We Play House Belgium At Juno Download

Review: Parisian veteran DJ Yellow returns to deep house pastures with an evocative EP for Belgium's We Play House. The three original tracks here take much inspiration from the expansive electronic sweeps of progressive house, adding a shuffling deep house sensibility for contemporary dancefloors. This blend works best on the hypnotic, late night head-nodder "Je T'M", but can also be seen on the vocal opener "Night In Tranzylvania". There's also an epic ambient/spoken word excursion, "Angel Part" - which brings back memories of old Billie Ray Martin releases on Apollo - and a low-slung Russ Gabriel remake of "Night In Tranzylvania". Excellent.

Review: Belgian duo Red D and San Soda resurrect their stand out 2010 house throwback "Vocals For Everyone" with this revisit, complete with a huge new remix from Arto Mwambe. "Used To Be" shines immediately thanks to a mercifully un-effected vocal and a winning mix of soft stabs, hi pitch mod-wheel rocking squalls and deep 808 beats. Also included is the instrumental version of deep Detroit delight "Back" - with the full vocal version being kept back for FCL's debut album due out later in the year. However Frankfurt funk fiends Arto Mwambe step up with a gloriously vivid and ethno-imbued remix that uses reed leads and some gloriously dubby delays over everything to create a truly standout groove.

Review: We Play House social secretary Red D presents the first in what we hope is a long series of collaborative EPs which features the production talents of Lemakuhlar, Social Disco Club and Metrobox. No prizes for guessing the sounds that will roll out your speaker cones, but this is still some truly classy house music. Red D shares the first two tracks with compatriots Lemakuhlar, serving up a slice of vintage Chicago bump on "Is Limited" laying out an infectious piano hook before an almighty wave of Midwest emotive textures arise and take hold! Alongside it "Is Essit" presents a rawer, dusted sound with rough jacking pads splayed underneath a freaked out vocal hook - the left turn into sumptuous strings provides the wow factor. Up next, the Portugal vs Belgium dust up gets off to a great start with an exposition on the state of jacking house that is "We Made This Jack" which sees Metrobox's European tones ride the heavy jacking rhythms with aplomb. "Need You" is a more broken affair, with sparse percussion allowing the subby rhythmic thrust the space to dominate.

Review: More crisp adventures into weird melodic deep house on Belgian imprint We Play House Recordings courtesy of Welsh producer Luv Jam. Known to familials as Andy Cole, Luv Jam is right at home on WPH with The Pitch Black EP. "Black Moon" rides a deep organ groove with synth lines intermittently soaring through the ether of a growling bassline barely touched by soft pads. WPH mainstay San Soda takes the track into deeper yet more danceable territory, sculpting a real hypnotic groove from the stems. Lush Detroit atmospherics abound on "Black Panther" where future abstract syncopation is complemented by Blade Runner-esque synth washes and flushed piano stabs. Four tracks of excellent future retro house that have already garnered support from the likes of Simbad and Jimpster.

Review: It's the House music equivalent of Gareth Bale versus Mario Goetze on the 19th We Play House transmission (not including the limited colour prints) as Welsh wonder Luv Jam pairs off with rising German talent Dynamodyse, appearing here as SRF Inc. The appropriately titled Wales vs Germany: 2-2 EP sees both producers contribute two tracks, and it marks a welcome return for Luv Jam whose rise has been fully justified since he first surfaced on LPH almost three years ago. Both his productions are stamped with that unique Luv Jam style; the way "We Play Mouse" woozily sways between obscure and classicist moments is particularly delightful. German Wunderkind Dynamodyse continues his work under the SRF Inc banner with two equally unique house tools, with the bassline to "How To Eat Music" truly hard to resist.

Review: Having collaborated with Red D on a previous We Play House release, Antwerp native Berten De Beukelaer - better known as Metrobox - gets a chance to deliver an EP all of his own for the Belgian imprint. Stroom Spanning & Weeerstand is typical of his work, which invariably mixes bold melodies and tactile electronics with rubbery house grooves. The nu-disco influenced "Juno 11" sets the tone, layering crystalline melodies over a tasty retro-futurist groove. "Ode Aan WPH" offers a more Germanic take on deep house, whilst retaining the nu-disco influence, with flute solos intermingling with De Beaukelaer's own vocals. "Live The Dream" takes a similar approach, while beefing up the bottom end, whilst "Soul Princepessa" shuffles along impressively.

Review: Following hot on the heels of his killer vocal house EP with We Play House boss Red D (under their new FCL moniker), San Soda returns to the Belgian imprint with this solo effort. Here we see the euphoric house of FCL replaced by more restrained yet equally danceable tunes, kicking off with "Bright Piano," which brings to mind Session Victim's recent hit, "The Keyboarder". "Ode Aan De Verkeersdrempel," which some light internet sleuthing revealed is Dutch for "Ode To The Traffic Threshold" (surely something lost in translation there), is another shimmering house jam. The EP winds down with the more restrained vibe of "Hypocrisy" and the delectable jazzy keys of "Middelmatig In 1993". Great little release from an up and coming producer.

Review: Damn! The Toch Al De Vijfde EP makes for a long overdue return to the solo release game for We Play House main man San Soda! We're not quite sure what the title means as we skipped Flemish A Level at school (Yet already the fifth?) but San Soda is truly on form here, dropping four fully fledged deep house gems - one of which features a certain Dresden dynamo called Jacob Korn! As soon as those oven warm keys spiral out in tandem with a classic house harmony on "You Hear Me" we expect this release will be on your want list but do check "See More Days" which features the aforementioned Korn as well as Hercules & Love Affair singer Gustaph, who belts out some Red D penned lyrics over the Korn Soda production with the sort of aplomb that obviously impressed Andy Butler.

Review: With We Play House now firmly established as one of our favourite labels here at Juno Download HQ, it's safe to say each new arrival on the imprint is met with an unrestrained squeal of delight. The 13th release from the WPH crew comes from label newcomer Sebastien San, with a sumptuous four track offering that comes with a remix from golden boy San Soda. "Great Cities" (Ad Lib) opens proceedings in a smoky, jazzed out manner, with twinkling keys working beneath a gently undulating synth line. This leads into the gentle understated glee of "Pulsation", before San Soda breathes some life into the title track with his downtempo version (which ironically is considerably more uptempo than the original). "Theories" by comparison is the most dancefloor driven of the four, a heads down roller with pumping chords making it perfect early night warehouse party tackle.