Alleviated US Vinyl & CDs

Review: Some 34 years after it's original release, Fingers Inc's expansive debut album, Another Side, remains one of the greatest deep house full-lengths of all time. Here, the album gets the re-master and re-issue treatment, with the original double vinyl set being expanded to a triple to guarantee loud cuts for club play. While there are plenty of well-known Heard and co classics present - "Mysteries of Love", "Bring Down The Walls", "Can You Feel It" etc. - it's actually the long-forgotten album tracks that really hit the spot. It's on these moments - often influenced as much by '80s soul and synth-pop as acid and Chicago jack-tracks - that Larry Heard, Robert Owens and Ron Wilson really cut loose.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but product unopened and in excellent condition***


Some 34 years after it's original release, Fingers Inc's expansive debut album, Another Side, remains one of the greatest deep house full-lengths of all time. Here, the album gets the re-master and re-issue treatment, with the original double vinyl set being expanded to a triple to guarantee loud cuts for club play. While there are plenty of well-known Heard and co classics present - "Mysteries of Love", "Bring Down The Walls", "Can You Feel It" etc. - it's actually the long-forgotten album tracks that really hit the spot. It's on these moments - often influenced as much by '80s soul and synth-pop as acid and Chicago jack-tracks - that Larry Heard, Robert Owens and Ron Wilson really cut loose.

Review: As much love has already been given to Larry Heard's late '80s and early '90s work, it's nice to see some of the Chicagoan's slightly later work getting a deserved reissue. Alien first surfaced on Black Market International back in 1996, and finds Heard exploring his sci-fi influences in a range of deep and emotive styles. So, there are forays into blunted hip-hop ("The Beauty of Celeste"), twinkling, starburst ambience ("Faint Object Detection", "The Dance of Planet X") and Detroit techno-influenced melodic downtempo beats ("DNA-RNA"), as well as occasional moments of typically immersive deep house warmth (the wonderful "Flight of the Comet"). In other words, it's a trip into space in the company of one of electronic music's finest exponents of melodic richness.

Review: On its initial release in 1994, "Sceneries Not Songs" became deep house legend Larry Heard's first solo album under his given name. At the time, it caused quite a stir on the electronic underground, in part because it saw the Chicago veteran showcase the depth and variety of his musical personality whilst retaining the emotive dreaminess and jazzy inflections that had always been a big part of his work. As this much-needed vinyl reissue proves, it remains a stunning album. Highlights include the sparkling synthesizers, slo-mo grooves and twinkling pianos of "Tahiti Dusk", the classic Heard deep house warmth of "Midnight Movement", the head-nodding trip-hop-goes-ambient jazz flex of "Summertime Breeze" and the luscious beauty of bonus cut "Question of Time".

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: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


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: If you dig deep house - hell, electronic music full stop - then you should be rather excited by the arrival of Cerebral Hemispheres, the first Mr Fingers album for 26 years, and the first of any kind by the producer behind the alias, Larry Heard, since 2003. As you'd expect, the album is exceptionally good, with Heard's famous musicality and fluid keys-work coming to the fore throughout. While rooted in melodious, huggable deep house, Heard naturally uses the opportunity to veer off in the myriad of different directions, touching on jazz, dub, downtempo grooves, soul, samba, tech-soul, deep acid house and much more besides. It has the feel of a genuine future classic and could well be his strongest album to date. Given his track record, that's a bold claim, but Cerebral Hemispheres really is that good.

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.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Damaging to all four corners of the sleeve, but product unopened and in excellent working order***


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.