Review: UK disco don Yam Who? once more teams up Lincolnshire-based vocalist Suki Soul and He Who Shall Not Be Googled (Mr Smith) on this cover of Krystol's 1984 boogie classic 'After The Dance Is Through'. Their rendering wisely leaves the song structure intact, simply upping the tempo a notch or two and giving the track a light topcoat of shimmering nu-disco polish, while Suki turns in an impressive vocal performance - especially when you consider that she's having to try and compete with an original sung by a trio. A cert on soulful and nu-disco floors for the summer, with simple vocal and instrumental rubs to choose from.
Freak For You (extended club mix) - (5:58) 117 BPM
Freak For You - (4:02) 117 BPM
Review: The boogie vibes are strong in this three-way team-up between disco stalwart Yam Who?, northern UK vocalist Suki Soul and the mysterious Mr Smith, about whom we can't tell you much except that he once made a record called 'Santa's Techno Sled' so he can't be all bad! Atop a background that's long on squelchy analogue synths, fat funk bass (both organic and synthesized) and gloriously 80s-sounding drum machine beats, Ms Soul promises her lover that while she'll "be a good girl for the world", it really is the quiet ones you've got to watch...
Review: Second time around for the ninth volume in Papa Records' reliable Messages compilation strand, which first hit stores back in 2014. This edition has been expanded via the inclusion of two fresh exclusives from compiler Richard Earnshaw: his picturesque, sun-splashed, life-affirming 2022 revision of Jon Cutler's 'I'll Take You' and a pleasingly rich, soulful and piano-powered revision of he and Sebb Junior's 'Got Yo Lovin'. The rest of the collection remains as essential as it was eight years ago, with highlights of the deep and soulful house treats on offer including the chunky late-night wooziness of Earnshaw's hook-up with Eli Escobar, 'Sunday Morning', the jazzy and spiritual flex of Jimpster and Rich Medina's 'This Thing' and the low-slung, early morning bounce of 'Nina' by Eric Erickson.
Review: Notching up a decade in the business is big news for any label, so congratulations must go to Yam Who's ISM label. He's decided to mark the imprint's first decade in some style via a series of compilations that highlight some of the killer nu-disco, boogie, disco, house and Balearic jams nestling in ISM's bulging back catalogue. Highlights are plentiful throughout, from the Imagination-inspired electrofunk flex of Ron Basejam's killer rework of Alena's "Changes" and the synth-heavy rush of Balearic disco maestro Pete Herbert's revision of M Roberto & Nikolay Denev's "Be Yourself", to the breezy, soul-fired dancefloor warmth of Jonathan Ryno's "Don't Know Love" and Mark E's terrifically loved-up deep house tweak of Robot 84's "Lookin' For Love".
Review: Spain's Rare Wiri label bring us their second retrospective label comp, which follows on the heels of last year's Vol 1, and just a quick glance at the artists involved - who include Ilya Santana, Rayko, The Beat Broker, Yam Who? and Ziggy Phunk - will give the initiated a pretty good idea of the quality on offer! Gazeebo's 'Soul Dance' is rooted in the deep funk of the early 70s, Phunk's 'Let It Move You' is a brass-spangled disco-house groover, Rayko's 'B-Nano' has an 80s Italo vibe, 'Whishbone' by Parissior channels late 70s Euro-disco, and so it goes on for six more very playable nu-disco bullets.
Review: This latest collaboration between Yam Who? and Jaegerossa comes in three mixes, and between them should find its way onto a range of floors. The lead Yam Who? & Jaegerossa Remix is the one for the soulful/disco house floors, with a top-drawer vocal from Ms Wallace, lavish strings and a Joey Negro-esque exuberance. The Boogie Remix, unsurprisingly, takes us into boogie territory and sports a fat, squidgy bottom end to match, but perhaps more impressive is the Retro Soul Mix, an altogether more organic-sounding pass that could easily hold its own alongside the likes of the Dap Kings et al.
Review: Midnight Riot's first celebration of gospel-fired disco and boogie, "Take It To Church", was rather special, so hopes are naturally high for this follow-up. Happily, we can confirm that Yam Who and company have once again nailed the brief. As with its predecessor, the 23-track set offers up a scintillating, soulful mixture of bumpin' gospel house (see Redsoul's superb "Born Again" and DJ Spen's bass-heavy tweak of Boorman's "God's Got It"), righteous disco-house (the Showfa, Alan Dixon, the piano-heavy stomp of Yam Who's "Tomorrow"), synth-laden gospel boogie (Dr Packer, Yam Who's tidy revision of Andre Esput's "Call Me"), breezy sing-alongs (Lux Experience) and plenty of dusty disco, electrofunk soul rearrangements (Divine Situation, Sweet Jubilees, Phil Jaimes). In other words, it's another essential collection.
Review: Following a fine retrospective of "original productions and reworks" earlier in the month, the Rare Wiri label has prepped another killer compilation to help mark the imprint's 10th birthday. This time round, boss man Rayko has gathered together some of the label's most potent re-edits. The quality threshold remains impressively high throughout, with highlights including James Rod's chugging and cheery disco-boogie shuffler "So Easy", the dreamy deep house throb of In Flagranti's loopy version of "Walking In The Rain", the sparkling saccharine soul/jazz-funk flex of Yam Who's revision of "In Your Eyes" and the pulsating Italo-disco/disco-funk fusion of Ziggy Phunk's take on "One Evening". Throw in a clutch of top-notch Rayko re-edits and the result is an essential collection of floor-focused reworks.
Review: Spanish producer Rayko has delivered some impressive dancefloor magic courtesy of his Rare Wiri label. Ranging from re-edits to deep nu-disco and everything in between, the imprints sound is all encompassing. That philosophy is fully explored here on Retro Future Disco, bringing all kinds of disco approaches to the table. Highlights include the schmokin' 70s jazz-funk of "Hot Head Disco" by Psychemagik, the legendary Il Flagranti's rare re-edit of new wave classic "Walking In The Rain" by Flash & The Pan and the dreamy, star-crossed synth-pop of "In Your Eyes" by Yam Who? Something for everyone here.
Review: As you might extrapolate from the title, Riot In Lagos is Midnight Riot's tribute to the endearing influence of African dance music. In typical style, this is achieved through a blend of contemporary productions, sample-heavy cuts and edits of original African material. The standard is impressively high throughout, with little in the way of fluff or filler. Highlights include, but are not limited to, the inspired deep house/Afro-disco fusion of Mena & Melgado's "African Food", the rich deep house bump of Yam Who's "How We Do", the dense percussion and glistening guitars of Drop Out Orcherstra's Candido tribute, "Jin Go La", and the pitched-down, Fela-in-dub chug of Hober Mallow's "Egbe Mi O". Oh, and Jonny Walters' hypnotic Afro-boogie shuffler "Jam Bo Ree".
Review: If you weren't aware already, Yam Who? is one ambitious, tirelessly active chap. First emerging at the turn of the century with some superb edits of poppy R n'b (anyone remember his boogie take on "Frontin" by Pharrell?) the Yam master has gone on to build quite the empire with his Midnight Riot label. The latest MR release reflects his nature, a new mix featuring 20 killer rollerskate jams from friends as well as some outright classics. Highlights include the glistening, chrome-plated funk of George Kelly's "Turn It Up", the sleek and synthy 80s jam "Living A Lie" by Freekwency and the slammin Linn drum freestyle action of "On The Upside (High Drummer edit)" by Wonkar.
Review: Having already carved a decent name for himself in the nu-disco universe, 80s Child (aka Danny Worrall), now turns his hand to running labels. Masterworks is his new imprint, and this eponymous compilation is its debut release. It's a total all-you-can-eat buffet of contemporary disco, featuring a whole host of familiar names. There are a whopping 23 tracks on here, some of the best include Tomas Malo's sultry grinder, "After The Rain", Yam Who?'s bouncy sunkissed disco joint "Find Out" and the digi-freestyle breaks of TV's "Love Situation".
Review: Every now and then we get a faint signal from this Beaten Space Probe, lost in the depths of the nebulous disco cosmos. It usually crackles through on our radio about once a year and is unanimously greeted with whoops of delight and much dancing on our analogue space consoles. This missive contains nine galaxian edits, presumably all peak time bangers on the hottest alien dancefloors. Highlights include the elasticated bass frenzy of "Double Lines", the Kool & The Gang redux "Don't Wanna Dance" and Fingerman's electro-boogie blaster, "Like 2 Baby". Far out!
Review: ISM Records' two Futurism EPs have proved so popular that label boss Yam Who has decided to use them as the inspiration for an expansive compilation of previously unreleased gems. Unlike the label's other popular strand, Midnight Riot, there's always been a bit more of an open-minded, eclectic feel about the Futurism releases. This is no different. Whilst rooted in nu-disco and deep house, Futurism: Shades of Space also touches on 21st century jazz-funk (Manmademusic), bongo-laden spiritual house (Nu Ak's "Fly Away"), fluid garage (Nega Tiv's excellent "Liquid Call"), woozy Balearica (Ben La Desh and Plan DAqua), block party boogie (Questlife feat Wildstyle, Freekwency) and nu-jazz (Hamish Balfour). More importantly, the quality threshold remains high throughout.
Review: Re-edit heavy hitters Chopshop are back following their recent killer Greg Wilson/Groove Armada EP, and the big guns are out in force. Andrew Clarke is first up with "My Desire", an exotic funk bass and shimmering grand piano orgy. Then Yam Who? arrives at the party armed with "Quested": an immense synth-boogie looper that will slay you without even trying. Not to be outdone, DJ Butcher's "The Future Is Ours" risks weirding out the dancefloor with its twisted leftfield funk, and succeeds (possibly due to the dog barking bit). Lastly Appo ends with a classic: an arpeggiated disco cover of Chain Of Fools.
Review: Dynamicron's Latino-centric nu-disco label Los Grandes, deliver their fourth long-playing comp, gathering the best re-edits they can find. The label boss himself delivers the first of 20 tracks, "She", which sounds like a very subtle edit of an undetermined, but luscious and silky sheeted, Bee Gees track. Elsewhere Brendon P's "Before You Go Away" evokes The Avalanches, Panorama's "Straight From The Heart" is pure cut mid 80s digital soul and on the same tip, Dennis Edwards is edited further by Teniente Castillo on "Don't Dub Any Further". William Devaughn's "Be Thankful" is beautifully teased out by Kompleks before things end with "Shameless Hotel", a crazy take on The Eagles by the Irregular Disco Workers.
Review: Yam Who?'s ISM label come through with a four track slice of disco centric Futurism, featuring the man Yam himself alongside PBR Streetgang and Ron Basejam. It's the latter who takes the lead with a remix of Alena's "Changes" that sees her sultry vocal teased by a most excellent of analogue synth leads that splurges brilliantly across the crisp mid tempo chug. Yam Who? teams up with vocalist Natasha Watts for the similarly bottom heavy bump of "I'm In Love" which has a certain warehouse appeal to it. Up next, PBR pay respect to the godfather of soul James Brown with the gritty flex of "J2thaB" with the sadly departed Mr Brown strangely sounding at times like he wants to go to Tesco. We always took him for a Waitrose man, but regardless this is probably the track you'll reach for most! Finally Brothers Young do their thing to a Trammps classic, with little more than the bassline retained. Big tip!
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you've provided to them or that they've collected from your use of their services.