Review: A decade has now passed since George Kelly established the Chopshop imprint as an outlet for goodtime grooves, sneaky reworks and club-ready re-edits that blur the boundaries between disco and house. To celebrate the fact, he's gathered together some of his label highlights on an expansive compilation. It's arguably best enjoyed via his action-packed DJ mix, which is tucked away at the end of the collection, though DJs will delight at the sheer volume and quality of the unmixed cuts on offer. Our favourites include the rubbery bounce of HP Vince's appropriately titled "Funky Disco Party", Kelly's killer Marlena Shaw revision ("Raised In The Ghetto"), the bustling funky house pleasures of HP Vince and Dave Leatherman's "Back 2 The Old Skool (House Mix)") and the disco-rap goodness of Captain Futuro's "Club Warzone".
Review: As with many previous releases, the latest Chopshop Digital release is an all-star affair, with contributions from a quartet of re-edit talents. Ghosts of Venice step up first, skillfully re-arranging the delightfully camp and synthesizer-heavy, Italo-disco delight that is "Time & Space". HOLDTight do a good job adding some contemporary slow-house flavour to Jones Girls' classic "Nights Over Egypt", before Glintelletuali (try saying that after a few stiff drinks) offers up the throbbing, shirts-off, Italo-goes-to-Spain romp that is "Il Valeiro". Finally, Le Visiteur presents "The Player", a rising and falling disco-house chugger that boasts some seriously epic breakdowns and drops.
Review: Under the DJ Butcher alias, George Kelly has turned the Chop Shop imprint into one of the world's most reliable sources of party-starting re-edits, remixes, mash-ups and sample-heavy productions. Hello My Name Is... Chop Shop celebrates the label's successes so far, with a hot-to-trot DJ mix from the man himself being joined by 18 hand picked highlights from the vaults. Tiptoeing the fine line between original scalpel-work (see the high-tempo, summery celebration of Le Visiteur's "Let The Sunshine" and Corsican Brothers' ace "Big Apple Rock"), house-friendly rubs (Sam Palmer's filter-drenched "Hurt Me", an excellent Latin disco-house cut from The Silver Rider), and balls-out, party starting cut-ups (the block party flex of DJ Agent 86), Kelly has curated an excellent selection of peak-time gems.
Review: John Hutchison, AKA Le Visiteur, comes to Yam Who?'s Midnight Riot EP with a three-track EP packed full of contemporary disco goodness. 'I Really Love You' is up first, a male-vocalled track that'll slot neatly into those 80s boogie sets without the dancefloor batting an eyelid. 'Start Over', which follows, opens with a Latin-flavoured percussive intro then develops into a strutty, exhuberant number that's one part Instant Funk to one part Crown Heights Affair. Only then do we come to 'Holding Me Down' itself, a brass-tastic affair that sports a fine, full-lunged female vocal, and that'll grab disco floors by the cojones from the get-go.
Review: On his first outing on DJ Butcher's Chop Shop imprint, Edinburgh-based producer Le Visiteur has clearly got his sights set on outdoor parties. The Sunshine EP is nothing less than a celebration of the kind of dusty, down-low disco that sounds great blasting out of sound systems on Adriatic boat parties, Ibizan terraces and impromptu pub garden rave-ups. All three tracks are killer, from the sinewy, string-drenched, hands-in-the-air disco of "Groove", to the gospel disco brilliance of "Let The Sunshine". "My Gang", a suitably heavy rearrangement of Hamilton Bohannon's "Me & My Gang", is pretty hot, too.
Review: Since launching in 2018, Midnight Riot's gospel-fired "Take It To Church" compilation series has proved hugely popular, hence this third volume of re-edits, remixes and sample-heavy original productions. As usual, there's much to set the pulse racing from start to finish, with highlights including the jazz-funk fired soulful house bump of Opolopo's remix of "Follow Me" by Sense of Sound Singers, the gospel disco/disco-house fusion of Sarah Dash's "Something Inside (DJ Spen & Reelsoul Remix)", the rubbery goodness of Carlton Low's 1980s sounding "Peace, Love, Happiness", the gospel-boogie brilliance of Jack Tennis's filter-heavy "Won't You" and the gospel scalpel science that is Divine Situation's superb "Goin' On" re-edit.
Review: With the sun finally making its presence felt in the UK, it seems a fitting time for Slightly Transformed to unleash this epic compilation of "Summer Numbers" - cheery, disco-fired chunks of positivity tailor made for al-fresco sets and celebratory shindigs. Featuring a mixture of tried-and-tested re-edits and sample-heavy original compositions, the 19-track set boasts a pleasingly high number of highlights. These include - but are no way limited to - the talkbox-sporting '80s disco/jazz-funk fusion of Shit Hot Soundsystem's "Be With You", the warm and woozy, synth-laden bliss of Chuggin Edits' "Floating", the slow and steady head-nod of Old Chaps wonderfully soulful "Flight With Love" and the fizzing disco rush of Limpdisco's "Gimme Mo". Get To Know's "Music" - a chunky revision of a jazz-funk era dancefloor destroyer by Dayton - is also excellent.
Review: To kick-start a fourth year of disco-fuelled madness, Hot Digits chief Fingerman has put together this sizeable compilation of previously unheard exclusives. As you'd expect, there's far more killers than fillers to be found amongst the 28-track deep selection or re-edits and original productions. Highlights include the clarinet-laden electrofunk-meets-disco bounce of Frank Virgilio's "It's Your Boogie Baby", the disco-goes-hip-hop flex of Tony Disco's delicious "Rolling Paper", the sparkling nu-disco goodness of "When It Comes To Funk" by Stephen Richards, the driving disco-house bump of Ash Reynolds' "Cold Girl" and the fuzzy electrofunk wobble of Don Dayglow's "Many Things". Throw in fine contributions from Chewy Rubs, Le Visiteur, norse man Jarle Brathen and, of course, Fingerman, and you have a must-buy collection of cuts.
Review: While gospel has always been a strong influence in the worlds of house and disco, the volume of spiritually charged dancefloor tracks has rocketed in recent times. Hence this fine compilation from Midnight Riot and "gospel supremo" the Showfa, which gathers together new, recent and overlooked gospel-fired dancefloor jams. We're particularly enjoying Yam Who and Alan Dixon's brilliant new version of the Soup Dragons' "I'm Free" - think classic, Balearic-era baggy house with more prominence given to the London Gospel Choir's vocals and Dixon's wild organ lines - Le Visiteur's low-slung re-edit of an old gospel-disco gem ("Let The Sunshine") and the rubbery boogie-gospel-goes-filter-house excitement of Benjamin Ferreira's "What U Will". That said, there's barely a duffer to be found amongst the 19 tracks on show, with the emphasis rightly on celebratory positivity throughout.
