Thatmanmonkz

Review: One of the brightest talents in the UK house firmament, Thatmanmonkz is back on his own Shadeleaf label with an EP of remixes and versions centering around last year's Non Zero Sum Game album. First up is the mighty Waajeed, who brings some Motor City bump to "Them Thangs" in fine style before 'Monkz's own "Dubstramental" of the track. PPF deliver some seriously pumping, pneumatic pressure to "Freaks 'n Prophets" and then new original track "Sawa Sawa" completes the set with that dusty, tactile blend of sounds that 'Monkz makes his own.

Review: The most impressive thing about Thatmanmonkz debut album, 2016's "Columbusing" on Delusions Of Grandeur, was the Sheffield-based producer's seemingly innate ability to fuse elements of deep house, jazz, hip-hop, Detroit techno and broken beat. That distinctive grasp of dusty, soul-fired fusion once again comes to the fore on this belated follow-up. There's much to enjoy from start to finish, with highlights including the jazzy, sax and organ-heavy deep house of "Easy Still (with A Brother Is)", the raw and off-kilter acid insanity of "Chai Tea", the samba-house soul of Ms Fae hook-up "Them Thangs", the dancefloor jazz-funk bounce of "WhatUThinkIDo" and the Moodymann style Malik Ameer collaboration, "Thee Others".

Review: The edit and rework-focused Hot Peas 'N Butter series has never come clean about who is behind it, though so far each of its named editors has been based in the Steel City of Sheffield. Here two of the series' most prolific editors, thatmanmonkz and pal Simba, join forces to deliver four-more sneaky re-rubs. Check first the driving disco-soul funk of "Track 1", before diving headfirst into the two-step jazz-funk brilliance of "Track 2", a cut that contains some fantastic dueling horn solos. Over on side B, "Track 3" is a smoothed out, proto-house style take on a synth-laden early electro number complete with silly pitched-up vocal snippets, while "Track 4" sees the Sheffield duo put their own spin on a particularly spacey cut from the Prelude back catalogue.