PABLO VALENTINO Vinyl & CDs

Review: Killer Endless Flight 12" debut for the Creative Swing Alliance duo of Pablo Valentine and Steven Joyce Ames - two names that should be familiar to the deep house cognoscenti! Valentine runs the MCDE label, while Ames has been responsible for drops on Compost, Soultronik and Jazzmin, though together as Creative Swing Alliance they're on another level. As lead track "Assado" slips into action, those thick bass drum kicks are soon consumed by a richly detailed procession of textures, dub laden vocal edits and percussion that collectively glower with resplendent energy. Alongside this, the detuned jazz thonk of "Everybody Stand Around" gets a much needed vinyl release after featuring on Endless Flight's fifth edition of I'm Starting To Feel OK, while the flip has Valentino going solo for the excellent, hand clap laden beatdown of "Give It To Me".

Review: Pablo Valentino delivers a four-track EP of soulful and funky house music on Handy Records. The title track features Mangabey on vocals, guitars and piano, creating a catchy and uplifting groove, with Kai Alce providing a smooth remix that adds more percussion and drums for a deeper vibe. On the flip side, Valentino showcases his versatility with two more tracks: 'My Fucked Up Left Ear' which is a jazzy and broken beat affair, and 'Not Yet' which is a minimal and hypnotic roller.

Review: Creative Swing Alliance member Pablo Valentino has made some fine deep house over the years, much of it blessed with the distinctive swing of MPC drums and more than a few nods to jazz, but rarely anything quite as classy as this outing on Spanish label SAFT. For proof, look no further than opener 'Look Deeper', a kind of Dilla-does-deep house affair laden with starry electric piano motifs, eyes-closed female vocal samples and jazzy bass, and the dusty, sample-heavy beatdown vibes of 'X Rousse' (where musical polymath Bruno Havert guests under his Patchworks alias). Elsewhere, 'Bagaco' is a classic-sounding slab of dusty and warming deep house smothered in hazy stabs and Ron Trent style percussion, while Seb Wildblood's remix of the same track turns it into a spacey, dubby and ultra-deep breakbeat shuffler.

Review: For their fifth release, Japanese label Eureka! presents Pablo Valentino: founder of Faces Records (with Motor City Drum Ensemble) for the "Space Tribe" EP. Kicking off proceedings is Berlin-based Kazuki Yamaguchi on the Detroit Beatdown influenced "Bananas" on which you'll hear the pair emanate plenty of soul and emotion, followed by the blunted urban blues of "Inspiracao" where Valentino goes into a wonderful downbeat hip-hop state of mind. On the flip is the EP's most poignant moment brought by the evocative and bittersweet mood music of the title track featuring British producer Simbad - this one goes ultra deep and we love every minute of it!

Review: Creative Swing Alliance member Pablo Valentino has a strong track record when it comes to solo productions - see his fine EPs on Endless Flight and Faces Records for proof - so you'd expect this outing on MCDE to hit the spot. It does, of course, despite being the producer's first solo outing for nearly four years. Highlights wise, we're really loving the deep, loose and languid, jazz-funk influenced shuffle of "My Son's Smile" and the woozy, electric piano-driven instrumental hip-hop deepness of "Good Ol' Days", though the slightly more driving and percussive club cut "Atlantic's Calling (One For Portugal)" is also superb. Ge-ology's fine deep house-meets-Detroit techno take on "My Son's Smile" completes a near perfect package.

Review: Despite founding FACES back in 2002, label boss Pablo Valentino has never graced the label with a full release of his own, preferring instead to use it as a platform for others to shine with the Tom Noble and James Pants remixes of Klaus Weiss a latter day highlight of the catalogue. After cranking up his production rate both in a solo capacity and as one half of Creative Swing Alliance, Valentino finally adds a full FACES cat no to his discography with the superb Friends Say So 12". Four tracks deep, this record ploughs a similar stylistic path to Valentino's close friend MCDE and will sate the appetites of anyone missing some Plessow in their current record buying activities. Final track "Can't You See" is humongously good!

Review: There's plenty of fresh house wares on offer at Saft, as the Spanish label sizes up some new contenders to deliver their vision of the deepest grooves known to humanity. Pablo Valentino is in a mellow mood but his drums still pound out underneath dubby chord pulses on "La Caverne", before Moon B switches things up with a more distinctive approach that keeps alien whispers of boogie in amongst some bass heavy business for the more adventurous floor. Jefferson Belmondo is in charge on the B-side and he means business with the drum focused jacker "Shakalak".