Review: It's party o'clock round the Replay offices right about now with label boss DJ Friction (aka Frico) celebrating his imprint's tenth anniversary. A decade in the music game is no mean feat, and listening through the 13 tracks selected here you can hear how it's the quality of the edits that's got them where they are now. Highlights include the hazy scratchy take on "It's A Family Affair", the peaks and troughs rearrangement of "Is It All Over My Face" and the dreamy Italo disco of "It's Alright". Here's to the next ten years!
Review: It's nice to see DJ Friction re-launching his hush-hush edits imprint Replay, which has lain dormant since 2005. For two years before that, the label released some simple but killer re-edits of soul, funk, boogie, disco and rare groove jams. On this first 2013 outing, Friction (under his Frico guise) takes his rusty scalpel to two tracks from Italian disco legend Gino Soccio. On the (virtual) A, "Dancer" gets the treatment, with Friction cleverly building dancefloor pressure thanks to a few well-timed groove extensions, cuts and well-executed delays. It's the same deal on the flip, where "It's Alright" gets straightened up, remastered and rearranged to perfection.
Review: Austrian disco zealots We Mean Disco (run by veteran house DJ Pariz/ Senor Manolo) have tirelessly dug deep to find authentic disco 12"s to shake down, spruce up and reintroduce to the world. Now it's time to take stock with this compilation album that acts as a remarkable sampler of the label's roster so far. Standouts include the glistening glamour-funk of "Love Has Come Around" the synthy bleep-soul of "I Need You Now" and the housed-up Michael McDonald-sampling "I'm In Love". Boom!