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Played by: Petals In Sound
Review: After notching up tracks and EPs on labels including Happiness Therapy, Toy Tonics, Kitsune and Exploited, Athlete Whippet pops up on House of Disco for the very first time. Titke track 'Talk About This Love' is a touch off-kilter and tricky to pigeonhole, with sparkling synth sounds, atmospheric pads and hazy female vocal snippets rising above a post-electro, broken house rhythm and deep sub-bass. 'Dreams of Being Alone', meanwhile, sits somewhere between dreamy, Balearic nu-disco, Orbital and downtempo electro. Demuja does a terrific job in re-imagining that track as a tactile and rubbery chunk of loved-up, retro-futurist deep house smothered in Motor City techno style synth-strings, while Arrop Roy's take on 'Talk About This Love' sounds like early Orbital mixed with hazy, lo-fi deep house.
Various
Review: Should you be on the lookout for cheerfully joyous and positive floor-fillers, the latest edition of Happiness Therapy's popular Happy House series of compilations is well worth a listen. The 14 featured tracks come from a mixture of label regulars and newcomers, and there's enough variety across the collection to suit a variety of dancefloor moods and situations. For proof, we'd suggest bouncing between the celebratory piano-house rush of 'Promise Keeper' by Peter Palace, the garage-influenced deep house bump of Naux's 'Lemona (Missin' U)', the trad US garage-goes-deep house bounce of DJ Atlance's 'The Music In Me' and the disco-techno rush of 'Mr Magic' by Baka G.
James Juke/Various
Junior Simba/Various
Various
The Glimmers - "U Rocked My World (Pete Herbert & Tristan Da Cunha Remix)" (2022 Remaster) - (7:29) 125 BPM
Various
Review: There's much to enjoy about the ninth volume in Toy Tonics' ongoing Top Tracks series, which showcases much played, sought-after highlights from the label's rapidly growing catalogue. The standard of material on show is uniformly excellent, from the warming and organic broken dancefloor soul of Cody Currie's compilation opening 'Moves' and the sparkling piano house retro-futurism of COEO's 'I Can Never Be Yours', to the Amp Fildder-esque deep house soul of Rhode, Brown & Kosmo Kint's 'Through The Night', and the good-time, carnival-ready dancefloor sunshine of Sam Ruffilo's disco-tinged 'Es Buena'. Throw in a couple of killer cuts from jazz pianist-turned-deep house don Joel Holmes, and you have a seriously good compilation.
Review: One of the main selling points of Athlete Whippet's first Toy Tonics outing is the pair's distinctive trademark sound, which combines elements of Berlin deep house/tech house with interestingly programmed beats and heaps of UK jazz-funk/jazz fusion instrumentation. For proof, check out the two collaborations with vocalist Aphty Khea, the deep, bouncy and soul-soaked 'Yesterday' and the dreamy broken beat/Balearic boogie fusion of 'Can't Make My Mind Up'. Elsewhere, title track 'Vesta' brilliantly joins the dots between kaleidoscopic synth-funk, driving dub disco and fluid deep house, while 'Fanfa' is a heavily percussive deep broken beat number with a strong Brazilian flavour. In a word: superb.
Played by: Juno Recommends Broken Beat Nu Jazz
Review: Athlete Whippet is not one of Peckham's better-known artists, though the fast-rising duo's hazy, dusty and quietly summery take on deep house certainly sounds like comes from the South London borough. Check "Hands Only", the title track from the duo's latest EP. While a little chunkier and bolder than, say, many Rhythm Section International releases, it would sit neatly alongside them in DJ sets. In contrast, "Dreams" is an Italo-disco influenced roller whose inherent dreaminess becomes apparent as the track progresses. Max Graef heads up the accompanying remix package, brilliantly recasting "Hands Only" as a fizzing, Kaidi Tatham style broken jazz-funk gem, before Seb Wildblood serves up a wonderfully warm, loose and languid deep house take on "Other".
Played by: Kraak & Smaak
