Review: Two figureheads of the contemporary disco scene join forces, a move that will already have plenty of disco buyers salivating. What they've come up with between them is a chuggy, midpaced disco groover with breathy, barely-there vox that sit back in the mix and let some very competent six-string histrionics take centre-stage instead. No obvious peaktime scream-along, this: instead it's the kind of track you drop to keep 'em moving in-between one big anthem and the next. But with Rayko and Costela involved, you can at least rest assured the production's gonna be faultless. Classy stuff, Spanish fellas!
Review: Whether he's got his deep house or his disco hat on, the arrival of a new release from Costela always cheers this reviewer up and this latest outing for Boite Music is no exception! 'Cheer Up' in its Original form is a little more heavily electronic, 80s-sounding and Italo-leaning than much of his previous output - it's druggy, hypnotic and thoroughly on-trend right now, but for me it's the hazy, blissed-out Paper Street Soul Remix, which has a very Nang-y nu-disco vibe, that takes top honours. Not least for daring to bust out a full-on 80s guitar solo - shoulderpads and bubble perms ahoy!
Review: Keeping up with appearances Boite Music introduces a new VA projecting a sound that takes in slow-mo acid, electro and proto-techno sounds by Mexico's Alex Aguayo's next to the atmospheric, percussive and rhythm heavy "Sumo" by Alberto Melloni. Manuel Costela looks to the stars and New York for inspiration in the Nord-electronics of his track "Cosmos", with a dusty, beatdown and funkfied highlight coming out of Daniel Monaco & Ricardo Ruben post-punk, new wave session, "Italorama". Prepare for landing.
Review: Boite Music squeeze a last one in for 2020 with a various artist EP taking in New York style new wave inspirations in AINZ's "The Saviour" next to the funkadelic industrial new disco hits of Manuel Costela's good times "Keep Me Burnin'". Lafrench Toast sends in a '70s inspired disco number of rich continental flair, allowing Sauco to cover a different kind landscape with a mesamptopian tipped "Nights Over Lebanon". Sortie, Ausgang, Sunrise at the Exit - you got there!
Review: Madrid man Manuela Costela has previously been praised for the variety and quality of his house and disco related productions, something that helps explain the inclusion of his tracks on an impressively wide variety of compilations. There's plenty of variety to be found within the three tracks on his latest EP for Rare Wiri too, with a pleasing reliance on weighty, low-slung bass guitar the only unifying feature. He sets the tone on opener "Mustang Lady", a hot-to-trot nu-disco number laden with spacey synth sounds, layered vocal snippets and insanely funky dub disco bass. Synths come to the fore further on the slap-bass propelled, acid-flecked nu-disco number "Circles", while closing cut "Mama Funk" is a jaunty, loop-heavy disco house affair whose most ear-catching feature is the extensive use of spring-fresh flute samples.
Review: Thicker than clotted cream and twice as opulent, Golden Soul's latest label retrospective is well worth your attention. It focuses on material released by the Spanish imprint in 2019, which was arguably the label's strongest year to date. Label founder James Rod makes a number of killer contributions, with the colourful, bass-heavy Balearic nu-disco chug of "Let's Play Together" (a collaboration with Parissior) and the dreamy Italo-disco throb of "Heart Rock (Aleito Mix)" standing out. Elsewhere, get your ears around the sparkling, breakdown-boasting sunrise rush of Dubhouser's "Ereh" and the thrill-a-minute Euro-disco effervescence that is Hoochie Coochie Papa's "Work My Body".
Review: Madrid's prolific and versatile Manuel Costela seldom puts a foot wrong, regardless of what particular sub-genre of house and disco he turns his hand to. Here, the title track is a midtempo affair, built for White Isle play and characterised by thunderous, high-impact drums, fluttering keys and an assortment of haunting, buzzing synth drones. The Disco Funk Spinner Remix adds some even bigger stabs and will suit the more commercial floors while, elsewhere, 'Jump On The Middle' is a lavish, lazy groove topped with more of those raw synths and 'El Loco' has a more 'traditional' filter disco feel.
Review: Every 12 months, Fingerman's prolific Hot Digits imprint serves up an epic compilation entirely made up of exclusive, previously unheard re-edits, reworks and original productions. They're invariably excellent and this year's edition - the fifth in total - is even more epic than usual. There's naturally plenty to set the pulse racing amongst the dancefloor focused 32-track selection, from the throbbing Italo-disco style electronic sleaziness of Peza's "I Gotta Little Love" and the bouncy, acid-flecked cheeriness of Limpdisco's "Rush Hour", to the angular nu-disco heaviness of Andy Kidd's "The Dope Cube", the sparkling 80s boogie goodness of LUP INO's "Don't Stop Fooling" and and disco-funk-goes-house pump of Fingerman's "Family Ties". Keep an eye out too for rock solid rubs by Dr Packer, Chuggin Edits, Rayko and Andy Buchan.
Review: Spanish producer Manuel Costela has been on a serious roll of late, and this latest release on Golden Soul does nothing to diminish his fast-growing reputation. There are two re-rubs of 'Interestellar Love' to choose from here: Limpodisco's take emphasises the track's rawer, more organic elements, with mucho application of Hammond organ and fat, squelchy funk bass, while James Rod's mix takes us into more stomping disco-house territory with hard-slammin' 4/4s and a disco-style walking bassline. Both rubs come fully laden with pyow-pyow-pyow! space disco stabs, practically guaranteeing the throwing of shapes out on the floor.
Review: Prolific producer Manuel Costela is clearly a fan of long-distance relationships. Certainly, there are few longer relationships than those forged from "Interstellar Love". The track itself does make a good case for supernova romance, though, layering litlting, loved-up synthesizer lead lines above a rolling disco groove rich in rubbery bass, laytered spoken vocal samples and glistening, Chic style guitars. Parisior opts for a looser, warmer dub disco feel on his accompanying remix, throwing funk-rock riffs into the mix to add a little more grunt, before JB Dizzy re-imagines "Interstellar Love" as a twisted fusion of rolling nu-disco grooves and wild TB-303 style acid lines.
