Review: To celebrate 250 parties, Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter, the residents at and organisers of Mister Saturday Night, have put together this wonderful compilation. It starts with the offbeat folk of Menelik Wossenatchu's "Tezeta" and the glorious, soulful disco of Soul Bros Inc's "Pyramid". The compilation veers back towards electronic sounds on the stripped back deep house of ESB's "On Cue" and the bleepy "Aches" from Baba Stiltz. FaltyDL's "Hardcourage" bridges the gap between the abstract and dance-floor structures, Marcellus Pittman drops the acid-soaked Detroit house of "There's Somebody Out There" and Kerrier District delivers the lush electronic disco of "Let's Dance and Freak".Then & Now is a wide-eyed, freewheeling compilation that captures the long-running New York party's essence.
Review: Global Underground's Nubreed series has a huge amount of kudos, having brought respected DJs like Lee Burridge, Steve Lawler and Danny Howells to attention during the early 00s with a series of iconic mixes. Although it was on hold for much of the second decade of this millennium, it has been successfully resurrected and now gives the same platform to Theo Kottis. In keeping with its usual format, this instalment sees the Beautiful Strangers boss explore a range of styles and sound across two mixes. Accordingly, his selection ranges from Gigi Masin's melodic piano composition, "Maja", to the Mountain People's sensuous deep house "La Onda", taking in some underground classics like DJ Assassin's garage/house hybrid "Face in the Crowd" as well as left of centre oddities like The Horn's "Villager". It's a fitting testament to the Nubreed aesthetic.