New releases this week: Progressive House

Review: Having dipped into the label's bulging archives earlier in the year to offer up a freshly remastered edition of 'Klarky Kat' by Gumbo (a rare collaboration between label bosses Attaboy and Swag's Chris Duckenfield), Toko has returned to the vaults for another essential reissue. 'In Too Deep' hails from 1997, when it marked the fifth release on the Sheffield-based imprint. Reflective of the sound played at legendary Sheffield deep and tech-house party Scuba, the title track is a sultry and saucer-eyed affair, with sustained synth-strings, tactile riffs and luscious melodic motifs wrapping around an hypnotic deep house-meets-tech-house groove. In contrast, 'In Deeper' is a much more minimalistic, tech-tinged affair, close in sound and tone to Swag productions of the period - all deep, undulating bass, effects-laden weirdo noises and locked-in beats.

Review: Hostom is both an artistic moniker and a record label, controlled by producer and mastering engineer Varhat Veliere, acting under the aegis of their very own distribution company, based in France. Veliere has kept the Hostom arm of their craft since 2015, dropping myriad creative works centring on weirdo atmospheric house. This latest, seventh edition to the imprint hears just four new untitled ones hit the worthy shelves and all of them are unusually serene, off-guard-catching forays into unseen psychedelic worlds, whether evoked simply by the weird, wondrous and bubbly sounds heard throughout; or literally narrated by pop-psychedelic guru Terence McKenna (Track 3).

Review: Global Underground is an enduring label and brand when it comes to dance music mix CDs. It has put out countless seminal entries in years gone by and now returns with Unique, a bumper collection across four sides of heavyweight neon green marbled vinyl from plenty of today's most interesting prog house producers. There are plenty of variations on that theme here, with Sasha Carassi going dark and tense, Florian Kruse exploring a more stripped back vibe and AFFKT offer lush synth arps that will wash over vast crowds in any main room on 'Coral.' A great snapshot of the current prog scene, then.