Review: Colombian artist DFRA links with some of Argentina's finest musicians for a high-class mix of 90s and 00s deep house and a wide array of proper jazz stylings to this new EP on Deeppa, a well-formed young label that will soon hit release number 10. 'Sal Marina' kicks off with shuffling beats and nu-jazz chords that make you want to move, while both 'Green Line' and 'Manits' showcase some superb melodies over more percussive, busy beats that have a great sense of movement. 'Brown Sugar' then gets a little deeper with its withering cosmic lines and heartfelt vocals and the main man Atjazz works ii onto something even more potent before 'Sal Marina (Lay-Far remix)' closes down with a timeless soulful house vibe.
Review: The backstory to this one is great and goes something like this: Darryl Baalki is a reclusive person who grew up with his mother and his father's record collection. That was his only connection to the outside world and he somehow thought it was all the music ever recorded so for him to make something new he had to combine parts from it together. Whether true or not, his Flower Out Of A Stone EP on Deeppa is a sublime affair. It clocks in somewhere between deep house with serious jazzy chops and loungey downbeat, with the titile track boasting an impressively soulful vocal. Elsewhere, the organic instruemntation and improvsed grooves of Faze Action at their best come to mind, with sultry sax lines, spiritual vocal whispers and feathery drums all oozing a certain timeless musical class.
Review: The fledgling Deeppa label is back with a seventh sublime sound, this time from Eloi who brings plenty of fresh ideas and creative sound designs to four tasteful cuts. 'You'll Keep Going' is a lush late-night fusion of noodling basslines and jazzy chords with soulful vocals and 'Karma' then gets even more horizontal in balmy chords and lazy grooves. There is a little more bite to 'Manage Your Temper' but it is still a super cuddly house sound. 'Mental Game' offers hazy late-night reveries and 'Confusion' is a swirling mix of warm and soulful house. 'A Few More Breaks Should Do The Trick' is a jazzy and zoned-out closer. What an EP.
The Aquatic People - "My Soul" (Spaced Out mix) - (7:29) 127 BPM
Wearing Shoes - "We Met For Real" - (7:32) 116 BPM
Review: "It's about the funky deep house vibe, bro," screams the press release accompanying Deeppa Records' new compilation, which brings together unheard tracks from label regulars and "new talents". There's much to admire across the nine tracks on show, from the shuffling, jazz-sampling dustiness of Darryl Balaki's 'Cherry Finns' and the lolloping, starry-eyed loveliness of Jehan's similarly sample-heavy 'Control', to the flute-sporting dancefloor breeze of St Paul's 'Magic Flute', the shuffling St Germain style jazz-house flex of DFRA's 'Jazz Is Revolutionary', and the thickset, dreamy deep house excellence of 'We Met For Real' by Wearing Shoes, whose fluid piano solos and colourful pads recall the halcyon days of Italian dream house.
Review: Serial collaborator Scruscru is at it again, this time hooking up with French beat-maker Jehan and fellow Russian rising star Meowsn for a first joint full-length excursion. As you'd hope and expect, 'JSM' does a great job in combining their various talents, influences and individual production styles. Across the course of a hugely entertaining album, the trio shuffles between crackly and jazzy instrumental hip-hop beats ('Love Letter for Meowsn', 'Scru's Hustle'), sample-heavy jazz-house ('Classique'), bumpin' peak-time goodness ('Doin Haws'), deeply soulful dancefloor loveliness ('Every Single Day'), woozy US style deep house ('Le Jazz, Le Rhythme') and funk-fuelled, dust-laden breakbeat house niceness ('Be With Me').
Review: On its launch in the spring of 2021, Deeppa Records framed the Perfect Duality series of multi-artist EPs as a showcase for quality deep house in all its different iterations. That subtle eclecticism remains at the heart of volume three. Compare and contrast, for example, the quietly colourful fusion of analogue synth-bass, P-funk flavoured keyboard solos and tactile pads of 'Vague L'Arme' by Sarewa's Project and the loopy, loved-up, disco-tinged warmth of Paul Cut's 'Tropica'. The quality threshold remains high throughout, with further highlights coming from Chouba, Novaj and Groove Boys Project (the outer-space grooves and elongated jazz-funk solos of 'Strictly Jazz Haze') and Sadie Blanc (the head-nodding, hip-hop-jazz of 'Icing On The Cake').
Review: Direct from Russia comes the formation of a new piano-jazz, house and disco label Deeppa. Delivering their fourth release since kick starting in 2020, both Scruscru & S.Timoshenk return with the collaborative session in "Jubilee Boulevard" - full of laid back grooves, sunshine rhodes and sweet mix of disco-house vibes. Scruscru goes it alone on "Slightly Wiggle" with a jazz funk number that sees slower beats hold it down for horns, keys and laces of funk to take over. Get Deeppa.
Review: This V/A collection from Russian label Deeppa is sitting in our Funk section but across its four tracks the terms 'jazz-funk' or 'deep house' could equally well apply. 'Slightly Wiggle' from Scruscru, for instance, starts out in deep house/Balearic chug mode, flirts with funk-breaks then busts out some late 50s/early 60s-style jazz sax, while the same artist's S.Timoshenko collab 'Jubilee Boulevard' is nu-disco via St Germain, 'Black Mirror' by Common Mode nods to the jazzier side of Detroit techno and finally Flabaire plays us out in 4am deep house mode, again with the influence of a certain M. Navarre clearly on show.
Review: Those who buy physical releases may already have come across this debut missive from Russuan kabek Deeppa. The compilation style EP - the first of a series under the Perfect Duality title - dropped on wax back in November 2020 and here appears on digital download for the very first time. Scruscru delivers a superb EP opener in the shape of 'Mellow Yellow', a drowsy and gently breezy mid-tempo number rich in fluttering flutes and other organic instrumentation, before Jehan opts for mazy electric piano licks and chunky beats on 'Once Again'. Elsewhere, Hotmood's 'Reach Out & Touch' is a deep disco-house treat, SofaTalk's 'Love in Slo Mo' is a sparkling slab of horizontal jazz-funk and Replika's 'Rings of Saturn' is a spacey, warm and rolling deep house box jam.
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