Joyce Muniz

Review: Ten years of tech house powerhouse Exploited's exploits - pardon the pun! A born and bred Berliner, Shir Khan started the label in his home city in 2007. The imprint now plays host to a who's who in the current tech-house climate - including Adana Twins, Doctor Dru, Claptone, Joyce Muniz, Urulu and Cocolores to name a few. Its artists have been receiving full support from tastemakers such as Pete Tong, Soul Clap, Wolf & Lamb and Kraak & Smaak. All the usual suspects appear here: many golden oldies and even some newbie surprises too - perfect for the Christmas season and to forecast trends moving forward into 2018. To prove their relevance, they've served up a whopper of a compilation: over five dozen tracks showcasing their illustrious discography. We are certain that these are timeless grooves and will prove to be just as relevant another decade.

Some of these go as far back as 2009! Take for instance Malente & Dex feat. Analogik's "Gipsy Kings" which homed in that whole loopy latin house trend - popularised by similar tunes like "We No Speak Americano". Swedish electro house dons Zoo Brazil appear as well, with their 2012 dancefloor hit "Rock The House", then get deep and slinky with Moodymanc's 2013 sleeper hit "Joy" (Ralph Lawson Dub). They were even doing jazzy/dusty deep house as far back as 2011, like on Homework's "Whipped Cream". Remember Serge Santiago's remix of Murphy Jax's "Let's Get To It" featuring the inimitable Mike Dunn? It's here!

But when best describing the label's success thus far, we'd have to give honorable mentions to the true staples of the label. The legendary Chicagoan James Curd (formerly one half of the Greenskeepers) has kept on going from his new home of Adelaide, Australia and served up some of his best work in years. The emotive and bittersweet "Forever My Friend" is just one example. Likewise, Belgium's Compuphonic appears several times also - his recent hit from earlier this year "Metropolis" appears in all its soulful and evocative glory. Here's to another 10 guys, cheers!

Played by: Richard Rossa

Played by: Karmon

Played by: Juno Recommends Minimal Tech, Marco Carola

Played by: Renato Cohen, DJ Mau Mau

Played by: Sagia, Resident Advisor

Played by: Local Suicide

Played by: Juno Recommends Disco

Played by: Shadow Dancer, Thomas Sonora, Maya Jane Coles

Played by: Juno Recommends Disco, Local Suicide

Played by: Juno Recommends Deep House, Djs: Most Charted - Deep House, Laidback Luke

Review: Viennese producer Joyce Muniz serves up some dark and sultry pop inflected tech house made for the Kater Blau and Ritter Butzke crowd in mind on "Cover Me Up" featuring Kat Vinter's amazing vocals. There's some great remixes too; Waifs & Strays rendition is pretty good, stripping it down into a more functional version for the dancefloor and turning it into a right dark journey track! Brazil's ANNA also steps up to the challenge; her version is a much fiercer and adrenalised form of peak time techno and will appeal to fans of the Drumcode/Truesoul sound or more recent sounds coming from Diynamic.

Played by: Juno Recommends Disco

Played by: Julian Sanza, Alkalino

Review: Austria's first lady of house music is on the up. Having previously released solid deep and tech-house on a variety of small labels, she's now playing in the big leagues thanks to this extended EP for 2020 Vision. It's easy to see why Ralph Lawson was so keen to sign it. All three original tracks have a tactile fluidity that recalls the best work of Seth Troxler and company, with "Wanna Be There" also providing the obligatory classic US garage references. Although the bassy, strangely wobbly "Calm Before The Storm" is commendable, the real killer is the funk-fuelled title track. That's backed by two remixes, the deeper Purple Hills tweak being our pick.

Played by: Joyce Muniz, Juno Recommends Disco, Juno Recommends Deep House, Aleito

Review: The mighty Get Physical label, a German stronghold for European tech house over the last 10 years, drops the second instalment of its Rewind series, a division of the label focussed on compiling some of its top hits from the past. In this one, we have plenty of fire, as per usual, in the form of two MANDY hits - "Gizmo" and "Montagaschine" - the former remixed by Monoloc and the matter by none other than UK house wizard Tim Green. Other highlights include ONNO's slithering floor-filler "Paco's Joint", Camea's driving "Edge Of Infinity" and the dubby melodic swarms of "Ixchel" by Doza. Phat.

Played by: Juno Recommends Minimal Tech, Dockluster

Played by: Claptone, Rave Energy

Played by: Juno Recommends Deep House, Catz 'n Dogz

Review: Fresh from the release of a sought-after salvo on Poker Flat, Joyce Muniz pitches up on Pets Recordings for the very first time. The Vienna-based DJ/producer is in throbbing space disco mode on ear-catching opener "Glass Mistress", clothing a surging, Italo-disco style arpeggio bassline in snappy drum machine beats, trippy backwards vocal snippets, glacial chords and intergalactic electronic melodies. "Trapped" is a more low-slung, bass-heavy chunk of analogue house/electro-disco fusion blessed with some suitably sharp and foreboding rave stabs, while "Naughty Party" offers a jauntier and cheekier take on synthesizer-driven nu-disco rich in quirky drum machine percussion and robotic vocal snippets.

Played by: Juno Recommends Rock/Indie

Played by: Juno Recommends Minimal Tech

Played by: Juno Recommends Disco