ESSEL Vinyl & CDs

Review: There's a certain brand of 4x4 deep house that utterly slapssss. And that's exactly the business Toolroom Records are in - they're simultaneous experts at throwing us back to the sprawling garage paradises, while still lending modern, buildup-drop flairs to their productions. This V/A 12" sampler from a wider comp shows off choice buts from label mainstays, Essel, Guz, Qubiko, et al., showing off the best of what Italy's poppy deep house scene has to offer.

Review: Toolroom sits at the top of the tree when it comes to big room house music. Mark Knight's label has mastered the art of maximal sounds and this eighth volume of the Tooroom Sampler series is another one that will do plenty of damage. Essel's 'Sweat' is a rigid tech cut with stiff synths and libidinous vocals, then Shiba San and Ayarez get direct with shuffling tech house cut 'Twist It' complete with big skewed synths. Friend Within's 'Pilka' keeps the energy levels high with fizzing synth loops over textured drums and a fat bassline. Maur x Westend and Cami Bear close out with some brighter melodies to get hands in the air on 'Over.'

Review: The mighty and unmovable Toolroom offers up a snapshot of where it is at right now with a fifth volume of its Sampler series. The boss himself Mark Knight kicks off with a collaborative tune with Crusy: 'Daddy Shhh' is loopy, tribal, full flavour tech with jumbled drums and lots of buffed metal. Huxley's 'All I Need' is one of the UK producers warm house sounds, a smart vocal brings a sense of pain over simple but effective beats. Essel's 'Lennon' then brings peak time energy with strobe-lit synth sequences and churning drums, and Leftwing: Kody, James Hurr & I Jah shut down with 'Music Is The Medication', a muscular bumper with dub-wise vocals.

Review: Toolroom Records are partly responsible for the recent upsurge in jackin' deep house in the early 2020's; this sampler record, the second in their compilations EP series, serves as yet another tour of their grand new deep house estate. Delusions of grandeur are expressed on 'You Are A God' - which, for a track so deitylike, measures itself with rather a lot of restraint - while 'Talking To Myself' contains a vocal sample that is so mouthy and infectious that we really are beginning to believe ourselves to have been possessed by Metatron. 'Mallet' swerves into tribal territory, while ESSEL's 'Try' could be a contender for dance-chart-topper, assuming its piano weaponry is effective enough at swaying the radio pluggers. Joyous stuff.