Essen's Manuel Tur has released music on many labels over the years, but much of his greatest work - including a trilogy of albums - has been issued by Freerange Records. We can confirm that the German deep house stalwart is in fine form on this return to Jimpster and co's imprint after a three-year absence. Title track 'Love Me Well' is simply sublime: a slowly building chunk of deep, quietly soulful brilliance that adds heart-aching piano motifs, reverb-smothered female vocals and cut-glass strings to a sumptuous deep tech-house groove. He continues in this tech-house/deep house fusion vein on the bouncier 'Paperesse', where twinkling electric piano solos and looped string samples catch the ear, before rounding off a rock-solid EP via the TB-303-sporting deep house squelch of 'Touch Move'.
Gallegos most recent single, 'Sycophantic Maniac', was a super-charged chunk of weighty, warehouse-ready house heaviness that also featured on TSHA's just-released - and properly ace - Fabric mix. This follow-up EP is equally potent and retro-futurist in tone, but a little more diverse musically. Check first the bleeps, organ stabs, hip-hop vocal samples and stripped-back 21st century hip-house groove of 'Pump Up The Sound', before admiring the squelchy, hot-stepping UK funky head-does-classic deep house flex of 'Faulty VHS Chewed My WWF Tapes'. Elsewhere, 'Only The Lonely' is a dusty, ambient influenced hip-hop instrumental, 'Westfest Windmills' is starry-eyed fusion of hypnotic beats, warming synths and unfurling musical motifs, and 'Warm Grass With Friends' is a snappy, sample-heavy chunk of giggling deep house cheeriness.
Big room house specialists Toolroom have been responsible for countless White Isle anthems over the years, something that makes their annual Toolroom Ibiza compilations a must-check for those seeking future floor-fillers. Their latest edition is something of a beast, featuring no less than 50 full-length, unmixed tracks and a couple of themed, non-stop DJ mixes (one gathers the set's deep, funky and electro house cuts, the other the tech-house tracks). Naturally there are far too many highlights to list here, but our current favourites includeMason Maynard's subtly DJ Mujava-inspired 'Light My Fire', the piano-powered rush of GotSome and Georgia Meek's 'Dead End', the twisted tech-house weight of Iglesias and Classmatic's 'Freak', and the warped, mind-mangling late-night shuffle of De La Swing and Rendher's 'Voodoo Step'.
Any new album from deep house pioneer and all-round legend Larry Heard is good news, but especially so when it's credited to his best-known and best-loved alias, Mr Fingers. Around The Sun Pt 1 is Heard's first album under the alias for four years and, unsurprisingly, it's as musically expansive, evocative, and atmospheric as they come. Naturally, it's rooted in the warming, dreamy, subtly jazz-flecked deep house style he's been tweaking and improving over decades, with occasional forays into sun-kissed downtempo grooves ('Touch The Sky'), angular acid tracks, Heard's take on dub house (the deliciously deep, micro-house influenced 'Marrakesh') and summery Balearic house ('Shimmer'). All in all, it's another masterpiece from deep house's most significant pioneer.
Anything with Chewy Rubs' name on it is sure to prick up this reviewer's ears, and the Naughty But Nice veteran certainly doesn't disappoint with this latest four-track EP, which finds him with his house hat on. The standout to these ears is 'Get Loose' with its rubberband bassline, party shouts and sense of just-repressed energy, followed closely by 'Sweet Little Booboo' with its chopped n' looped preacherman vox, while 'Active Ingredients' itself borrows from D-Train classic 'Music' and 'Team Work' is an eyes-down, blues-infused shuffler, built for the wee small hours and riding a b-line that kicks like the proverbial equine quadraped
Balearic veteran James Bright - formerly one-half of Lux alongside Steve 'Afterlife' Miller - flexes his electronic muscles on this three-tracker for Sprechen. 'These Machines' itself kicks things off, fusing elements of Italo and vintage acid into an angular concoction that's sure to inspire the thowing of a few shapes out on the floor. 'Vibration' then takes us into proper Balearic territory, being a piano-sprinkled head-nodder powered along by a pleasingly chunky bassline, while 'Hot Metropolis' offers up a more contemplative, late-night variation on the overall synth-y theme. Forward-thinking stuff as ever from the Manchester label.