SlapFunk Netherlands Vinyl & CDs

Review: Utrecht's Julian Alexander made his first appearance on hometown label SlapFunk late last year, joining forces with old friend Samuel Deep on the excellent Get Slapped EP. This time he's hit out on his own, in the process serving up a trio of bumpin', bass-heavy deep house tracks. There's a real "heads down in the basement at 4am" feel to opener "JANC6", which is dominated by an undulating, bass-heavy rhythm track, and is accompanied by a looser, breezier Ferro remix. "JANC1" has a bit more bump and swing - think Derrick Carter, minus the breathless energy, and with more deep techno influences - while "Janc 4" successfully looks to vintage speed garage for inspiration.

Review: Bringing that tough-edged Dutch bounce like only he can, Anil Aras returns to Slap Funk with another shipment of forthright deep house righteousness that packs in heads-down techy elements alongside the addictive shuffle of the drums. "Utr" is an unabashed tribute to Aras' hometown of Utrecht that rides high on a killer chord stab, while "Anbush 46" wriggles its way into more minimal territory without losing that hard-grooving spirit. Fellow label regular Malin Genie equally twists up that percussion into a bugging beatdown that harks back to the funkiest threads of the minimal era on his remix before "My Side Of The Street" diverts into sparse 2-step territory.

Review: In a short space of time prodigious Dutch producer Pascal Benjamin has built up a catalogue of ear-snagging minimal house confections for labels like Welt, Norse Projekt, Algorhythmic and Botanic Minds. Now he's hitting the big time with this 12" on the mighty SlapFunk, and he's packing just the kind of chunky, swinging but ultimately lean jams they love. "Out Of Line" keeps things focused on the drums, with just some sub bass and microscopic threads of sonic matter in between. "To GoodTo Be Who?" is equally stripped down, but decidedly more wriggly in its make up, and then "Finest Hour" kicks off the B-side with some fatter beats and a more prominent bass line. "Lagrange Point" finishes the EP off with some subliminal bleeps and tones pinging in between the wafer thin percussive pulses.

Review: The Raw Joints series is one of the best things about the ever-excellent SlapFunk Records, and now the Dutch label is back with a fresh bout of sounds from some of the most inventive artists operating in the minimal house sphere. Ferro's "Electric Sunshine" leads the charge with a militant groove and a rubbery bassline to die for. William Caycedo has a rugged, sample slicing thrust at work on "Mi Casa", while Malin Genie takes things far out on the wonderfully freaky "Superposition". The record wraps up with Ingi Visions, whose "RJG" wriggles into a skippy 2-step groove that will have bodies shaking uncontrollably when it gets deployed in the dance.

Review:  Slap Funk collective member Samuel Deep debuts on his own imprint with an EP bristling with crisp, punchy grooves. The Native Tribe EP opens with "Rwzdeep", a track whose kick drums come straight out of the Head High school of dance, while "Red" bristles with clanking drums and junglist overtones soldered to a techno template. The B-Side sees two more excursions into the territory from whence Mr Deep draws his name, with "Tribe" again adopting the sub bass drones and lacerating snares associated with classic D&B, whereas "3521" ploughs deep in an unforgiving acid techno wormhole. Comes housed in a nice cardboard sleeve with free sticker for you to plaster on your 1210 cover!

Review: The SlapFunk crew have been enjoying plenty of attention lately, and quite rightly. Their pumped up house sound is hard to refute, taking the heads down trippiness of minimal house and beefing it up with classic jacking sounds for an infectious party mixture. Samuel Deep gets the message, bringing just the right kind of swing to "MOOV!" to get bodies popping all over the joint, while "Keek Iz" rides the same beat but in a lower register. "42915 Beatz" is just as drum led, but there's a little more fidgety sonic interplay popping off around the drums. Ingi Visions pops up on the B2 for the distinctly more eerie "Tekniq", placing an icy string synth refrain at the heart of the track with chilling results.

Review: Dutch label SlapFunk finally return to their ever-essential Raw Joints series for the first time in over a year, and this time the project has expanded to a monster-sized triple pack of intriguing club variations. Amongst the different delights to be found tucked away on Raw Joints #5 are the meditative garage tones of Lopaski, the urgent minimal house of Pascal Benjamin, the chopped up breakbeat funk of Pete Bandit & Wouter S and the trippy techno of Nick Beringer. With 14 tracks that all stand proud on their own, this is an essential purchase for anyone wanting some head-tweaking, off-kilter house and techno jams.