish cut-ups.

Review: Fledgling Gomma offshoot Toy Tonics arrive at their third release, reaching out across the Atlantic to take in an excellent EP from Mexico City duo Moon Runner. Formed of La Royale and Juan Soto, Moon Runner specialise in a raw brand of house music that relies on thick analogue bass lines, disjointed melodies and heavily funked out rhythms, which is best demonstrated on EP opener "Cultural Track One." It bears obvious comparisons with the Central American branch of Matias Aguayo's Comeme and it's little surprise that Daniel Maloso has been called on to add his mind bending production idiosyncrasies to the track.

Review: From deep beneath the bowels of Munich come Friedrich "Rhode" Trede and Michael "Brown" Braun, purveyors of slick, garage-influenced deep house. This EP for Toytonics, their third in total, begins with a slinky chunk of breezy garage goodness, "Under Your Spell". It's the sort of thing you'd expect to hear on Local Talk, but with an added contemporary sheen. "Joyride' offers more anthemic deep house/garage fusion - all screaming female vocal samples, big riffs and hip-wigglin' beats - while "Floating Figures" laces some delicious old skool pianos over a suitably deep and groovesome backing. Best of all, though, is Kyondai's remix of "Joyride", which throws some fantastic jazz drums into the mix for added percussive impact.