D STONE Vinyl & CDs

Review: Setting the year aflame with a three-G bang, Amsterdam producer D Stone flaunts his fieriness with four house music furtherances, after two knockout releases on 803 Crystal Grooves and Cecille. 'Bang' utterly bangs, with its streetwise vocal shouts and offbeat, Chi-style beep sounds making for a cosmopolitan intro. 'Deep Inside' adds downward pressure with a central dub stab and well-hung string part, and 'No Activities' sounds to incorporate percussive glassware and bomb whistle sounds into the mix. Finally, 'Talking About' rounds things out with an extensive drumline competition, as a blurry vocal sample urges us, from what sounds like it, to flail our hands about in the air.

Review: Since the inception of the 803 Crystal Grooves imprint in 2018, Cinthie has been steadily unveiling her own material on the main label, while the sub-label Collective Cuts was inaugurated in 2019 as a platform for friends, associates and beloved producers in her circle. The past five releases on the platform have welcomed material from the likes of UC Beatz, Azuni aka Washerman, Anaxander, S3A (Sampling As An Art) and KETTAMA among others, while here the label welcomes some fresh talent from the Dutch capital, namely D Stone and Milion, who've been releasing their raw house sound on the likes of PIV, Moscow Records and Cecille respectively in recent years. 'Next Morning' is an uptempo full-body-scan in the form of speed garage / garage house, taking after but not fully submitting itself to tropes and motifs of deep and jackin' house (synth organ, rampant swing, etc.). Anthemic moods throughout, and with an added sense of 'slap' not otherwise heard often, we don't bet many selectors would be likely to go wrong with this one.