Review: Happy eighth birthday to Hot Digits, who are celebrating their anniversary with this superb collection of contemporary disco, funk and boogie slammers. With a whopping 30 tracks to choose from there's obviously no room here to go into them all one-by-one, but with cuts ranging from the smooth jazz-funk of 'George's Groove' to the unabashed filter disco euphoria of 'Cuz I'm Naked', and from the fat-ass slap bass of 'We're Gettin' In' to cheeky Loleatta-referencing disco-houser 'Dub Sensation', there's evidence a-plenty here, should any be required, that Hot Digits do this kind of tackle better than most.
Review: Act of Sedition's latest expansive collection of re-edits and reworks, Perfect Pitch, is subtitled 'loose grooves for lazy days' and that's an apt description of the pleasingly warming, afternoon-ready soul, yacht rock and disco revisions on show. The vibe is mostly head-nodding rather than arms aloft, but that's no bad thing. You'll find plenty of playable fare amongst the 13 tracks on show, with our picks including the slow-motion disco-funk of Vibes4YourSoul's 'Dance All Night', Pete Le Freq's tasteful rework of Stevie Wonder classic 'Living For The City', the sun-drenched, loop-powered soul shuffle of Frankee More's 'It's Walter' and the percussion-laden South American disco-reggae madness of 'Rita' by Ferdinand DeBeaufort.
Review: Irish DJ/producer Richards returns to Chewy Rubs' Bandolier Records with a three-track EP. The vaguely Crazy P-ish 'Grand AM' itself is a contemporary disco/funk/pop groover centred around a cascading bass riff and a distinctive half-sung, half-hummed female vocal. The Latin-flavoured, instrumental 'Sangria' is another funk jam but with brass taking the lead, before the EP's completed by 'Summer Stages', another very individual-sounding affair that centres around an ominous, looping bassline with something of a horror soundtrack feel. It all adds up to an EP whose originality puts it head and shoulders above a sea of near-identikit modern disco releases.
Review: Irish DJ/producer Stephen Richards, who hosts OpenTempo FM's DiscoDaze radio show, serves up two nu-disco/disco-house originals here. 'Jiggery Pokery' feels like a simple chugging, looping groove on first hearing, but listen more closely and you'll realise there are all manner of musical elements - wordless vocal snips, a sunny sax line, string stabs and more - drifting in and out, helping to maintain dancefloor interest for the full seven-and-three-quarter minutes. 'Bright Nightlight' has a more straight-up 80s Euro feel, while finally Ziggy Phunk's remix takes the title track into similar territory - shut your eyes and you're in a nightclub scene from 'Miami Vice'!
Review: Having recently notched up a sixth year in business, Fingerman's Hot Digits imprint is in a celebratory mood - hence this all-action round-up of recent delights and unheard treats from the disco-loving label. Encompassing no less than 30 tunes, the collection giddily skips between warming beatdown disco (P-Sol's "Walter"), Mark E style slo-mo loop jams (Vigi's "I'll Be There") and glassy-eyed Balearic nu-disco (Picklejam's "Untitled Love"), before raising its hands skywards as the peak-time party-starters begin to appear thick and fast. Highights in this category include the vibrant jazz-house flex of Dexter Jones' "Swing Thing", the bustling boogie re-edit business of Monsieur Von Pratt's "Let's Dance" and the hearty disco-funk heaviness of Chewy Rubs' "Funky Bee Bop".
Spiteri Meets Juan Laya & Jorge Montiel - "The Power Of Disco" - (6:10) 120 BPM
C. Da Afro - "Time To Boogie" - (5:55) 120 BPM
Monsieur Van Pratt - "Space Funk" - (5:48) 122 BPM
Stephen Richards - "The Time Is Now" - (6:09) 121 BPM
J&M Brothers - "Loca Funk" - (6:04) 119 BPM
Review: Nine highly enjoyable slices of contemporary funk and disco here courtesy of Fran Deeper's Mallorca-based Spa In Disco. Some of the artists are well-known, at least in the appropriate circles (C Da Afro, Funk District, Monsieur Van Pratt); some are less so, while there's one genuine first-gen survivor in the form of Spiteri, a legendary Venezuelan player who gave London's 70s disco scene a dose of Latin flava. Don't expect too much in the way of radical reinvention - these grooves are so faithful to the sounds of the 70s that we had to check a few of 'em weren't actually 40 years old! - but the standard throughout is impeccable.
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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!
