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Review: New to Running Back is the latest record from Raphael Schon, best known for his enduring hit 'Fiesta 2000'; here the Augsburger develops that track's sound with a similarly irreverent set of lub-dubs, six to be exact. Never once skipping a beat (don't panic, palpitators), the likes of 'Baerhit', 'Breathe' and 'Do You Like That' scour the recollective depths of a childhood spent ingesting Italo, house and electro-disco, albeit bringing a modern flair to the mix via warming pad cloaks and janky, intermittent lead synthetic daggers, all to back up the crucial 4x4. Despite its mood of joy, 'Heart Times' was conceived during a very emotionally turbulent time for Schon, owing to its later vocal beltings and emotional groundswells. Danke, Schon.

Review: Dusky enjoy lofty status in the UK underground after many years of putting out streams of assured deep-house goodness. They have done so on plenty of well-regarded labels and now return to Gerd Jansen's mighty fine Running Back for Life Signs Vol 3. Opener 'Wildfire' is a fizzy one with intense synth lines layered up next to ambient pads and dreamy vocal mutterings that all make for a fine post-rave comedown. 'Tea Cake' also harks back to the 90s with a dusty breakbeat rhythm powered by a fat bassline and twinkling keys. Flipside jam 'High' brings piano energy and 'Hawthorn' has an old school Chicago feel. Dusky cover plenty of ground in good fashion here.

Review: Numbers hold the key to unlock the universe. So, a six-pack can either consist of six bottles of beer, very well developed stomach muscles or in our case: a string of smash hits. To take it even further, it's exactly six tracks for the sixth part of the VA-series that is One Swallow Doesn't Make A Summer. Hit men include friends new and old: Llewellyn, Stereocalypse, Zillas On Acid, Storken & Hammer, Ede, SeNor Chugger & Count Van Delicious. The pace is cool and hot at the same time. Rave signals by Ede foil the nouveau disco by Stereocalypse or Storken & Hammer, Llewellyn does a classic house piano hop, Zilles On Acid deliver mid-tempo acid, and last, but not least, SeNor Chugger & Count Van Delicious strike a delicious pose.

Review: Gerd Janson's Running Back seemingly has no borders or boundaries when it come to the sort of music it will put out. Next up is Partiboi69 with Call of The Void, a zippy outing that kicks off with the psychoactive synth swirls and hurried beats of 'Playin'' while 'Bodies' is a sleazy and ghetto-tinged tech pumper with well-treated vocals and big old school piano chords that endlessly stab away. 'Feel This' brings a subtly celebratory mood with splashy cymbals and wispy cosmic pads darting about up top and 'Call Of The Void' shuts down with a deeper house sound but one still lit brightly by the astral pads.

Review: Remember Digitalism? The German duo formed in Hamburg in 2004 and in the years after Jens "Jence" Moelle and Ismail "Isi" Tufekci went on to make dance music that people rocked to. It came as part of the high energy and highly textured blog house scene but leaned more on electro and made them main stage festival favs who made an entry into the DJ-kicks mix series and plenty of epic tunes. Well now after three years out they return to Running Back - the last label they appeared on in 2020 - for some more raved-up electro bangers.

Review: You always know what you are going to get with Running Back - and we mean that in terms of quality rather than any one particular musical style. Gerd Janson's label does what it wants but never fails to set the floor alight. Here it is Krystal Kevlar who brings his own brand of main room house. Like so much stuff right now, 'Endeavour' has a 90s bent with its sweeping chord sequences before 'Americana' takes you on a deeper and more undulating groove. 'Tokyo Flower' is a festival tune for hands-in-the-air moments and 'Excelerator' then sinks down into more trippy techno territory.

Review: Since making his Running Back bow 12 years ago, Sebastien Kramer has periodically returned to Gerd Jansen's label to deliver EPs (and one memorable album). Acid Leak is his eighth release in total for the imprint, and as the title suggests makes extensive use of sounds created by the small-but-mighty TB-303. Kramer sets the tone with the title track, a triumphant blend of acid house and Detroit techno sounds featuring some classic, Underground Resistance style synth strings, before cannily combining rising and falling melodies, buzzing electronics and undulating acid lines on 'Wing Wing'. 'Acid Flow' is a more jacking, forthright and mind-mangling slab of breathless peak-time brilliance, while 'Frantic' sees the experienced German producer join the dots between sci-fi-powered excellence and tactile deepness.

Review: Roman Flugel has been one of the European underground's most consistent and innovative names over the last 20 + years working on everything from acid to minimal to tech. He shows a slightly different look on this new EP for Running Back with a disco-tinged and happy melodic house cut 'Lucky Charm' taking up the a-side in three slightly different versions. The flip then has three more originals - 'Luv Armour' is a zippy house cut with big percussive energy and 'Whatever This Is' is then a beautifully innocent and playful cut with naive melodies. 'Film 4' is a moody downbeat piece to close out a varied and vital outing.

Review: Italian producer Fango has been busily building up his own sound world via his Degustibus Music label, but now he makes a strident move into the wider world with this outstanding record for Running Back. The authoritative tech house label knows its onions, and you can tell why they were drawn to these distinctive, inventive twists on the formula. 'Dimetrodonte' in particular is the kind of freaky workout which will get people paying close attention thanks to some artful vocal sample juggling, while there's some subtly anthemic joy to be felt in the likes of 'Diplodoco' which once again finds original ways to express classic ideas in the tech house tradition.