Cody Currie's self-titled EP on Pusic Records was one of the better deep house debuts of 2016. This follow-up for Better Listen is similarly impressive. It sees him showcase a range of tracks that fuse a hip-hop, sample-digging mentality with the dusty, soul-flecked deep house swing of Chicago and Detroit's jazzier producers. The rich and organic sounding opener "Hearty & Healthy"- all hip-hop vocal samples, spacey boogie synth breakdowns and MPC-driven deep house beats - is particularly alluring, though the 'Disco Mix' of "Dynamite" is also superb. The liquid deep house funk of "Beer Machine", where disco samples pop in and out of a rich backing track, feels like a late night anthem in waiting.

Patrick Luca (Saft | Pulp | Born), CISCO CISCO, Secret Reels, Corbi, Replika (aka Common Mode), Fabietto Delgado (Melgado), Jacques Renault, Closed Paradise, Superbreak, Kisk, JP Source, Mike W - Kolour LTD, Osmose, Jemaho, Sleazy Beats Recordings, Evan Michael, DJ P-SOL, Better Listen Records, Nebraska, Ponty Mython, 80's Child, Shaka (Kolour LTD, Local Talk), Giles Dickerson, HEIGHTS, Louis Hughes (Two Deep), The Silver Rider (Whiskey Disco), Ari Bald, Tilman, Fouk, Whiskey Pickle Records