Review: Italian house original Don Carlos will likely never make a record quite so inspired as his 1991 dream house anthem 'Alone'. Yet he's still capable of delivering high-quality treats in his melodic and colourful style, as this surprise EP for Jimpster's Freerange imprint proves. The undoubted highlight is 'I'm Still Here', where classic dream house motifs - sparkling piano riffs, kaleidoscopic chords, sultry synth-strings and gorgeous counter-melodies - rise above chunky house drums and an arpeggio-driven bassline inspired by Rinder & Lewis's classic electro-disco cover of 'Willie and the Hand Jive'. Elsewhere, Carlos wraps sun-soaked, disco-tinged riffs around a chunky house groove on 'Azimuth', before adding layers of musical emotion to a rolling house groove on the similarly summery 'In The Sky'.
Review: While some of the material reissued on Emotional Rescue will be familiar to Baelaric and kosmiche crate-diggers, it's likely that few will have heard of Carlos Cataia's Orquesta. Written, produced and released in Argentina way back in 1985, it sees noted keyboardist Cutaia - ably assisted by producer pals Alejandro Oucinde and Oscar Dominguez - joining the dots between quirky synth-pop, post-boogie space funk, Berlin-School ambience, and the kind of dreamy, chugging fare that would now be described as "Balearic". It's more than a little eccentric, but contains a slew of brilliant cuts, including the weirdo space-pop of "Operativo", and the tape delay heavy piano ambience of sublime closer "Aproximaciann Uno".
Review: We may not be able to gather to dance outdoors under a blazing sun or a blanket of stars, but there's no harm in a little musical daydreaming. That's what the latest multi-artist Ravenelli Disco Club release is all about: summery escapism that comes with a big dollop of rush-inducing disco release. Ethyene sets the tone with the colourful boogie-house fusion of "Let Love" - all twinkling synth motifs, echoing percussion hits, thickset grooves and hazy vocal samples - before Carlo raises the temperature via some jazzy deep house heaviness in the vein of Derrick Carter's "boompty" era. Over on side B, Hotmood's "Magical Flight" is a surging, string-drenched disco-house roller, while Rees' "The Way You Mood" is a tooled-up take on what sounds like a classic Philadelphia International cut.
Review: For their latest trick, Razor-N-Tape Reserve has decided to breathe new life into 'Agua', one of the standout cuts from Brazilian band Baianasystem's chronically overlooked 2018 album O Futura Nao Demora. Freerange main man Jimpster delivers two wonderfully breezy and life affirming reworks: a fully-formed remix that wraps Antonio Carlos' vocal and splashes of the original's samba-soaked instrumentation (jazz guitars, warming horns, vintage synth sounds and so on) around a tactile deep house groove, and a deeper, dreamier and especially groovy Dub. After that Diego Strausz and JKriv take over, first re-framing the track as an extra-percussive chuck of acid-speckled nu-disco (their remix), before brilliantly stripping back the cut on their disco instrumental style Dub mix.
Review: Bristol's Shall Not Fade presents this awesome DJ mix by label staple Carlo. The Berlin-based producer serves up several of his own jams amongst some of the label's biggest hits (and near misses!) across 12 tracks. Highlights include Cologne's Djoko with the lo-slung minimal of "Lost In Time", Tilman's disco-tined deep house groove "Say Good Bye", as well as the dream team of Marcel Vogel, Alexandre Arslan & Tim Jules serving up some proper late-night mood music on "If You Don't Love" and ending with KaySoul & Gustavo Martinez's sensual and evocative "Africanus".
Review: With summer fast approaching, Suol has decided to get ahead of the game with an EP chock full of sweltering, sun-kissed deep house treats. Atjazz kicks things off with the rich chord progressions, lilting synthesizer melodies and bouncy drums of sunset-friendly shuffler "Programme Sunlight", before label regulars Chopstick and Johnjon serve up the similarly positive and breezy "Last Night". Elsewhere, Matthias Vogt cranks out the languid, life-affirming pianos and blissful electronics on Balearic house gem "Chanterelle", M.Ono delivers a loved-up twist on loopy disco house, and Carlo drops a chunk of bumpin', bass-heavy goodness blessed with sun-bright guitar flourishes. Best of all, though, is Meggy and Tigerskin's "Bygone Eras", a slick and sultry chunk of sun-bright modern soul.
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you've provided to them or that they've collected from your use of their services.