JACKMASTER Vinyl & CDs

Review: After necessarily taking time out for personal reasons, Jackmaster is slowly but surely getting back to where he was a few years ago. The party-staring Scot was a real DJ circuit favourite who also knew how to kick out the jams and that's what he does here for the fourth release on the Slack 85 label which debuted last year under the auspices of a certain Seth Troxler. 'Party Going On' is pure fun - a flaming hue cut with an impossibly catchy and pitched-up vocal. 'Freaky Like That' (with Jasper James) is surging Detroit house music with analogue drums and 'Let's Go' (Tom Trago Remix) is a dirty, loopy disco house cut and we love it.

Review: Numbers doyen and Glaswegian beatmaker Jackmaster is back after a time away sorting out some personal issues. Here he lands on Trance Fusion with the sort of high impact beats with which he made his name. There is shuffling and rambunctious old school house on 'Face Your Fate', 'Vizor' is super quick, super tight and catchy house that has massive hits and restless synths while 'SBS' layers up old school Detroit techno percussion to electric effect. Two further bangers in the electro-tinged 'A Tribute To LD' and downbeat 'Electro 106' close out a fine return.

Review: Up next on DJ Kicks' acclaimed mix series is Numbers doyen and Glaswegian iconJackmaster. In his own words, the 24-track mix sees the charismatic Scot 'delivering an honest journey, unearthing a serious passion for the obscure boundaries of house and techno.' This double LP lifts out eight of the tracks most other DJs will want to get their mitts on, and joins the dots between his hometown of Glasgow with Denis Sulta's festival destroying bass driven epic "MSNJ", then NYC; with Eli Escobar's gutsy EBM-flavoured 'Tension (vinyl mix)". Berlin's status as a dance music mecca is referenced with Dutch transplant Anno Stamm's dark house stomper "A Night Out With Therese" and the legend himself Ricardo Villalobos, with his minimal techno classic from 1996 "Logohitz". DJ Kicks throw in a CD of the mix too!