This week at Juno

by Juno Daily on 03.12.2010 at 15:47pm.
Last edited: 21.01.2020 at 13:28pm.

The festive season is upon us, and the decision makers at Team Juno Download are celebrating the Christmas month by giving away a free track every day until the big guy visits on December 25.

More info on that here. Meanwhile, Monday’s announcement that XL were immediately releasing the first fruits of a Jamie xx does Gil Scott-Heron album was met with a resounding “mate, we know!” It’s been one of this year’s worst kept secrets despite the labels best stonewalling intentions. Typically, the infectious headnodding half step shudder of “NY Is Killing Me” marks a delightful taste of what to expect when We’re New Here arrives next February.

Night Slugs approach the end of a near perfect first year of business on a high note with the arrival of the Night Slugs All Stars Volume 1 compilation on CD and download and affiliated 12″ sampler featuring the rather tasty Ashanti borrowing house bomb from Jacques Greene as well as “Magic Drops” the long overdue debut proper of Jam City.

Other multi format delights include Lone’s new mini album Emerald Fantasy Tracks which arrived across CD, digital and heavy duty vinyl and glossily expands upon the instant dancefloor gratification of nascent dance sounds referenced on “Pineapple Crush” on each of the eight tracks of an album that’s been on repeat this week. In a neat segue, Mr Erdbeerschnitzel marked his debut for Gerd’s esteemed 4lux imprint with the rather Lone-esque beat crunch of “Suave” which was backed with some equally bewitching productions.

The only thing that kept us warmer than the rather tasty meatball soup from Pret this snowy week was a fresh batch of oven ready deep house twelve inches led by Cottam. The fourth installment of his eponymous vinyl series did not disappoint, offering two very different but equally vital club grooves. Somebody give the man the freedom of Preston, now. Mark E was just behind with the inaugural release from the Vibrations camp containing some highly pressurised throbbing techno menace in the shape of “Escape” and the elusive Praterei imprint delivered a second round of mystery deepness to match Juno Jams.

Elsewhere Theo Parrisharama continued with the Sound Signature guru’s Amerie/Lil Louis- mashup on red vinyl hitting the shelves (one for the more affluent Theo fans) alongside his cover of 80s oddity “Stop Bajon” on Italian imprint Archive arriving with a further more intergalactic discoid version from Isoul8 and Mark De Clive Lowe .

The unfeasibly strong Traversable Wormhole remix series continued to chug along, with James Ruskin and Function the latest heavy hitters to get involved (the Function remix is, dare we say, probably the biggest yet). Redshape and Delta Funktionen provided this week’s ration of piston pumping, steel factory funk, while UK outfit Raime were at the helm of the second release on Blackest Ever Black: an immensely captivating release and we recommend you check it out (probably not one to drop at 11.59 on New Year’s Eve though).

Oh and did you hear Daft Punk are scoring the new Tron soundtrack? Unless you’ve been living under a rock that was in turn living under an even bigger rock, you probably have. Well after an infinite amount of teasing, it was finally released this week on CD. Check it out here.

That’s it for another week in Juno Plus land folks. Be sure to keep an eye on these pages next week for a comprehensive Best of 2010 round-up, which will include our top labels, albums and tracks of the year. Excitement!

Until then, happy hunting.

The recent announcement from XL that Jamie Smith from The xx has indeed completed a remix album to complement I’m New Here, Gil Scott Heron’s critically acclaimed return to form was met with a unanimous “mate, we know!” Despite the label’s best efforts at stonewalling the news, Jamie’s been including tracks in mixtapes for the best part of six months. “NY Is Killing Me” marks a delightful taste of what to expect when We’re New Here arrives next February.