Review: We have no idea who 4th Corner are and a quick web search brings up no useful info, but we can safely say that the artist's debut for the Patchouli Brothers' DODO imprint is a modern disco anthem in the making. Combining sweet, uplifting female vocals with authentic disco instrumentation and weighty, hybrid disco/house beats, the track is organic and authentic enough to delight disco purists while also boasting enough bottom-end heaviness to please DJs and dancers who like it a little more housey. The Patchouli twosome provide the obligatory remix, brilliantly re-framing the track as a hands-in-the-air, retro-futurist piano-house smasher that's as timeless-sounding as it is significantly sizeable.
Review: Paris-based Friendsome Records hit the headlines earlier this year when they signalled their arrival via a hot-to-trot EP from Chicago house legend Roy Davis Jr. On this follow-up, they've decided to promote the work of one of their own: French starlet Belaria. She begins in confident fashion with 'Boost' - a shimmering, retro-futurist, techno-tempo new wave delight full of vintage synth sounds and weighty drums - before doffing a cap to 1980s production legend Martin Rushent with the League Unlimited Orchestra-esque 'Rest in B'. She further explores her 1980s machine music influences on the Italo-goes-new wave shuffle of 'Burning Inside', before upping the tempo once more on the throbbing grooves and grandiose synth sounds of 'Esteem'. Throw in two tidy extended mixes and you have an excellent debut EP.
