Review: There's something especially alluring about 'The Time Is (Now)', the lead cut from deep house veteran Fred Everything's latest EP, though we're struggling to put our finger on it. Maybe it's the rolling, shaker-heavy drum track, the bold and beautiful bassline, the soundscape electronics or the cut's smiling, effortless positivity. Whatever it is, the track is fantastic - high-quiality deep house that suits a variety of dancefloor situations. It comes backed with two alternative takes -a darker, more driving and percussion-heavy 'dub' mix and a sparse, slowly building 'Reprise' take - plus two bonus cuts: the organ and piano heavy classic house vibes of 'L'Horizon' and the deeper, dreamier flex of 'Paintings'. High-grade deep house for those who love good grooves, addictive basslines and tasteful musicality.
Review: Given their respective track records - both have been serving up quality deep house for decades - you'd expect this hook up between Atjazz and Fred Everything to be high quality. It is, of course, with the original mix of 'Stay a Little While' offering a winning blend of smooth, spacey synths, delay-laden keys, Motor City-inspired electronics, undulating bass, unfussy beats and stirring, life-affirming pads. The accompanying 'Mechant Dub' is naturally a little more spaced out, with the pair prioritising the groove, bassline and mind-mangling electronics. It's a proper 4AM number, tailor-made for dark rooms and dry ice-filled dancefloors.
Review: Dutch producer Beau Zwart is not a name many will recognise, but in the past he's proved adept at blurring the boundaries between kaleidoscopic synth-funk, jazz-funk and deep house. That's the vibe he's opted for on this fine EP for Lazy Days Recordings. This exciting, squelchy, rubbery and vibrant sound is best exemplified by the title track, which sits somewhere between P-funk and piano house but can also be heard on the deeper and jazzier 'Bambino Breaks', the more electro-inspired, TB-303 flecked warmth of 'No Exit' and the picturesque, post deep-house shimmer of 'Safe Shave'. Art of Tones steps up to remix 'Rusty Lewis', turning it into even more of a synth-splashed P-funk treat.
Review: Buenos Aries-based Manuel Sahagun has appeared on my much-loved deep house labels over the years - think Freerange, Drop Music, Salted Music and Kolour Recordings - so it's little surprise to see him popping up on Lazy Days Recordings. All three tracks naturally hit the spot, with the Argentinian reaching for colourful synth sounds, tactile basslines and well-programmed drums. Opener 'La Terre' is a sparkling, sun-drenched slab of nu-disco/deep house fusion rich in vivid melodies and low-end thrust, 'Kick To Flip' is a more hypnotic slab of dub-flecked, acid bass-propelled late-night house, and 'Rest in Sax' is a deliciously jazzy fusion of body-popping electro drums, squelchy synths, trippy TB-303 lines and heady saxophone blasts.
Review: Tom Szirtes' recent digital-only album, Points of Focus, was not only a fine showcase for his undoubted musical skills, but also a pleasingly varied affair that contained just as many downtempo excursions and dancefloor bombs. He's in full-on sun-kissed, club-ready mode on his latest Lazy Days outing though, with the ultra-positive title track delivering a near perfect blend of jazzy disco bass, hands-in-the-air piano riffs, sweeping strings, cowbell-driven drums and colourful synthesizer flourishes. It comes backed by early morning deep house roller 'Bubblin' Up', squelchy nu-disco/broken beat fusion gem 'Shut This Down' (where vocalist Anna Stubbs makes a big impression) and a luscious, long-build 'Reprise' mix of 'Beats, Strings & Life' which sounds like a perfect summer set opener.
Review: This year, Fred Everything has been busy revisiting tracks from his back catalogue. The latest cut to get the revisionist treatment is 'Barbarella', a gorgeously intergalactic fusion of deep house and squelchy nu-disco that first featured on his 2018 album Long Way Home. The headline-grabbing revision comes courtesy of Parisian legend I:Cube, who reinvents the track as a sleazy, spaced-out chunk of metronomic synth-pop/space disco fusion with added acid bass and lashings of starry-eyed synths. Fred Everything provides two 'Slow Down' versions, both of which shuffle along at 89 BPM. The main mix is a street soul tempo wide-eyed shuffler, while the 'ReDub' is a sparse, analogue bass-propelled late-night treat full of echoing beats and sharp, mind-mangling acid lines.
Review: Fred Everything's recent collaboration with the undisputed "voice of house", Robert Owens, was exceptional: a nostalgic chunk of vocal deep house greatness that boasted a number of sonic nods towards the hippy-house brilliance of San Francisco's Dubtribe Soundsystem. Here the Canadian offers up two new mixes inspired by classic Chicagoan acid house. The single-opening 'BDTW Acid Mix' adds Owens' inspiring vocals to an immersive backing track rich in wriggling TB-303 acid lines, chunky acid bass, crunchy, jacking beats and starry, deep space chords. Arguably even better is the accompanying 'Acid Dub', in which selected snippets of Owens' vocals rise above rougher, more angular acid lines, even more jacking drums and some deliciously glassy-eyed musical flourishes.
Review: 'Here (Now)' first appeared as the B-side of the 2020 Vision released 'Over You' single way back in 2003. The deep house stalwart decided to revisit it last year and here presents the results alongside the still delicious original - an ultra-deep, locked-in late-night affair full of drowsy chords, arpeggio-driven synth bass and spacey keys that still sounds as good as it did all those years ago. The Canadian's own '2020: A Space Disco Odyssey' revision undoubtedly takes it up a notch, focusing more on the arpeggio-driven bassline while adding starry electronic flourishes, melancholic strings and deep, intergalactic chords. Equally as impressive is Prins Thomas's epic 'Discomiks', a ten-minute workout that sees the Norwegian layer Fred Everything's keys, chords and samples atop his own live-sounding drums and dub disco bass.
Review: To mark 15 years of the Lazy Days Recordings label he established with Mike Fresco in 2005, Canadian deep house legend Fred Everything has decided to release a trilogy of celebratory compilations, each of which focuses on a specific five-year block. This one celebrates the best material released on the label over the last five years (2015-2020), delivering thrills by the barrowload. Everyone will have their own highlights, but our picks of an extremely strong bunch include the early Larry Heard style warmth of Lance DiSardi's 'Field Recording', the early morning shuffle of Fred Everything's 'Someone Like You', the rushing piano house revival of Fred Everything and Shur-I-Kan's glassy-eyed 'Until Then', and the glacial, tech-tinged goodness of Martin Iveson's 'Leave Me Here'.
Review: Since Fred Everything has a track record of making rather good deep house, and vocalist Robert Owens has a bigger claim than most to be "the voice of house", you'd expect this 'I'll Take You In' to be rather good. It is, of course, with the pair conjuring up a warming, musically detailed chunk of deep house bliss that sounds like a saucer-eyed update of Dubtribe Soundsystem's 'Do It Now'. Fred Everything also provides two fine 'BDTW' mixes: the fluttering synths sounds and vintage Chicago house grooves of the 'Deep Mix', and a more stripped-back 'Vox Dub'. Best of all though is Martin 'Atjazz' Iveson's rework, which recalls the fluid synth sounds, jazzy flutes and intricate percussion programming that marked out his early 2000s work on Mantis Recordings.
Review: Canadian legend Fred Everything has been heading up the esteemed Lazy Days imprint for the last decade and a half. 'LZD XV' sees the Montreal-based operation deservedly celebrating this milestone across - you guessed it - 15 tracks. Features more mood music than you'll ever need in one place, with some right classics from a who's who of industry talent: Danish stalwart Trentemoller appears with his glitchy electro house remix of Everything's "Friday" featuring Vanessa Baker, the worthy addition of Bananza Music boss Marko Miltano's smooth vocal deep house number "Down So Low", and then Everything notably teams up with Windy City legend JT Donaldson on "I Said". Elsewhere, heroes of the Dallas underground Brett Johnson & Dave Barker get down with some boompty business on "On The Highway" and closing it out is the label chief, once more, with Mantis Recordings chief Atjazz on the sensual "Back Together".
Review: It would be fair to say that Ludovic Lllorca rarely fails to deliver the goods, especially when operating under the now familiar Art of Tones alias. His latest missive on Lazy Days offers further supporting evidence of this theory. He opens with two versions of squelchy, synth-laden deep house cut "Thunder": a chunky "Original Mix" built around undulating acid bass, sparkling electronic motifs, chunky drums and effects-laden vocal snippets, and a tougher dub that features even more of the ear-catching bassline and sweaty, swinging percussion. "Secousse" is a much more jaunty, bouncy and bumping affair, with the veteran French producer once again making great use of colourful synths and electronic bass. Fred Everything gives the track a far deeper, late-night hue on his warm and woozy accompanying remix.
Review: Deep warehouse vibes in this rhythm, chord and synth rich EP from Paul Rudder! Channeling the sounds of summer through cooling tropical synths, some bassline house, heavy chords and the tremolo of Segilola's voice, Rudder's tracks "Glue" and "Asleep" hit the hopeful, effervescent sweet spots! Exotic birdsong included, a techier yet light and bouncy John Gomes 'Dubstrumental' offers something a little tougher next to a remix which shines with the hallmarks of a classic house trip - tip!
Review: Experienced producer Shur-I-Kan (Tom Szirtes to his nearest and dearest) tends to develop long relationships with labels. In the early days of his career it was Freerange Records, but for the last seven years he's operated on Fred Everything's Lazy Days Recordings imprint. He returns to that stable with "This Situation", a three-track EP that confidently moves between warm, percussive dreaminess (the locked-in grooves, jazzy bass guitar, warm chords and echoing vocal samples of opener "Freakin"), bright-and-breezy nu-disco/deep house fusion (tasty title track "This Situation") and the more off-kilter, locked-in loop-funk of jazzy stomper "Taking The A-Train". The latter's rhythm genuinely sounds like a train rumbling along a track, which is quite impressive.
Review: As the title makes perfectly clear, the latest compilation from Mike Fresco and Fred Everything's Lazy Days Recordings label offers up a wealth of new and old reworks from the imprint's sizable vaults. Fred Everything is naturally prominent throughout both as remixer - see the distinctive takes on cuts by OJPB (a sun-flecked Afro-house revision of "Bridgetown's Pyramid") and Art of Tones (a lushly deep and dreamy remix of "Koniokola") - and original artist (check Sphiwe Caz-Miz's deep, dusty and woozy tweak of "Searching" and Ian Pooley's bright and breezy revision of "Silverlight"). Elsewhere Jimpster steals the show with a superb version of Martin Iveson's "Leave Me Here", Hot Toddy gets discofied on his LLorca remix and the Revenge weighs in with a jaunty, synth-heavy house rework of Art of Tones' "Unstopped").
Review: Coming in with the funky house flavours this month are Paso Doble and Idd Aziz, whose track 'Djadjalo' has been given the remix treatment by Fred Everything across four different renditions, all of which play on the already-wicked original in a slightly different way. The main mix is, as the name suggests, the main mix. It sprawls across 8 minutes and is deep house at its finest, touching upon synth-based relaxation, tribal influences on the fantastic vocal as well as more classic house notes. It's deft, deep and damn good.
Review: Deep house from the organic side is the order of the day on this latest offering from Fred Everything's Lazy Days stable. 'Sun Rising' itself is presented in two mixes: Rudder's original opens with intricate hand percussion, then slowly introduces piano chords before the live-sounding bassline and midtempo 4/4s arrive, followed by mournful trumpets and barely-there female vocal snips. Till Von Sein takes a slightly more floor-friendly route on his remix, stripping out some of the layers of live instrumentation and letting the trumpet, in particular, shine through more clearly. The contemplative, jazz-leaning 'Spent With Her' completes the EP.
Review: We were full of praise for Fred Everything's 2018 album "Long Way Home" - the Canadian's first full-length excursion in a decade - so we have high hopes for this expansive remixed version. There's naturally some revisions by friends and high profile remixers, with Atjazz's deliciously intergalactic deep house take on "Spacetime", Ilia Rudman's slow Balearic boogie revwork of "Palma" being arguably the most notable. Elsewhere, the Lazy Days co-founder offers up a string of fine alternative versions of his own - see the sparkling, piano-heavy "7AM in Tisno" dub of "Barbarella" and the stunning, beat-free "Somewhere Ambient Version" of "Something for starters - as well as a handful of fine dubs and some previously unheard tracks ("Un Dimache Soir", "Alright (Original Mix)").
Review: "Wonderwhy" was one of the many highlights on Llorca's jazz-funk-fired 2017 album, "The Garden". Here it gets the remix treatment, with Crazy P man Chris Todd (under his now familiar Hot Toddy moniker) and Lazy Days boss Fred Everything doing the honours. Todd's vocal "Remix" and "Instrumental" versions are predictably musical and melodious, sitting somewhere between spacey, synth-heavy nu-disco, fizzing jazz-funk and rolling deep house. Fred Everything takes a different approach, opting for a "Space Edit" and "Space Edit Instrumental" that slightly dub out and heat up the original's 95 BPM jazz-funk/disco fusion flex.
Review: In its original form, Fred Everything's latest collaboration - this time with sugar-voiced British soul man Jinadu - breathes new life into a once mighty variation of deep house: dub house. Rich in sub-heavy dub bass, delay-laden reggae guitars, dreamy chords and UK steppas style drums, it's every bit as good as anything you would have heard in the late '90s or early 2000s. Ian Pooley offers up two contrasting remixes. While the more straight-up deep house vocal take is rather good, we still prefer his 'Dub' revision, which wraps delay-laden synthesizer motifs and head-in-the-clouds electronic flourishes around snappy drums and Fred Everything's killer dub-style bassline.
Review: You couldn't wish for a more expert duo than Fred Everything and Crazy P mainstay Chris "Hot Toddy" Todd. Either solo or in collaboration with others, they've been responsible for too many fine records to mention over the last two decades. This collaborative affair is rather good, too. "Same Old Sound", a deep, slow-motion nu-boogie number rich in sparkling, glassy-eyed chords, catchy synth-bass, tasty jazz-funk guitars and head-nodding drum machine beats, sounds like a particularly loved-up tribute to Dayton classic "The Sound of Music". This is particularly evident on the original mix, which also boasts a robotic vocoder/talkbox vocal reminiscent of the 1983 classic, but the influence can also be heard on the drowsy, sunshine-friendly "Guitare Dub" version.
Review: Long Way Home is the first Fred Everything album in a decade, but it has been worth the wait, as the Canadian producer delves into musical territories. "Cinema Paradiso" is underpinned by lush strings and crisp break beats, while "By Day" features the soulful vocals of Sio, accompanied by gentle piano lines. Even the title track focuses on a more electro-funk sound than the typical Fred Everything sty;e - albeit one that is soaked in strings. The pace finally picks up on the electronic disco of "Un Dimanche Apres-Midi" and fans of Fred Everything's deep house style will not be disappointed, with the blissed out vocals and trippy keys of"Wherever You Go" sounding like one of the most soulful tracks of 2018.
By Day (Andre Lodemann & Fabian Dikof remix) - (7:09) 122 BPM
By Day (Fred re-version instrumental) - (5:20) 120 BPM
By Day (Andre Lodemann & Fabian Dikof instrumental) - (7:09) 122 BPM
Review: At the back end of June 2018 Fred Everything will release Long Way Home, his first album for a decade. To get us all in the mood, he's decided to release LP highlight "By Day" as a single. You don't get the full album version of the dreamy, broken soul gem (think Atjazz circa "Harmony"), but rather an on-point radio edit and a swathe of previously unheard reworks. There are vocal and instrumental editions of Everything's own sparkling deep house rework, and similar variations from Andre Lodemann and Fabian Dikoff. Their remixes are superb, wrapping Everything's attractive original chords and melodies - as well as some alien-sounding motifs of their own - around a shuffling, tech-tinged German deep house groove.
Review: Normally at this point we'd go into a rambling spiel about the credentials of the producer involved in this release, but in the case of Fred Everything it hardly seems necessary. After all, the Lazy Days co-founder has been releasing high-grade deep house for decades and his quality threshold rarely dips. "Wherever You Go" sees the French Canadian producer continue his recent fascination with glassy-eyed Balearic-era house, in the process serving up a deliciously warm and colourful tribute to classic Italian dream house. Phillip Lauer handles remix duties, first wrapping the original mix's hazy vocal samples around a wild, acid-fired analogue house groove on the Dos Main mix, before necking something naughty and reaching for the pianos on the slicker and dreamier "Akai Mix".
Review: Fred Everything's Lazy Days label is always one for summery sounds, and they've got that in abundance from Parages label regular OJPB. The vibe on "Lucy's Stomp" is insanely upbeat, all cheery funk licks with a little French psychedelia draped over the top. "Mis A Part Et Fini" has a more dreamy outlook with its sky-reaching lead synths and hazy strings. Fred Everything dives in on "Bridgetown's Pyramid" and makes it into a sizzling bongo-powered groover, bringing out the warm ingredients in OJPB's original and matching it with his instinct for a sustained dancefloor atmosphere.
Review: Aroop Roy is next up on Lazy Days, bringing his well honed house tones to the label in four varied takes on chunky hardware deep house. "Afrika My Home" is utterly infectious with its shuffling groove and warm, buttery keys. "Le Pasteur" takes some choice disco licks and runs them mercilessly through a filter for blissed out funk of the highest order, while "I Listen" gets into a sprightly, uplifting frame of mind as the most outright party starter on the record. "Afrika My Home" gets dubbed out at the end of the record and sounds even more potent for late night dancefloor sessions.
All Things In Their Rightful Place - (5:28) 123 BPM
Kermit's Lodge - (6:37) 121 BPM
Review: By now, we should all know what to expect from long-serving producer Tom Szirtes AKA Shur-I-Kan, namely melodious deep house that combines rock solid club grooves with all manner of mind-expanding musical flourishes. There's naturally much to set the pulse racing on this latest Lazy Days outing, from the throbbing arpeggio bass, sumptuous electric piano keys and bumping, bass-heavy grooves of "Singapore", to the spiraling vocal cut-ups, blissful electronic melodies and rush-inducing warmth of ultra-positive closer "Kermit's Lodge". Squeezed in between you'll find "All Things in Their Rightful Place", a dub-flecked, hazy deep house chugger that should appeal to all those who enjoy the work of Inland Knights and the DIY collective.
Review: Fred Everything's Lazy Days label is a veritable institution by this stage in the game, and it's no surprise to see a label of such stature reaching out to an artist as highly regarded as Atjazz. Martin Iveson, as he's also known, ditches the alias here but the mood is consistent with his reputation. "Leave Me Here" is a jazz-soaked beauty in its original form and when Jimpster takes the controls for a remix. On the flip comes Art Of Tones, whose "Koniokola" gets not one but two versions from Fred Everything. Both the remix and "re dub" deal in masterful tech house from a true champion of the genre.
Review: Here's something to set the pulse racing: a collaborative, three-track excursion from long-serving deep house producers Fred Everything and Hollis P. Monroe. As you'd expect, the composition and production is on point throughout, with the new studio buddies achieving a near perfect balance between club-ready grooves and ear-pleasing melodiousness. Opener "Dawn" sees the duo wrap rising and falling synthesizer lines and blissful electronic melodies around a shuffling deep house groove, while "Anywhere" is a much more low-slung and bass-heavy affair (albeit blessed with the colourful synth riffs and melancholic chord progressions). Arguably best of all, though, is closer "There Is A House", which pits the analogue synthesizer-driven melancholy of the Pet Shop Boys' Behaviour album against the snappy drum machine percussion of New York proto-house.
Review: Miguel Migs aside, you'll struggle to find a more long-serving San Franciscan producer than Lance DeSardi. Since making his debut way back in 1998, DeSardi has released rock solid house cuts on such labels as Chez, Pacific Traxx, Hudd Trax and Siesta Music. Here he returns to Fred Everything's Lazy Days imprint for the first time in six years. Opener "Future Time" joins the dots between spacey, 1980s synth-pop and hazy deep house, with the accompanying Instrumental version stripping out the trippy, Police-era Sting style vocal. The humid "Field Recording" evokes memories of both Mr Fingers and vintage Italian dream house, while "Wild B&^ch" is a rolling, riff-heavy late night shuffler tailor-made for those 4AM moments.
Deep In My Heart (Alternate version) - (7:03) 123 BPM
Review: For all the hype that often surrounds young, up-and-coming producers, it's often the case that it's the more established heads that deliver more consistently. We'd argue that's the case with Shur-I-Kan, AKA long-time Freerange and Lazy Days producer Tom Szirtes. He barely puts a foot wrong throughout this latest four-track outing, matching his usual ear for mood and melody with rock-solid grooves and a few decidedly old school touches (see the cut-up soulful house vocals on bouncy opener "Deep In My Heart", or the sweeping strings and darting synth-bass that dominate the Alternate Version of the same track). In the 'best track' stakes, it's a toss up between the rubbery, boogie-tinged warmth of "Withdrawal Method", and the sparkling, piano-heavy retro-futurism of "Track Two".
Review: Fred Everything's Les Jours Paresseux series, which launched earlier this year, sees the long-serving producer paying tribute to the saucer-eyed, loved-up bliss of late '80s Italian deep house. This second volume in the series continues the trend, delivering cuts that bristle with period flourishes - see the loon bird samples and sweeping chords of "True", or the piano-laden humidity of "Truth" - and colourful authenticity (the spine-tingling rush of "PSC Theme" sounds like a long lost Morenas production). The EP also boasts another fitting tribute to the period in the shape of a brilliant "Beatless" version of "Organ Theme", which sounds like a long lost early '90s ambient house classic.
Review: The simply titled Shur-I-Kan collection gathers together material released by veteran deep house producer Tom Szirtes on Fred Everything's Lazy Days Recordings imprint, throwing in a few previously unheard tracks for good measure. If you like your deep house warm, rich, soulful and musically expansive, it's well worth a listen. Highlights are pleasingly plentiful, from the sweeping, soulful funkiness of Alexander East collaboration "Simply Yes", and the low-slung, late night throb of "Right Now", to the starburst lusciousness of "Away", and the hazy Balearic sweetness of closer "One Ten". Other notable cuts include a superb collaboration with Dan D'Nell (the effortlessly soulful, boogie-house jam "I Like It"), and a sun-kissed remix of Kruse/Nuremburg.
