Pont Neuf regular Tour-Maubourg is undoubtedly an artist on the rise. There are gems aplenty in his back catalogue, which supplements dusty, jazz-flecked deep house with blazed electronica and hazy downtempo gems. 'Spaces of Silence', his second album, is exceptionally strong, too, with the French producer sashaying between immersive ambient ('Intro'), organic, loose-limbed deep jazz-house (the fabulous 'Just Believe'), head-nodding instrumental hip-hop ('Why (Life)'), sun-splashed warm-up shufflers ('I Never Will'), nostalgic New Jersey style deep house ('Paradise'), horizontal electronica ('L'Hiver'), deep space workouts (the deep house goes ambient techno haze of 'Solaced') and nods towards the vintage early works of St Germain ('You (feat Ismael Ndir)'). Impeccable.
Since 2014, Simon Schmidt aka Blindsmyth has been a freelance artist, producer, live act, and DJ based in Berlin. His latest release comes out via Frankfurt's esteemed Connaisseur titled Refiberd Vol 1, which features remixes from his second album All That Fiberglass that came out last year. The inimitable Floyd Lavine delivers an Afrofuturistic techno funk rework of "Remember The Days", Macho Cutie's Shit Disco Mix of "Transhuman" takes the track into elevating territory with its rich tapestry of melodies and 303 acid underpinned by tribal rhythms, plus there's Imperieux's off-kilter and experimental Reconstruction of "Emotion Per Byte".
Scottish producer Andrew Wasylyk offers an alternative mix album to 2020's spiritual-jazz and neo-classical masterclass in melody - Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolation. This new LP is his third for Athens Of North Records, and is as much a different perspective as a companion piece. The 10 songs still circle landscapes for meaning, channelling half-heard melodies and misremembered memories; caught somewhere between settling down and setting out towards the shining levels of the estuary and beyond.
This year saw Berlin clubbing institution Watergate turn 20 years old. To celebrate the milestone, they took the experience outside the club for a full weekend rave, plus the release of this mammoth 20 track compilation of new and unreleased tracks. Highlights come from legendary artists such as the ever reliable Henrik Schwarz who appears with the highly engineered soul of "You Need Attitude", veteran of the scene Sasha gets a seriously heads-down groove happening on "Wolf Cider", Hamburg maximal heroes Extrawelt deliver as expected on the hypnotising "Rover" and former Mobilee co-head Anja Schneider gets the hands in the air on the uplifting house of "Can't You See Me No More?' plus many others.
Austria-based Jorkes co-runs the Freeride Millenium label with her partner Paris Boehm. Her Sweet Dreams EP showed the many different sides of her sound; a provocative work centered around issues such as gender, identifying as queer and egalitarian attitudes - and here are the remixes. Alinka (Twirl) provides an acid soaked remix of the title track, ROTCIV always delivers particularly with his euphoric dark disco rework of "You Will Be Mine" and New Hook's lo-slung chug perspective of "Robot Lover" calls to mind Damon Jee's work as Nozz.
American deep house hero Seven Davis Jr returns with Savedbythebell on his very own imprint Secret Angels. The San Franciscan is in fine form as always, demonstrated on such playful tracks as the smooth groove of "Zero Press", the infectious boompty shuffle of "Meet Me At The Afters" and the uptempo Windy City jazz of "Wendy & Lisa".
