Review: House DJs who were active in the early 2000s may well remember Junior Jack, a Belgium-based Italian who delivered a string of dancefloor hits for labels including PIAS and Defected. Astonishingly, it's been 12 years since the release of his last single, making this new EP a genuine comeback. Title track "Organic" is busy, bold and bustling, with retro-futurist organ stabs, layered hand percussion hits and trippy electronics riding a heavy bassline and bouncy house drums. While clearly peak-time ready, many will prefer the jazzy, funk-fuelled house wiggle of "Rich Man", whose looped samples and twinkling electric piano motifs are undeniably alluring, or possibly the Mr Oizo acid riffs, bleeping electronics and bombastic beats of mind-altering closing cut "Tweety".
Review: Glasgow Underground's contribution to the 2020 Miami sampler mountain may well induce feelings of deja vu: not only does it include multiple tracks from label boss Kevin McKay recent much-vaunted 'No Samples...' covers album, but much of the rest is in a similar vein, with McKay and a selection of musical buddies reworking a load more house classics to bring them in line with 21st Century production values. To our ears, though, it's the fresh cuts here that are the more interesting, and happily there are plenty of those on offer, too, coming from the likes of Vanilla Ace, Mirko & Maex, Reblok, Adapter, Sam Dexter and Elliot Fitch.
Review: Alongside the likes of yourself, you can bet that Mark Knight & Co. will be also be a known presence at Amsterdam Dance Event in 2018 and indeed they'll be well prepared with the appropriate tools - as this killer compilation proves. Highlights on this annual edition come from Maceo Plex - whose remix of "Nervous Tics" (feat Holly Walker) by hot British duo Maribou State takes you to the dark side, label chief Knight's massive rework of Sterling Void's eternal anthem "It's Alright" (feat Paris Brightledge) will surely get the hands in the air, as will Adesse Versions' edit of legend Kerri Chandler's "The Boom Can" and many others over the collection's five dozen tracks. To take you through every part of your trip, the album comes complete with three perfectly crafted and perfectly primed mixes.
