KENLOU Vinyl & CDs

Review: One of the many alternate monikers of Kenny Gonzales and Louie Vega - best known as Masters At Work - the Kenlou project is still going strong, having first made its mark in 1995, though as a lesser-spotted counterpart to MAW or their infamous Nuyorican Soul project. Reflecting the more experimental edges of their pioneering house vision, the Kenlou indulges a more flatulent and tooly sound, a trend which refreshed on their latest original EP 'Moonshine', added to the esteemed MAW Records catalogue here. A casual pair of garage-house forward-marchers; filled to the brim with horn, bass and vocal samples torn from their contexts and re-collaged.

Review: Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez and Loie Vega continue to revisit their back catalogue, offering a mix of reissues and new editions of classics featuring previously unheard remixes. Here they treat us to previously unheard Masters At Work versions of 1995 Kenlou single 'Moonshine'. The A-side 'Remix' is a hazy roller in which short, cut-up vocal snippets, trippy minor-key riffs, one-note stabs and mutilated horn blasts ride a chopped bassline and typically bumpin' drums. As you'd expect, the flip-side dub is more stripped-back and wonky, with Kenny and Louie pushing forward effects-laden stabs, boosting the bass and adding even more delay-laden percussion. It's our pick of the pair, though both mixes are excellent.

Review: Following a series of tweaked reissues featuring previously forgotten (and unreleased) remixes of back catalogue gems, Masters at Work offer up something even more special: a double-pack containing four tracks rediscovered in their archives last year. They begin with the bubbly, mid-tempo NYC house shuffle of 'MAW Apes Groove' - all warming organ chords, bubbly analogue bass and oddball vocal samples - before serving up the hip-swinging, sub-heavy, sax-laden bump of KenLou's 'Lost I'M Ready (Sax Dub)'. Over on the second slab of wax, 'Virus Ruff Mutes' is a locked-in slab of house hedonism marked out by a tight, looped organ stab, while 'KenLou' thump recalls the inspired, jazz-dance-friendly, Latin-tinged brilliance of 'The Nervous Track', one of their most admired cuts.