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: 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: D'EAUPE, the forward-thinking record label spearheaded by electronic music duo Shermanology, unveils a stacked remix package for their previous Roots EP. Featuring a impressive lineup of artists, each naturally brings a twist of style to the original numbers. Rene Amesz leads the charge with his pumping remix of "Jabula", blending Verseless & King Her's vocals with some heaving beats. Hector Couto pulls out the filter sweep in his remix of "Touch" while SYREETA's dubbed-out breakage of "Jabula" offers a fresh perspective with a flow of dynamic house rhythms and heavy bass weight undertow. WZA's club mix of "Hijos De La Noche" turns the saw waves and garage vibes up to 10 leaving Chico Rose's reimagining of "Coco Loco" to hold down a super solid and techy groove. Sherminated.
Review: Fresh from outings on 8Bit and Dirtybird, Audiojack return to the label they established way back in 2010, Gruuv. In keeping with the Yorkshire-raised duo's outings on the imprint, it's a tightly focused and club ready two-tracker. First up is 'Somebody', a rumbling, body-moving slab of 1997 speed garage revivalism - all Armand Van Helden 'dark garage' bass, dark synth strings, echoing vocal snippets and chunky house drums - which sounds like a genuine peak-time anthem in the making. They continue the "arms aloft" vibes on the similarly large title track, 'Release Yourself', which mixes vintage UK garage influences with nods to contemporaneous big room NYC house sounds.
Review: Nine months on from the release of the throbbing and pulsating 'Zombie Dance' on Permanent Vacation, Zombies in Miami return to their Creatures of the Night label - the Mexican duo's first appearance on the imprint since 2022's fine collaboration with Lauer, 'Michelada Brothers'. On 'The Rhythm', the duo takes a different tack, dispensing with nods to Italo-disco in favour of weighty tribal house beats (think late '90s Junior Vasquez and Danny Tenaglia), restless electronic bass, echoing vocal snippets and mind-mangling effects. It's genuinely fantastic and comes backed with two tidy reworks: a pots-and-pans-percussion propelled dancefloor dub by Cani, and the sleazy, low slung and stretched-out 'Factory Setup' remix.
Review: Amentec have done a great job in assembling this top level collection of new school breakbeat action, welcoming no less than 14 artists inside across 13 hard hitting creations. The exciting thing about the project is that it leaves no breaks-inspired stone unturned, featuring the likes of Sound Synthesis, Inkipak, DAWL, Flatliner and more. From the intense, arcade style arrangements of Sub Oscillator's 'Ketzer' remix from Difool, to the more abstract acidity of Bobo's bulging 'Club Proxima', we see such an exciting range on display. Our highlights therefore have to include both the classy club-ready bops of Ova Doce's 'Keep On', next to the cloud-lining euphoria of MOY's 'Jovian Sunrise'. A truly top quality collection.
Review: Columbian producer Ciclo returns to Snatch! with three stonking club cuts in a fairly 'traditional' house vein (and that's definitely not a complaint, BTW). Opener 'From The Roots' tops a solid rolling backbeat and M1-ish organ parps with the acapella of Kings Of Tomorrow's 'So Alive' (as also sampled by Kanye West for 'Low Lights'). The slightly pacier 'House Of Gang' is a rollicking little disco-houser with an energy-infusing walking bassline, almost Wild Pitch-y stabs and a full female vocal, while finally 'It's Haaaat' itself is a chunkier affair with a cut-up, Sneak-y kinda feel. Three very solid bullets for your Saturday night disco machine gun!
Review: Following years spent flitting between labels including Toy Tonics and Razor N Tape Reserve, COEO make their bow on Shall Not Fade. In keeping with the Bristol label's approach to digital releases, it's an expansive and action-packed affair. Title track 'Planet Earth' is one of the Munich-based duo's more forthright cuts to date - a thrusting, bongo-laden techno tempo rave workout propelled forwards by an insanely good (and rubbery) electronic bassline and psychedelic acid lines aplenty - while 'Satellite Bay' sounds like a cross between early '90s synth-pop, Kraftwerk and Euro-dance. Elsewhere, 'Rush Hour' gloriously joins the dots between hip-house, vintage MK productions and the Pet Shop Boys' Relentless' album; 'Kawasaki Racing Club' combines breakbeats and early UK progressive house sounds; and 'The Stage Is Yours' is a head-nodding, midtempo acid breaks affair.
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