Juno Recommends Deep House: June 2024

Review: Adhering strictly to a distinctly Chicagoan tradition in DJ sets - using razor and tape to prolong the most crucial parts and phrases of the track, to unseat and suspend ravers - house music legend Theo Parrish has always sprinkled his sets with his own, unique takes on classic and obscure disco, funk and soul. Some of these edits were available to fans in mid-noughts via Parrish's Ugly Edits series, which set the tone for the "edits series" format at large; but whereas most of these outfits have only adopted this approach by a sort of prescribed mimesis - their efforts adding up to precious little more than one, somewhat formless pale imitation - the OG Parrish here returns to the format with a punny new round-two (not Ugly Edits, but Lovely Edits) blowing said inane, bordering-on-AI-generated competitors out of the park with two new, fully-sample-cleared versions of two corresponding, utterly heated staples: BT Express' 'Peace Pipe' and George Duke's 'I Want You For Myself'.

Review: The Politics Of Dancing label celebrates its tenth anniversary with a special sampler EP featuring four on-point house cuts. Olivier Romero gets dark and deep with his menacing 'Shout The Killer,' Josh Baker's 'Can Anybody Help' then gets more upbeat and party-ready with its silky pads and upright kicks, while Cosenza explores a raw and percussive tech house vibe with busy lead that zips about the mix. It's pure Detroit house cruising with the closer from Camilo Gil & ONE Plus. Happy birthday to this fine label and here's to many effective more EPs like this one.

Review: JKriv's classic Bukom Mashie Rework gets a deluxe revival in a delectable 7-inch package having long been hard to find if not out of print entirely. And now what's more it also features a fresh acid dub. The original eight minute opus has been expertly trimmed for a streamlined A-side stomper, while the B-side showcases a brand-new version with a reimagined arrangement. This edition is embellished with vibrant 303 acid lines and live flute by the talented Domenica from Underground System all of which ensure that it is sure to become a big summer anthem once more in 2024.

Review: Mr G is indeed a real-life G. The long-time underground servant is famous for crafting impossibly hypnotic house tracks that are deep, smoky and dusty. He mostly does so on his own label but also takes trips to some of the finest other imprints out there, and NDATL sure is one of those. He once again voyages into the depths here with opener 'One4Cath' setting a heady tone from the off as the razor-sharp hi-hats cut up the muted, mirky low ends. 'Twist' brings some euphoric vocal stabs that inject raw soul to the menacing grooves and 'We All Feel Something' brings some signature toms and congas to the mix as sultry vodkas this time bringing the human element. 'Dub In The System' is a final heads down, back room marcher for those who like it stripped back and raw.

Review: Deep house originator Abacus is back in the game having revived his Re:Think label "with a new vision & energy." The first EP, Analogue Stories Vol 1, is a bold one that opens with a monologue from a classic New York movie about street gang warriors. It sets a moody tone which then leads into warm deep house grooves. 'Spaceflight' rides on loose, jumbled drums, toms and basslines that are topped with sustained cosmic chords and 'In4mation' then brings heady and wispy melodies that encourage you to dream as the soul-drenched grooves roll on. 'Blaktronics' shuts down with a more prickly percussive edge. It's a welcome return for this master of the form.

Review: After a superb debut release, Forgotten Coordinates is back with a follow-up from the eponymous artists behind the label and once again this is a tasteful excursion into the realms of minimalism and tech. 'Be Good To Me' pairs a snappy tech house drum and clap combo with some spaced out and intergalactic pads and a stone code classic vocal that will cause dance floor carnage. Things get punchy for 'Let's Get This' with its warped low ends and amped-up beats all seven to get you on your toes and vibing. Two classy and effective tunes for sure.

Review: The Plastik People label is a great repository for deep house that is timeless but never tired. Katermurr is next up to prove that point with an EP that transcends the ages. It opens with a lovely throwback Chicago vocal over fresh modern drums. After 'Wanna Be With You' gets you going, 'Let's Dance' brings the party vibes with some busy lead melodies that will get hands in the air old school style. 'Donny' then keeps it deep with some languid grooves and a nice smoky soulful vocal drifting above. Last of all is the more bumping and dusty drums of 'Show Some Love' to close out a classic EP.

Review: One of house music's most underrated artists is back with another one of his gloriously soulful and deep musical excursions. Alton Miller does vocal grooves like few others and despite having done so much of it already, his new EP Reflections Within is one of his best. Opener 'Vibe Check' brings to the fore the vocals of Jiinga Flame whose rich tones later in the soul next to freeform synth lines and over classic, dusty, cuddly house drums. 'Light Of The World' soon soothes with its balmy pads and gentle chord vamps and 'No Fomo' rides on slightly heavier drums but is still alive with jazzy motifs and the heart-aching tones of Jiinga Flame. 'Around The Corner' then bumps along in subtle fashion with smart synth dabs, smeared pads and an elegance that few can match.

Review: Irish producer Balmr lands on Selections after nice outings on the likes of Sofa Movement Records, Kolour Detroit and Expanded Records which have all established him as a fresh deep house artist. His love for the Motor City shines through again here with the warm, dubby drums and swirling pads of 'In Search Of' bring to mind the Midwest's best. Jon Dixon remixes with a little extra bite in the percussion and 'Forager' then layers up more dusty drums and wooden hits with diffuse synth curlicues. It's a sound that works on both head and heel and lastly, Glenn Davis remixes with a touch of jazzy cosmic class to his synth work.

Review: Peggy Gou's rise from fashion school student to underground DJ to world-renowned dance music star has been swift and remarkable. In that time she's played every major club and festival in the world, had some huge crossover hits and started her own label while also releasing on the likes of Ninja Tune. Now she steps up to XL with a highly anticipated debut album featuring epic previous singles such as 2023's chart-topping global hit '(It Goes Like) Nanana' and 'I Believe in Love Again', her wild Lenny Kravitz collaboration, as well as plenty of new tunes that span house, disco and more.

Peggy Gou "I hear you" slipmat also available

Review: Tuccillo is an Ibiza-based groove maestro who turns out functional house that is never lacking in charm. And that's exactly what he does here on the great Koas label headed up by Kerri Chandler. 'Sundown' is pure vibes with its warm waves of rising chord loveliness and subtle sense of Balearic magic. 'Holding On' has a more choppy, garage-inspired groove with some nice muted horn leads and splashy finger clicks. It's a luxuriant sound that leads into the equally blissed out and smooth 'Whatever' before 'Velvet City' closes down with a super sweet bassline and more heartfelt house vibes.

Review: He's as consistent as he is prolific so it's no surprise that Omar-S is back yet again with yet another EP well worth copping. This latest 12" direct from the Motor City features two different versions of the same tune and what a tune it is: first up is 'Can't Get' (vocal mix) which is signature stuff from Smith - dusty beats from an old analogue machine, slowly evolving synth leads that convey plenty of emotion and raw hi-hats. The mood is late night and sultry with a hint of menace and a gorgeous vocal hook is the icing on the cake. Flip it over and you'll get the Sub Mix with more stark synths and melodic edginess.

Review: Michael Grey is a London-based house talent who finally unveils his long awaited album, Optimism. This double-gatefold beauty on Optimism is a timeless listen that takes in myriad house styles. There are sample heavy mid-tempo rollers like 'Fly Away' as well as blissed out vocal cuts for loved up floors like 'You Got To Remember', sophisticated disco-tinged cuts like 'Where Do We Go From Here' and feel good summer anthems such as 'Don't Want Anybody'. What unifies them all is the high class produciton and lavish quality of the most uplifting music.

Review: Ruvenzori makes the move to vinyl with four artists breaking new ground in the field of organic, spiritual house music. There's a Balearic tint to these harmonious jams, which melt into each other like one extended blend for the terraza of your dreams. 'Uluwatu' features Stan Tone and Izhevski collaborating on a swirling masterpiece with the steady tick of minimal tech house as an undercurrent for ascendant chimes, fluttering guitar licks and vocal murmurations. On 'Ayomi' Talemates joins the pair as they match emotive piano chords with sampled vocal loops, capturing an endearing, eyes-closed vibe in the process.

Review: Nuances De Nuit offers up some nuance de groove here with four supremely tasteful house cuts from some of the freshest names in the game. Liquid Earth opens up with some on-point beats on 'Poly Enamel' that come topped with retro stabs and sleek pads. Man/Ipulate' 'Cosmic Tea' taps into old school Italo and dream house vibes with the feathery drums and snares and nice soft focus chords. Robin Graham's '2 Da Rhythm' brings a little more of a prickly edge and some textured, spaced out pads over kinetic tech beats. Basement Space's 'Tuskien Raider' shuts down with a little playful melodic charm.

Review: Sacred Rhythm is up there with some of the scene's most tasteful and spiritual deep house labels and if anyone doubts that then all they need to do is dial into this new one from Jephte Guillaume featuring Duke Guillaume. 'Sove Yo (Save Them)' (Vokal mix) opens up and is an immersive blend of jazzy sax notes and soulful pads, percussive, organic house and deep basslines. The Duke & Jephte Cosmic mix sets off to the stars with a more widescreen feel and the Duke & Jephte Electronic version picks things up with more shimmering pads and lively perc. The most bare-bones version is the Duke & Jephte Rhythms mix to close down with.

Review: Stefan Braatz's latest EP, Outlaw, on Nu Groove, showcases his timeless sound and genre-defying approach. With a career spanning three decades, Braatz is celebrated for his diverse expertise, blending old-school reverence with contemporary techniques. The title track, featuring vocals from Chicago house pioneer Harry Dennis, kicks off the EP with Braatz's signature synth energy complemented by Dennis's effortless flow. The following solo tracks further exemplify Braatz's defiance of genre constraints: 'Conversation' engages in a euphoric dialogue between synth strings and piano loops, while 'Dingy Thoughts' and 'One More Dream' delve into darker club territories with intense, pulsating rhythms.

Review: Radio Slave is on a roll right now because as well as this new remix 12" he has a full-length landing this summer. It marks 20 years since he started this project and is one of his most eclectic albums to date. One of the tracks from it is 'Amnesia' written with CagedBaby and it now gets served up as two different versions by Lindstrom. The vocal mix is pure blissed-out Ibiza music with lush sunset chords and sweeping electronic beats topped with swirling vocals. The instrumental is a little more bright and melodic but no less Balearic.

Review: Fresh UK street soul purveyors Edit UK unearth a now criminally undersung classic from New York r&b duo Groove Theory, 'Tell Me', this time flipped and rerubbed by bass aficionado DJ Double A. With its bass amped and gridlines marked, this version from A is a minimal but subtle edit, thoroughly primed for club play. We're comparatively caught off guard by stellar his work on the B, once more bolstering the effectiveness of the neo-soul via drum & bass formula.

Review: Smooth & Simmonds was Chris Simmonds and Ron Wells, a pair pf producers who were active from the early to mid-90s and made just a handful of EPs that have all stood the test of time. Three of the best of them have been newly remeasured by a long-time fan at the Pariter label and are now getting served up on fresh wax. This 12" features 90s EP, The Four Seasons, with two mixes of the title cut. The first is a steamy Warehouse Mix with dusty drums, subtle rave whistles and seductive vocals stitched in, while the second is a Factory Mix that rides a little more smoothly on uplifting chord work and brighter synth energy.

Review: Pariter has lined up a trio of classic house reissues for your enjoyment this Spring. They come from Smooth & Simmonds who are famous for managing to smooth out the differences between house, garage and techno and are firm favourites of deep-digging heads for that reason. All of these cuts - which like the other two EPs have been freshly remastered for the occasion - are some 30-odd years old and are textbook examples of timeless grooves. 'Climax' has tight, kinetic drums that punch out an irresistible pattern as swirling pads fishing them off up top in some style.

Review: The latest 12" from long-running Sahko offshoot Keys Of Life is the first of two split 'Balearic' releases from Sex Tags man DJ Sotofett and SUED co-founder SVN.. Sotofett's "Current 82" is a thing of rare beauty; an ambient house inspired chunk of lucid, mid-tempo dreaminess full of fluid chords, subtle, loved-up melodies and early Italian deep house bottom end. SVN continue the deep theme whilst doffing a cap to techno on flipside "Dark Plan 5". Their chords and pads are every bit as life-affirming as Sotofett's - even if they are a touch on the bittersweet side - but the accompanying up-tempo rhythm has a more ready-made dancefloor feel. Either way, both tracks are superb.

Review: After an impressive outing on this label last time out with 'Ripples,' the enigmatic Wallace is back with a red hot follow up, 'Papertrip.' This one has club hit written all over it once more and previous tunes of his have been much the same with big plays from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Palms Trax and Hunee. The title track opens up with an ascending lead synth line and old school Chicago house drums. 'Bb' then brings a little infectious garage skip to the dancefloor and on the flip, 'The Function' pairs it back to deft drum loops and smeared pads and an infectious rhythm. 'Backwaters' closes down with some dubby out and float beats run through with fuzzy dub chords and some molten synth melodies.

Review: Vertigo is the third part of a reissue series on Parter that focuses on the work of Chris Simmonds and Ron Wells. These two made just nine Eps back between 1990 and 1997 but very much hit a perfect sweet spot between house, garage and techno when they did. Now newly remastered for this series, they have never sounded better. This 12" was originally from 1995 on Bomba Records and features the title cut spread across two sides and two parts. Side A is a bumping house cut with thumping bass and nice frayed edges as the serene synths are smeared all about the mix. Part 2 is a continuation of this most fine and full-bodied but deep house sound.

Review: Hot pink deep house wax that simply refuses to wane. For the eighteenth release on London's Semi Delicious, producer Revivis urges to 'Surrender The Body'; what this means isn't quite elaborated on, perhaps simply because when we're presented with house music of this voracity - this audacity - we really don't need words. Opener 'Pick Me Up' leads the charge with hard-landed synths and organs backed up by camp vocal samples; then the title track gets numinous with it, recalling acid trance on the level of Mothers' Pride or Skinnymalinky with its contrasting piano breakdowns and extraterrestrial stabs; then the B-side moves more reflective, with 'Perceptions' and 'Ruminating' delivering two further perplexities of mood.

Review: Kikko Esse aka Michele Sodano drops some superbly summery house sounds on Groovin Italy just as the sun has finally arrived here in the UK. These tunes tap into lots of different reference points, from the machine soul of Detroit to the humid melodies of West Coast house and the Balearic grooves of the White Isle. 'Moonlight' kicks off with nice jazzy melodies and sultry trumpets, then 'Keep On' taps into a classic diva vocal. 'Deep Our Soul is for when things head indoors and the sun has set and you want to cruise on a nice blissed out and clean house vibe, then 'Free From' gets more loose and playful on soulful house drums.

Review: Nu Groove's ongoing edits series turns its attention to one of the legendary NYC's most iconic early release, Bas Noir's 1988 garage-house classic 'My Love Is Magic' - a piano-powered vocal number fronted by two female singers from New Jersey and produced by the Burrell Brothers. Their original club mix is featured (A2), alongside a trio of fresh re-edits. Bushwacka kicks things off with a deeper, more sonically detailed and marginally punchier rework that makes much of the Burrell brothers' percussion and piano stabs, before Mark Broom takes over on side two. His 'dub retouch' fittingly sounds like a piano solo-sporting NYC house dub of the late 1980s - no bad thing in our book - while his more revolutionary 'A12 mix' re-casts the track as a harder, heavier peak-time loop jam.

Review: German duo Session Victim have always been about much more than just club tracks - their music draws on their playing skills and formal backgrounds so comes alive with meaningful melodies and rich instrumentation that elevates each track above the norm. This new EP on their home label Delusions of Grandeur kicks off with 'Screen Off' (feat Ras Stimulant) which is disco house with bubbly basslines and a retro feel. It also comes as an a cappella and on the flip 'Light The Way' is a seductively smooth cut with Balearic synths and floating pads that will levitate you off the floor. An Iron Curtis Illuminati mix brings starry-eyed electro vibes and his reprise closes out a lush EP.

Review: Tricky UK garage via tech house from Moxy Muzik's ongoing V/A series. The seventh top-up hear harks back to a little-sung stylistic moment, when UK garage carried with it an unpolished flair, and focused purely on the elements that made up the form. Sosa's 'Bring It Back', which leads, swings between two femme vocal incantations - "to the beat" and "take it back" - against a sparse but for that reason effective balance of drums; this starkly contrasts to Jordan Peak's 'Disco Nights', which deftly weaves samply vocal science around a future disco tool, an unusual method to be sure. Adam Lance's 'Hip Movement' is the bass-heaviest tune we've heard all year, while Darius Syrossian's 'Tear The Club Up' does just that with its lo-fi, jukey hip-house mantra and a suspenseful string sostenuto.

Review: Nu Groove will always be synonymies with a distinctive take on deep house - the label rose to prominance in the late 80s and early 90s in its native New Jersey and put out definitive releases from The Burell Brothers, mostly, but also a selection of other dons of the day. Some of them now come together for the first time on vinyl as Chicago legend Ron Carroll offers up a pair of tunes from his House Of Love EP. On the reverse, Trilogy Inc. come back strong with a couple of newbies in the bouncy house of 'Awakening', and 'Hi Cycle', which comes on more energetically with strong percussive patterns and classic drums. Serious heat, this.