Review: Fresh from delivering an EP of nostalgic 'Club Specials' on regular home Wolf Music Recordings, Frits Wentink returns to Clone's Royal Oak imprint for the first time since 2020. Title track 'Spiritual Basslines' - which is available in 'Club Mix' and 'Extended Mix' variations - follows a similar sonic template to the Amsterdam stalwart's most recent releases, adding classic deep house sounds to the kind of skippy, loose-limbed groove most often found on late '90s US garage releases. Highlights elsewhere across the EP include the vintage Nu Groove-influenced excellence of 'Eternity', the dub house meets-nu-disco shuffle of 'Golf Cart Joyride', and the deliciously deep, dusty and dubby shuffle of 'Olympiad'.
Review: Leeds' own disco don Andy Buchan returns to Hot Gorilla with an EP consisting of what are, essentially, three nu disco-fied cover versions - specifically, his takes on 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' by Simple Minds, 'Get Lucky' by Daft Punk and 'Burning Down The House' by Talking Heads. But there's a twist - as the EP title suggests, each of those covers has been augmented by the employment of a full choir on vocal duties. It's an approach that may prove a bit 'Marmite' (for this writer, the treatment works best on 'Get Lucky') but it certainly makes a change from endless re-edits...
Review: Throughout their decade-long career, Alma Negra has combined their love of disco and deep house with percussion, instrumentation and ideas excavated from African, Caribbean and tropical musical cultures. On this EP, they largely ditch the latter inspirations, instead delivering full-throttle revivalist disco sounds where the Basel-based band's organic instrumentation and vocals combine with colourful synth sounds and heady horns. The headline attraction is undoubtedly 'Madrugada', a warming and thickset, subtly deep house-influenced take on the turn-of-the-80s NYC downtown disco-not-disco sound. It comes backed with two revisions - an extra-percussive, dubbed-out Yuksek tweak and the band's own dub disco-goes-deep house 'Dub Mix' - and the riotous, party-starting brilliance of 'Funky Fever'.
Review: Four40 have been known for their cultivation of talent since their inception, with this latest offering seeing the monstrous flavours of bullet tooth land for a much awaiting link up. Across these five tracks, we see exactly what bullet tooth is all about, with the moody sub pulses of 'Your Love' and crunching drum stutters of 'Immaculate Skank' giving us a truly vibrant experience. Killa P then touches down for a hard hitting vocal performance on the heavily syncopated slides of 'Brand New Day', followed by the pacey breaks-driven drum lines of 'Love Sensation'. Finally, we round off with a more subtle piece of soundscaping entitled 'Signal', bringing a touch of calm to bring this awesome debut drop to a close.
Review: As Miami Winter Music Conference spins around for another year so does Toolroom's affiliated compilation showcasing why Mark Night's label remains at the precipice of mainstream club music. Bringing with it two full length DJ mixes and exclusive tracks from crew like Alex Kenji, Jerome Robins and Camila Jun, there's also banging numbers from legends like Green Velvet, Nicole Moudaber and Shadow Child next to Low Steppa and Tony Romera! ESSEL kicks off the compilation with the catchy choral loops of "The Edge", with other highlights to mention across some 50 tracks coming from Martin Ikin's drippin' "Make U Sweat", CASSIM's disco-tinged "Wanna Feel Something" and Carly Wilford's "The Dance". Time to dive into Miami 2024 - Toolroom style!
Review: Long-serving producer Disco Tech has released more edits and reworks over the years than we've had hot dinners. Remarkably, he still continues to deliver on-point revisions - as this second volume in his ongoing 'Reworks' EP series proves. There's much to admire across the six tracks on show, from the atmospheric, slow-burn excellence of AOR disco revision 'Stars In The Ghetto' and the dub-funk wonder that is the James Brown-sampling 'Boss', to the peak-time '80s disco sing-along 'Take Time' and the on-point Clash dub disco revision 'Magnificent'. We also recommend 'Be With You', a deliciously groovy, dubbed-out take on a Doc Severinsen track that has long been a DJ Harvey favourite.
Review: The most prolific man in drum & bass, Conrad Subs returns to Ray Keith's Dubplate Dread for the first time since 2020 with a humungous wedge of wallopers. Seven cuts in total, each one of them tailored for those magic 3am moments, big moments range from the gruesome growls and grizzles of 'Octavirus' to the pure raucous shreds and slaps of the title track 'Real Dread', a cut which really does live up to its name. Oh boy, this could well be Conrad Subs' mightiest EP so far, which is really saying something. Real talk.
Review: Bondax's "Journey" on Future Disco isn't just an album title, it's an experience. This LP marks a decade in the game for the UK dance duo, and "Journey" reflects that beautifully. It's a blend of their signature sounds with fresh influences, all wrapped in a future-disco sheen. The album kicks off with the previously-released banger "Don't Want It," setting the pace with driving rhythms and those classic Bondax synths. Tracks like "I Only Have You" showcase their versatility, featuring smooth vocals from Eno Williams that blend seamlessly with their sonic palette. A true highlight is "Fade" featuring SHELLS. Flanging guitars and entrancing beats create a mesmerizing soundscape, perfectly embodying the album's exploration of diverse sounds. "Yabaal to London" is another winner, a funky fusion of 80s disco and modern production with the Dur-Dur Band. It's impossible not to move to this one. It's a genre-bending album that pays homage to disco's roots while offering a fresh, modern take. Packed with infectious beats, captivating vocals, and stellar production, this album is a guaranteed dance floor filler and a must-listen for fans of electronic music with a touch of nostalgia.
Review: Producer Blair French makes an impressive debut on MotorCity Wine Recordings with his "Ancestarians" EP. The release finds him adeptly bridging the worlds of soulful Detroit deep house and laidback Balearic grooves, carving out a distinct musical identity. The Physical Mix of the title track lays down a midtempo, jazzy groove primed for the dancefloor, infusing pan-African rhythms and a rich interplay of live instruments. In contrast, the Spiritual Mix ventures into more atmospheric, ambient realms, highlighting French's varied musical influences. Kicking off with a vibrant bounce, "Champagne Kiddie Pool" melds bright cavaquinho tones with an infectious dembow-inflected groove, conjuring up a summertime beach vibe. The EP's closing cut "Sandbox Fossils" ratchets up the energy level with its dynamic drum programming, shimmering keys and a standout bassline performance.
Review: Given that Divine Who is a gospel-disco rework project helmed by Greg Belson (one of the world's most renowned gospel diggers) and Midnight Riot chief Yam Who, you'd expect this second volume in their ongoing 'Altared Disco' series to be packed to the rafters with killer revisions of dusty and obscure gems. It is, of course, with the pair hitting the mark straight away with 'Dance' - a thickset disco-house affair in which soaring gospel lead and backing vocals rise above chunky beats, infectious piano riffs and swirling sonics. 'Never Turn Back (Jaegerossa Remix)' is another peak-time ready house-style revision of a piano-powered, hands-aloft gospel-disco treat, while 'Feel' puts a new spin on a slap-bass sporting chunk of early '80s gospel-electrofunk.
Review: Midnight Riot do their bit to address the much-discussed gender imbalance in dance music with a 25-track collection featuring an almost entirely female line-up (though a few possessors of Y-chromosomes do sneak in as collaborators). With big names like Kathy Brown, DJ Paulette, Rowetta, Caron Wheeler, Sulene Fleming and Natasha Kitty Katt nestling up alongside a host of more up-and-coming artists, the quality standard is high throughout, with the musical emphasis largely on good-time, Saturday night house and disco vibes, though there a few more gently paced moments - notably in the form of covers of Bobby Caldwell's 'What You Won't Do For Love' and Sade's 'Sweetest Taboo' - while Paulette & Massey serve up a pleasing dose of acid on 'Sheroes'.
Review: The new EP, "Offshore Sunsets," by the collaborative effort of Steve Cobby (of Fila Brazilia fame) and Third Attempt washes over the listener like a warm, hazy summer evening. Released on Paper Recordings, this three-track offering is a delightful exploration of Balearic house, perfect for unwinding or soundtracking a laid-back gathering. The opening track, "B Human," sets the tone with its "rolling, hypnotic, spaced-out" vibe (as described by Paper Recordings). Floating minor keys, a walking bassline, and a gorgeously chugging guitar create a sun-drenched soundscape. This is Balearic bliss at its finest. Third Attempt takes the reins for the aptly titled "Language Of The Heart." This track leans into a more downtempo, a perfect offering for those late-night sessions or creating a chilled atmosphere. The duo reunites for the closing track, "Feeling Seen." This hazy, jazzy broken beat number brings the EP to a satisfying conclusion. Deep basslines intertwine with funky elements, showcasing the collaborative magic between Cobby and Third Attempt.
Review: Germany's DJ Friction once more dons his Frico re-editor's hat and serves up another brace of reworks of classic tracks from days of yore - more specifically, in this instance, days of early 80s boogie yore. First to get the treatment is 'Never Let You Go', a 1982 cut by UK outfit Savanna. Frico's remake is very faithful to the original, but most importantly he leaves the fine scatting section towards the end intact... doo doo dah-dah! Frico then turns his attention to 'Sparkle', another 1982 jam, this time by veteran Japanese singer-songwriter and producer Tatsuro Yamashita. Boogie lovers will be in raptures.
Review: Montenegro-based rework maestro Mitiko (real name Sasha Mitich) has been a busy boy this year, with this EP-turned-mini album marking his sixth missive of 2024 to date. There's plenty to get the blood pumping and the feet moving across the seven tracks on show, from the lightly housed up vocal disco rush of 'Along With You' and the filter-sporting Afro-disco joy of 'Fungi Mama', to the slow-motion disco-funk headiness of 'Ghost' and the build-and-release excellence of the stomping, string-laden peak-time disco of 'Peak At You'. Those seeking mid-tempo thrills are catered for via 'Get Up and Boogie', while 'Latin Hustle' is a memorable revision of a Spanish language dancefloor gem.
Review: Oh gosh! Whether you're massively into Deep In The Jungle but you've got a few holes in your collection that need filling, or you've just started getting into this side of the music, this 60+ anthem collection is an amazing resource for all modern day junglists. Curated by bossman DJ Hybrid, this collection takes us back through the label's history and cherry picks an amazing array of peaktime wounders, bruisers and bubblers. To pick one or two highlights from such a generous collection doesn't feel right so let us advise you to take in that tracklist, press play and totally vibe out to some of the best jungle bangers made in the last 11 years. Mad love to the DITJ crew!
Review: In keeping with the approach of its predecessors, the fourth annual Boogie Angst compilation brings together "cool cuts" from the past year and a smattering of exclusives and previously unreleased gems. As you'd expect from a label helmed by Kraak & Smaak, it's a genuinely joyous and celebratory affair, packed to the rafters with party-starting workouts. For proof, check the revivalist disco-boogie cheeriness of Titeknots' 'Feels Good 2 Me', the future soul shuffle of 'Treat U Good' by Moods, Noah Slee, Lyriya & Meron, the summery electrofunk sunshine that is Art of Tones' kaleidoscopic rework of LUXXURY's 'Just Like It Was Before', the Rhodes-laden warmth of Kraak & Smaak's nostalgic 'All I Need' and the spiritually-enriching Latin deep house shuffle of Osunlade's Yoruba Soul rework of his Casbah 73 collaboration, 'Let's Invade The Amazon'.
Review: In an industry where the term 'veteran' is bandied about far too freely, Colin Curtis is the real deal! His DJing career goes all the way back to legendary Northern Soul club The Golden Torch in the late 60s. In the 70s, he was a resident at Blackpool Mecca alongside Ian Levine, where he became one of the first DJs to introduce the more modern sound of jazz-funk to the scene. By the mid-80s he'd become an early UK champion of house, too, but these days it's on the jazz-dance scene that he's most revered - and here he serves up a 26-track connoisseur's collection that shows why. Ranging from straight-up jazz and soul to soulful house and leaning heavily towards the Afro- and Latin-flavoured, some of these cuts are recent offerings, some date back as far as the 70s, but on jazz-dance floors, all will go down a treat.
Review: Over the last few years, Martin 'Atjazz' Iveson has spent a fair amount of time mentoring Peacey, a young producer with oodles of talent. That much is proved by the rising star's expansive debut album, a superb 16-track set that combines sizzling colo cuts with a string of inspired collaborations. The Edinburgh-based artist sets his stall out via the luscious horn arrangements and immersive ambient electronics of 'Play It By Ear', before drifting between head-nodding R&B loveliness (Oveous hook-up 'Love In The Forest'), sensual and seductive, soul-flecked deep house ('Hold Me Back' with Clyde and Atjazz), mid-tempo boogie-soul ('Playground' with Rona Ray), dubby and dreamy downtempo grooves ('Last Night's Dream'), deep and techy, spoken word-sporting dancefloor workouts ('Culture Bandit' with Vanessa Hidary) and jazz-funk influenced excellence (LaRoye collab 'In The Distance').
Review: Shim Shimah who got the keys to the beemer? Probably Shimah himself judging by the state of these purring futuristic grooves. Taking us right into a new dimension with his debut album, Shimah shows us how far he's come since his early moves on Playaz around 10 years ago. Flexing a vibe that one part sci-fi, two parts heavyweight and fully unique, Shimah's sound hits with that cosmic vibe that could fit between myriad of D&B subgenres with ease and style. Highlights include the album's twinkling title track, the heavy emotion and autonomic style halftime intro on 'Levitation' and rich trance elements of 'Disintegrate'. Stunning.
Review: Here's another must-check missive of lesser-known and hard-to-find material from DJ Kaos's Jolly Jams label, curated with love by the man himself. Over the course of 12 tidy tracks, we're treated to ambient lusciousness (Superpitcher remixing Kaos's own 'World Turning'), deliciously dubbed-out proto-house (the 'Warehousin' Mix' of Split Secs' 'I'm Not Losing'), mind-mangling psychedelic electronic disco-meets-acid house (Red Axes' 'Promo Only'), dub disco (Slaves of Love and Tavish, whose 'Raw Seduction' is genuinely superb), soaring disco edit action (Spring Break Edit), Sylvester pitched-down and blissed out (Balearic Skip), Kenny Hawkes-ish disco-not-disco eccentricity (Luke Solomon remixing Richard From Milwaukee) and ragging acid tracks (Danny Russell & Timothy Alexander).
Review: An international meeting of the minds here as Japan-based British veteran Max Essa joins forces with Eddie C, who hails from Ontario in Canada but now calls Berlin home. Together they've come up with four classy jams that blur the lines between Balearica, nu-disco and deep house, with 'Melon Steppin' centred on a fragile keys riff but busting out some fine 303 squelch in the middle, 'Save Me' a more mellow and soulful affair with hints of jazz-funk, 'We Live In the Hills' all ponderous drums, haunting chords and more squelchy synths, and 'Sixth Bridge' a more midtempo, vaguely lounge-y closer.
Review: Reel People Music's annual Soulful, Deep & Dope compilations always deliver exactly what the title promises, namely club-focused jams of the most positive, musically expansive and spiritually enriching kind. This year's edition is a particularly potent collection, with 20 tried-and-tested tracks to devour. Highlights are naturally plentiful, from the tech-tinged deep house soulfulness of Mark Francis's remix of Opolopo and Angela Johnson's 'Stay This Way', and Glenn Underground's wonderfully musically expansive revision of Harold Matthews Jr and Sean McCabe's 'This Place', to the sunset-ready wonder of Matthew Brandy's 'Wish' (featuring an impeccable vocal performance by Josh Milan) and the soulful deep house brilliance of Atjazz and Shea Soul's inspired 'Home'.
Review: SHDW's label marks its twentieth release with this weighty compilation. Drawing on some of the most respected names in techno, volume three is full of peak-time bangers. There's the lean, rolling techno of Chlar's "Inside Us", while Dax J showers the listener with waves of acid tones on the steely, peak-time "Celestial Dub". The Advent's "Randomized" is a bruising and quite brilliant industrial techno workout. While Blawan's hyperactive "Don't You Dare Squawk At Me" hovers just below the 160 bpm mark, not all of the compilation is as intense. Vocals are mixed with chiming chords on Gary Beck's "Fold" and Z.I.P.P.O's "Broken Game" is a deep Detroit techno track.
Review: NYC combo 79.5 are, like Midnight Magic and Escort before them, a live outfit whose trademark sound and output is shaped by the rich musical history of the city they call home. That superb sound was outlined on last year's eponymous debut album, tracks from which appear in remixed form on this must-check EP. There are two takes on previous single 'Feel Like Dancin': an extended deep house take by Malik Hendricks with added Afro-house percussion, and an impressive low-tempo chugger titled the 'Generalisation Dub'. 'B.D.F.Q' also comes in two contrasting variations: the spacey electro-meets-ghetto-house flex of the Jubilee Remix, and an extended version of FSQ's Midnight Magic style neo-disco interpretation. A percussive and joyous J Kriv house revision of 'Our Hearts Didn't Go That Way' completes a fine package.
Review: In honour of its tenth birthday, Donato Dozzy and Tin Man's first - and so far only - collaborative EP is given the remix treatment. This time round, it comes in lightly expanded form, with 'Test 3' appearing in two forms: the blissful ambient acid style original mix (a wonderful mid 1990s throwback) and a previously unheard vocal version, which not only adds a drowsy, effects-laden lead vocal, but also a hypnotic, soft focus groove. Elsewhere, 'Test 7' is a fine slab of otherworldly deep house/acid house fusion, while 'Test 2' is a more out-there, mind-altering ambient acid excursion.
Review: B2 Recordings hits release number 13 with DJ Rocca and Lex combing on a trio of fresh house cuts that blend elements of disco, Latin and soul. Up first is the glorious 'Solid Street' which has loose and percussive disco-house grooves overlaid with big synth energy and steamy vocals. 'Solar System' is slower and deeper, with a more rugged bassline and low slung sense of funk that never lets up. Last of all, 'Rose Tree' is a ramshackle house arrangement with whistles, Rhodes keys, tin-pot percussion, florid flutes and plenty of sunny energy all making it a real standout. A timeless EP packed with musicality.
Review: It's been slowly drip-fed to us over a 10-month period but now here at last is the full album. On 'Something Like That', Jalapeno bosses Skeewiff celebrate 25 years in the game by paying tribute to some of the music that's inspired them, delivering generally very faithful but also very accomplished reworks of classic tracks by artists ranging from The Winstons and Jimmy Smith to Dick Dale and Herb Alpert. New additions to the roster on this final version include Nancy Sinatra's 'These Boots Are Made For Walking', Muppets 'Mah Na Mah Na', Mel Tormé's Mod club standard 'Coming Home Baby' and, just to prove they're not taking themselves TOO seriously, Boots Randolph's 'Yakety Sax' - better known to most as the 'Benny Hill' theme.
Review: Four-piece "producer collective and DJ team" The Niceguys hail from Switzerland and have a long string of releases under their belt for labels like Bomb Strikes, Westwood Recordings and Ghetto Funk. Here they return to the former with four cuts that would work on funk-breaks and modern soul floors alike, with the Bobby Saint-vocalled 'Irie' and 'Strip It' rocking a Prince-like vibe, 'Don't Let Go' sporting a full-lunged soul vocal from Justina Lee Brown, and 'Dance' having something of a Smoove & Turrell-like feel. 'Don't Let Go' takes the gold for this writer but it's all good so feel free to disagree!
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