Review: Armada Music continues to celebrate its 20th birthday with a series of suitably upbeat compilations. This one focuses on house music, offering up a swathe of genuinely seminal club cuts, crossover hits and feel-good festival anthems. It's a peak-time party starter pack that pits genuine old school anthems (Joe Smooth's 'Promised Land', Inner City's 'Good Life', Reese's 'Just Another Chance', the chunky extended dub of Chez Damier's 'Can You Feel It'), mid-90s Euro-house (Rene Et Gaston's luscious 'Valle de Larmes'), hands-aloft early 2000s gospel house (Praise Cats righteous 'Shined On Me', speed garage (Sol Brothers' 'Turn Me Out'), thumping filter-house (Phats and Small's once ubiquitous 'Turn Around' and Funk Deluxe's infamous Bob Marley remix), spicy Latin house (Afro Medusa) and a dash of piano-powered Detroit house (MK in his early '90s, pre-garage pomp).
Review: Detroit legend Marc Kinchen released "Always" on UK powerhouse Defected back in 2014 and it featured Alana's amazing vocal talents. It now gets a bunch of killer remixes by the current who's who of the scene. Kinchen's MK Area 10 remix will get just as many hands up in the air as the original. London wunderkind Route 94 delivers a classic house styled rendition, Frenchman Shiba San proves that electro-house is still very much alive with his rework and UK producer Weiss delivers a particularly bass heavy and wobbly rendition that has earned him releases on labels like Dirtybird. The remix by Brighton's Friction was an added surprise and the veteran producer delivers a high-octane drum and bass version which absolutely blows the doors off.
Review: Toolroom Live 01 is a behemoth. At 61 tracks large, inclusive of three continues DJ mixes, this new concept by Toolroom, as they say, is to highlight key artists, present new tracks, and give their fans a taste of the live experience. On here there's music from Harvey Mckay, Gary Beck and Maison Sky, to Bat For Lashes, Hot Since 82 and label owner Mark Knight, and if you're looking to grasp the Toolroom Live concept (and other oddities you might not expect), while getting some bang from your buck, this release is a well informed start.
Review: From seminal YouTube damage to worldwide events and all sorts more, UKF continues to spin its own distinctive low-end yarn. Having made its presence known beyond the dubstep and drum & bass worlds in the last year or so, Bass Culture 3 acts as a pivotal release and shows the channel is far from genre-specific. Amidst the massive bangers that the brand is known for - TC - "Get Down Low", Must Die & Mantis - "Culture", Mob Tactics - "The Answer" - there are plenty of other corners explored, too. From the 808 allure of Buku's "No One Does" to the angular jacking of Three Bar's "Everybody" via My Nu Leng's unavoidable "Masterplan", this album represents some of the most exciting examples of bass behaviour in all styles of electronic music.
Review: Hot Creations head honcho Lee Foss keeps up the not inconsiderable current momentum of both his profile and label, with this new single featuring MK. Going straight for the pop jugular, "Electricity" is a catchy 4/4 number that, considering the big, multi-layered vocals of Anabel Englund, is aimed more at the radio than dancefloors. "Goodnight Moon" is a great end of night celebratory, if emotionally tender, melodic house. "Could Be" continues with the melodic theme, but it's "B5 The Dinks" with it's slammin' beats, pumpin' bass and infectious guitar lick that will be setting dancefloors alight.
Review: This seven-track collection of disco re-edits from the Editorial camp has a lot to offer - not least previously unreleased cuts from fast-rising scalpel starlets Matthew 'MK' Kyle and Rayko. It's Kyle who steals the show, laying down a typically groovesome deep house/disco cut that boasts some particularly blissful jazz-funk guitar samples. Rayko's cut - a dancefloor-friendly re-dub of "What Did You Do To Me?" - is as solid and playable as you'd expect. Elsewhere, debutant Noodleman excels with the deep fried cosmic funk of "Teachin' & Tryin", and Ed Wizard & Disco Double Dee bring the heavyweight party flavours with "Get Some".
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