Chopshop Music is a label renowned for its disco, funk, house, hip hop, soul and jazz delights. It was founded by George Kelly aka DJ Butcher in Athens (Greece) in 2009 with the intention to reignite and rework old school sounds with a modern twist for the dancefloor. The label began its journey by cutting tracks exclusively on vinyl, but as it grew, it began bouncing out digital releases and in 2012 its sister label Our Records was born. Chopshop has so far seen releases from artists including: Groove Armada, Greg Wilson, Rayko, Capitan Futuro, Vaudafunk, Dave Gerrard and a number of stand-out tracks from DJ Butcher himself.
Review: George Kelly's Athens-based Chopshop celebrate 15 years in the game with this best-of compilation that takes in cuts from the likes of Groove Armada (via Greg Wilson), Situation, Andy Bach, Bodie Lee, HP Vince and more, many of which - as is entirely in keeping with the label's name, of course - draw heavily on source material from the past. Dave Leatherman & Bruce Nolan kick us off with 'Sunny Side Up', which reworks Osibisa's 'Sunshine Day', and from there on out it's basically a non-stop disco/disco-house riot, with Bodie Lee paying tribute to Inner City on 'Let Me Take You Dancer', Wild Cherry chopped and looped to glorious effect by Delly on 'Movin' To The Groovin' and Alejandro Maria stealing the day with 'A Lot To Live For', which should really be called 'Stabs To Die For'.
Review: Rising Dutch producer QUINTEN 909 hails from Den Bosch and has half a dozen or so previous releases under his belt, including outings on Armada Chill, Sleazy G and Groovetraxx. Now he comes to Greece's Chopshop with the simply gorgeous 'Can't Give You Up', a laidback and drifty jam with a fat bassline, heavily treated guitar chops, dreamy sax and some lovely lounge-y "la-la-la-la" chorused vox - it's not unreminiscent, in fact, of a certain Mr D. Lee in his mellower moments. There's an accompanying Radio Edit for those that have a use for such things - if you don't, then why deprive yourself? Blissful!
Review: In which George Kelly, label manager of Greek imprint Chopshop, teams up with BNC, who we're gonna go right ahead and assume is fellow Greek producer and self-proclaimed "disco vampire" Bruises N Cuts (who sometimes uses that same three-letter name). Together they've come up with 'Love Me Crazy', a laidback electronic groover that sits somewhere between early 80s electrofunk and contemporary dance-pop and R&B, and that sports a lightly vocodered vocal (presumably from BNC) that promises to "make you feel all right" and, a tad less subtly, "freak you to the beat". A track made for summer smoochin'.
Review: There's something to please disco/nu-disco lovers of many persuasions on this four-track V/A from Greece's Chopshop label. Vaudafunk kick things off with the smooth n' classy disco-house of 'Nice To Antibes', before HP Vince gets more in-your-face and strutty with Telex-esque lead cut 'Disco Crypto'. George Kelly then drops the tempo on the decidedly Daft Punk-ish 'Superballin' - all vocoder vox and ruff, grinding bass - before Andy Bach delivers some fine discofied deep house with 'Jump', which makes good use of the classic Aretha "jump, jump, jump to it" sample. And, oddly, the very disparate elements add up to a rather satisfying whole.
Review: There's a pretty obvious clue in the name as to what kind of music you're going to find here! What makes this compilation from Greek label Chopshop stand out, though, is that the usual suspects are, for once, notable by their absence: there are contributions from Tonbe and HP Vince, as well as label boss George Kelly, but many if not most of the artists involved here will be new names to many if not most listeners. As such, it's a collection that's well worth investigating, packing 15 uptempo tracks - largely original, if heavily sample-based productions, rather than re-edits - that are long on funk basslines, handclaps and cowbells. What's not to like?
Review: Germany's Andy Bach (head of the Young Society and Society 3.0 labels) comes to Greece's Chopshop with a track that draws heavily on Diana Ross classic 'Love Hangover' - though it would be unfair to dismiss 'It's Not Over' as a simple re-edit, partly because Bach has added a new female vocal and partly because it's not entirely clear if the familiar parts are actually samples, or have been resung. Mix-wise, choose from the dusty, looping Original, its accompanying Radio Edit and Instrumental, or a beefed-up take from Bonetti that nudges the track in the direction of the tech-house floors.
Review: On his latest one-track missive, Chopshop big beast George Kelly has stated his intention to pack a suitcase, grab his "sunnies" and head "Off To An Island". He's joined on this summery mission by vacation-loving collaborators Idra Kayne and BNC. As you'd expect, it's a wholeheartedly fun and funky affair, with Kelly adding Kayne and BNC's cheery, let's-have-a-good-time vocals to a driving, thickset disco-house groove rich in warm bass, Nile Rodgers style guitar riffs and filtered, presumably sampled orchestration. IT rises and falls in all the right places and sounds like it will light up open air dancefloors if and when we get to enthusiastically dance on them again. In a word: big!
Review: Dutch producer Vince Kriek AKA HP Vince and Germany's Andy Bach join forces. In its Original form, 'Feel My Body' is a disco-house affair that would have sounded right at home on a mid-00s Hed Kandi compilation with its crisp 4/4s, fluttering geetars, breathy diva vocal and overall surging, euphoric feel. The Nu-Disco Mix then tuffens up the beats a little and brings the six-string further to the fore, making for a pass that's just a wee bit struttier and more energetic. For maximum impact, serve loud in the open air, accompanied by lashings of summer sunshine.
Review: For his latest outing on Chopshop, label regular Vaudafunk has baked up some "Disco Pies" - a savoury treat that's more nourishing and sustaining than those "disco biscuits" we're always being offered by the moody blokes who hang out in the dark corners of clubs. For the main course he offers up "Cherry Pie", a filter-sporting bounce through cheery, horn-heavy disco pastures that's as delicious as, well, cherry pie. Arguably even tastier is second course "Erotique Disco", a low-slung, string-laden romp through over-the-top disco territory served hot with lashings of extra-thick cream. Yum!
Review: Guillermo Gonzalez is in fine form on his first Hotmood outing for Chopshop, which follows a string of self-released singles and solid EPs for Star Creature, Giant Cuts and Disco Fruit. Opener "Arabian Affair" somehow manages to sound both loose and groovy, and locked and sweaty, with the Mexican producer successfully tooling up and reworking an obscure slab of flute-sporting Middle Eastern disco. "I'm Going Home" boasts similarly addictive, low-slung drums and bass, both of which help Gonzalez re-frame a disco-funk number as a hypnotic slab of dub disco heaviness. Like it's predecessor, it offers the right balance between heads-down hedonism and righteous dancefloor release.
Review: For lovers of trad-style house, garage 'n' disco grooves, 'Soul Journey' has to be close to the top of this week's shopping list. Guitar flecks reminiscent of Donna Summer's 'Bad Girls' vie with shimmering Balearic boogie synths atop a walking bassline, while a spoken male counsels quite correctly that "if you have any aches and pains, or trials and tribulations... house music is the answer!", the overall effect sitting somewhere between The Sunburst Band and vintage Hayden Andr? productions. The accompanying 'You Get Me' is a more standard issue Negro-esque disco-houser, but still worthy of note thanks to some fine slap bass work.
Review: Contemporary boogie is the order of the day on this EP from George Kelly, an Athens-based producer who's also one-half of the duo Capitan Futuro. The original mix of 'Late At Night' finds UK soul vocalist Espeut flexing his tonsils atop a languid, rolling backdrop straight outta 1983. The Guitar Dub then brings some excellent jazz-funk six-string work to the fore - don't be surprised if this one crops up on more than a few 'Ibiza chill-out'-type comps this summer - while completing the package is a Rockfreak Pella that cheekily nods to Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel's classic 'White Lines'.
Review: Having spent much of the last few years working alongside HP Vince, Dave Leatherman is now serving up sizzling slabs of dancefloor goodness with a new studio buddy, Bruce Nolan. The pair hit the ground running with "Sunny Side Up", a fiendishly filtered, bass-heavy disco-house interpretation of a wonderfully warm, sunshine-loving disco-soul classic. They opt for a slightly looser, baggier and altogether more groovy sound on "Clouds In The Sky", where loved-up vocals and drowsy jazz-funk instrumentation ride a booming bassline and crunchy digital drums. It's the kind of cut that manages to be both wonderfully emotive and undeniably heavy without losing any of its' luster.
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