HandsonWax Vinyl & CDs

Review: Handsonwax top up their esteemed repertoire with another four tracks added to their anonymous white labels series. 'Volume 3' continues the elusive label's preference for cheesy breaks lent to classic dance music motifs, leading the charge with a whomping breakstep version of Max Romeo's 'Chase The Devil', followed by a blissful dub techno excursion. The B-side rerubs Moodymann to delicious ends, while the star of the bunch reworks a rework; that is, Herbert's snappy version of Louie Austen's 'Hoping', except this time it's lent a swath of extra soulful house ornamentations.

Review: New York label HandsOnWax are said to confer to the digging DJ strange bouts of alien hand syndrome: when confronted with any one release, we simply cannot keep our hands off, no matter how much conscious control is exercised! Here the label clutches its fourth release with a tightly honed set of four house tracks built for peak functionality; each cut on number four is manually engineered for clean arrangements, tough low-end and sharp rhythmic details calibrated for optimum mix pressure. No pressure! That being said, we don't know the artist behind this one, only that 'Rumor Mill' and 'What A Dayb' are creamy, broken jazz come post-bassy club incursions, well worthy of consideration in themselves, not for the charismatic aura of person that made them.