Review: The Australian producer Arle produced "Close To You" as early as 2015. It took a while before the British duo of Icarus discovered him on the Internet and were thrilled by this mixture of melody and danceable rhythm. They found him so good that they wanted to make the unknown artist better known: and it was their edit which became a hit back in early 2017. Now we great treated to a couple more brilliant renditions to add to the list. Stray Beast's moody and rolling main room tech house rework features the most razor sharp bassline we've heard all year! Next up London's Pola & Bryson take it back into the roller's realm on this soulful and evocative serving of liquid drum and bass, that would make the likes of Bukem or Calibre stand up and notice.
Martin Books - "Flitzepulver" (original mix) - (6:35) 128 BPM
Various - "Ibiza 2018 Closing Party" (continuous DJ mix 1) - (1:18:53) 124 BPM
Various - "Ibiza 2018 Closing Party" (continuous DJ mix 2) - (1:19:01) 125 BPM
Review: With the same certainty that the leaves will turn brown and fall from the trees, autumn sees the release of Toolroom's closing party album. It's the label's annual state of the (house) nation address and 2018 is no exception. While this year's edition contains a healthy smattering of feel good house - the most impressive exempts being the vocal grooves of Weiss' "Feel My Needs" and Illyus & Barrientos' "MEA" - there are also more adventurous variants on offer. These include Peggy Gou's tweaked acid take on Shakedown's "At Night", the chord heavy Dusky take on KiNK's "Perth" and the cut-up, abstract "Pale Blue Dot" by rising lo-fi house artist Ross From Friends, which demonstrate that this year, Toolroom is thinking outside the box.
Review: SubSoul began life as a YouTube channel before embracing the more traditional route of being an actual record label. Now they've decided to follow-up their 2014 comp SubSoul & Friends with a second volume. This time we have four new cuts starting with Sly One & Kattison's retro diva house anthem, "High On You", things get deeper and nastier on Dillon Nathaniel's "Cymatic", whilst Kideko & Apres "Get The Funk" is all about the big snare rolls and electro-house bounce. Lastly ARLE's "Close To You (Icarus edit)" is the perfect hands in the air festival sing-a-long.
