Review: Some two years on from his last single, the rather good but arguably overlooked "Rises and Falls", Russian producer Artem "Xio" Malev delivers a second expansive EP on Moscow record shop Wax Ninja's occasional in-house imprint. Across four confident cuts, the experienced producer bounces between cheery, revivalist U.S garage-house (piano-sporting opener "Can't Stop Now"), chunkier and bolder peak-time fare ("Crucial Movement", which boasts even sweatier piano parts and thumping drums), acid house-inspired, warehouse-ready headiness ("True School"), sparkling and summery drum & bass weightiness (the ace "Cream Soda Remix" of "Now U Know"), and rolling, analogue-rich, organ-sporting late night strut (mid-90s Strictly Rhythm tribute "U Took My Love").
Review: Some fine festive fare here from the fast-rising DOBRO imprint, who've used the season of goodwill as an excuse to deliver another fine, 16-rack compilation of previously unreleased material. Kicking off with the emotive, shuffling deep house loveliness of Buzz Compass's 'Hartbit', the collection gleefully skips between sample-rich disco-house (Mutenoise, Leiba, Hotmood), quirky Latin house (Babak, Kostenko Brothers), squelchy late-80s techno revivalism (SIRS and Lovebirds), nu-boogie (Scruscru with label boss Iner), wall-of-sound deep house positivity (Selva, the jaunty vintage late '80s 'garage-house' vibes of Sun Rhythms) and hazy, sunrise-ready wonder (Kerrinis and TonyZzz). Brilliantly programmed, it's a fine compilation of positive, ear-pleasing excellence.
Review: Dobro is a house and disco edits label run by Belarusian DJ/producer Iner out of St Petersburg. For its fifth release, it's another various artists affair featuring a whopping six tracks with appearances from I Gemin on the dusty, boompty and off-kilter 'I Like 2 Party', Paul Rudder & OUI go ultra deep in the tradition of the Three Chairs sound on the emotive 'In The Sky For Our Love', while Bendrik serves up the mandatory late night mood music vibes on 'Chat House' and Swales provides the banger on the funky and tough rolling 'Blue Skies'.
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