ALPHONSE Vinyl & CDs

Review: Emotional Especial marks its milestone 50th release with Gracias Especial, which is a showcase of the label's past, present and future. Founded in 2012 as the club-focused sibling to Emotional Response, Especial has become a trusted home for genre-blurring dance music from Jamie Paton's dubwise vision to trance-infused gems by 53X. This celebratory collection release features standout contributions from Alphonse, Chez De Milo, Jonne Lyden and remixes by Paton, whose design and sonic imprint define the label's identity. A heady blend of slow-motion trance, acid dub, rave nostalgia and deep, dubbed-out beats, it distils 12 years of dancefloor devotion into one essential release.

Review: Voice Notes is a new imprint run by London underground veteran Toby Tobias with Alphonse. A five track various artist EP, Voice Notes 002 is a time-honoured memorial for its sister label London Housing Trust, that they shut down a few years ago after 10 releases. Featuring tracks by label boss Tobias who delivers some emotive electro on 'Streets Of Gold', his evil twin Alphonse on the UK flava of 'Rujac', plus introducing Dance with the dub techno deconstruction of 'Amber', Rodney Bennett with the classic Stateside deep house of 'Palm Sunday' and Pyramids of Space with the downbeat IDM journey 'Quantis'.