Review: Rising stars of the 21st century disco scene, Get Down Edits, join forces with Waterford pal Stephen Richards for a fine crew EP on Fingerman's still smoking Hot Digits label. As you might expect, there's much fun to be had throughout, from the lolloping, mid-tempo, soul-fired disco house loveliness of Richards' "Making Music (Original Mix)" and 6th Borough Style compressed deep house-disco bounce of Get Down Edits' "Our Turn" (a brilliant track for the sample spotters), to the organ-boasting, early '90s New Jersey deep house revivalism of the collaborative "Don't Be Shy". Get Down Edits' heavier, faster and more thrusting rework of Richards' "Making Music" is also rather impressive.
Review: It's a while since we last heard from Waterford-based producer Jay Ru (real name Jay Roche). In fact, according to our records this collaborative outing with Stephen Richards is his first single since 2014. In its original form, "Vibrations & Temptations" is something of a slow burning delight: a head-nodding deep nu-disco outing full of Loleatta Holloway vocal samples, punchy beats, twinkling pianos, eyes-closed guitars and shifting synth lines that builds up in stages. It's decent, but the remix by fellow Irish producers Get Down Edits is even better. Doffing a cap towards Detroit beatdown, the pair re-imagines Roche and Richards' track as a bubbling, bass-heavy chunk of deep disco-house hypnotism rich in twinkling melodies and swirling vocal samples.
Review: Irish nu-disco producer Stephen Richards comes to Spa In Disco, the Spanish label set up in 2012 by Palma, Mallorca native Fran Deeper. 'Coming Up' is a mid-paced, chuggy affair, but still has plenty of surging dancefloor energy and sports a vocoder vocal repeating the title, while the pace is upped considerably on funky, percussive disco-houser 'Coming On Down'. The title track then gets remixed by Rayko and MI.RO: the former rub has that sultry 80s feel for which the Spanish don is known, while the latter is a dark, synth-y pass that will drag 'Coming Up' onto floors that favour all things cosmic and Italo.
Review: The Alpaca Edits crew are never short of new talent, and this time they've come through with a monster seventeen-tracker from Stephen Richards, who has enough funk to go around our all of our charts this week. By funk, we mean the essence of these tunes, as they're backbone is comprised mainly of swinging house beats with a nice and danceable 4/4 shake. If you're looking for a summer cooler, then this will no doubt hit the spot, and they're sure to work like a charm amid more tech-minded cuts. It's a big'n!
Review: This time last year, Stephen Richards popped up on Alpaca Edits with an expansive, 17-track album of full of sample-heavy blends of disco, deep house and Balearic boogie. Here, that album is given the remix treatment by a rather impressive collection of fast-rising re-editors. Highlights are plentiful, from the languid "Disco Beatdown" goodness of Fingerman's remix of "Fusion" and Get Down Edits super-smooth, soul-driven interpretation of "Cool B", to the mutant electrofunk/disco fusion of Evil Smarty's re-fix of original album highlight "Moto Garage". Lob in further fine remixes from Chuggin' Edits, A.O.D and Fabiolous Barker, and you've got a rather tasty package.
Review: Following a string of rock solid EPs for the likes of Thunder Jam, Masterworks Music and Spa In Disco, Stephen Richards returns to Hot Digits for the first time since January 2018. He hits the ground running with a slap bass, electric piano and P-funk fuelled chunk of nu-disco/deep house fusion (the addictive "Coastal Groove"), before opting for tighter beats, fuzzier bass guitar and skewed, turn-of-the-90s house stabs on the similarly impressive "Groundwork". He offers up some spacey, synth-laden disco positivity, too, in the shape of "Rare Pleasure". That gets a smooth and groovy disco-house makeover at the hands of pals Get Down Edits, while Fingerman delivers a loopy "Boogie Beatdown" flip of "Groundwork" and Kiu D re-imagines "Coastal Groove" as a dreamy chunk of fizzing disco-boogie.
Review: The clue's in the title with this latest from UK label Bandolier, as Irish producer Richards serves up three slices of Latin-tinged disco. 'Disco Habana' itself is a midtempo, shuffling affair with a fluttering, insistent flamenco guitar line by way of a lead, augmented by female "yeah-yeahs" and the occasional space disco stab. 'Nuances', which follows, is more of a straight-up looping funk groove with a spoken male "I just finally feel I belong somewhere, you know?" vocal sample. Label boss Chewy Rubs then completes the EP with his Breakers Dozen Rub of the latter, which is a little more in-your-face sonically.
Review: Here's something you can feel good about buying: a charity collection of re-edits and original productions that aims to raise fund for testicular cancer research. The Alpaca Edits crew has done a superb job in rounding up contributions from some of this generation's most popular scalpel fiends, including '80s Child, Dr Packer, Fingerman and Fabiolous Barker. Highlights come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from the head-nodding, horn-heavy funk of Rafael Fernandez's "Uh-Oh", and Stephen Richards' house-friendly Kool & The Gang rework ("Fresh"), to the piano-totin', boogie brilliance of Bad Barbie Vs Evil Smarty's "Loose Juice", and Goldboy's standout nu-disco jam "Under Game".
Review: Not to be confused with the techno-minded Dutch label of the same name, this Deep Sense is based out of Mexico, they have a penchant for the funkier side of the dance and the cheekier side of edit culture. They proved it on their inaugural voyage in November 2014, and they're proving it once again right here... Kicking off with the sax-massaging jack-jam "The Road To Kalakuta" the whole album is an instant party full of sassy sonic surprises. Highlights include the dusty vinyl crackles and heaving harmonics of Rafael Fernandez's "Nothing's Changed", the epic synth-slapping cosmicity of Funk My Jesus "24K", the classic funk guitar squeezes of Chuggin Edits "We Got The Funk". And that's just a handful of party peals to be harvested from this 16-track heavy album. Bon voyage indeed!
Review: York might not be the disco capital of the world, but the way the gang at Alpaca Edits carry on it might just as well be! They've been trotting out world class soul, disco and funk edits for a good while now, and here they deliver the second instalment of their compilation in aid of testicular cancer support. There are 15 quality scalpel jobs this time around, with highlights including the rumbling, evening poolside boogie of "I Need A Drink" by Hotmood, the punchy electro-disco of "Head Lights' by Stephen Richards and the white-hot 70s disco rock of "I'm A Man" Pontchartrain.
Review: Fingerman's Hot Digits label has now notched up 50 releases. To celebrate this landmark occasion, the man himself has selected 25 of his favourite cuts from the label's rapidly expanding back catalogue. As a showcase for everything that's good about the imprint, it does a bang up job, gleefully jogging between exotic mid-tempo disco and disco-funk (Frank Virgilio, Dr Packer, The funk District), slo-mo disco-acid (Fingerman's tremendous rework of B-Jam's "Sundog"), kaleidoscopic, reworked '80s boogie business (Casual Connection, Melon Bomb, the hard-tweaked filters and heady loop business of Chewy Rubs), tried-and-tested party-starters (Smashed Atoms, Get Down Edits remixing Stephen Richards) and giddy peak-time workouts (Shit Hot Soundsystem, Dave Gerrard, Thomas Maslo, Kiu D). As the old saying goes, this is all killer, no filler.
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: Reliable jams from a reliable bunch on this reliable compilation from the reliable Deep Sense. Mr Absolutt opens with the P-funky, cosmic number "The Road Club" - perfect for cruising - while Alex Harrington goes a little techier, white noise build up filter house in "Tanlines". FabioLous Barker takes huge inspirations from Ray Parker Jr in his poppy hit "Girls Are More Fun" while Latin guitars are introduced into Situations' "Flying With Wings". Sould Out slows things down in "Feelin' Moody" leaving Delicious to liven things up with a MJ number in "Let's Get Back". Quality productions abound!
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.
