Review:
By now, we should all know what to expect from each new album in Joey Negro's "Remixed With Love" series, namely fantastic new revisions of classic disco, boogie, soul, electro and jazz-funk classics created using the original multi-track tapes. This third volume naturally contains a few inspired revisions of well-known cuts - a riotous take on The Fatback Band's "Do The Bus Stop", an astonishing, dubbed-out version of the Temptations' "Law of the Land" and a soaring, life-affirming rearrangement of Patrice Rushen's "Never Give You Up" included - but also some suitably smart tweaks of lesser-known gems. These include a sublime revision of the APX's '80s gem "Loose Yourself To The Groove" and an insatiable take on Mass Production's "Shante" full of jammed-out electric piano solos and rubbery electric bass.
Review:
In which the prolific Russian disco dinner ladies known as V's Edits serve up four more helpings of re-edit goodness. KC & The Sunshine's sax-tastic 'Black Water Gold' gets a little added Afro flava on 'Black Waters Hold' (without detracting from the original's superb jazzual musicality), Bob Marley's 'Is This Love' is reinvented as the party-starting 'Love And Treat You Right', Marvin Gaye gets the treatment on 'Funky Space' while 'Little Enough' (credited to Keith, source unknown) is an ultra-laidback jazz-funk groove built for warm-up or summer afternoon play.
Review:
Just seeing the words 'Phenomenal Handclap Band' and 'Ray Mang' on the same release will be enough to get disco lovers' musical tastebuds tingling, and the results of this heavy-hitting hook-up - which rumour has it trails a new album - don't disappoint. Across four mixes (plus a Radio Edit) he variously pulls out the track's disco, gospel and house-y elements, with his Disco Mix the choice for straight-up disco floors, the Special Mix the pick for the Balearic crew and the Reprise the one for house clubs, with an Instrumental Mix also supplied to cater for anyone who finds the vox a little OTT.
Review:
In the words of Paper Disco, episode six of their floor-friendly "Trash The Wax" series delivers "plenty of party pumping offerings". Predictably, proof of the set's club-ready status arrives via Hi-FI Sean's compilation opening remix of IPG v Hot Toddy's "Slow Motion Cowboy", which delivers a funk-fuelled riot of delay-laden guitars, funk rock attitude and sizzling dub disco grooves. Naturally, the rest of the collection is similarly strong. Highlights include a rare production outing from Bill Brewster (the throbbing, off-kilter Italo-disco him of "4 U Blue"), the Balearic Italo-disco bliss of Richard Norris's "Glow", the dreamy, arpeggio-driven nu-disco warmth of Kooky and Damoon's "Walk Back Into My Life" and Sheffield stalwart Solid State's deep, epic revision of "Remnants" by Speed For Lovers.
Review:
Alongside the likes of yourself, you can bet that Mark Knight & Co. will be also be a known presence at Amsterdam Dance Event in 2018 and indeed they'll be well prepared with the appropriate tools - as this killer compilation proves. Highlights on this annual edition come from Maceo Plex - whose remix of "Nervous Tics" (feat Holly Walker) by hot British duo Maribou State takes you to the dark side, label chief Knight's massive rework of Sterling Void's eternal anthem "It's Alright" (feat Paris Brightledge) will surely get the hands in the air, as will Adesse Versions' edit of legend Kerri Chandler's "The Boom Can" and many others over the collection's five dozen tracks. To take you through every part of your trip, the album comes complete with three perfectly crafted and perfectly primed mixes.
Review:
The clue's in the name here, as Masterworks Music serve up another set of 21st Century makeovers of dancefoor delights from days gone by. Diana Ross's 'My Old Piano' gets reinvented as a rather classy disco-houser on opener 'Tinkling The Ivories', while getting similar treatment elsewhere are Maze's 'Running Away', Invisible Man's Band's 'All Night Thing', Donna Summer's 'Spring Affair' and more. Long throughout on sweeping strings, handclaps, fat funk basslines and soulful vocals, the whole EP is a must for contemporary disco floors, especially as the source/track selection isn't over-obvious.
Review:
Eleven years have passed since Wajeed released his most recent solo album, the instrumental hip-hop focused "The War LP". In that time, the Detroiter has expanded his musical repertoire somewhat, drawing greater influence from the Motor City's illustrious deep house scene. It's this side of his output that he explores on "For The Dirt", giddily flitting between acid-fired piano house ("From The Dirt"), Omar-S style tech-house/deep house fusion ("After You Left"), disco and funk-influenced vocal workouts (see "Things About You"), tasty tech-soul songs ("I Ain't Safe", the wonderful "Make It Happen") and jazz-flecked deep house dustiness (the percussive and swinging, "My Father's Rhythm").
Review:
There's a fine line between the re-edit and the sample track, and it's a line that gets notably blurred on this latest Chewy Rubs EP from Re-Loved, though the latter tag probably fits slightly better. 'Everybody' is a stuttery nu-disco/disco-house jam topped with familiar diva vocal snippets, the rolling, bass-y Seamus Haji Remix of 'It's Not Over' impressively breathes new life into the well-worn First Choice vocal, 'Too Much, You Know' operates at the jazzier end of the contemporary funk spectrum and will likely prove the connoisseurs' choice, while 'Doing It' is straight-up Euro dancefloor exuberance, late 70s-style.
Review:
Like fictional super-spy James Bond, Chewy Rubs prefers his re-edits "Shaken Not Stirred". "Took My Love Away (Chewy Rubs Deep Disco Vox"), the opening cut from the Star Wars-loving producer's latest EP, is every bit as potent and tipsy as a pint of Vodka Martini, with deliciously glassy-eyed female vocal snippets rising above a loopy disco-house groove. Similarly impressive is chugging, mind-altering throb-job "Love A Groove (Chewy Rubs Extend-it)", where spacey synthesizer arpeggio lines and quirky vocal samples rise above a pulsating, mid-'80s dancefloor groove. Elsewhere, "Garage Disco III" is a electric piano-heavy revision of a mid-80s NYC house jam rearranged in cahoots with pal Moke, while "Rake The Moon (Chewy Rubs Space Dust Rub)" is a creepy, ever-growing, house-friendly tweak of a weirdo space disco workout.
Review:
Here, a quartet of producers step up to offer their interpretations of "Neutron Dance", the throbbing, Italo-disco-fired lead cut from Krystal Klear's "Division EP". Paul Woolford pays tribute to early Eddie Richards project Jolly Roger on his jaunty, early UK house style rework - all squidgy TB-303 bass, drum machine cowbells and fluid house pianos - before Fango re-imagines the track as a sprightly chunk of New York freestyle/breakbeat house fusion. Fellow Irishman Mano Le Tough takes to the mic on his hybrid Italo-disco/throbbing house take, before Running Back chief Gerd Jansen straps on his "Birkies" and re-imagines the Dublin producer's original as a breezy blast of dub-wise, retro-futurist house.
Review:
Despite having a steady revival movement over the past couple of years, UK Funky has exploded onto the UK Bass scene over the past few months, influencing a large amount of underground music. Here we see one of the genre's leading lights in Murder He Wrote put forward a flavoursome four tracker, courtesy of Rhythm Athletic. We begin our journey on this one on a vibrant collaboration with Maddie Ellerby by the name of 'Expectations', which lays the blueprints for the rest of the EP with its classic funky flavours. Next up, 'Circles', a bluesy stripped back roller, packed with organic drum energy, before landing on the futuristic synth play of 'All I Ever Needed'. Finally we finish up the EP on the playful dub mix of 'Expectations'.
Review:
Wolf Music - London purveyors of the real proper deep stuff - deliver on the same underground quality once again, in the form of this nifty little EP by Frits Wentink: one of Holland's finest. The final in a three-part series, the Bobby Donny boss continues to showcase his distinct style of lo-fi, wonky house - both quirky and unconventional, yet instantly endearing in the same breath. From the late night swing-fuelled groove of "Theme 09" to the slo-mo boogie down vibe of "Theme 11" (a tribute of sorts perhaps to Morgan Geist's neon-lit aesthetic) to just the same good ol' loopy jams you've come to expect like "Theme 12" that are jam packed with Wentink's usual dancefloor dynamics - dusted down, lo-slung and well bowled!
Review:
Though billed as a various artists compilation, this is essentially a career-spanning Faze Action 'best of' that also includes a handful of collaborations and contributions from their various side projects (Andromeda Orchestra, Rudy's Midnight Machine). And yes, it stretches all the way back to 'In The Trees'! Long-term fans will of course have much of the material featured here already, which makes the non-FA cuts even more welcome, but if you're just discovering the musical delights of the brothers Lee, then this collection is a great way to get better acquainted before delving into the full, extensive back catalogue...
Review:
There's no doubt that Sophie Lloyd and Dames Brown's "Calling Out" - a gospel-disco stomper built around bold piano riffs, killer grooves and a strong, sing-along chorus - is fast becoming one of the anthems of 2018. This package doesn't boast the spine-tingling original, but rather some alternate takes from Floorplan (AKA Detroit techno legend Rob Hood and daughter Lyric Hood) and scalpel maestro Danny Krivit. The two Floorplan revisions naturally drag the track further towards storming gospel-house territory, with the fantastic Revival Mix - all crunchy Chi-Town drums, wild organs, jaunty pianos and relentless chorus - hitting home especially hard. Krivit, meanwhile, does a terrific job of teasing out the track before brilliantly alternating between Brown's jangling pianos solos and the killer chorus. Basically, Krivit's ten-minute take is arguably the definitive version.
Review:
An EP here that's the proverbial game of two halves, Brian. 'Chances' itself is a fat-bottomed disco-funk groover with a soulful male vocal, parping brass and some fine west coast-ish guitar work, yet the extensive use of filters and the high production values generally mark it out as unmistakably a 21st Century thang. The female-vocalled 'Mystery Funk', on the other hand, is straight-up disco/boogie revivalism, and could have beamed straight in from 1982 or so. Either track will move disco-friendly floors without a doubt, but the authentic stylings of 'Mystery Funk' win the day.
Review:
While all Shit Hot Soundsystem releases - and there have been quite a few over the years - are filled with "Good Vibes", we're detecting extra portions of positivity on the South London producer's latest Midnight Riot outing. Check, for example, the mid-tempo, horn-totin' 80s soul/boogie business of synth-heavy opener "Hold Me Back", the slap-bass propelled disco-house heaviness of "I'm Still Around" and the reggae-pop cheeriness of "Stridin", which offers a loopy, filter-heavy dancefloor take on a much-loved Australian wedding disco favourite. "Lettum In", a chugging revision of a string-drenched cover of a Paul McCartney Christmas favourite, is also rather good.
Review:
If your fame is built on delivering rock solid dancefloor cuts, should your subsequent albums stick to the same approach or mix it up a little? It's a conundrum that many artists have struggled with over the years. Smartly, Detroit Swindle has decided to hedge their bets with High Life following 2014's Boxed Out. As full length albums go, it's a bit of a peach, and sees the acclaimed Dutch duo flit between sensuous, home-listening fare, jaunty, instrumental-laden workouts (see the cheery, smoky pop-soul of Tom Misch hook-up "Yes, No, Maybe" and Afro-fired bounce of "Call of the Wild" featuring fellow Dutch combo Jungle By Night) and tried-and-tasty club tracks (Seven Davis Jr collaboration "Flavourism", the driving disco-house of "Freeqy Polly" and "Cut U Loose").
Review:
Philpot co-founder Soulphiction has been MIA for a while now, making it an utter pleasure to have him back on our charts with some effective new house swingers. He's landed on Local Talk, one of the very best in its class, and "Bizzness" kicks off with a funky-ass bassline and some freaky vocal chops, while "Cart People" lingers at a steadier sort of tempo, filtered through mounds of dubbed-out haze. "Slow Glow" is an experiment in percussion, also meandering its wavy synths on an off-kilter mode, and "Sweet Dreams" works the drum-machine in and out of the groove, ending up with another off-balance house experiment for the deeper minds out there on the floor!
Review:
More studious retro-futurism from the Cold Tonic camp, as fast-rising Irish artist Conny showcases some of his numerous old school influences. This time round he's happily daydreaming about Brooklyn basements and New Jersey warehouses. He provides two versions of "Song For Eva": a deliciously glassy-eyed "Jersey Mix" full of "Show Me Love" style organ riffs, dreamy chords and rubbery synth-bass, and a rushing, piano-heavy "Brooklyn Rave Mix" that sounds like the sort of thing that Frankie Bones and company would have giddily played at their infamous Storm Rave parties. Running Back regular Shan provides the obligatory remixes, first emphasizing the loved-up chords, melodies and bass on the fittingly titled "Sunrise Mix", before giving the track a massive peak-time kick up the arse on the stab-happy "3AM Pump Mix".
Review:
Gabriele Poso recently impressed with "Awakening", a superb long-form release that contained far more hits than misses. Here, some of those hits are given new dancefloor makeovers from suitably notable producers. Chief amongst these is Severn Davis Jr, who first offers up a percussive and deliciously bass-heavy revision of "Mi Amigo", before re-casting the Italian's cover of "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" as a musically rich chunk of smooth, funk-fuelled deep house. Arguably even better is Opolopo's jazz-funk and disco-fired remix of the same track, which includes more killer instrumental solos than you can shake a stick at. Elsewhere, DJ Crab re-imagines "Words Never Work" as a tech-tinged slab of deep and melodious house, while the Clap! Clap! Clap! remix of "The Night Falls" is a breezy tropical treat.
Review:
Scotland's Soup Dragons hit the mainstream in 1990 with their cover of the Rolling Stones' "I'm Free". The Glaswegian four-piece were synonymous with the emerging 'Madchester' sounds of the time and the track reached almost anthemic proportions. These modern perspectives by nu-disco giants Midnight Riot still do the song justice: label staples Yam Who? team up with Alan Dixon Remix for a gospel like remix that reaches near spiritual moments, then all the Riot Allstars team up for a sultry and dubby nu-disco rendition until the man himself - Hifi Sean aka Soup Dragon's frontman Sean Dickson - wraps it up with his driving funky house makeover which is superb.
Review:
Peter Panther and Shahaa Tops are WSHOM, the party-starting duo behind We Should Hang Out More, one of Glasgow's most riotous regular parties of recent times. Here they make their recording debut on Midnight Riot with two tasty re-edits. First up is "Du Jour", a bass-heavy and tooled-up re-edit of a familiar, slap bass-propelled, Italo-disco era '80s dancefloor jam that strips out much of the vocal in favour of prioritizing the killer grooves, heady backing vocals and bold synthesizer melody. "I Tell No Lie", meanwhile, is a loopy and sweaty workout rich in bold bass, snappy drum machine hits, spacey synthesizer flourishes and wonky vocoder vocals. It, too, sounds like it is Italian in origin.
Review:
Magic Feet boss Craig Bratley is not the most prolific producer in the world, but his sporadic EPs are usually excellent. Certainly, this outing on Futureboogie Recordings contains some superb music. Pulsating opener "99.9" - a body-jacking, Italo-influenced throb-job high on horror-influenced synthesizer melodies and foreboding riffs - is particularly potent, though wholehearted Italo-disco tribute "Italo Love" and the slo-mo chug-fest "Take Me To Bedford or Lose Me Forever" are almost as good. The EP also includes a sublime interpretation of "99.9%" by Andrew Weatherall, whose stretched-out take places exotic, snaking synth lines and yelping vocal samples over a Love From Outer Space-ready pitched-down groove.
Review:
Sound Exhibitions boss Funk Reverse brings us two more slices of nu-funk goodness. 'Get Down Sound' is up first, starting with house-y vocal samples and light, toppy percussion before introducing choppy guitars, an intricate live-sounding bassline and disjointed male vocal snips, the main "gonna make you dance" vocal arriving only after a brass-tastic breakdown halfway through. 'People Get Up' nudges even closer to beach house/Balearic territory, making these two contemporary funk slabs that eschew straight-up 70s pastiche, opti instead to embrace more modern influences and, as a result, end up eminently programmable in a wide range of sets.
Review:
It appears that contemporary DJs and label owners are finally twigging that BRS made some killer deep house in the early 2000s. Here, Wolf Music serves up a freshly remastered reissue of 2003 EP "Spring Dom", which follows hot on the heels of Situationism's new edition of outstanding 2000 cut "Lovin' Me". It remains a superb collection of cuts, with the bumpin' UK garage-influenced/San Francisco deep house fusion of "Clubtronic" and the more analogue-rich "Miss You" being joined by the wonderful dub house/piano house/boogie fusion of title track "Spring Dom". This time round, there's also a fresh remix of the latter cut, with Wolf Music regular Medlar re-casting it as an all-action chunk of boogie and electro-tinged proto-house goodness.
Review:
First making his name via production work for Swayzak, more recently Bologna, Italy resident Francecso Brini has stepped out as an artist in his own right under the 'Frank Agrario' moniker. Here, he comes to Tom Tom Disco with a four-track EP that's a melting pot of dancefloor and world music influences. 'Nefro' is a looping, percussive workout with Egyptian/Middle Eastern overtones, 'Kalakutta' is an Afro-style deep houser with jazz tinges, 'Tapwater' is a mellower groove, again with an African feel, and then finally Leonor brings us an epic, remix of 'Kalakutta' complete with broody synths and cinematic spoken vocal.
Review:
Remixers Rich Lane and Duncan Grey had a tough job on their hands here, because SNEM K's Original version of 'Good Girls & Bad Boys' is pretty hard to improve on, rocking as it does as full-phat, low-slung and sleazy a bass riff as you'll hear all month. It's a pretty sedate affair, and hence one more for warm-up or afternoon than peaktime play, but the combination of that bassline with chorused female vocal oohs, a camp male vocal line and shimmering synths is near impossible to resist. Still, the guys do their best, Lane taking us into even sparser, grindier territory and adding some fine fretwork while Gray tuffens up the beats and ups the pace slightly.
Review:
If you're a lover of hip-house vocals then the Sweet Tee-esque title track here will definitely give you a 'Happy Feeling'! Elsewhere on the EP, 'Corrupt' is a looping, Latin-tinged affair with chorused female vox, there are more Latino flavas on 'You Choose', 'Arab Money' is an uptempo, brassy joint atop which another rapped vocal (a male one this time) and some Middle Eastern chanting go head-to-head, while 'Heartbeat' is essentially a rework of Jimmy 'Bo' Horne's 'Is It In?' from 1980. Five sample-tastic cuts that'll keep disco floors moving for sure.
