Juno Recommends Deep House November 2018

Review: Hot on the heels of "Mission" earlier this year, Shuya Okino's Kyoto Jazz Sextet troupe present another gem from last year's Unity album complete with a remix of the highest calibre. This time the cascading, Latin rhythm and frenetic horn leads of "Rising" are given the midas dancefloor touch by none other than Ron Trent. Maintaining the wily spirit of the original while coating in warm organ blasts and subtly bumping kicks, it's a precision translation that brings the original into a whole new context.

Review: 
Politics Of Dancing continue to expand their horizons with another round of collaborative wares on their P.O.D Cross sublabel. Once again they've invited big hitters who slip perfectly into the minimal house mindset the Parisian label has been locked in since 2013, leading with Cab Drivers on the A side. The deep-diving German mainstays gel with the POD crew in a tightly clipped but utterly funked up roller, sitting in contrast to the more open, tripped out synth flourishes Sebo K brings to the table on side B. With each track distinctive but also compatible, there's every chance you'll be compelled to play both out at the late night / early morning shuffled-up jamboree.

Review: Hungarian deep house maestro Gnork has released on some top quality record labels since making his debut in 2013, including Bokhari, Unknown To The Unknown, Crow Castle Cuts and Magicwire. Here he adds another hyped imprint to his impressive discography via a rock solid four-track outing on Church. He begins with the bouncy and saucer-eyed "Golden Hour", where rushing chords and futurist electronics ride a rolling breakbeat house rhythm, before expertly joining the dots between TB-303-driven acid house and electro on "3pm (& Already Happy)". You'll find a dreamier, punchier and more bass-heavy take on electro opening side B ("Space Jam") in collab with Douala, while the EP's closing cut, "Easy MFX", is a lusciously evocative and spine-tingling slab of drifting deep house brilliance.

Review: Hailing from the Rhythm Plate multiverse, Pressed For Time is one of the many outposts carrying the work of Matlock's finest house music protagonists. Reaching beyond the regular roster of Goshawk, YSE and the full-blown 'Plate, this latest transmission calls on deep cover UK house crew BRS, also known as British Rhythm Services, who step up with some crucial workouts for sophisticated dancefloors. The quartet of Ben Vecara, Rob Evans, Steve Wilson & Dom Thompson have a sizable legacy behind them, not least from the early 00s when they were regularly rolling out releases for the likes of 20:20 Vision, Cyclo and Friends & Families. After a quiet patch their return is marked out by a broad spectrum of deep house delights locked onto the kind of shuffled grooves that Rhythm Plate heads should be more than happy with, and plenty of loose, live-sounding keys to boot.

Review: Given the runaway success of his heavyweight, retro-futurist Special Request project, Paul Woolford house releases are becoming increasingly rare. House Hits Volume 1, his first outing on Hot Creations, marks his first foray into the world of peak-time house for almost 12 months. There's a rubbery, retro-futurist feel to A-side "Story of My Life", where reverb-heavy vocal samples and shimmering synth lines ride a chunky 1980s Chicago house bassline and suitably sweaty, jacking machine drums. Woolford once again indulges his love of heavy, rumbling basslines on "Don't Waste My Time", a bustling peak-time roller that's far more stripped-back and spacey than its predecessor.

Review: Before heading out on tour together earlier in the year, Eris Drew and Octo Octa dreamt up the idea of a joint release. Happily, Naive was only too happy to oblige. Drew handles the A-side, serving up two versions of bustling, Clavinet-sporting, breakbeat-driven joy "Hold Me" (the effervescent "T4T Embrace Mix" and a jaunty DJ tool style "Synth-a-pella") and the organ-laced deep breakbeat shuffle of "Trans Love Vibration". Over on Side B, HNYTRX and 100% Silk alumnus Octo Octa takes over, joining the dots between rave-era UK house and saucer-eyed early '90s U.S garage dubs on "Beam Me Up (To The Goddess Mix)", before re-imagining the track as a twinkling fusion of dream house bliss and bustling breakbeats on the arguably superior "Please Take Me Away Mix".

Review: Inaugurating Crystalgrooves is Berlin fixture Cinthie: a long standing figure in the underground electronic music scene of her hometown, resident at the infamous Watergate club, plus being the founder of top labels such as Beste Modus, we_r_house and Unison Wax with Diego Krause. She gets the new project off to an explosive start with these three raw house cuts. The A side features the bouncy and uplifting classic house vibe of "Together" which has an overly familiar hook to it and sure to work on the dancefloor any time. On the flip, she gets into some funked-up and discofied loops in the vein of DJ Sneak on the track "Ada Lovelace" while the moody heads-down feel of "No Need To Worry" is a perfect backroom dub if we've ever heard one.

Review: Nebraska's Friends & Relations series is yielding some of the strongest material the steadfast producer has served up in recent years, drawing as it does on a deep well of personal inspiration from his formative musical loves. This time around, you'll have to decipher the track titles "A.T.T.A.T.C.Q 01-05" to work out which seminal hip hop crew are under the spotlight, but the results are magical. Refiguring jazzed up breaks and licks into low slung house structures, Nebraska is clearly having a whale of a time. The vibes are heavy, heady, smoked out and utterly infectious from the start to the finish.

Review: The latest missive from the SlothBoogie crew's SBEDITZ series comes from Joe Cleen, a shadowy producer who has previously impressed via releases on the Bordeaux-based Jazz Cabbage imprint. He's up to his old tricks this time round, too, wrapping sharp, ear-pleasing horns and jaunty jazz-funk samples around a bobbing deep house groove on "Give You All I Got", before brilliantly chopping and looping a slap-bass propelled boogie jam on "City Nights". Over on side B, "Dear Lord" is a deliciously deep, piano-and-reverb-heavy take on an old gospel house number, while the brilliantly bouncy "The Fun Part" sees the man of mystery smother a jazzy, hot-stepping house groove with wonderfully fluid electric piano solos.

Review: Hamburg's Front club was a fixture of Germany's underground club scene throughout the '80s and early '90s, with resident DJs Klaus Stockhausen and later Boris Dlugosch championing house music (amongst other things) long before it was fashionable to do so. It certainly made an impression on Gerd Janson, who asked Stockhausen and Dlugosch to put together a celebratory retrospective of Front favourites. This second part (of two) contains some real gems, from Dlugosch's edit of Toyin Agbetu's Dream 2 Science influenced deep shuffler "After The Storm" and the Bobby 'O' style '84 sleaze of Mark Imperial's "J'Adore Danser", to the mid-'80s NYC house flavours of CT Satin's "I Found A Friend (Underworld version)" and the Italian dream house colours of inspired early Fila Brazillia single "Mermaids".

Review: Once in a while Tevo Howard has devoted some space on his Beautiful Granville label to the dulcet tones of his father, Rick 'Poppa' Howard. As a fitting tribute to Rick's sad passing, Tevo has dug out "Can Your Love Find A Way" and made a reissue that will stand the test of time as a gem of authentic, soul-stirring deep house crafted with passion and feeling. The plaintive keys on the title track are the perfect bed for Rick's croon, while the shaken-up urgency of "Who's Gonna Make Your Name" will suit livelier club situations. It's a moving record with added weight given the situation - true feelings feeding into true soul music that lives on forever.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: The debut release from US label Perpetual Rhythms comes in the shape of an EP of collaborations and single drops entitled Secret Elements. Firecracker boss Linkwood provides some extra Chi-Town edge to the sombre melodies and science fiction synths of Specter & Chicagodeep's "Sonic Pulse" on his opening edit, whilst Chicagodeep's "Restless Nights" generates a mix of spacey, laid back vibes. The bleepy pulses of Taelue's "Social Anxiety" sounds close to what an Aphex Twin and Jerome Sydenham & Kerri Chandler house collaboration would result in, while the single rimshots and wallowing pads of "Rough Access Point" give the track a distinctly lonesome ambience.

Review: The Tartelet label has been riding high on the Danish house front since the end of the noughties, showcasing talents such as the excellent Brandt Brauer Frick, Andrea Fiorito, Wareika and now Nu Guinea. The artist has previously appeared on Italy's Early Sounds Collective and impressed us straight away thanks to a tribal-filtered house sound that is lacking from the current state of affairs. World features five loose and organic jams, one of which - "Bougainvilles" - is a gorgeous slice of live pseudo house improvisation. Both the vocal and flute mixes of "Nu World" are fine house tools with an exotic edge, and the same goes for "Exotica Dance Club", while the "Outro" is three minutes of sparse, delayed drones and electronic abstraction. Lovely.

Review: The Remnants EP was the second record produced by Morgan Geist for his own Environ label. Originally released in 1996, it is a highly valued release on the second hand market but has now been reissued and beautifully remastered. Here, the New Jersey native was inspired by England's take on the sound of Detroit. From the bleepy electro influence of "Current", to the soulful tones of "In Your Electronic Arms" (reminiscent of his debut album The Driving Memoirs) and the absolutely emotive Mondrian remix on the flip - don't sleep on the chance to snap up this beauty right here.

Review: New York-based DJ Nature has decided to launch a new label to handle his productions. FWD EVR is the imprint, and the "Conflicted Interests EP" its debut release. The former Wild Bunch crew DJ starts in confident fashion with "Oyasumi", a rolling, percussion-rich fusion of bustling jazz-house and organ-laced U.S garage flavours, before reaching into his sample banks for inspiration on the dusty, string-drenched deep house shuffler "Bobbi". It's breathtakingly beautiful, with enough percussive grunt to keep energy levels high out on the dancefloor. Over on side B, we're treated to two versions of "Violet & Me": the semi-stomping, undeniably beautiful original mix and a deeper "Native Healing Reprise" that strips the track back to bass, beats and undulating orchestration.

Review: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Salary Boy, the Mall Grab protege who, like money, never sleeps. Here, the financially astute superhero finally gets his chance on his mentor's Steel City Dance Discs label following promising outings on Astropical and Shadow City. Opener "Back", a gloriously cheery, hot-stepping house cut built around chunky bass and carefully chosen disco and hip-hop samples, sounds like a theme tune to his financial misadventures, while fellow A-side cut "Echo" wraps sunny synth riffs and sunset electronics around a two-step influenced deep house groove. All superhero movies build to a breathtakingly positive conclusion, and our hero does, too, with B-side "The Illusion" peppering a bouncy, U.S garage style rhythm track with similarly funk bass, cut-up vocal samples and some seriously poignant piano lines.

Review: Following fine 2017 outings on G.A.M.M, Dirt Crew and Better Listen, Thatmanmonkz (AKA Shadeleaf Music co-founder Scott Moncrieff) returns to Classic for the first time in three years. "Ooh Wee" features an impassioned, stylish vocal from Nikki-O rising above a dusty, soul-fired deep house groove rich in loose, MPC style beats and low-slung electric bass. The tight and on-point remix package is headed up by SoulPhiction, who gets just the right balance between the fuzzy, classic-sounding instrumentation of Moncrieff's original version and his own locked-in, tech-tinged beats and electronics. Detroit Norm Talley excels on the flip, dishing up a jaunty, piano-tinged Motor City deep house version that niftily balances percussive energy and lo-fi tunefulness.

Review: Atjazz chief Martin Iveson teams up with South African producer and label staple Jullian Gomes for a collection of sublime hi-tech soul expressions on the second part of the Big Bad Crazy album. It follows on five years after their exceptional debut collaboration The Gift The Curse and 'points out the broken state of our world, and .. the ongoing struggle to make it through the pain.' Indeed, they're all emotive offerings here: from the life-affirming daydream fantasy of "Decoded", the perfect chord progressions on "Don Esquire" (sure to get everybody's hands in the air) right through to the mysterious dancefloor drama of "Love Me". Here's to hoping it's not another five years before the pair choose to collaborate once more.

Review: Quintessential Chicago deep house; Brett Wilcots' last release as Gallifre landed in 1990 and came with a sublime Mr Fingers edit. Reissued for the first time ever, the whole EP surges with soul and feeling as we're treated to versions for every occasion. Fingers gets his jazz on with a hypnotic, slightly dubby take (and an arousing sax solo), Gallifre provides a powerful percussion heavy dancefloor twist and a peppy original that really brings Jimmie Lee's vocals to life while the Winelight mix adds a soft sunset filter for a sensual finale. Timeless.

Review: Omar-S introduces Detroit's newest diva on the scene, Simon Black with an X-Rated 12" for the real freaky types. In line with some of the definitive vogue house tracks of the past, "I'll Do It Again" will become future ballroom staple. On the flipside, "Freaky Type" Black slows it down and steams it up with some nasty vox over a beat produced by FIT Siegel. High kicks and hand snaps all around!

Review: After first appearing on the label back in 2016, Florence-based Italo house stalwarts Minimono return to Vibraphone with another selection of illustrious dancefloor gems for subtler moments in the dance. "Oldest Friend" is an airy, dreamlike track laden with upper register chords, tones and FX pinging around in a reverie of deep house delight, while "Questions" gets locked into a loose, swinging groove with some mysterious pads swirling around the middle distance for added atmosphere. "Some Day" is a more rugged affair that bumps and wriggles in all the right places, while "Eleven Days" explores broken beat territory without losing the hazy atmosphere that permeates the EP.

Review: It's been six years since Martin "Atjazz" Iveson started mentoring South African producer Jullian Gomes, and five since they last released any collaborative material. Perhaps they shouldn't have left it so long, because the material showcased here is exceptionally good. The standout for us is undoubtedly breezy soulful deep house jam "It's My Time", though EP opener "Daggers Drawn", a suitably symphonic and musically complex cut that pairs atmospheric orchestration and electronics with a snappy, tech-house beat, is almost as inspired. Elsewhere, "Blow By Blow" is a spacey and woozy number rich in broken house beats, and "The Pursuit" is a swinging, triple time workout that draws heavily on Gomes' South African heritage.

Review: Washington DC based disco enthusiasts Better Listen return with another brilliant collection of edits by Copenhagen based Dorsi Plantar - who presented last year's terrific Everlast EP for the label. He is also part of the five man Lovestomp posse: along with Paxton Fettel, Ryan Dank, Kris Percy and Shymon. Some very nice grooves on offer here, beginning with the lo-slung afro boogie of "Tack Farsan", classic house on a balearic tip on the neon-lit "Make Sure You Mean That Shit" and the soulful "Besitos" - a functional resplice that's perfect for burning up the dancefloor late at night with it's hypnotic conga action and dreamy xylophone vibes.

Review: Detroit house legend Alton Miller first dropped "More Positive Things" back in 2016, led by the soaring vocal from Nikki O and backed up with a remix from DJ Spinna. Adeen love the already sought-after record so much they've dived right back into it with an expanded set of remixes and versions. As well as Miller's original deep house gem and Spinna's heavy funking "Positive Spin" take, there's now the added slow-rolling delights of Fishdoll's "Out-and-Out" remix. On the flip, all three versions appear in their instrumental form for those who wish to swerve the vocal for any reason.

Review: Saine presents three diverse house essences following his previous releases on the likes of Odd Socks, Voyage and Must Have. "Act Natural" kicks things off with a rolling crunch before taking a sudden left turn into something so naturally uplifting you can't help but think of DJ Gregory in his prime. "Jus Right" eases back a little and digs deep into the wavey sliding synths before "Low Key" rounds off with a more hypnotic perspective. With Pontchartrain on remix duties, we're really being spoilt here. Straight up grandeur.