Juno Recommends Funky House: May 2022

Review: Cruise Music Vinyl Jams No. 5 is full of pure house bombs, so we start off with our No. 1 release of 2021, Good Lovin, a disco bomb that went through the roof in many worldwide charts and it's followed by Peter Brown's Nobody Else, another top quality disco house track. Flip side is reserved for two perfect disco grooves. Joey Chicago's old school french touch track, with sweet sampling and a feelgood disco vibe and SAMO's groovy and lovely Never say Goodnight track.

Review: Whether she likes it or not, Sophie Lloyd will always be known for the unfeasibly uplifting gospel disco-meets-gospel-house anthem 'Calling Out'. That was released five years ago and ever since, she's struggled to embrace it's shadow. With 'Angels By My Side', Lloyd seems to have embraced this, delivering another fine gospel-powered number that inhabits a similar sonic space while being different enough to avoid accusations of treading water. It's genuinely good, too, with Pauline Taylor delivering superb lead vocals over a hybrid gospel disco/stomping gospel sound hybrid full of Hammond organ licks, booming bass guitar, piano house riffs and stirring orchestration. In other words, it's another anthem in waiting.

Review: On its initial release back in 1995, this DJ Spen co-production was something of an underground club hit, with labels around the world releasing their own licensed versions. This Groovin' Records reissue edition of 'Everybody Be Somebody' effectively showcases the most in-demand versions. Side A boasts the original US extended version - a nine-minute fusion of crunchy machine drums, dirty bass, heady band percussion, lo-fi disco guitar licks and sweet female vocals. Over on the flip you'll find two European revisions from Mousse T's Peppermint Jam crew: his own 'Back In The Days Mix', which gives it a subtle disco flavour, more fully-featured instrumentation and some lovely electronic lead lines, and the sleazy, acid-flecked, hip-house inspired 'Peppermint Jam Extended Mix'.

Review: While much of Ludovic Llorca's output is classy deep house, over the last few years he's offered up a lot more disco and jazz-funk-tinged house cuts. It was this vibe he explored on the debut release from his PALP label - 2021's All Night Brotherhood - and he's at it again on this welcome sequel. The key cut is 'Crazay', a filter-sporting chunk of good-time house music in which vocal samples from a vintage, jazz-funk-disco gem rise above a warm and rubbery house groove. It's available in extended, short and Funk District remix forms, with the latter take offering a woozier, looser deep house take full of drifting Rhodes chords and Niles Rodgers style guitar licks. Bonus cut 'Not The Same', a more explicitly disco-centric chunk of warming dancefloor sunniness, is also well worth a listen.