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Review: ***B-STOCK: Record slightly warped***


There's a fair chance you'll already have heard "Cola", experienced production duo Camelphat's collaboration with vocalist Elderbrook. The original version, with its rumbling bass, atmospheric builds, subtle bassline house influence and "she sips the Coca-Cola" refrain, has become something of an anthem since first appearing on digital download earlier in the year. For this first vinyl release, Defected has packaged the now-familiar original mix with a trio of reworks. The most impressive of these comes from German veteran Mousse T. He brilliantly re-casts the track as a bumpin' chunk of celebratory disco-house complete with thrilling piano riffs and an elastic bassline.

Review: Swiss artist Chlar's last EP Optimized Grooves was a standout success across the techno world and it marked a significant step for the fast-rising producer after fine outings on labels like Iceland's NIX and Stranger's Self Reflektion imprint. His full-throttle style is continually evolving as his latest offering, the Intrinsic Drive EP shows. 'Dopamine Rush' kicks off with fast techno beats and hypnotic synths, 'Intrinsic Drive' weaves tightly packed drums, bass, and alien sound designs, 'For Marco' intensifies with darker kicks and eerie synths, while 'Steady Pace' adds swing with crisp hits and vocal fragments. 'Greedy Man' offers industrial undertones with skewed synths to end on yet another stylish banger.

Review: Ron Hardy's legacy lives on though stories of his legendary DJ sets but also his seemingly endless catalogue of edits and reworks of the tunes he played in his heyday. Here we have another such exhibit in which he flips some classic disco. The original version of 'No Way Back' is riddled with picked guitar licks and dreamy keys while a funky low end moves on this disco-rock gem as brass bursts out for added oomph. Hardy ups the pace, twists it beyond this realm and adds big drum breaks that are Prue bit for dancers. It's a classic in its own right that gets regular plays by more bold and eclectic DJs.

Review: People of Earth proudly presents Warren Harris aka . Blessing us with a 4 track EP titled "From the Dark Sky". Delivering his signature bass licks and providing us with a vocal track on top of it all in "Last Forever". Hints of jazz, gospel and straight deep house throughout the record, all beautiful, uplifting and full of purpose.

Review:  Looking back it's been a killer year for DJ Haus and his pair of labels, Unknown to the Unknown and Hot Haus, and it seems like he won't be easing the gears down from "unfcknrelenting" now December has arrived. The latest Hot Haus release (the sixth issued since September!) sees a welcome return for whippersnapper producer Palace whose Vision 12" is the third record issued on the UTTU offshoot in a year! If you liked previous Palace records, you love the three tracks here which are all raw and effective DJ tools sprinkled with immediacy, individuality and nagging basslines - "Solstice" in particular is a real burner of a track. Don't sleep!

Review: Hilarity ensues with Miles J Paralysis and his new 'Folktronic' EP. Brought to the Leeds-based label Crying Outcast, this is an authentic crock of real dancefloor experimentations by the debuting artist, furthering our sense that this West Yorkshire city's contribution to dance music history an indelible one. Here, one can really hear the admixture of humour and attention to detail gone in, with dark-comedic label name matching tongue-in-cheek-microgenre-used-in-title, which mocks the Four Tet populariser style. We were surprised to hear, then, a relative lack of dulcet arp twinkles set to tricky fidget-tech house here, as is the "folktronic" sensibility. Instead, 'Still Waiting' and its corresponding Brian Not Brian and Piers Harrison dub bring a much headsier, erudite, lettered sound, with trippy didgeridoo design marking the opener and wonkier speed-plods following on the remix. 'Eavesdropper' plays on the Leodian favourite that is chug music, with reverso-yearny pads alternating away in the back, while 'Always Liked Scarecrows' makes titular use of the kind of offhand, fieldside observation many daydreamers like us often use: uncanny mock 303s, dubbing martial arts.

Review: South London d&b brothers Sean and Mark Roberts created Probe-One after growing up on pirate stations, inspiring Sean to buy a deck and mess around himself. It goes that the siblings were frustrated at the drip release of d&b cuts and took the initiative themselves. 'Aether' and 'Expanse' clock in at just over 15 minutes combined, the long and winding ambient buildups giving way to ginormous breaks on 'Aether', or receding into a more atmospheric direction circa the Playstation 1 'IDM' era. The A-Side is for the breakbeat inclined, filled with intensity and volume against its ethereal synth waves. Side B is for the late-night Pulse FM listeners, the gentle percussion of dawn breaking - it's almost relaxing if such a thing were possible.

Review: There has been a whole bunch of quality reworks of this particular soul seductress dropping of late and we are all for it. What set cannot be elevated with some super smooth r&b vocals and smoky deep drums? You get exactly that once more here with 'Paradise' the first to get a clubby rework. The drums stay nice and lo-fi and paired back, the percussion is warm and dusty and the vocal injects the heart aching soul you need to get a crowd all loved-up. On the flip side, UK house don Ben Watt brings his Lazy Dog remix to 'By Your Side' and it is rife with funky guitar riffs and loose, playful grooves.

Review: CREDO label head and respected German DJ and producer Alex Bau offers up his first sounds under new alas Stoering here on the Dub Wax label. And the location of the music hints at what he is looking to explore with his new project, namely deep and dubbed-out techno soundscapes. They are steeped in the Basic Channel school with dusty hi-hats and fuzzy pads stretched out over frictionless drums. The pace remains steady and seductive throughout and the EP reaches its pinnacle with 'Taupo' thanks to the pairing of a gently bumping rhythm and scattering of metallic hits that widen the scope of the groove.

Review: Greek producer Stelios Vassiloudid has been making techno moves since the turn of the millennium under a range of different aliases. Here he appears as himself with four supercharged dub techno cuts for Dubwax. 'Lie In Wait' is a really tight, taught affair with pinging kicks and icy hi-hat ringlets. 'MIA' is more warm and vibes with a soulful core and underlapping bass waves. There is a more minimal and abstract sound to the curious dub bumps of 'Reverse Engineer' that encourage you to be at your most fluid. 'Grains' shuts down with grainy lo-fi pads, vinyl crackle and sparse kick that soundtrack an underwater jaunt. There is plenty of subtle variation to these rhythms which makes it a dead handy dub EP.

Review: Vibez '93 is on a roll, as we recall several of the Fokuz Recordings sub-outlet's best works through a throng of EP reissues. The 'Execution' EP is on the moniker's dirtier and rawer side, launching the listener's fledgling pirate voyage with 'Wheel Up' (its breakdown driven impeccably forward by acapella vocals from A Tribe Called Quest's 'Scenario'), followed shortly by the atmosfear-strikers 'Skazka' and 'Execution', and finally coming in to land on the axe-touting 'Execution', recalling the earliest of dark LTJ in its messy-hazy breaks, tribal calls and wiggly sound effects.