FRANCK ROGER Vinyl & CDs

Review: Spanish label Mate welcomes a couple of heavyweights in Rafa Santos and Franck Roger for a new deep house EP that shows the kids how it's done. It is Santos who serves up the originals starting with 'Where Is The Clubbing?' which has depth but also drive - rich pads swirl about over the supple kicks and clipped vocals bring the soulful little hooks. French maestro Franck Roger remixes with a little more swing and a stripped-back, late-night feel that is sprinkled with cosmic dust. On the flip, 'Smooth Jazz' is just that over cuddly beats as star-gazing piano tinkles and sombre sax notes bring real class. 'Don't Fool Me' shuts down with plenty of Chez Damier-style weight in the kicks and steaminess in the female vocals.

Review: Parisian producer Franck Roger lands on Nu Groove with 'Cosmic Tree' EP, a four-track outing of deep house perfectly at home on the legendary NYC label. Still going strong almost 35 years after its inception, it's nice to see the label is still welcoming fresh talent: Roger delivers a sultry, sauna-dunked steam on 'Part Of My Soul', one of the most contented-sounding house tracks we've heard in a while, thanks in part to the vocal stylings of Rimarkable; then there's the more repetitious ardour of 'Radik'Hall', 'Cosmic Funk' and 'The Music', all of which revel in the purely seductive potentialities of deep house production. "The music just turns me on!"

Review: Esteemed French producer Franck Roger lands on the Duck It label for the first time here. It is an imprint dear to him because of his Algerian originals and he cooks up a nice warm house vibe as a result. 'Pumpkin' is all balmy pads and trippy synth leads with a hint of Pepe Bradock. The tune is chunky and deep, with nice deft vocal sounds up top to bring the soul. RSlane remixes with a more contemporary and bumping tech house sound but still keeps plenty of the stylish cosmic melody in place. A tidy two tracker for sure.

Review: Hot'N'Spicy's self-titled series of flame hot disco and funk gems returns with a sizzling sixth instalment here and it has some big names on board. Delfonic opens up with the low slung and seductive loopy disco-house fun of 'Everything Is Love' while HOLDTight up the funk and energy with more loose and percussive grooves on 'Disco Power.' Franck Roger brings his classy French house styling to a deep and slinky number in 'Pinguino Blumo' and DJ Steef shuts down with some big camp disco flourishes and dubbed-out vocal echoes on 'Warp Odyssey.'