Alleviated US Vinyl & CDs

Review: Larry Heard's strain of deep house absolutely lends itself to the album format, and he demonstrated this flawlessly on the 2001 album Love's Arrival. Decades on from his first forays into production at the dawn of house music, Heard's sound slipped into a dreamlike lounge-state which spoke to continued development of his melodic sensibilities. Just stick on 'Praise' and let the sound unfurl around you, full of the aching melancholy which gives his music such power. Like machine jazz funk beaming from another dimension, this is deep house at its very best, as made by one of the true architects of the sound.

Review: Any new album from deep house pioneer and all-round legend Larry Heard is good news, but especially so when it's credited to his best-known and best-loved alias, Mr Fingers. Around The Sun Pt 1 is Heard's first album under the alias for four years and, unsurprisingly, it's as musically expansive, evocative, and atmospheric as they come. Naturally, it's rooted in the warming, dreamy, subtly jazz-flecked deep house style he's been tweaking and improving over decades, with occasional forays into sun-kissed downtempo grooves ('Touch The Sky'), angular acid tracks, Heard's take on dub house (the deliciously deep, micro-house influenced 'Marrakesh') and summery Balearic house ('Shimmer'). All in all, it's another masterpiece from deep house's most significant pioneer.

Review: It could be argued that Larry Heard's first album as Mr Fingers, 1989's Amnesia, was the first full-length to show the rich musical potential of deep house. It was certainly the greatest house album of its period and remains - as this reissue proves - a timeless classic. Now pressed on three slabs of wax rather than two to make it more DJ-friendly, the set pairs stone cold Mr Fingers classics such as 'Mystery of Love (Dub)', 'Can You Feel It' (presented in its arguably superior instrumental form) and 'Washing Machine', with lesser-celebrated treats such as the breathlessly jacking and percussive 'Slam Dance', the lusciousl;y kaleidoscopic 'Stars' and the early morning delight that is 'For So Long'. It's an album every house head needs in their life.

Review: Larry Heard once said that he stumped upon his trademark dusty deep house sound rather by mistake - he was simply trying to recreate the instrumental disco of his childhood on the limited machinery he had available at the time. Either way, he went on to explore and exploit its most spiritual and spine-tinging aspects across a faultless discography that often looks to the cosmos for inspiration. That is true of this second volume of his Around The Sun album on his own Alleviated Records. It's another fine showcase of Chicago house, deep house, jazz and r&b that is utterly timeless.