Review: The cheeky scamps at Editorial can usually be relied on to bring the goodness. This latest split EP is, predictably, bulging with highlights. Ed Wizard and Disco Double Dee drop a bit of deep house/rubbery disco fusion on the head-nodder's fave "The Way You Move", while Aussie Jad & The Ladyboy ops for a sinewy, seductive, ultra-deep house vibe on his sumptuous "Love Is". B-Jam's "Have Some" is an almost X-rated chunk of electrofunk cut-up madness, all backwards cuts, grunting grooves and stuttering edits. There's a dash of straight-up disco in the form of Joutro Mundo's stretched-out "Body Heat", while Tonbe impresses with "Hot Ivy", a hip-grinding slice of electrofunk badness with analogue synths by the shipload.
Review: Serbia's Milos Dordevic, AKA Tonbe/Loshmi, proves his mastery of the nu-disco game in just two tracks here! Submission 1: opener 'Easy Dancin', which has a wistful female vocal, spacey Dave Lee-esque Rhodes doodles and, most importantly, what is possibly the greatest stab ever recorded (check it at 0:32). Submission 2: 'Ram Tam Tam', which (after another excellent stab) centres around a rising Hammond riff that never quite resolves - ideal for building energy levels to fever pitch just before you drop that "right, everyone up!" anthem. Four more solid nu-disco/boogie cuts are just the icing on what's already a pretty unmissable cake.
Review: There's a lot to admire about Tonbe's boundary-blurring, edit-not-edit releases on Disco Fruit, particularly the attractiveness of the material on offer and their good-value nature. His latest release, Always Like This, naturally ticks both of these boxes, cannily combinig elements of good-time house, electrofunk, jazz-funk and nu-disco. There's no weak links, just 10 party-hearty treats to savour. Our picks of a very strong bunch include the bouncy disco-house cheeriness of 'Days Like These', the bustling jazz-house beats and tidy organ stabs of 'Raw & Dirty', the Clavinet-sporting, cowbell-laden stomp of 'Shake That Booty' and the classic, late '80s NYC garage-house goodness of 'Without You'. Instant fun-times.
Review: Fresh from impressing via a first outing on Hot Digits, Tonbe returns to his own imprint, Disco Fruit, with an overflowing picnic basket of summery dancefloor treats. The emphasis throughout is on musical warmth, with elements borrowed from a variety of lesser-known jazz-funk, disco and electrofunk cuts combining well with the producer's own deep house sounds and largely club-focussed drums. The results are uniformly entertaining and enjoyable, with highlights including the boogie fizz of "Always There", the Bongo-riffic West Coast deep house bounce of "Freaky Situation", the carnival-ready roll of "Latina" and the Chimes style breakbeat soul heat of "Stick Together".
Review: It's been another action-packed year for Tonbe, who appears to have spent much of the pandemic lockdown period preparing more hot-to-trot re-edits, reworks and original productions. Here he makes the switch from his Disco Fruit and Cherry Cola labels to make a first appearance on Hot Digits - an imprint he first graced in 2014 - in some time. There's much to admire throughout, from the throbbing, synth-laden Italo-disco chug of pulsating opener "Bow Wow" and the kaleidoscopic, P-funk-goes-house bustle of "Circle", to the low-slung, Talkbox-sporting "Time Is Running Out", and the squelchy, all-action nu-disco-meets-deep house colour of title track "Neon Nights". Label head honcho FIngerman remixes the latter track, smartly turning it into a breakbeat-powered chunk of breakbeat house/Balearic acid fusion.
Review: It would be fair to say that Tonbe is pretty prolific. Since his last outing on Disco Fruit - the label he founded and runs, remember - in March (2020), the Serbian producer has made numerous outings on Little Jack, Zero Eleven and Puro Music. Given this release schedule you'd expect "For My People", his latest mini-album on Disco Fruit, to be a bit flabby, but it's genuinely another hit-filled treat. Our picks of a very strong bunch of disco, boogie and house-flavoured reworks include the "2020 Mix" of "For My People", a sax and jazzy bass guitar-dominated dancefloor treat, the hazy Balearic disco warmth of "Easy Summer Wind", the pulsating P-funk bounce of "Thankful" and the chunky, percussion-rich peak-time goodness of "Dobar Groove".
Review: It's only been five months since Disco Fruit overlord Tonbe (real name Milos Djordjevic) offered up his fourth full-length excursion, but he's already offering up album number five. The Serbian producer begins with a squelchy synth-funk cover of Queen Classic "Another One Bites The Dust" (renamed "Another Bite") and ends with the cowbell-laden nu-boogie smoothness of "Sunny August"; in between, you'll find a fine selection of colourful, synth-heavy workouts that successfully blend bold melodies and ear-catching chords with beats that variously touch on house, disco, Italo, freestyle and electro. It's a coherent and entertaining set with plenty of dancefloor-ready club cuts for all those who dig melody-driven nu-disco.
Review: Here's a record that doesn't sound like it should have been made in Serbia but definitely was, as Milos Djordjevic, better known as Tonbe (or sometimes Loshmi), returns to his own Disco Fruit label with album number four. 'I Don't Belong To You' kicks things off in fine brass-parpin' style and 'Use Your Imagination' brings the album to a close with sprightly bass, whistling synths and a spoken female vocal, while in-between you'll find eight more tracks ranging from non-cheesy disco-house ('I Want To Hear This') to west coast-ish funk ('Shake Their Bodies'), with Zapp-esque squelchy synth basslines and vocodered vox much in evidence throughout.
Review: It's a reflection of Tonbe's impressive productivity that his "Best Of" series has now notched up a third volume. Happily, the quality threshold remains pleasingly high, with the Disco Fruit founder gathering together tried-and-tested re-edits, reworks and original productions that combine rock solid, club-ready grooves with lashings of classic disco, boogie and electrofunk flavour. After kicking things off with the Clavinet-heavy P-funk flex of "Give The Funk", Tonbe giddly sprints through peak-time treats such "Original Tool" (a soaring disco-house workout rich in rubbery slap bass), "I Feel Energy" (all saucer-eyed Rhodes riffs, sun-warm grooves and swooping synth-strings), "Hold Me Tight" (low-slung disco-funk) and "Shoot Me Up" (brightly coloured electrofunk). You'll also find a smattering of slo-mo warm-up gems, with the decidedly loved-up "The Way You Love Me" standing out.
Review: When it comes to serving up tried-and-tested re-edits with beefed-up bottom end, Disco Fruit main man Tonbe can usually be relied upon to deliver the goods. This EP appears less than three months after his most recent edits album and contains four more reasons to be cheerful. He begins with the rubbery bounce of "Gem Picker", where a deep, trumpet-laden jazz-funk workout is given a gentle house makeover, before sticking a size 12 boot up the backside of what sounds like a Robert Owens-voiced deep house cut. "Rough" is a cheery, horn-heavy romp through European disco-funk pastures, while "Get Loose" sees the Serbian layer sparkling piano riffs and mazy synth lines over a hip-wiggling house beat.
Review: By anyone's standards, this is a bumper selection of re-edits from Disco Fruit big cheese Tonbe. Amongst the 12 tracks you'll find a head-nodding chunk of horn-heavy funk ("It's Not Over"), a tooled-up peak-time disco-funk smasher ("The Beginning"), some Talkbox-sporting P-funk madness ("Never Enough"), a dash of deep space Italo-disco/electrofunk fusion (the superb "Unreal") and even a big dollop of hands-in-the-air piano house fun (skipping, turn of the '90s workout "I Can't Help Myself" and the slightly deeper but no lass glassy-eyed "Love And Sunshine"). It's the kind of collection that DJs will want to keep on their USB sticks at all times; it's not just the diversity that impresses, but also Tonbe's high quality threshold. Put simply, there's very little filler and plenty of killer cuts.
Review: Fresh from delivering a tidy two-track missive on Rare Wiri, Tonbe returns to his spiritual home, Disco Fruit, with a suitably epic collection of fresh re-edits and reworks. It's a typically rock solid selection of tried-and-tested revisions, with the Serbian producer offering up a mixture of head-nodding, toe-tapping slo-mo grooves (see the slowly strutting disco-funk of "It's My Time" and "That Sample", not to mention the low-slung dub disco of "The Sun Goes Down" and Moog-laden shuffle of closing cut "Take Off Everything") and sweatier peak-time workouts. The latter are naturally in the majority, with highlights including the early Daft Punk style madness of "Brooka Bass", the rich electrofunk-goes-disco house flex of "Life Goes On" and the hot-stepping, jazz-powered goodness of "Something Brewing".
