Juno Recommends Deep House: May 2024

Review: Abacus (Austin Bascom) is a household name in the Chicago house and techno scene for over 30 years now. He has been on some of the best labels of all time like Prescription, Fragile, Balance and Guidance records. As you can imagine, Collectors Edition Vol 1 is full of classy house music to say the least. 'Chi-Town Stories' is a blend of super smooth and uplifting prime time floor business. We absolutely think you will adore this track. 'The Mourning Sun' is a stunning ambient house beauty that will have you dancing with your eyes-closed. 'Hygge' finishes things off on a sexy house vibe. There is really something for everyone on this. Abacus stands for quality for those who know.

Review: Underground house heads will very much be familiar with this tune. It has been circulating as a white label owned only by the coolest and most connected cats and now Detroit badman Marcellus Pittman does the right thing and gives it an official pressing on his own Unirhythm label. A-side jam 'Pick Yourself Up' (feat Crystal Procedures) is dusty, loopy, trippy house with swirling vocals adding to the late night feel, then 'Ode 2 Juan' slows things down to smoky basement house vibes with melancholic pads bringing hints of light to the muggy atmosphere.

Review: While nowhere near as celebrated as some of his NYC contemporaries, Tommy Musto made some incredible music at the turn of the 90s, flitting between breakbeat-driven, techno-tinged heaviness and heady, sample-rich house. The Lost Dubs Volume 1 takes us back to that period via a quartet of contemporaneous cuts recently unearthed in the producer's vaults. There's much to admire throughout, from the driving, bass-heavy hedonism of 'Holdin' On', a track propelled forwards by insatiable organ riffs and breathless beats, and the extra-percussive early morning headiness of 'Baby's Right' - all delay-laden Rhodes licks, funky bass guitar, mazy synth solos and Masters At Work style house beats - to the Victor Simonelli style saucer-eyed warmth of 'Love Is Needed' and the sleazy, Kenny Dope style heaviness of 'Keep It Movin'. Genuine buried treasure!

Review: The super cool Leizure label is back with more super cool house, this time from US don Huerta. 'Pan's Grotto Jam' is a balmy opener that's doused in silky synth puddles and has smooth drum breaks powering it along. 'Vaquera Blues' is a little more tech-y: the drums are crisp, the synths both sci-fi and abstract yet cosmic and pensive and 'Reverse Mary' then take off with a cascading wall of bubbly synth arps and nimble bass notes. 'CJ's Place' might be the best of the lot - both dynamic and deep and packed with fresh synth sounds and alluring patterns.

Review: Billy Lo keeps it high-class on this expansive new 12" from the French folks at Cosmocities. It is house music that is couched in the traditional US style but with plenty of his own unique embellishments. Importantly, the melodies are meaningful and fresh and add everything from bittersweetness to joy to the dusty, paired back and nicely undercooked grooves. 'Let Ur Body Werk' is the sort of steamy sound that will get close-knit backroom crowds all in a sweat and up close and personal and 'Sho Me Ur Luv' brings a little US garage skip to the analogue drums. Spoken words elevate each tune to work on mind, body and soul in equal measure.

Review: Don Carlos is a legendary house producer behind seminal hits like the Balearic classic 'Alone'. Back in 1997 he hooked up with equally revered Londoner Gareth Cooke to deliver this fantastic double sider. It has become a much sought-after tune in the years since so it now gets a welcome reissue. The opener on the A-side is a big and hugely fun piano romp while on the flip, 'A Room Coloured' sees Carlos exploring a more earthly and lose-limbed house sound with rubbing low ends and plenty of spiritual and soulful vibes in the pads. Great tunes, for sure.

Review: Gorje Hewek perfectly taps into the Shanti Radio sound with a new EP that is deep, exotic and dreamy house music of the highest order. First up is 'Never Been' which is a collaboration with Makebo & Amonita that lays up shakers, keys and rolling bass into a tropical sound. With Volen he creates the yawning synth work and light and airy grooves of 'Otoko', then gets more textural with the twinkling tech and fuzzy synths of 'Huracan' with Bakka, and last of all he links with Volen Sentir for the hypnotic charms of 'Ghosts (Blurredub)'.

Review: As the mighty UK stalwart that is Freerange fast approaches its 300th EP it looks to Toronto Hustle for its latest deep house transmission. As always these are smooth and sophisticated sounds with 'Deep In This' kicks off with rippling synth sequences and dusty house drums staying low under some subtle vocal sounds that bring an intimate edge. The Late Night dub reduces things into even more quiet and unassuming territory and 'Fall In Love' then brings vamping chord energy and clouds of whispering vocals and a Demuir God Speaks remix jacks it up a little with some extra house swing.

Review: It's seven up for the young but already crucial Treasure Series label and this new 12" from FR is another one packed with smart samples and playful, catchy grooves. The timeless vocal work of Jamiroquai is sampled on the opener to bring some funk to deep beats. The same cut 'Canny Hot' then gets dubbed out, stripped back and made into more of a seductive late night roller before 'Delicate' stars the flipside off with horizontal house grooves, mystic synth leads and some steamy vocals. 'Daddy's Face' is another late-night roller with dreamy George Michael vocals drifting in and out to rousing effect.

Review: San Fran's new school house tastemaker Gene On Earth is back with a new nugget of irresistible club goodness, this time on his own Limousine Dream which is cruising towards its tenth EP in some style. First out of the blocks is 'Roger Dodger' which is a cosmic and liquid tech groove to get you moving. Then comes 'The Paddle' which is a nice mix of warped and percolating synths and freaky vocal samples that bring the colour. 'Fan Man' is an astral tech house cut that surges on fresh progressive synth lines and last of all is the more kinetic, glitchy and amped up tech of 'Only The Phony Will Be Lonely'.

Review: One of New York deep house's foremost day ones returns to the limelight with a fresh 12-track mini-album, showing the yutes how it's done with an onslaught of unlikely-sounding beats, cuts and breaks. All tracks on Hear are loose and lackadaisical, often forgoing the need so behooved by many house music producers to get the transient design - the snap of the hit, the length of the tail - just right; Joey's drums are wide and ungated, seeming to prove the point that minutiae don't tend to make a tune. It's instead the ineffable quality of "nailing the vibe", the nuts and bolts of which we can't claim to know, that convince us of Pal Joey's expertise. 'We Show Off' is the gem on this self-released album, with its dreamy, vocoded and slowed acapella, crude car-horn synths and glossed-out backing washes.

Review: Pahua is a Mexican singer, percussionist, DJ and producer who was once part of the Sotomayor band but went solo in 2020. Her sound is steeped in Latin influences and resulted in a debut album in 2023 and she recently landed on Razor-N-Tape with some tracks that now get remixed on this new 7". First up is 'Espantapajaros' (feat La Perla - Poirer remix) which is a mix of deep drums and synths with some florid flutes up top to bring the colour and charm. On the flip side is 'Flor De Jazmin' (feat Paz Court - John Beltran remix) which layers in some lovely sunny melodies to the shuffling samba rhythms and expressive vocals.

Review: Groove Culture taps into an effortlessly timeless house sound with this new remix 12". It sees the in house production team step up on the B-side to remix Micky More & Andy Tee, Don Carlos, Taka Boom's 'The Music Of Your Mind' and the result is a super smooth, soulful roller with passionate vocals and disco sprinkled percussion. Ahead of that, Centric House's 'Alright Alright" (Micky More & Andy Tee remix) is a piano-laced and joyous house bumper with elastic bass and hands in the air energy.

Review: Sukuma by Sandy B & LJ Simon is a delightful blend of electronic funk and house music, released with an accompanying remix by Eddie C. On Side-1, the original track exudes a downtempo funk vibe infused with elements of house music, creating an irresistible groove reminiscent of 80s funk. Lead vocals by Sandy B add a dynamic and soulful dimension to the track, enhancing its overall energy and appeal. On Side-2, Eddie C's remix of 'Sukuma' injects fresh energy into the mix with additional dance elements that elevate the funk party to new heights. The remix lively rhythms and a captivating main synth line that transports listeners to a vibrant dancefloor atmosphere. With its infectious beats and charm, 'Sukuma' and its remix offer a unique chance to wow the dancefloor with something different and fun.

Review: Vitess is at the heart of the Paris underground and is a thrilling live artists who brings a great sense of urgency to this new album on Rossi's burgeoning HOMEGROWN label. His brand of house is slick and sleek, futuristic in feel but also full of earworm melodies and fresh hooks. 'Blue Vision' is full of vamping chords and twitchy stabs that soon get the attention then 'Drive Me Crazy' brings some 80s-style chords and wriggling lead lines that are funky and playful and 'First Night' keeps the good vibes flowing with more surging, pixelated and sugary synth work. 'Jami Rocaille' and 'Big Sound' close out with more hooky pads and clean house drums.

Review: House of eFunk is back with another home to the legends of Detroit with Efunk Detroit Volume III. It is the one and only DJ Minx who kicks off with the stripped-back and low-slung dusty house depths and drive of 'Sweet'. Marcellus Pittman then offers another of his brilliantly raw, spare cuts in '888 In The Groove' with its swirling pads and raw hi-hats, then Mike (Agent X) Clark asks 'Where You Get Your Funk From?' by layering up smudgy pad swirls and prickly analogue beats under chopped up vocals. Sillygirlcarmen's 'Good Times' shuts down with a more steamy and sensuous sound topped with emotive vocals.

Review: Now well into three figures, Lee Burridge's mighty All Day I Dream has firmly established is own house music sub-genre. It's a place where sunny grooves, dreamy pads and deep beats all coalesce into music that is soul enriching and perfect escapist. Nathan Katz has mastered all that on this new Parallax EP which begins with the wispy pads and plaintive keys of the title track. 'Dreamland' is a supple and sublime roller, then he links with Molac for 'Flamingo', a track with jittery arps that ride up and down the scale to beautiful effect. Finally, 'Moonlight' shuts things down with an alluring an sensuous vocal over meditative beats.

Review: Sugar Honey Iced Tea! is the highly anticipated debut album from Musclecars, comprised of Brandon Weems and Craig Handfield, delving deep into the Afro-American experience. With 13 tracks that span themes of joy, loss, intimacy, perseverance and more, Musclecars craft a profound narrative that captures the nuances of daily life in native New York. From the exploration of Afro-dystopia to moments of self-discovery and self-preservation, the album offers a rich blend of sound that resonates with authenticity, emotion, and rhythm. It's a musical adventure to throw yourself in and get lost in the essence of the urban experience, crafted with intentionality, depth and a touch of magic.

Review: REPRESS ALERT!: B2 Recordings keeps it deep once more with a new 12" of cuddly and cosy house grooves from Those Guys From Athens. 'Be What You Wanna Be' is a perfectly humid and balmy opener for a summer's evening dance under a fading sun, then 'That's What I've Got To Do' picks up the pace with some floored melodies and disco swing. There is a familiar lazy funk bassline to 'Wish You Were Here With Me' as well as a well-treated classic vocal sample from Bill Withers to make this one a real heart melter. 'Feelin' is a more hefty and heavy house sound that will enliven any warm-up.

Review: Greenhouse Recordings label head and long-time master of deep house Andrew Macari steps up to his own imprint with a bunch of fine originals. The opener is a deep tech cut with steely drums that are tight and compelling and offset by smooth chords. Manuel Sahagun then steps up to remix and brings a touch of jazz to his chords which swirl around over heavyweight bass rumbles. 'U Got Me' is then a house sound that harks back to the DIY heyday of Nottingham with its bumping drums and lush chord work and 'When I Want' closes out with more fresh synths and an alluring female vocal.

Review: Toothpick aka Swirl People step out with their newly entitled label Lost In The Swirls, which they have distilled to the more simple name L.I.T.S. Records. The Belgium-based project is an alias of Dimitri & Raoul and they bring fresh house sounds here even though this is a reissue of some classic 90s material. The title track has lush and bright summer pads over driving, tight kick drums. The opener 'May The Funk Be With You' has a classic UK flavour to it with woodpecker-like hits and dusty drum loops under some smart chord work. Last but not least is 'Naked Speedway' which has a warm bassline meandering below expansive chords that bring an early morning vibe. Good stuff.

Review: 2000 And One is one of many artistic alter-egos of Dylan Hermelyn, the Netherlands producer whose credits stretch as far back as 1990. A staple of the Amsterdam techno scene and a prominent fixture of Dutch House generators 100% Pure and later Delsin, Hermelyn's contributions at the very least verge on timeless and closing track 'Wan Poku Moro' from 2009's full-length album, Heritage, is among the top contenders for this crown. The track is a bongo-laden bustler full of the lively implied sounds of city life and clocks in at eight minutes in its attempt to reach the awesome heights of the house music sublime; here, however, comes Radio Slave and Riva Starr on this Rekids reinterpretation, both of whom pare the track back to its bassiest and pulsiest constituent parts, albeit to their own ends.

Review: Mark Knight's mighty Toolroom has ascended from being an underground label into a globally recognised brand with a world-wide following. Its sampler series is always a good indication of where it is at during any given season and now the tenth installment brings more party ready fun. Piero Pirupa kicks off with some big disco-fried loops and cooing vocals, Tini Gessler gets more gritty with a bumping tech house cut in the form of 'Do What You Want', CASSIMM and Bruno Blanc combine for the florid strong loops and edgy house beats of 'House Affair' and Tony Romera's 'House Y'a' is a sleazy throwback with real attitude.

Review: Reviewing Roy Davis Jr.'s impressive and deep catalogue, picking and choosing a few to represent him on a 'Classics Remastered' EP must be an impossible choice. With over 35 years of brilliant, genre defining music, we can't imagine how difficult this task must have been. Who hasn't heard 'RU Ready' on the dancefloor before?! Also included is the long version of 'Save Your Life' which has been a late-night jam choice for countless DJs. We're really excited to see the 1996-edit of 'Heart Attack' made the final track list also - this tech house masterpiece has killed dancefloors the world over. Hopefully there'll be more classics of Roy Davis Jr coming after this one - for now, pick these remastered gems up now.

Review: Odopt is back on Especial and this time is in collaborative mode with Sebastian Hoyos aka Sano, who is a regular on the likes of Matias Aguayo's Comeme and Munich's Public Possession. The pair cook up a fine globally-minded club trip that comes with another label return, this time from remixer Jamie Paton. The original 'Picha' first started as a sketch in 2016 then became a demo in 2019 now finally arrives on wax. It's a raw percussive workout with razor-sharp snares and plenty of cowbells. Next to an instrumental comes the Paton remix and it is a trademark deep and dubwise piece of work with widescreen dynamics.

Review: Some serious house action going on here with the legendary deep house pioneer Kerri Chandler linking up with Dennis Quin and Troy Denari for their own unique take on the 1998 house classic 'You're In My System'. The original has been a key part of many of the best DJs' record bags for decades and now it gets a contemporary twist. Chandler brings his signature soulful keys and pounding kick drums - all using the same hardware that was used on the original, we're told, while singer-songwriter Troy Denari adds his new vocals to the track. On the flip is a paired back and warm, deep, driving DQ dub, all pressed up on nice blue vinyl.

Review: The legendary Nu Groove carries a heavy signifier with its legacy in New York house's breakthrough years, and the contemporary artists signing up to its current incarnation get the memo in full. Tuccillo is a dab hand at all kinds of house, but he particularly shines crafting this gritty, inventive gear that pushes the low end forwards in the mix and uses a broad palette for rhythms and vibes. It's got the open-hearted swagger which made the O.G. Nu Groove releases so iconic, not least when Ron Carroll pops up with a pitch perfect early 90s vocal turn on 'Don't Walk Away'.

Review: While he generally doesn't get the plaudits lavished on some of his Motor City contemporaries, Gari Romalis has long been one of Detroit's most reliable deep house producers (remarkably, he released his first EP 29 years ago). His latest four-tracker, for the reliable Phonogramme Records, is packed to the rafters with spacey, immersive, ultra-deep body music of the sort that moves the heart and head as much as the feet. For proof, check the dub-flecked deep house/tech-house fusion of 'Detroit V.I.P' - all subterranean bass, ghostly chords, rolling house beats and delay-flecked spoken word vocals - and the similarly minded but more percussively energetic 'Scatter Dance'. Elsewhere, 'Stay Ready' is thickset, trippy and hypnotic, while 'City Under Siege' is marginally brighter and breezier whilst remaining formidably deep.

Review: New imprint Aliens on Wax will be a label to watch this year, with the Chicago-based stable promising releases from the likes of Kevin Saunderson, Roland Clark and Bad Boy Bill. Fittingly, it's a long-serving hometown hero - the one and only DJ Sneak - who inaugurates the imprint via a typically club-focused four-tracker. He begins with 'Gettin' Ghetto', a rolling and hypnotic house loop jam in his familiar style, before opting for stomping drums, raw electronic motifs, sweat-soaked percussion fills and effects aplenty on the breathless and trippy 'I Beat That Ghetto'. Over on the reverse we're treated to two takes on 'Spirit Taker': a deliciously tracky, psychedelic and warehouse-ready 'Dub' (track 3) and the marginally more action-packed original version (track 4).

Review: If a new talent from Detroit pops up on the radar, there's an instant magnetism due to the clout the city carries in terms of machine music. JR Disc doesn't disappoint one bit, capturing the raw energy of the city's house and techno legacy in a sincere and original way. The sort of grit you hear caked on the drums on 'Special (Instramental)' can't be faked, likewise the hard-edged soul pinging out of the metallic chords that course through 'Thrust'. This is serious gear for those who like their Motor City workouts over any other kind of house or techno, keeping the vibe tough and funky at all times.

Review: For lovers of early tech house, Fresh & Low are like catnip. The Scottish duo dropped a superb series of EPs back in the mid-90s that were all effortlessly cool and tapped into a breezy West Coast US house sound. They still sound as good today as ever so it is no wonder that Rawax has moved to reissue 1997's Open Space EP, originally on Crucial Sounds. It features four of their expertly design grooves, topped with lush synths and hooky little vocals that are both physically irresistible but packed with soul. Do not sleep on this one.

Review: The Bobby Donny series has been reliably pushing an ear-snagging strain of tech house since 2015, occasionally swerving into unexpected grime territory and always packing a little misfit spice in the production. The assembled throng on this new VA release is headed up by label mainstay Frits Wentink working alongside Malin Genie delivering two punchy workouts laden with steamy, late-night sass. Tom Paris brings some bumping, bashy garage house pressure to 'L'Enfer Du Paradis' while Didier Chesto revels in Lately bass and swirling pads for the 90s fever dream of 'Ow Yeah'. Boy Berger goes in hard on the bongo loops for a tracky workout par excellence, and Joy Jenkins rounds the record off with one of the most distinctive tracks on the release - a dusty beatdown that sounds like Mood II Swing on heavy downers.

Review: The unrelenting amount of music that comes out of the Chiwax camp is astonishing, especially as it is all high-grade stuff that does a fine job in the club. St David brings the heat this time right from the off. 'The Groove Goes On' pairs a classic thumping deep house vibe with some fresh synth sounds and sustained chords that bring the soul. 'Summer Nights Fall layers up some colourful xylophone-style melodies over more sweet cruising beats and 'Tech No Pease' taps into a signature Detroit sound with warm machine sounds and dusty drums working in perfect harmony. 'A Touch Of Jazz' is a noodling closer with exquisite piano keys delicately played next to filtered synths.