Review: Celebrating 10 years of Alex Niggemann's Aeon label - its fifth and final drop for the series anniversary series sends in a closing four numbers. Trusty ol' Lauer arrives with some gothic, night driving Italo-electro in "Mercury Retrograde" - Kavinsky eat your heart out - that sits pretty next to the stringed and acid inspired house and electro by Alan Dixon. Vhyce turns up the disco arpeggios to 11 in his chord heavy "A Clay That Never Dries", while the man Niggemann closes us out with a sensational warehouse electro dub, "Generation X".
Review: Eight years on from the release of Lost Tapes Volume 1, Aeon has offered up the fifth instalment in the popular compilation series. Predictably, the quality threshold remains high throughout with standout moments aplenty. Check first the opening slab of spacey gorgeousness from rising star Alan Dixon - the intergalactic deep house/punchy electro/acid-flecked nu-disco fusion of 'Space Manoeuvres', before admiring the deep Italo-disco chug of Machinegewehr's 'Call The Shots' and the dark, throbbing, neon-lit dancefloor intensity of Past Futura's 'Viva La Discotique'. We'd also suggest checking out the clips of Alex Virgo's 'Clown Car', a freestyle and Hi-NRG-influenced nu-disco romp that's as bouncy and colourful as they come.
Review: Alan Dixon, who's resident DJ at Savage in London, returns to Gerd Janson's Running Back with an EP that's unsurprisingly long on keys action. 'Acid Drop' gets the ball rolling, opening with a squelchy, early 80s-sounding synth bassline before unleashing a deluge of hands-in-the-air rave/Italo-house pianos from around the two-minute mark. The accompanying Swimming Mix tones down the 80s bass and adds a shimmering synth top line, giving the track something of a Balearic prog feel, while elsewhere 'Poye Loco' is a druggy, hazy nu-disco chugger and 'Rudy's Selector' is a midtempo, contemplative piece, both also heavily laced with piano.
Review: Six years has passed since Tensnake established the True Romance label, so this retrospective "best of" is arguably long overdue. The ten-track set is naturally dominated by his productions, with highlights including the dreamy Italo-disco revivalism of "Hello?", the slap bass-propelled Balearic disco cheeriness of "All In All" and the seductive electronic sensuality of "Desire". Elsewhere, there's another chance to savour Tiger & Woods superb mid-tempo proto house meets Italo-disco revision of Sunrise Highway's "Some Kind of Fool", a deserved airing for Phil Gerus' synth-laden jazz-funk workout "Make Time" and some stellar disco-house from T.U.R.F (the excellent "Never Get Enough".
Review: Bizarrely, Running Back boss Gerd Janson describes this multi-artist EP as "a sampler for a hypothetical mixtape". Perhaps he should make that imaginary mix a reality, because all four cuts are quality. Check first the throbbing and pulsating brilliance of Storken's "Lille Vals", which sounds like an Italo-disco obsessive's take on Bobby Orlando's mid-1980s work (with a little NYC freestyle thrown in) before donning your extra-special dancing shoes to shuffle along to Alan Dixon's new dancefloor "Drums Mix" of his synthesizer soundscape "Ambient Braindisk". Zombies In Miami predictably deliver the goods on bleeping, synth-laden nu-disco throb-job "Panoramica", while Hokaiido's "Talisman" offers the perfect combination of delay-laden proto-house drums on steroids, bold freestyle bass and cheery synthesizer melodies.
Shay Jones - "When Love Calls" (E-Smoove's Late Night) - (7:08) 120 BPM
Slam Dunk'd - "No Price" (feat Chromeo & Al-P - Dr Packer extended remix) - (8:06) 123 BPM
Luke Solomon - "Light You Up" (feat Queen Rose & Amy Douglas - Louie Vega Roots mix) - (9:10) 123 BPM
The Lab Rats & The Experiment - "Music Is My Way Of Life" (feat Lisa Millett - The Lab Rats Present The Experiment/Lab Rats Main Experiment) - (8:11) 125 BPM
Copyright & One Track Minds - "Good For You" (feat Angie Brown) - (8:17) 125 BPM
Review: Alan Dixon has been in tremendous form of late, delivering must-have EPs for Midnight Riot and, most recently, Lumberjacks In Hell. There's no doubt that this outing for Running Back - produced in cahoots with regular Ashley Beedle collaborator Darren Morris - is his most high-profile release to date. It's also rather good, particularly the glassy-eyed Italo-disco muscularity of "La Danza" - all driving arpeggio-style bass and mind-altering electronic motifs - and the solo-laden, mid-tempo Balearic house brilliance of closing cut "Star Dance", which sounds like something Phillip Lauer might conjur up. There are two real standouts for us, though: the driving, 1989 style piano house rush of "Moments" and the colourful, beat-free bliss of sunrise-ready bonus cut "Ambient Braindisk".
Review: Midnight Riot's first celebration of gospel-fired disco and boogie, "Take It To Church", was rather special, so hopes are naturally high for this follow-up. Happily, we can confirm that Yam Who and company have once again nailed the brief. As with its predecessor, the 23-track set offers up a scintillating, soulful mixture of bumpin' gospel house (see Redsoul's superb "Born Again" and DJ Spen's bass-heavy tweak of Boorman's "God's Got It"), righteous disco-house (the Showfa, Alan Dixon, the piano-heavy stomp of Yam Who's "Tomorrow"), synth-laden gospel boogie (Dr Packer, Yam Who's tidy revision of Andre Esput's "Call Me"), breezy sing-alongs (Lux Experience) and plenty of dusty disco, electrofunk soul rearrangements (Divine Situation, Sweet Jubilees, Phil Jaimes). In other words, it's another essential collection.
Review: Fresh from turning in a killer remix of the Soup Dragons "I'm Free" alongside Midnight Riot boss Yam Who, Alan Dixon returns to the label with a feisty four-track missive. He fires from the word go, with bounding, energy-packed opener "All We Need Is Dance" delivering a brilliantly bouncy revision of a shirts-off, turn-of-the-'80s San Francisco disco smasher. The thrills don't stop there, either. "Let Ya Feet Rock" is a thrilling combination of elastic slap bass, synth-fired disco-boogie instrumentation and sturdy beats, "Dance Across The Floor" is a seductive 129 BPM deep disco workout, and "Forever" is a riotous re-edit of a stone cold classic that sounds like an end-of-night anthem in the making.
Review: There's no high concept behind Midnight Riot's latest compilation of label favourites and unheard cuts, just a desire to deliver "summer burners" to "make your body move". As usual, label boss Yam Who has gathered together a selection of original productions, re-edits and remixes that prioritize frenzied limb shaking. Highlights include a deliciously deep and woozy, Joey Negro style M+M rub of Soulpersona's "Sunset City", a bouncy, boogie-meets-nu-disco revision of Hypnotic Lovers' "Chemistry" by Birdee, the sax-laden disco-funk shuffle of Stephen King's "Hold On To You", some soaring peak-time disco edit business from Alan Dixon and a suitably cheery, talkbox-sporting rework of an underground disco classic by long-serving edit crew Drop Out Orchestra.
Review: While gospel has always been a strong influence in the worlds of house and disco, the volume of spiritually charged dancefloor tracks has rocketed in recent times. Hence this fine compilation from Midnight Riot and "gospel supremo" the Showfa, which gathers together new, recent and overlooked gospel-fired dancefloor jams. We're particularly enjoying Yam Who and Alan Dixon's brilliant new version of the Soup Dragons' "I'm Free" - think classic, Balearic-era baggy house with more prominence given to the London Gospel Choir's vocals and Dixon's wild organ lines - Le Visiteur's low-slung re-edit of an old gospel-disco gem ("Let The Sunshine") and the rubbery boogie-gospel-goes-filter-house excitement of Benjamin Ferreira's "What U Will". That said, there's barely a duffer to be found amongst the 19 tracks on show, with the emphasis rightly on celebratory positivity throughout.
Review: Anyone who's ever thought that disco's had it's day, well they clearly need to check out Le Spank, the latest bumper packed compilation from Yam Who?'s mighty Midnight Riot label for irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Yes the YM? duo have rustled up a whopping 20 summer jams to soundtrack out summer and boy are we grateful! Highlights include the hot-to-the-touch neon boogie of Qwestlife's "Streetlife" rework, HIfi Sean's campy hiNRG remake of "Shari Vari" and the deep, late 80s Brit house vibes of "Cant Get Enough" by Alan Dixon. Party all summer long!
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