Review: Dresden label Uncanny Valley's big name supporters include the likes of Jimpster, Steve Bug, Scuba and Ripperton, which gives you an idea of the kind of leftfield-leaning deep house and techno to expect from this 10th birthday compilation. Big names may be in short supply but quality certainly isn't, with the album's 18 full-length tracks ranging from RJ's floaty, dreamy opener 'Nie' to the acid throb of Iron Curtis's 'Ensuite', and from the jazzy bruk beat-isms of Lake People's 'Roaming The Streets' to the psychedelic small hours deepness of Charlotte Bendiks' 'Pasco', with a DJ mix from Conrad Kaden tying the whole collection together nicely.
Review: To celebrate notching up 50 releases, Uncanny Valley offered up a septet of colour-coded EPs featuring never-heard-before cuts from its growing roster of artists. With that campaign finished, they've now collected together all of those tracks on one suitably epic compilation, All Colors Are Beautiful. It's a pleasingly positive, life-affirming and kaleidoscopic collection all told, with the likes of Lauer, Jules Etienne, Johannes Albert, Cuthead and Basic Soul Unit taking it in turns to deliver cheery, synth-heavy cuts that variously join the dots between deep house, nu-disco, synth-pop, proto-house, jacking acid, crunchy electro, Motor City techno, ghetto-tech and glassy-eyed late-night sleaze. The results are uniformly excellent, making this one of the most essential compilations of 2020.
Review: Three cheers for Stefan Riesen's Morris Audio imprint, which has now notched up a century of releases after two decades in the game. By way of celebration, Riesen has decided to release a clutch of EPs containing a wealth of previously unheard gems. Part one begins with the Motor City influenced deep house jack of Iron Curtis's "Ultraviolett [100 Mix]", where shimmering chords slowly rise above sturdy beats and a wonderfully raw analogue bassline. Anna Wall and Corbi join forces for the sinewy deep house sensuality of "Tower of Babble" - all dreamy chords, lilting melodies and fuzzy analogue bass - before Repika serves up the hypnotic deep space chords and bustling bottom end grooves of "Don't Break". Arguably best of all, though, is the all-action contemporary Chicago house funkiness of Elvis Cassetta's "Lethargy Zero".
Review: For his label's tenth edition, Switzerland's Baaz serves up a fine release by German deep house purveyor Iron Curtis on the Maple EP. Starting off with the raw, minimal and cyclical techno jack of the title track (wicked!), it's a bit of a change of pace from the label's usual preference for ultra deep or dubby aesthetics: but equally subterranean and hypnotic all the same. Speaking of which, "Collision" indeed gets with the program on this absolutely lush downtime journey, while on the flip we've got two short but sweet offerings: "Entago Entery" and the blissful "Reset Me" providing the mandatory ambient track that has been known to close out the label's recent offerings. More quality from undoubtedly one of the top labels in deep house of the moment.
Review: Johannes Albert's Berlin based imprint Frank Music is on a roll right now. Its new compilation celebrates five years in business and what a way to celebrate, drafting NYC deep house legend Fred P with the sublime "Energy Cloud" (which is one of his best tracks of late in our opinion), Berliner Iron Curtis with the ultra-smooth deepness of "Operater 123" (live mix) and the epic dancefloor drama of "Got The Juice" showcasing Freer and Reilling's typical studio magic as always. The most upbeat offering is by Jena's Tim Toh (who has previously released on Philpot and Ornaments) with "Hidden Beauty" a late noughties style journey in the vein of classic Innervisions, Buzzin Fly or Freerange.
Review: When it came to celebrating their first five years, Uncanny Valley decided to do things differently. So, alongside a retrospective (Five Years On Parole - What Happened), they've delivered an EP of previously unheard material from the archives (Five Years On Parole - Gems From The Vaults), and this selection of brand new cuts. There's naturally much to enjoy, with Chinaski and Panthera Krause both delivering wonderfully deep and dreamy analogue house workouts. There's something particularly impressive about Derive's krautrock, Kraftwerk and proto-techno inspired contribution - think modular synthesizers and pulsing drum machine rhythms - while Iron Curtis' "En Suite" is a clandestine acid jacker build around ragged 303 lines, metronomic percussion and trippy synthesizer motifs.
Review: It has been a productive time for Office Recordings with the recent release of Baaz's Red Souvenirs double album being followed up by this high-grade 12" from Iron Curtis. With his Care single for Hudd Traxx only just out, The KMS Years is the second single of 2015 for the prolific German and it finds him on sublime form as ever. Lead track "Magnet" trades in the dulcet deep house tones that Curtis has built his name on, with a sizzling drum set buffeting along just the right balance of pads and more snappy melodic elements. "What Happened Happened" however represents more of a departure into downtempo broken beat territory which sounds like a comfortable place for Curtis to find himself, before Berg issues a "Reduktion" on the track which actually seems to beef it up into a more floor-ready jam.
Review: Having appeared on an impressive range of labels over the past three years - Kolour Recordings, 4Lux, Mule Electronic and Retreat amongst them - Iron Curtis returns to his original home, Mirau, to deliver a debut album jam-packed with retro-futurist analogue deep house jams. As he's previously proved, Iron Curtis is a dab hand at many different styles of deep and jacking house music, making Soft Wide Waist Band an entertaining listen. So, we get joyously melodic, string-laden Detroitisms (see "Hurts"), soft focus bass music (the title track), other-wordly acid house (The Sun), heavenly, Mr Beatnick-ish deepness ("O'Hare") and even some spiralling wonk-hop ("To The Liv") - all blessed with the delicate electronic sheen of machine soul.
Review: Having released well received EPs on Tensnake's Mirau label and Mule Electronic in recent few years, as well as numerous others, Iron Curtis here finds himself on Kolour Recordings for this similarly fantastic EP. "Goma" is a warm piece of deep house that utilises a curious pitched down vocal sample which is particularly dark in its execution, whilst "You" is a slow moving piece of foggy disco, with a bassline so low it's almost melodically imperceptible, whilst synth chords undulate beneath the surface. The San Soda remix of "Goma" lightens the mood by sharpening up the percussion and adding some rippling keys, whilst the Mano Le Tough remix of "You" removes the haze and adds some virtuoso piano over the original's deep groove.
Review: It's sexytime down Dirt Crew HQ, as the esteemed German label gathers together a selection of deep house cuts guaranteed to get you staring lovingly into the eyes of your nearest and dearest with the pie-eyed look of a post-orgasmic teenager. As you'd perhaps, there's plenty to stir the loins, from the discofied grooves of Plamn D'Acqua (the "Midas Touch" biting "House Orchid") and mellow moods of Nick Harris to the ultra-deep, lingerie-sporting slinkiness of Soul Minority, the Tortoise Orchestra and Iron Curtis. For those really sweaty moments, there's even an acid-flecked excursion from Mdione. As for the money shot, try Dirt Crew's own "Deep Love".
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