Freerange was founded by childhood amigos Jamie Odell aka Jimpster and Tom Roberts in 1996. The label was launched with the sole purpose of releasing Jimpster and his alter-ego Audiomontage’s electronica, jazz and house magic into the world. With the wheels in motion, Freerange went on to host deep, groove-based, soul-tinged house music from a range of artists including: Dam Swindle, Love Birds, Milton Jackson, Manuel Tur, Square One, Demuja, Clavis and many others.
Review: Since the release of his soul, R&B and downtempo-inspired 'Birdhouse' album in 2022, Jamie 'Jimpster' Odell has pivoted back to the dancefloor, serving up a sequence of deep house-fired singles. He continues that run on his first outing of 2024. Opener 'You're My Ecstasy' sets the tone, with the Freerange founder adding echoing soulful vocal snippets to a typically luxurious deep house workout laden with skippy drums, heady bass and dreamy chords. Title track 'The Passion', featuring King Crowney, comes in two variations: an immersive, woozy and piano-laden original mix that's both dancefloor-ready and musically expansive, and a more fluid, jaunty and upbeat Atjazz remix in the veteran producer's trademark style. Basically, it's another must-check EP from one of British deep house's most reliable producers.
Review: Freerange Recordings takes us on a vibrant exploration of Johannesburg's musical landscape with "City To City: Johannesburg," a compilation featuring various artists. This diverse collection pulsates with energy, capturing the spirit of the city's dynamic and ever-evolving music scene. The journey begins with "Icey Baby" by KaySoul, a track that lives up to its name. Soulful vocals and sensitive production create a chilled and introspective atmosphere. SculpturedMusic takes a turn with "Midnight Talk," their signature deft pads shimmering over soft kicks, painting a sonic picture of a late-night cityscape. Then SizLeCaude's "Far Apart" injects a dose of energy with its driving bassline. With "Love (Kinda Thing)," Radic The Myth injects the compilation with his signature sound - harmonically rich and punchy house music that reflects his unique approach to the genre. To close the EP, Persie Botta and Jade Nickels team up on "They Never Loved Us," offering a quintessential slice of Joburg-style deep house: lush pads, powerful groove and a touch of melancholy weave through the track, leaving a lasting impression.
Review: Aroop Roy serves up two new slices of his trademark globally-inspired deep house. 'Re Bulele' (feat Fox Meropa) is, in its Original form, a lilting affair with rolling beats and a simple electronic bassline topped with a smooth, melodic, Afro-style male vocal and, as the track progresses, sweeping synth washes. The accompanying FNX Omar Remix is slightly darker and more ominous in feel, with the track's electronic elements brought further to the fore and the vocal applied more sparingly, while the EP's completed by 'Mama Mwana', which has a similarly gentle, laidback feel to the title track but is more organic in its instrumentation.
Review: Kiwi house queen Philippa returns to Freerange Records - the label which released her fine debut EP in 2022 - following an equally inspired outing on Slothboogie earlier in the year. She begins in fine fashion with 'Hold', and slow building affair in which sparkling, sunrise-ready piano stabs and swirling synth strings rise above a jaunty, tactile bassline and unfussy deep house drums, before opting for a deliciously loved up vibe on the string-laden, life-affirming stomp of 'Latent Magic'. To round of a brilliant EP, the Berlin-based New Zealander serves up 'There It Is', where echoing vocal snippets and bold piano stabs ride a St Germain style jazz-house groove.
Review: French producer Simbad spent years living in London, immersing himself in the broken beat and soul-soaked house scenes. These days he's based in Cape Town, South Africa, immersing himself in the Rainbow Nation's unique house culture. If this fine EP for Freerange is anything to go by, the move has certainly provided new impetus to his productions. For proof, check the two contrasting versions of 'Nuphoria': the spiralling, stargazing, synth-laden techno original mix (a breathlessly brilliant concoction that also boasts a spell-binding breakdown), and the sub-heavy soundscape house of the 'Pretoria Mix'. Elsewhere, South African singer Sanele guests on the twinkling, off-kilter deep house soul of 'Dream', and mic man Frederick appears on the percussive, loose and lovely 'Wake Up'.
Review: Three years on from his last outing on Freerange, sometime No Regular Play member (and Wolf+Lamb contributor) Greg Paulus returns to the imprint, and this time he's got regular collaborator Taylor Bense in tow. There's a hard-wired, P-funk-meets-chunky house feel to storming opener 'Heat Makes Sense', where starry-eyed vocal snippets and eight-bit noises jostle for attention with Bootsy bass, while 'Switch' (featuring spoken word vocals from Stimulus) is a future deep house classic in the making. Big $exy lends a hand on the Chicago boompty-inspired peak-time sleaze of 'Marino', while the Martinez Brothers' edit of 'Do You Love Me' is a chunky, bumping and jazz-flecked soulful deep house treat.
Review: Having previously remixed each other, it was only a matter of time before the legendary Josh Wink popped up on Jimpster's similarly storied Freerange Records imprint. Apparently recorded with summer spins in mind, 'The Half Full EP' combines elements familiar from previous Wink workouts - acid lines aplenty, trippy electronics and driving drums - with a big dose of sci-fi stargazing and sun-soaked deep house tropes. Our pick of the bunch is lead cut 'Automatic Journeys', an acid-fired deep house driver with a dash of Detroit machine soul thrown in, though the tribal-tinged, TB-303-powered trip that is 'Pan Gloss' pushes it close. The deliciously deep, warm and woozy 'San Guine' completes a rock-solid package.
Review: Jimpster was so inspired by his experiences DJing in South Africa that he decided to create a track in tribute. Simply titled 'Tribute', it features South African vocalist Mavhungu paying tribute (in her native tongue, Vengu) to the continent of her birth atop a wonderfully warming, evocative and atmospheric deep house/Afro-house fusion workout that's rich in both organic and electronic instrumentation. Fittingly, Osunlade - a deep house producer who has consistently made music inspired by his African heritage - provides two remixes: a smooth, slightly jazzier 'Club Mix' (check the rubbery bass, hypnotic beats and spring-fresh synth sounds), and a 'Jazzstrumental' that showcases more of Jimpster's wonderful electric piano solos. Also included in the EP is bonus cut 'Jacidswing', a deep, spacey, TB-303-sporting deep house instrumental.
Review: Italian house original Don Carlos will likely never make a record quite so inspired as his 1991 dream house anthem 'Alone'. Yet he's still capable of delivering high-quality treats in his melodic and colourful style, as this surprise EP for Jimpster's Freerange imprint proves. The undoubted highlight is 'I'm Still Here', where classic dream house motifs - sparkling piano riffs, kaleidoscopic chords, sultry synth-strings and gorgeous counter-melodies - rise above chunky house drums and an arpeggio-driven bassline inspired by Rinder & Lewis's classic electro-disco cover of 'Willie and the Hand Jive'. Elsewhere, Carlos wraps sun-soaked, disco-tinged riffs around a chunky house groove on 'Azimuth', before adding layers of musical emotion to a rolling house groove on the similarly summery 'In The Sky'.
Review: A two-track, three-mix EP here from Freerange stalwart Matt Masters, whose association with the label now dates back nearly two whole decades. The EP opens with 'Worlds Collide' itself, a mid-paced instrumental jam which sits somewhere between deep house and deep techno with its stuttered synth notes and extensive use of FX. The accompanying remix from SculpturedMusic then brings Afro/tribal drums and some killer stabs, before the EP is completed by 'Moon Rise', which is a much more straight-up deep houser from the mellow and vaguely lounge-tinged side of the street, and the pick of the crop for this reviewer.
Review: In his previous outings for labels including Groovin', M>O>S, Karankul, Housewax and Phonica White, Massiande has proved adept at delivering timeless, classic-sounding deep house jams that are as warm and welcoming as they are club-ready and floor-friendly. The four tracks showcased on the rising star's first Freerange are similarly minded and uniformly excellent. To kick things off, he adds mazy vibraphone solos and a fine spoken word vocal from Diamondancer over a genuinely groovy, dreamy and toasty deep house groove ('Dancing Is Life'), before ratcheting up the energy levels, low-end weight and sustained chords on future peak-time fave 'Here Comes The House Music'. 'I Feel It' combines the spacey, sci-fi sounds of Detroit with eyes-closed vocal snippets and pleasingly tactile house groove, while 'Focus' sounds like classic, Nu Groove-era Burrell Brothers given a tasteful 21st century makeover.
Review: The DJ, record producer, and DJ Awards winner, Milton Jackson is a regular to Freerange and has been delivering the imprint with increasingly classy servings of melody-rich, musically complex deep house. The experienced Glaswegian continues in this vein on his latest Freerange outing, giddily skipping through vibraphone-sporting classic house (gorgeously deep and tactile opener 'Need Your Love'), sunset-friendly nods to Kerri Chandler (the colourful, warming and percussively rolling 'Day In, Day Out') and sparkling blends of Kai Alce style soulful deepness and analogue-rich tactility ('Closure').
Review: Almost a decade ago, Philippa decided to decamp from her native New Zealand, where she was a well-known figure on the local house scene, to Berlin. It was during a trip to the German clubbing Mecca that Jimpster heard her productions, hence this first outing on his popular Freerange imprint. As label debuts go, it's a doozy, with the Kiwi producer confidently striding between classy, string-laden, smile-inducing post disco-house brilliance ('There's a Ghost in My Synthesizer'), deeper and more bass-heavy deep house loveliness (the sweeping synth sounds and reverb-laden vocal snippets of 'I Guess I Have Boy'), chunky funkiness (the tactile, classic house update that is 'Dimes') and effortlessly soulful and timeless goodness (the Mo Van Zandt hook-up 'Slow It Down', which is as colourful and spine-tingling as they come).
Review: Sometime Sampling as an Art label contributor Yannick Roberts makes his bow on Freerange with a fine four-track missive of pleasingly warming, tactile and atmospheric deep house. The Dutch producer hits the ground running on 'I Can't Hide From Myself', an evocative and rolling workout in which minor key chords, synth-strings and gentle electronic melodies ride a jaunty, pulsating synth bassline and classic-sounding deep house beats. His love of sampling comes to the fore on jazz-flecked MPC-house jam 'Glorious Illusions' - mentor S3A would approve - while 'Femme Fatale' sees him make merry with a mix of rubbery bass guitar, effects-laden female vocal samples, Chez Damier chords and bustling beats. Closing cut 'Desalniettemin' doffs an oversized cap to classic U.S deep house and boasts some seriously toasty electric piano riffs.
Review: Crackazat, a Bristol lad who's now based in Sweden, has built up a strong following via releases on labels such as Futureboogie and Local Talk over the past 10 years or so, and can count the likes of Dave Lee and Floating Points among his higher-profile supporters. 'Everybody Talks About It' finds him in 80s soul/boogie territory before being given a more uptempo and garage-y refix by Cody Currie, while 'I'm Easy' starts out as a hazy soul shuffler before the accompanying Dub takes us into small hours dreamaway territory. Replete as ever with Crackazat's trademark jazzbo craftsmanship, there are some seriously classy vibes contained herein - one for the connoisseurs!
Review: You have to admire Black Loops work ethic, though far more impressive is the consistent quality of the duo's output. This EP - their third of 2022 to date - sees them make a belated return to Freerange after two years spent hopping between labels including Toy Tonics and Shall Not Fade. They begin with something predictably special: a wonderfully deep, immersive, soul-flecked, piano-speckled and hip-swinging house hook-up with rising star Cody Currie in which the latter's softly spun vocals catch the ear. They successfully reach for deep sub-bass, enveloping pads, gentle melodies and snappier drums on the equally as enjoyable late-night shuffle of 'People', before doffing a cap to robotic, arpeggio-driven disco on the spacey synth-house roll of 'Driver'. Excellent stuff as always!
Review: It's testament to Ben J Worrall's skill as a musician and producer that his soulful, jazzy deep house productions can be mentioned in the same breath as those by all-time-greats Larry Heard and Ron Trent. Yet unlike those producers, he's yet to deliver an album so good that it will be considered a true great. Until now, that is. Evergreen, his first set for Freerange, is simply sublime: an unapologetically soulful, life-affirming set that blends effortlessly brilliant vocals and jazz-funk inspired instrumentation (think incredible horn arrangements, smooth bass, twinkling keys and glistening guitars) with the luscious, often Latin-tinged deep house beats that have long been his calling card. If there's any justice, it will end of being regarded as one of the electronic albums of 2022.
Review: Essen's Manuel Tur has released music on many labels over the years, but much of his greatest work - including a trilogy of albums - has been issued by Freerange Records. We can confirm that the German deep house stalwart is in fine form on this return to Jimpster and co's imprint after a three-year absence. Title track 'Love Me Well' is simply sublime: a slowly building chunk of deep, quietly soulful brilliance that adds heart-aching piano motifs, reverb-smothered female vocals and cut-glass strings to a sumptuous deep tech-house groove. He continues in this tech-house/deep house fusion vein on the bouncier 'Paperesse', where twinkling electric piano solos and looped string samples catch the ear, before rounding off a rock-solid EP via the TB-303-sporting deep house squelch of 'Touch Move'.
Review: When it comes to musically expansive, jazz-flecked deep and soulful house, Ben J Worrall AKA Crackazat is in a league of his own. That's been the case for a while, but it's proven beyond doubt by his latest outing on Freerange Records. Title track 'Beacon of Light' is simply sublime: a bouncy, soul-soaked slab of jazz-house/deep house fusion blessed with exquisite musicianship and some superb lead vocals. Equally as impressive is Ron Trent's epic, near 10-minute remix of 'Simple Things', which is every bit as delightful, jazzy and musically intricate as you'd expect from the Chicago deep house legend. Elsewhere across the EP, the 'Maritime Dub' of 'Beacon of Light' transforms the track into a driving but rolling deep house bumper and 'Evergreen' is a sun-kissed future deep house classic.
Review: Since launching his career in the mid noughties, Manuel Sahagun has released a lot of fine deep house music on a wide variety of labels - including such lauded imprints as Drop Music, Salted Music, Kolour, Tooman and Freerange. Here the Argentinian producer returns to the latter label with his first missive of 2022. Opener 'Body' sets the tone, with Sahagun wrapping restless piano loops, wonky electronics, cut-up musical samples and stirring chords around a disco-tinged deep house beat. 'Move' meanwhile is a deeper but arguably tougher chunk of late-night hedonism, while 'Ritmo Pandemico' sounds like his take on turn-of-the-90s Italian dream house. It's certainly as luscious, ear-pleasing and loved-up as the likes of 'Sueno Latino', 'Calypso of House' and 'Alone'.
Review: During lockdown, when strutting your stuff on the dancefloor remained a pipe dream, many producers naturally gravitated towards more downtempo sounds during their studio sessions. Jamie Odell AKA Jimpster, who of course first rose to prominence in the late '90s as a producer of laid-back beats and jazzy instrumentals, was one of those producers. The resultant LP, Birdhouse - his seventh in total - is naturally brilliant, with Odell showcasing the quality of his musicianship (and song writing skills) on a range of warming, comforting and undeniably luscious tracks that variously join the dots between trip-hop, neo soul, nu-jazz, ambient and blunted beats. Throw in some superb guest vocals (from both singers and rappers) and you have a near perfect collection of sofa-ready sounds.
Review: Although he has previously released music on Jus-Ed's Underground Quality label, Apoena (real name Henrique Casanova) has spent much of his near decade-long career putting out cuts on his own imprint, Allnite Music. It's for that reason that this surprise outing on Freerange Records is such a big deal. The Brazilian's many years of experience shine through on assured opener 'Must Go Deeper', a rolling, hypnotic and atmospheric affair in which hazy stabs, bleeping electronics and hissing cymbals ride a crunchy, snare-heavy groove. 'Mind' is a more groovy, positive-sounding affair that boasts bolder bass and more colourful chords, while title track 'Dark Emerald' boasts billowing chords, dark string stabs, infectious bass and rolling deep house drums.
Review: Believe it or not, 15 years has now passed since Barry Christie AKA Milton Jackson first appeared on Freerange Records. He recently returned to the imprint for a collaborative EP with his long-time friend (and studio buddy) Shir-I-Khan, and here delivers his first solo missive for Freerange since 2015. There's plenty of highlights to be found across the pleasingly strong five-tracker, from the locked-in late night bump of 'Remember' - a proper after-hours affair featuring subtle nods to Pepe Bradock's 'Deep Burnt' - and the sparkling, sun-kissed lusciousness of 'Lockdown Love', to the chugging mid-tempo bliss of 'Adriatica' and the pitched-down synth-pop/electronic disco shuffle of 'Miami Voice'. In a word: gorgeous!
Review: Earlier in the year, long-serving US deep house duo Solid Gold Playaz returned to action with a fine EP on Freerange. This speedy sequel for the same imprint more than lives up to its predecessor, with all four tracks bursting at the seams with peak-time-ready audio goodness. There's naturally plenty to get the heart racing throughout, from the seductive spoken word vocals, jaunty acid bass and swelling pads of 'Next To Me', to the Andres-esque, MPC-driven deep house jazziness of 'Who's Playin' For Ya?' Elsewhere across the EP, 'Do You Think' is a warming and bass-heavy chunk of clarinet-sporting deep house headiness and 'My Soul Is Quiet' is a jazz-funk flavoured house excursion that's dustier than an antiques shop and infinitely more alluring.
Review: Given that Jimpster's productions are always musically rich and full of intricate sonic details, you'd expect this new collection of remixes of classic cuts to be similarly minded. It is, of course, resulting in some genuinely brilliant revisions. Space Ghost delivers deliver a twinkling, Larry Heard-inspired analogue deep house mix of 'One', while Jon Dixon joins the dots between jazzy deep house and early 2000s tech-house futurism on his version of 'Smile For a While'. Elsewhere, darker late-night house vibes are provided by the Teflon Dons (a killer dub of 'Where You Are'); Kai Alce's revision of 'Inside The Loop' oozes sun-kissed positivity; Kareem Ali turns 'Brought to Bare' into a deep-tech roller; and Solid Gold Playaz reach for the percussion on a deliciously druggy mix of 'Echoes In My Head'.
Review: For his latest missive on long-time home Freerange Records, Tom Szirtes AKA Shur-I-Khan has joined forces with long-time friend and fellow deep house veteran Milton Jackson, a producer who was particularly active throughout the 2000s. Check first chunky but picturesque title track 'Paper Cut', where stirring strings, undulating lead lines, bubbly electronics and a wonderfully rubbery sequenced bassline wrap around dusty deep house drums. Next, get your ears around 'Hit Thinking', an ultra-melodious, positive and summery breeze of an electronic house gem (all fluttering flute sounds, cheery pianos and more rising and falling synth sounds), before admiring closing cut 'Sixth Section', which sees them successfully tiptoe the fine line between chunky peak-time heaviness and breezy, early evening positivity.
Review: Germany-based Simon Hinter has most frequently released music on Dutch label Phil, though last year his profile rocketed thanks to appearances on Quintessentials and Freerange. Here he returns to the latter label with an assured and attractive three-tracker that should further enhance his reputation. We're particularly enjoying opener 'Helena', whose evocative strings, fluid pianos, effective bassline and unfussy drums recall the spine-tingling beauty of Pepe Bradock's 'Deep Burnt'. He opts for a slightly more lo-fi sound on the more densely layered and percussively punchy 'Heating Element', while 'Airbear' sits somewhere between weighty, filter-sporting disco-house, Rhodes-heavy jazz-house and driving, early morning deep house.
Review: Freerange co-founder Jamie 'Jimpster' Odell recently reached a significant musical milestone, namely the passing of 25 years since the release of his first record. To mark the occasions, he's been releasing a series of retrospective compilations. This is the third and, like its predecessors, is packed to the rafters with career highlights. For the most part the set focuses on the more downtempo end of Odell's output, flitting between evocative nu-jazz ('Bad Hair Blues', the ultra-dreamy lusciousness of 'Maiden Voyage'), squelchy electronica ('Makin' Weird'), jazz-funk-fired broken beat ('Standing Wave'), bruk/hip-house fusion (Capitol A collaboration 'Left & Right') and slow-motion soundscapes ('Fluorescent Blue'), with only occasional forays into deep house. In a word: superb!
Review: It can't have passed you by that the 25th anniversary of the 'French touch' sound has inspired a fresh wave of celebratory, filter-sporting disco-house records. 'Your Kissing', the debut single from Florence-based Belcampo, fits this narrative, with British singer Elizabeth Troy singing sweetly over looped, lilting strings reminiscent of Tom Trago's 'Use Me Again', driving disco bass, swirling synth chords and breathless, non-stop house beats. Belcampo's 'Extended Remix' is a more Cassius-esque filter house roller that rightly emphasizes the summer-ready strings, while bonus cut 'Delisei' is a brilliantly chopped-up, excitable disco-house loop jam of the kind that Daft Punk used to knock out in their sleep during the early days of their career. In some ways, it's even cheerier and more celebratory than the admittedly superb 'Your Kissing'.
Review: Since he first started appearing on records a decade ago, Lazarus Mathebula has collaborated with dozens of rising stars and well-known producers. For this outing on Freerange, he's finally gone solo for the first time, adding his now famous spoken word vocals to a track he produced himself. 'Here We Are' really is rather good, with lo-fi synthesizer flourishes, woozy electronics and his poetic vocals wrapping themselves around a slipped broken house groove and warming deep house bass. It comes backed by Mathebula's own instrumental version and a sparkling 'Nutty Nys' version that smothers crunchy deep house drums in sparkling synths and fluid, atmospheric piano motifs.
Review: Having popped up on Kanzlermat Music on numerous occasions over the 16 years, Solid Gold Playaz has transferred to Freerange Records. The American duo's first outing on the long-running British label is as confident and quietly impressive as you'd expect, with the pair combining punchy percussion and rolling beats with waves of attractive electronics and atmospheric synthesizer sounds. This is arguably best exemplified by opener 'Mind in a Daze', where undulating, intergalactic lead lines tumble down across sustained chords and crunchy beats, though the sci-fi sounding 'Optical Illusion' and 'The Kiss' - both of which employ starry chords and bubbly melodies - aren't far behind. If you're after some late-night sleaze, get your ears around fine bonus cut 'Let Me See You Jack'.
Review: Astonishingly, a quarter of a century has now passed since Jamie 'Jimpster' Odell delivered his debut single, Martian Arts. While his sonic style has gradually evolved in the years since, his ability to craft warm, rich, emotive and sonically detailed music remains as strong as ever. That much is proved by 'Soul Spectrum', a sumptuous slab of organic deep house in which Odell's melancholic keys and Greg Paulus' similarly bittersweet trumpet lines ride above a percussion-rich groove. It's available in a slightly more stripped-back, effects-laden Dub Mix form, too, for those looking for added energy and heaps more hand percussion. Elsewhere, 'Sanguine' is a slightly more driving deep house number rich in colourful synth sounds and fluid piano lines, and 'Think of You Always' is ultra-deep and jazzy (think Boulevard-era Saint Germain, and you're close).
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