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Review: When interviewed around the release of the first Hercules & Love Affair album in 2008, main man Andy Butler did little to hide his house influences, despite that set's loose disco vibe. Since then, he's continued to pursue a retro-futurist house agenda, and here re-states his credentials with a DJ Kicks mix that happily joins the dots between vintage New York house and garage, acid, contemporary revivalist fare and the odd foray into dubwise electrofunk territory (see the thriller from Mankind). It's an excellent representation of what you could expect from one his basement-bothering DJ sets and is jam-packed with largely overlooked fare from the '80s and '90s.

Review: Let the sermon begin - Detroit techno legend and innovator Robert Hood steps up to deliver the latest installment of !k7's legendary DJ Kicks series and it's an edition well worthy of attention. The ordained minister leaves the minimal techno sound that he helped pioneer, for powerful, big room techno on this highly anticipated mix. Despite his famously linear approach, here he builds tension between tracks with suspenseful breakdowns throughout. Highlights include the direct impact of his own "Focus" and its factory floor stomp, his hypnotic rework of Landside's "Signs Of Change", the seething tension of Slam's "Remain" and the return of Space DJz' Ben Long who teams up with Belgian veteran Tom Hades on the sci-fi epic "The Knight Rider".