Review: There's something especially alluring about 'The Time Is (Now)', the lead cut from deep house veteran Fred Everything's latest EP, though we're struggling to put our finger on it. Maybe it's the rolling, shaker-heavy drum track, the bold and beautiful bassline, the soundscape electronics or the cut's smiling, effortless positivity. Whatever it is, the track is fantastic - high-quiality deep house that suits a variety of dancefloor situations. It comes backed with two alternative takes -a darker, more driving and percussion-heavy 'dub' mix and a sparse, slowly building 'Reprise' take - plus two bonus cuts: the organ and piano heavy classic house vibes of 'L'Horizon' and the deeper, dreamier flex of 'Paintings'. High-grade deep house for those who love good grooves, addictive basslines and tasteful musicality.
Review: Given their respective track records - both have been serving up quality deep house for decades - you'd expect this hook up between Atjazz and Fred Everything to be high quality. It is, of course, with the original mix of 'Stay a Little While' offering a winning blend of smooth, spacey synths, delay-laden keys, Motor City-inspired electronics, undulating bass, unfussy beats and stirring, life-affirming pads. The accompanying 'Mechant Dub' is naturally a little more spaced out, with the pair prioritising the groove, bassline and mind-mangling electronics. It's a proper 4AM number, tailor-made for dark rooms and dry ice-filled dancefloors.
Review: Late last year, Compost released a brilliant collaborative single from fellow Montreal deep house veterans, Fred Everything and Trevor Walker. This speedy sequel, which features vocals from Diabel Cissokho, is arguably even better. In its original form (track one), 'Kafoiye' is a futuristic take on Afro-house/deep house fusion topped off by a fine lead vocal. Art of Tones re-casts it as a Fela Kuti/Tony Allen style Afrobeat burner - all loose-limbed polyrhythmic drums and hazy horns - on his superb 'remix' and 'dub' versions, both of which are little less than sensational. Also included on a strong package are a percussive, sub-heavy 'Bonus Dub', a starry instrumental mix and a gorgeous, sunrise-ready 'Reprise' mix that strips out most (but not all) of the beats.
Review: After celebrating their landmark 40th anniversary last year, long running Ibiza-based institution Cafe Del Mar are back for the next annual compilation in their series. Cafe Del Mar Chillhouse Mix XII does exactly what it says on the tin, and quite frankly no one else quite does it better. Highlights come from: legend Ian Pooley on the bumpin' late night groove of "Puzzled", Montreal staple Fred Everything getting the remix treatment by the ever reliable I:cube on the ultra deep sleaze of "Barbarella" and British nu-disco heroes Bent also getting a low slung rework by the mighty Ashley Beedle on "Friends". Elsewhere, Kiwi duo Chaos In The CBD keep "Cool But So.." by Detroit first wave pioneer Alton Miller in a typically soulful and emotive form with their perspective, while Chicago staple JT Donaldson delivers perfect mood music as always with his remix of Dirtytwo's "Hopeless" and Ron Trent showing us all exactly just what 'deepness' really is all about on his stunning version of Tevo Howard's classic "Without Me" feat Tracey Thorn - an oldie but still a goodie!
Review: This year, Fred Everything has been busy revisiting tracks from his back catalogue. The latest cut to get the revisionist treatment is 'Barbarella', a gorgeously intergalactic fusion of deep house and squelchy nu-disco that first featured on his 2018 album Long Way Home. The headline-grabbing revision comes courtesy of Parisian legend I:Cube, who reinvents the track as a sleazy, spaced-out chunk of metronomic synth-pop/space disco fusion with added acid bass and lashings of starry-eyed synths. Fred Everything provides two 'Slow Down' versions, both of which shuffle along at 89 BPM. The main mix is a street soul tempo wide-eyed shuffler, while the 'ReDub' is a sparse, analogue bass-propelled late-night treat full of echoing beats and sharp, mind-mangling acid lines.
Review: Fred Everything's recent collaboration with the undisputed "voice of house", Robert Owens, was exceptional: a nostalgic chunk of vocal deep house greatness that boasted a number of sonic nods towards the hippy-house brilliance of San Francisco's Dubtribe Soundsystem. Here the Canadian offers up two new mixes inspired by classic Chicagoan acid house. The single-opening 'BDTW Acid Mix' adds Owens' inspiring vocals to an immersive backing track rich in wriggling TB-303 acid lines, chunky acid bass, crunchy, jacking beats and starry, deep space chords. Arguably even better is the accompanying 'Acid Dub', in which selected snippets of Owens' vocals rise above rougher, more angular acid lines, even more jacking drums and some deliciously glassy-eyed musical flourishes.
Review: 'Here (Now)' first appeared as the B-side of the 2020 Vision released 'Over You' single way back in 2003. The deep house stalwart decided to revisit it last year and here presents the results alongside the still delicious original - an ultra-deep, locked-in late-night affair full of drowsy chords, arpeggio-driven synth bass and spacey keys that still sounds as good as it did all those years ago. The Canadian's own '2020: A Space Disco Odyssey' revision undoubtedly takes it up a notch, focusing more on the arpeggio-driven bassline while adding starry electronic flourishes, melancholic strings and deep, intergalactic chords. Equally as impressive is Prins Thomas's epic 'Discomiks', a ten-minute workout that sees the Norwegian layer Fred Everything's keys, chords and samples atop his own live-sounding drums and dub disco bass.
Review: To mark 15 years of the Lazy Days Recordings label he established with Mike Fresco in 2005, Canadian deep house legend Fred Everything has decided to release a trilogy of celebratory compilations, each of which focuses on a specific five-year block. This one celebrates the best material released on the label over the last five years (2015-2020), delivering thrills by the barrowload. Everyone will have their own highlights, but our picks of an extremely strong bunch include the early Larry Heard style warmth of Lance DiSardi's 'Field Recording', the early morning shuffle of Fred Everything's 'Someone Like You', the rushing piano house revival of Fred Everything and Shur-I-Kan's glassy-eyed 'Until Then', and the glacial, tech-tinged goodness of Martin Iveson's 'Leave Me Here'.
Review: Since Fred Everything has a track record of making rather good deep house, and vocalist Robert Owens has a bigger claim than most to be "the voice of house", you'd expect this 'I'll Take You In' to be rather good. It is, of course, with the pair conjuring up a warming, musically detailed chunk of deep house bliss that sounds like a saucer-eyed update of Dubtribe Soundsystem's 'Do It Now'. Fred Everything also provides two fine 'BDTW' mixes: the fluttering synths sounds and vintage Chicago house grooves of the 'Deep Mix', and a more stripped-back 'Vox Dub'. Best of all though is Martin 'Atjazz' Iveson's rework, which recalls the fluid synth sounds, jazzy flutes and intricate percussion programming that marked out his early 2000s work on Mantis Recordings.
Review: As the title makes perfectly clear, the latest compilation from Mike Fresco and Fred Everything's Lazy Days Recordings label offers up a wealth of new and old reworks from the imprint's sizable vaults. Fred Everything is naturally prominent throughout both as remixer - see the distinctive takes on cuts by OJPB (a sun-flecked Afro-house revision of "Bridgetown's Pyramid") and Art of Tones (a lushly deep and dreamy remix of "Koniokola") - and original artist (check Sphiwe Caz-Miz's deep, dusty and woozy tweak of "Searching" and Ian Pooley's bright and breezy revision of "Silverlight"). Elsewhere Jimpster steals the show with a superb version of Martin Iveson's "Leave Me Here", Hot Toddy gets discofied on his LLorca remix and the Revenge weighs in with a jaunty, synth-heavy house rework of Art of Tones' "Unstopped").
Review: We were full of praise for Fred Everything's 2018 album "Long Way Home" - the Canadian's first full-length excursion in a decade - so we have high hopes for this expansive remixed version. There's naturally some revisions by friends and high profile remixers, with Atjazz's deliciously intergalactic deep house take on "Spacetime", Ilia Rudman's slow Balearic boogie revwork of "Palma" being arguably the most notable. Elsewhere, the Lazy Days co-founder offers up a string of fine alternative versions of his own - see the sparkling, piano-heavy "7AM in Tisno" dub of "Barbarella" and the stunning, beat-free "Somewhere Ambient Version" of "Something for starters - as well as a handful of fine dubs and some previously unheard tracks ("Un Dimache Soir", "Alright (Original Mix)").
Review: In its original form, Fred Everything's latest collaboration - this time with sugar-voiced British soul man Jinadu - breathes new life into a once mighty variation of deep house: dub house. Rich in sub-heavy dub bass, delay-laden reggae guitars, dreamy chords and UK steppas style drums, it's every bit as good as anything you would have heard in the late '90s or early 2000s. Ian Pooley offers up two contrasting remixes. While the more straight-up deep house vocal take is rather good, we still prefer his 'Dub' revision, which wraps delay-laden synthesizer motifs and head-in-the-clouds electronic flourishes around snappy drums and Fred Everything's killer dub-style bassline.
Review: You couldn't wish for a more expert duo than Fred Everything and Crazy P mainstay Chris "Hot Toddy" Todd. Either solo or in collaboration with others, they've been responsible for too many fine records to mention over the last two decades. This collaborative affair is rather good, too. "Same Old Sound", a deep, slow-motion nu-boogie number rich in sparkling, glassy-eyed chords, catchy synth-bass, tasty jazz-funk guitars and head-nodding drum machine beats, sounds like a particularly loved-up tribute to Dayton classic "The Sound of Music". This is particularly evident on the original mix, which also boasts a robotic vocoder/talkbox vocal reminiscent of the 1983 classic, but the influence can also be heard on the drowsy, sunshine-friendly "Guitare Dub" version.
Review: Long Way Home is the first Fred Everything album in a decade, but it has been worth the wait, as the Canadian producer delves into musical territories. "Cinema Paradiso" is underpinned by lush strings and crisp break beats, while "By Day" features the soulful vocals of Sio, accompanied by gentle piano lines. Even the title track focuses on a more electro-funk sound than the typical Fred Everything sty;e - albeit one that is soaked in strings. The pace finally picks up on the electronic disco of "Un Dimanche Apres-Midi" and fans of Fred Everything's deep house style will not be disappointed, with the blissed out vocals and trippy keys of"Wherever You Go" sounding like one of the most soulful tracks of 2018.
By Day (Andre Lodemann & Fabian Dikof remix) - (7:09) 122 BPM
By Day (Fred re-version instrumental) - (5:20) 120 BPM
By Day (Andre Lodemann & Fabian Dikof instrumental) - (7:09) 122 BPM
Review: At the back end of June 2018 Fred Everything will release Long Way Home, his first album for a decade. To get us all in the mood, he's decided to release LP highlight "By Day" as a single. You don't get the full album version of the dreamy, broken soul gem (think Atjazz circa "Harmony"), but rather an on-point radio edit and a swathe of previously unheard reworks. There are vocal and instrumental editions of Everything's own sparkling deep house rework, and similar variations from Andre Lodemann and Fabian Dikoff. Their remixes are superb, wrapping Everything's attractive original chords and melodies - as well as some alien-sounding motifs of their own - around a shuffling, tech-tinged German deep house groove.
Review: Normally at this point we'd go into a rambling spiel about the credentials of the producer involved in this release, but in the case of Fred Everything it hardly seems necessary. After all, the Lazy Days co-founder has been releasing high-grade deep house for decades and his quality threshold rarely dips. "Wherever You Go" sees the French Canadian producer continue his recent fascination with glassy-eyed Balearic-era house, in the process serving up a deliciously warm and colourful tribute to classic Italian dream house. Phillip Lauer handles remix duties, first wrapping the original mix's hazy vocal samples around a wild, acid-fired analogue house groove on the Dos Main mix, before necking something naughty and reaching for the pianos on the slicker and dreamier "Akai Mix".
Review: Here's something to set the pulse racing: a collaborative, three-track excursion from long-serving deep house producers Fred Everything and Hollis P. Monroe. As you'd expect, the composition and production is on point throughout, with the new studio buddies achieving a near perfect balance between club-ready grooves and ear-pleasing melodiousness. Opener "Dawn" sees the duo wrap rising and falling synthesizer lines and blissful electronic melodies around a shuffling deep house groove, while "Anywhere" is a much more low-slung and bass-heavy affair (albeit blessed with the colourful synth riffs and melancholic chord progressions). Arguably best of all, though, is closer "There Is A House", which pits the analogue synthesizer-driven melancholy of the Pet Shop Boys' Behaviour album against the snappy drum machine percussion of New York proto-house.
Review: Fred Everything's Les Jours Paresseux series, which launched earlier this year, sees the long-serving producer paying tribute to the saucer-eyed, loved-up bliss of late '80s Italian deep house. This second volume in the series continues the trend, delivering cuts that bristle with period flourishes - see the loon bird samples and sweeping chords of "True", or the piano-laden humidity of "Truth" - and colourful authenticity (the spine-tingling rush of "PSC Theme" sounds like a long lost Morenas production). The EP also boasts another fitting tribute to the period in the shape of a brilliant "Beatless" version of "Organ Theme", which sounds like a long lost early '90s ambient house classic.
