International Juno Download

FEATURED RELEASES

African influences have played a huge role in shaping the 'now' sound of house music in the last few years, just as Latin styles did in the mid-00s. But right now there are just as many interesting fusions going on at that point where house and techno collide with the musics of the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent - and this excellent four-tracker from Nour, a female producer from Palestine who's now based in Mexico, is a case in point. Head for the originals if you're a lover of Eastern sounds generally, or the remixes from Rayko and Sinchi if you want something that's more easily programmable.

The Mauskovic Dance Band

Shadance Hall Dekmantel Holland

With the Dekmantel machine growing by the week the label has come to a point over the last 10 years where it's happy to stand up and represent the otherside of dance music, bands. That now includes The Mauskovic Dance Band, a five piece group outta Amsterdam sending some tropical cosmo flavours for the silly summer season. The album delivers a lo-fi and almighty analogue sound of disco and psychedelica next to the bells and whistles of percussion music, 60s dub ethics and a chic 70s cosmiq.

Krafty Kuts

Bass Funk, Vol 5 (Curated By Krafty Kuts) Bomb Strikes

Krafty Kuts & Bomb Strikes, two names that when combined leave us with potentially incredible results. They join forces here to curate and design the fifth edition of 'Bass Funk', showcasing some of the most prominent faces across the entire breadth of breaks. The tracklisting for this one looks pretty monstrous, featuring the likes of A Skillz, Dubra, Arteo, Fort Knox Five, K+Lab & more. There are a couple of immediate stand outs however, with the latin horn melodies and vibrant rhythms of Ninjula's 'Spanish Princess' and the pure rawcus devilry of 'AI' from the legendary Delta Heavy both standing out!

exclusive

Lolita

28 Audaz

It's not for us to second-guess the motivations of others, but more recent installments in the Lolita series do seem to have eschewed the "anything goes" approach of earlier volumes in favour of curating more focused, stylistically cohesive collections. So '31' follows on nicely from last week's disco-oriented '30', as the Lolitas mine obscure early 80s boogie, Eurodisco, Italo and electrofunk nuggets including The Jammers' 'Be Mine Tonight' from 1982 ('274'), One Two Three's 'Runaway' (a 1983 Bobby O production that now gets reworked as '275'), Clive Davis & Brainchild's 'Mystery Man' from 1984 ('280') and more.

Various

School Yard Breaks Vol 31 2191 School Yard Break US

The devoted diggers over at School Yard Breaks once more unearth a treasure trove of near-forgotten musical gold to delight the funkateers and old-skool b-boys. This latest installment features a few more big names than usual: there are contributions from the likes of James Brown (x2), Rare Earth, The Soul Searchers, Andrea True Connection, Vaughan Mason and the legendary Captain Sky, and fewer obscure soundtrack gems or world music nuggets. But we're still talking rarer cuts, and rest assured the quality standard hasn't slipped an inch, with bullets from Gus Poole and John Jenkins particular standouts for this reviewer.

Izo Fitzroy

Blind Faith (Remixes) Jalapeno

Shaping up to be one of the biggest soul tunes of the year, here 'Blind Faith' gets the remix treatment courtesy of Art Of Tones (formerly known as F-Comm fave Llorca) and fellow Jalapeno regular Smoove (as in Turrell). Art Of Tones nudges the track closer to soulful house territory - his Dub, in particular, would undoubtedly have gone down a storm at Ben Watt's legendary Sunday sessions Lazy Dog back in the day, with its phat b-line and jazz-funk guitar chops. Smoove then surprises with a shimmering, squelchy-basslined rub that also operates at a near-house tempo.