Review: Clock Poets returns with Surrealism, a three-track various artists exploration of minimal techno and micro-house. Dan Andrei's 'Si Un Ecou' is a stripped-back, bass-heavy roller that is simmering with tension before erupting into modulated synths. Root's 'Apophis' delivers swing-heavy micro-house with shuffling drums and growling synth textures which nod to the genre's golden era. Clock Poets' 'Galaxy' on the flip is a sprawling 14-minute live-recorded jam rich in intricate sound design to end with a classy touch. Surrealism masterfully balances moods and textures here and makes for another refined entry in the Clock Poets catalogue for lovers of thoughtful, hypnotic dance sounds.
AfroQbano - "El Bucanero" (feat Kevin Ford - Dez Andres remix) (4:40)
Review: Chicago label Future Rootz is a collective of mix media DJs who all play and rework global roots, tropical bass, world electronic and Latin house. Who better to do that than Detroit's Dez Andres, a deep-diving DJ, house head and producer with Cuban roots. He goes first here with 'El Trombone', which has a signature low-end thump with sunny Latin vocals, joyous horns and florid melodies. He then slows things down with one of his trademark remixes of AfroQbano's 'El Bucanero', which has noodling bass and poolside charm.
Review: The fifth slice of wax from Nothing But Nice's 12"s series comes from James Andrew. His new one consequents 2020's 'Thinking Backwards' EP, which established Andrew as both a sonic and titular rib-tickler, with titles like 'Stereomaster 3000' and 'Billy & The Clonosaurus' indicating a fantastic imagination and a complementary jocosity. 'Surfin The Buzz', however, gets relatively serious, at least on the A side. Not pure jovials, this title track and its counterpart 'Definitive Groove' serve wave-riding sureties with a garage house feel. Laser-guided descents and "I wanna" samples fetishise the groove much further; we cannot simply laugh them off. Only the B-side lifts the veil, with 'Fruit Shoot Fandango' and 'Galactic Dubtastic' connoting confectionary E-numbers and sour tannins, though the sound is equally as accomplished: the B2 especially recalls the amazing psycho-dub of Children Of The Bong or Tradition.
Review: Omakase, which is the name of a style of Japanese dining that means literally 'I leave it up to you' and gives full control of a meal to the chef in question, is also now an ever more vital minimal label. This is its third outing and one with Antraum at the helm. It kick off with 'Hyaku' with its bluesy vocal samples and lazy, infectious drum loops, then has 'Shichi' has more silky and spaced out pads and smooth grooves. 'Rei' is a dreamy one with balmy chords making for a trippy late night day dream and is the sort of track that will zoned out dance floors at 5 am. A tasteful EP for sure.
Review: Antraum's latest record is an exemplary case of whispery vocal fry working hand-in-hand with autotune: 'Fukai' serves fullerine-sharp, atomic sheets of vocal sound, set against harder beats, reducing our eardrums to the consistency of butter. It's no wonder that each and every release so far on the self-run outfit Omakase is so raw, so slicing, so cutting. The label is named after a Japanese culinary expression of indifference, "i'll leave it up to you", which, in the context of sushi dining, refers to chefs selecting and preparing dishes for patrons for them, rather than letting them choose. We're sure Claude Levi-Strauss, author of "The Raw & The Cooked", would've had something to say about this release. Because 'Yume' and 'Kemono' are also served as two further itamae's specials, assimilating ideas of music production and food preparation: beats, stabs and vocals are sliced, diced, sampled, mixed, filleted, and rolled into shiso-leaved bites.
Review: This release by two talented French producers delivers a refined blend of deep and soulful house music with two different versions to chose from. 'Ju' on Side-1 is a deep, groove-heavy cut, layering soulful chords with a rolling bassline and a sensual vocal touch. The jazzy inflections and swanky lounge vibe exude sophistication, making it a late-night essential. On Side-2, the Traumer's Sunset version injects more energy into the original, pushing it toward a melodic, instrumental-driven burner. It retains the deep essence but lifts it with fluid rhythms and hypnotic layers. Elegant yet club-ready, both versions show a sleek, polished minimalism rooted in groove.
Review: Jungle Generation is the third release on Outcast Planet, signed by its resident DJ Bakked. All the tracks are dance-floor oriented - characterized by dynamic drums, acid and trancy melodies matched together with a deep soul. Acid meets slap bass on 'Crush9', while 'Zion' describes the Kingdom of the Lamb through the mode of washy, spitty snares and glassy pads. All tunes serve to satiate, leaving you more or less chloro-filled with energy, much like the emblematic sunflower on the inner label.
Review: LEGRAM VG & Rubber Ducky Records have come together for this playful Game of Tunes series, and the third entry in it offers four more wafty tech house delights. Baldov's 'Dance Connection' is a balmy and breezy opener with some warm synth injections to soften the rickety tech beats. Sif B's 'Small World' is a bubbly cut with sci-fi motifs and Buenaguas's 'Music Or Noise?' Marries distant cosmic pads with sparky synth sequences that make for some nice colourful combinations. Alich's 'The Evidence' is the best of the lot - a pent-up, garage-tinged kicker with ass-wiggling beats and acid prickles. Pure heat.
Review: Deeper shades of a finely sifted pedigree. Irish label Appian Sounds, helmed up by Al Blayney, champion only winnowed techno sounds, not threshed. A welcome international team huddle in, with these six artists from locales as far-flung as Amsterdam and Valencia contributing the likes of 'Tsuneo' and 'Persist'. The tunes verge melodic as they move through and beyond jankiness, distending die-cut acids and subtly synthetic humanisations, especially in the percussion department. 'Fuego' is the zen roshi's choice, its gaffered, glass-smithed pads topping off a naturalistic percussive surging forward, one best experienced with your eyes closed.
Review: BDK's Tequila EP from Say Namm White delivers four full-powered, disco-tinged house heaters. Side-1 opens with 'Big Disco Banger,' a high-energy, filtered house anthem true to its name, followed by 'I Don't Want It,' which offers a deeper, yet still anthemic, vibe. Side-2 starts with 'Love Coming Over,' leaning into a Euro disco sound with heavy Fire Island influences. The EP closes with 'Please Don't Rush,' the deepest house track of the lot. If you are a disco house enthusiasts then check this record out because its packed with infectious grooves and vibrant energy.
Tides (feat Bajka - Toto Chiavetta edition 2022 remix) (8:18)
Tides (feat Bajka - Art Department Roxy Blue remix) (15:13)
Tides (feat Bajka - Ripperton remix) (10:03)
Tides (feat Bajka - C's Movement #1 - Carl Craig remix) (9:58)
Review: Classic deep house here by Beanfield, an outfit comprised of Compost Records chief Michael Reinboth with Jan Krause, Michael Mettke and Tobias Meggle, who released one of their biggest tracks 'Tides' with vocalist Bajka back in 2004, taken from the album Seek. Featured is the timeless Beanfield Chant Mix and of course Detroit icon Carl Craig's now legendary rework, as well as Swiss deep house hero Ripperton's impressive perspective. Providing newer reinterpretations is veteran of the Toronto scene Art Department, and Italy's Toto Chiavetta who injects the track with his signature brand of high tech soul.
Review: Norm Talley's Upstairs Asylum label approaches its 20th outing with more of that low-key, high-quality house tackle it has long been associated with. Black Eyes is behind the beats and opens up with the nice and lazy, low slung grooves of 'Gerry The Fish Whisperer' then 'Valley Of Sharks' gets more raw and percussive with its energy. 'Soul Fish' lands on heavy, knackered sounding kicks with soft shakers along for the ride and 'The People Want Hydro' closes down with heady pads swirls and wispy motifs that occupy mind and body as one.
Steve O'Sullivan - "Fly Again" (Steve O'Sullivan Bouncing dub) (6:53)
Steve O'Sullivan - "Fly Again" (Steve O'Sullivan Tuff dub) (6:44)
Bluetrain - "Fly Again" (Bluetrain Special edition Loop) (1:17)
Bluetrain - "Fly Again" (Bluetrain Special edition dub) (7:17)
Bluetrain - "Fly Again" (Bluetrain Special edition Loop 2) (1:16)
Review: Keeping firm to the now well-trodden "Scientist meets" formula, this release through Convent once again hears Joseph Alpern aka. J Gabriel absorb the dubbing wiles of Hopeton Brown into his own minimal techno laboratory. 'Fly Again' follows up the first Scientist collab 'Too Far Gone' from 2023 with yet another red snapper, and comes backed by heated reworks from Steve O'Sullivan and Bluetrain, each of whose generosities know few bounds (they offer two and three remixes each!).
Review: French producer Antoine Bourachot returns with his third release, delivering a trio of original tracks that blend his sharp ear for melody with a clear affection for groove-driven pop and club sounds. The warm, percussive edge of his productions hint at late-night sets and sunlit afterhours, bringing a jaunty mutant disco. Myd, Diogo Strausz and Art of Tones each offer their own take on the material, turning in remixes that stretch from laid-back funk touches to punchier zoomings into the floor. Bourachot's ability to sit comfortably between radio-friendly hooks and crate-digging sensibility makes this a record with plenty of replay value, balancing polish and playfulness in equal measure.
Review: Call Super delivers a superb telecommunication in the form of 'Swallow Me'. We're not sure why Call Super wants us to ingest him, but we're not going to question it too much. The new track samples Kamala Sankaram's performance at the final Resonant Bodies festival in New York in 2019. "In Ancient Greek, ololyga is the ritual shriek of women, a sound so alarming to men that it could not be uttered within their earshot" - goes the liner text. Sonically, Mr. Super blends the ololyga with Hebden-esque shuffles and glossy dance schlop, building a deeply resonant tune sure to kill egos the world over.
B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition
Shining Of Life Flutemental (unreleased version) (11:01)
Shining Of Life Flutemental (Lambros Jahmans remix) (5:15)
UNDUB (Space Ritual dub) (10:40)
Shining Of Life Flutemental (Space Ritual dub) (11:15)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***
Some 20 years ago, Japanese producer donned the K.F alias (the initials of his given name, Kiyotaka Fukagawa) and delivered the astonishingly good 'Shining of Life', a sun-soaked Balearic house treat shot through with Japanese nu-jazz musicality, gospel-influenced vocals and expansive, life-affirming piano solos. This EP offers up previously unheard 'Shining of Light Flutemental' takes. Calm's own 'unreleased mix' retains some of the key elements of the 2004 original while adding morning-fresh flute solos and starry sounds seemingly inspired by Detroit techno. The 'Lambros Jahmans Sunset Mix' is a dreamy and immersive interpretation underpinned by an Afro-house style beat, while the 'Space Ritual Dub' is an almost entirely beat-free soundscape. On 'Undub (Space Ritual Dub)', the same producer wraps echoing flute and piano motifs around a tactile, hand percussion-driven rhythm track.
Review: Jackies Music Records celebrates a successful first year with a new special edition vinyl record, featuring five iconic numbers from the back catalogue. Retrospectively looking back, we're met with five still-fresh ones from their ambitious 2024, includeing handpicks from Todd Terry, Piem, CASSIMM, Angelo Ferreri, and DJ W!ld. Embodying the mood of mid-dance tension, at which point we're likely well into the mix and sweating our glands off (such paradoxes are not impossible), the best of this pick have got to be Terry's 'Heartbeat', a swarthily knocking groove complete with an angelic, cardiovascular vocal, and W!ld's lo-fi hip slip, 'Underdog', the lyrics on which we'll be spending at least a good week trying to decipher.
Beggar & Co - "Somebody Help Me Out" (Boogie Back radio mix)
Sai Galaxy - "Rendezvous" (feat Vanessa Baker)
Dave Lee & Omar - "Starlight" (radio edit)
Kylie Auldist - "LYB (Love You Better)" (The Waz Exclusive Trunk Of Funk remix)
Lexsoul Dancemachine - "I Don't Mind" (Mr Lex Trunk Of Funk remix)
Sunlightsquare - "I Thought It Was You" (live)
The New Mastersounds - "Watchu Want" (Exclusive Trunk Of Funk vocal version)
The Harlem Gospel Travelers - "God's In Control"
Sister Cookie - "Ain't No Good (But Its Good Enough For Me)" (Feat.Spencer Evoy)
Sugaray Rayford - "Gonna Lift You Up"
Kaz Hawkins - "Shake"
The Nextmen - "Big Time" (feat Kiko Bun)
La Rochelle Band - "Prophet"
The Niceguys - "Power" (feat Bobby Saint - A Skillz remix)
Sly Johnson - "Trust Me"
Cotonete - "Day In Day Out" (feat Leron Thomas)
Roy Ayers - "Tarzan"
Review: Self-proclaimed "quadruple threat" (he is, after all, a DJ, comedian, actor and poet) Craig Charles swings open his colossal Trunk of Funk for a third time. In line with previous dives into the popular BBC 6 Music DJ's music collection, he's served up a selection that moves between the decades, taking in all manner of funky treats (think funk breaks, modern soul, jazz-funk, disco-boogie, classic soul and more). Flick through the clips and you'll find genius-like gospel (the Harlem Gospel Travellers), recent remixes (Smoove reworking the Third Degree, A Skillz putting his stamp on The Niceguys), classics reimagined (the Boogie Back rework of Beggar & Co classic 'Somebody Help Me Out'), modern gems (Dave Lee and Omar) and the odd exclusive (a previously unheard vocal version of The New Mastersounds' 'Watchu Want').
Review: Marking the second single to be lifted from Will Saul's nourish pop project Close, "My Way" marks one of the album's many forays into vocal territory with a sterling turn from Fat Freddy's Drop crooner Joe Dukie. As well as the calming tones of the original, there is plethora of remixes to accompany the release from regular Saul collaborators for his Simple and Aus labels. Dusky take the lead first with a pumping, garage-fuelled version that keeps the melodics in a moody refrain and the vocal fully intact, while Midland shakes things up with a simmering revision that injects some grainy synth fuzz into the mix and chops the vocal down to one looping sample for the main hook. Tanner Ross and Slow Hands get utterly blissed out with their snail-paced version that does away with sonic detritus and lets the warmth and musicality shine through.
Nigeria (Tall Black Guy Boogie Love remix - feat Broken Keys) (4:05)
Nigeria (Tall Black Guy Boogie Love remix - instrumental version) (4:05)
African Spirits (Andres extended remix) (5:33)
Review: Nicola Conte is one of the central figures in the Schema story, and his nu jazz and broken beat partnership with Gianluca Petrella has yielded some golden music in recent years. Nigeria originally came out in 2018, and then last year popped up on the duo's People Need People LP, but now it's getting a proper remix treatment which sees Tall Black Guy twisting the track out as a heady disco house roller for sundown moments when you need a little jazzy flair in the proceedings. That version comes in vocal and instrumental versions, and then the mighty Andres steps up for one of his simmering groove escapades as he delivers an extended remix of 'African Spirits'.
Review: Five years after unfurling their first collaborative album, Iron Curtisn and Johannes Albert have finally got round to recording and releasing their fourth - three years after its predecessor landed in stores. As with previous sets, it's loosely inspired by all things lunar. In practice, that means hazy, spacey synths aplenty, slowly unfurling grooves, and loads of cosmic intent. Beginning with the soft-touch headiness of 'Void Gathering', the German duo flits between moon-lit, synth-powered nu-disco ('Silverclub'), jaunty analogue house ('Sound (The Feels)'), warmer and more tactile dancefloor gold ('Ohne Dich', 'Club L'Avenir'), bubbly electro ('Pipeline'), revivalist Italo-disco ('Into Somethin') and ultra-deep bliss ('Daso').
Review: Bass Culture founder, Rex Club legend and standard bearer for the Parisian underground, Julien Veniel shows fine form with his latest effort landing on Phonogramme. Featuring four tracks that each veer toward the techier ends of the house spectrum, 'The Game of Life' is sure to find plenty of admirers of floor-focused subterranean club tackle. Launching via the bumping rhythms and bouncy bass of X-Calibur, it starts as it means to go on. Upping the energy a couple of notches, the wonky bass and paranoid vocals of 'Narcissistic Scratch' power over chunky drums for a strobe-lit, late-night workout. Scene stalwart Satoshi Tomiie keeps things looped and driving on his pumped version of 'Deadbeat', before the dubbed-out original sees the record home in deliciously heady style.
Review: Markus "Delfonic" Lindner is well-schooled in decades of house and disco music. He brings all of that knowledge to everything he does and for this outing on Germany's Disco Disco he combines both of those influences. 'Flesh To Flesh' has a brilliant retro energy with lots of instrumental funk, live-sounding drums and horn stabs effervescing with real warmth. 'Kiss Kiss' is a big old-school vocal disco anthem with an exuberant glow and 'Set Me Free' gets more deep and dark with more house swing in the kicks. 'You Like It We Love It' is the final disco flame to ignite any party of people who really know what's up.
Review: Dark tech house's current Olympic torch-bearer, Inermu, present the seventh edition in their very own vari-prod vinyl series. A polysemous production outfit whose guises vary, this new one from Dexter James and Dominic Aquila presents a hard-nosed heater from the lockoff London crew. With most of their releases having been housed on black labels so far, this one is an exceptional whiteout, with lemni-skating delays and conga-happy tribal drives resounding across 'Tougher & Darker' and 'Music For Dark Rooms'. 'No Other' completes the record with a downtime B-side, with subtle pad swirls and taciturn talking drums working well as substitute basslines.
Review: First released way back in 1994 on Kevin Saunderson's KMS label, Dionne Warren's Brian Hall-produced deep house gem 'Feel Da Rain' gets a new lease of life thanks to Windsor, Ontario imprint Collective Rhythm Network (CRN). While the original 12" also featured rubs from Alton Miller and Stacey Pullen, it's D'Pac Patel's dub . a warm, rolling, US garage influenced deep house workout rich in tactile organ stabs, superb grooves and short samples of Warren's vocals - that has become the most sought-after version. On this 12", we get Patel's full-length dub (it was edited down on the original 12") and a previously unreleased 'Rhodes Dub' that adds extra electric piano action for added warmth and flavour.
Review: Sating minimal techno flows, Bondage Records preface their latest release with the phrase "next up". It's implied that, by sampling and cycling through many a novel artistic talent, their label becomes an unstoppable assembly line of feline sonics. Frankfurt producer and DJ Sascha Dive is next up, adding to an incredible daisy-wreath of 12"s put out since early 2005. 'I Was Deep In My Past Life' hears Dive dive back into one of his many pre-incarnate bygones via extra-mile sound synthesis and design, the resultant sound of which evokes an undulant, blobby time-tunnel. 'Dub Chronicles No7', meanwhile, has been thoroughly transient-maximised, with a snappy drum buss envelope uppercutting the technic beats like automations of an iron fist.
Review: DJ Deep and Traumer hatch their collaborative new project, Get-Rooted, merging their own labels Deeply Rooted and getitraum. Their new cross-pollination, Get-Rooted, re-conceives existing tracks in either artists' catalogues, with 'Open Your Eyes' merging into 'Close Your Eyes' hearing DJ Deep abrade raw hypnogrooves, while Traumer opts for a lush, refined production. DJ Deep's 'Insss', meanwhile, graces the B-side as a spruce revisitation of a beloved vocal sample, paired with a drum-driven progression.
Review: These two classy producers, the former Norwegian and the latter from Switzerland, team up for a raw, heartfelt slab of underground house on Sex Tags UFO. Fuelled by weekly live jam sessions and arranged with pure instinct at Casa de Fett, this four-tracker feels organic, impulsive and gloriously unpolished i house music as a feeling, indeed. The opening cut hits immediately with a heavy bass presence, a jacking 909, swirling pads and an irresistibly uplifting melody. It's simple, efficient and laser-focused on the dancefloor's emotional core. Track two eases the vibe into a sunrise groove, weaving a classic Ibiza guitar into its dusty hardware pulse i loose, warm and full of promise. Flipping over, the third track dips even deeper. It's sentimental yet driven, with shuffling percussion and dreamy pads creating a bittersweet late-night atmosphere. The final track is the EP's toughest i a rough-edged acid house burner that brings grit and urgency without losing the duo's charmingly off-kilter touch. Throughout, DJ Sommer's slick studio craft and Burger Man's wonky sensibility merge into something greater than the sum of their parts.
Review: Im In Love is a German label that says bonjour to DJ Merci who serves up a dynamic four-tracker for their limited series. These DJ tools are crafted for the dance floor so while driven by effective house kicks, they are not mere tools. Each one brings some character, starting with 'In The Middle' with its nice finger clicks and bouncy drums and bass. 'Bouncing Back' is infused with dusty synth chords that hark back to classic US house and on the B-side, 'Deux Trois' pens with smooth, deep chords layered over a rolling conga rhythm. 'Swing My Baby' wraps things up with bouncy drums and stripped-back minimal house. Merci indeed.
Review: Mark Grusane presence on Disctechno brings with it a compilation of five unique house tracks from Chicago and Detroit-based producers, as you will probably have guessed from the title. The A-side features DJ Slush's synth-driven 'Memory Blank' and Deon Jamar's bass-heavy 'AYYYO' which offer different but both killer sounds. The B-side opens with Jordan Zawideh's reverb-drenched 'Axolotls' followed by Grusane's intense, atonal 'The Recoil' and concludes with Thomas Xu's groovy 'School Street.' All of these are the sort of off-kilter sounds you would expect of these revered and enduring electric hotbeds. Raw, stripped-down and authentic, this is the contemporary Midwest underground.
Review: Stockholm trio Ella Guru return with their second release, expanding on the deep house and Balearic palette of their 2023 debut. Now a three-piece with the addition of bassist Hakan Engstrom, their sound leans heavier into dancefloor territory, funkier, looser, more tactile. 'Cowcat' leads with clipped guitars and bubbling Afro-funk bass, while 'Good Vibes Only' folds disco percussion into a joyous, sun-soaked strut. On the flip, Vastertorp producer Funky Loffe reshapes 'Cowcat' into a tougher, filter-swept peak-time tool. The record lands somewhere between early Prins Thomas and modern Scandi-house heat playful but precise and built for good systems.
Review: OGE White has released plenty of great slabs of wax by the likes of Philipp Boss, Hollow Fraud and Natalie Gardiner, and this time out it is the returning Enzo Leep who impresses with four tunes in collaboration with Giralda. 'Beat Goes On' starts things off in jazzy fashion with some manic chords dancing drunkenly about the piano next to a jumble of percussion and weird samples. 'Aroa T Lo Miro' then kiss it fresh with more breakbeats, steamy vocal samples, high-speed beats and a funky mood, then 'Hell Or Heaven' has a dry, percussive rhythm that is marbled with characterful vocal stabs. 'Conscious Of My Conscience' is a surefire winner with its seductive 80s soul vocals sampled from a well-loved duo.
Review: Fabio Caria launches his new label, Hoops, as a means to explore the intersection of house and techno through a minimalist lens. The debut release is a collaboration with Hubble under the moniker Fabble and it's a fine one with three meticulously crafted tracks that manage to perfectly balance compelling rhythms with plenty of synth-based introspection. 'Catharsis' introduces a three-note Rhodes piano sequence with flowing pads and psychedelic synths and 'Donald' offers a steady 4/4 beat with sombre pads and powerful sub-bass. 'Persignis' with Italian legend Claudio PRC is the most dancefloor-driven with processed pianos creating an emotional mood and in all, this EP sets a nice high watermark for the Hoops label.
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