SESSION VICTIM Vinyl & CDs

Review: The always-cultured Session Victim have got increasingly refined in their work over the last decade or so. Always about much more than just throwaway grooves, they embellish their sounds once more here with the new album Listen to Your Heart on the regular home label Delusions of Grandeur. It arrives across six sides of opaque violet vinyl and is hugely limited. The house here is dusty and laden with great soul samples, lit up with gorgeous jazzy melodies and steeped in musicality. The opener is a real early standout while cuts like 'Up To Rise' are full of warm, joyous synth magic.

Review: German pair Session Victim have long been invigorating the deep hose scene with their rare musical skill. They have managed to imbue their sounds with elements of funk, jazz and soul while keeping their grooves fresh and stylish. Their fifth studio album Low Key, Low Pressure is "an anathema to today's fast paced, industry driven musical landscape" in that it is sophisticate and unhurried, not full of obvious singles but instead a coherent body of work that really excels as a long player - not something that can be said of much of today's disposable, Spotify-ready dance music. Across the ten tunes there's a lovely cover, a fine collab with occasional partner Carsten "Erobique" Meyer and playful sounds a plenty.

Review: The Hamburg-Berlin connection returns. Retreat label boss Hauke Freer and Matthias Reiling of Giegling fame have been at it as Session Victim for the better part of 10 years and they're still in fine form. The third instalment of Listen To Your Heart features four splendid journeys into the deep. Starting off with the lo-slung disco loops of "Almost Midnight" on the A side, which is followed up by the sun-kissed/slo-mo balearica of "Castle For Sale". On the flip, they pick up the pace once again with "Almost Midnight" which showcases the classic SV sound: deep house from a hip-hop production style of technique which no doubt influenced a new generation of German producers such as Glenn Astro & Max Graef. Finally, recline, relax and light one up to the dubbed out ambient journey that is "Thermal Explorer".

Review: Session Victim return to the Delusions Of Grandeur imprint with their third studio album. Listen To Your Heart is the result of a year of cross-continental scripting which started in their Hamburg studio and wrapped up stateside in San Francisco's Room G Studios where the duo had worked on their 2014 LP See You When You Get There. Here is the second of three LP samplers. "Shadows" gets things rolling with a classic Session Victim groove, looped up pads and hooky spoken vocal samples. Next up we have "Unchained" which drops the BPM for a widescreen, slo-mo jam clouded in a smoky haze with jazzy touches, recalling the halcyon days of Pork Recordings. Flipping over we have a brand new LP version of previous single "Up To Rise", another sublime slice of blissed-out house music with a wonderful organic and live sound palette. Echoing Rhodes licks join the lead guitar tune for a Balearic beauty which will be stuck in your head long after the sun sets. Closing this second sampler we have "Over And Over", which winds things down somewhat for an inspired, bass-led roller.

Review: Session Victim's new SVMRMX label seemingly exists as an outlet to showcase the German duo's reworks - some previously heard, others seemingly brand-new. On this label debut, the pair offer-up fine revisions of two tracks, starting with French producer Bellaire's largely overlooked 2021 gem 'Daytime'. Session Victim re-imagine it as wonderfully jazzy and sun-splashed slab of organic deep house/disco house fusion - all dancing strings, funky bass, hip-swinging beats, evocative clarinet solos and heavy Rhodes chords. A jazzy downtempo gem from Sweatson Klank's 2021 EP Jewels From The Sun gets the treatment on the flip, with Session Victim re-imagining it as a slab of Balearic breaks/bluesy jazz-house fusion. Perfect!