Search dance music

Review: Here comes Emotional Rescue and Konduko's last in their series of Noel Williams/King Sporty reissues, this time looking at later electro productions and the hip-hop/boogie influenced 'Sun Country'. Vocals and co-production come from Williams' long-time partner Betty Wright and as well as a vocal and instrumental mix there's a longform remix by Bay Area disco dub stalwarts, 40 Thieves.
By this point in his career, the godfather of Miami Bass had travelled a long way from his Jamaican roots in reggae and soul, paying homage to the warm climbs of the Sunshine State and laying down a much copied template using the TR-808 drum machine create the electronic emulations of the breakbeat, claps accenting the backbeat and trademark low frequencies shaking the floorboards. The instrumental stretches the arrangement, emphasising the interplay between electronics, bass, vocal samples, scratching and fx, the voice transformed into a percussive element in its own right. The flip sees 40 Thieves flexing their understated understanding of electro funk, making for a rounded, generation-jumping package.

Review: Spring has sprung and Statues bring some positive vibrations to IIB. Clear skies is a shimmering Alan Parsonsesque cosmic groove beaming out into the atmosphere Coyote soften the OG into a fading twilight reflection. The Vendetta suite create a mesmeric ambient gem The Creek continues the kaleidoscopic feel with a soothing dreamlike trip towards a lovely vocal finish. Nothing but clear skies all round.

Review: NX12X is the first in a new series of experimental records from this label and the artists given the keys for the inaugural release are Goldsmiths student and modular synth maestro Sam Hostettler and electronic innovator La Leif who tackle a pair of tracks each. Hostettler's sounds are the moody, heavy ambient atmospheres of 'Pointalims' and the more light and airy li-fi soundscapes of 'Opalescence.' La Leif offers broken beats with a skeletal feel and a burial-style synth aesthetic on 'Kyoto' and then crunchy breaks and fizzing, distorted synth malfunctions of 'Kimochi.'

Review: Motor City mainstay and former Slum Village associate DJ Dez Andres has many skills up his sleeve from mad scratching to vibrant Latin flavour mixes that draw on his Cuban heritage via dusty house rollers and deep hip-hop gems. Here he mixes all that up on a new EP for Beretta Music that is now available on purple vinyl. His sunny and delightful melodies are present and correct in each cut, as are his signature slouchy and hip-hop-inspired drums. All four of the tunes hit the sweet spot but the funky boucle of 'Back To Nature' is one that really stands out here.

Review: The Carver Area High School Seniors' 'Get Live '83 (The Senior Rap)' is a stone cold party hip hop classic. It has been out of print for some four decades, however, and so has become a rather hard to find and expensive record. Thankfully, Soul Jazz Records have got the rights to this full reissue which was first pressed in 1982 on the private press label Challenger. The cut featured as the standout on Soul Jazz Records' recent 'Yo! Boombox' collection and now standalone as a seven minute stunner. It's an old school party disco delight with great rap and killer beats, all presented with the original artwork.

Review: As well as serving up a mighty fine new 2 x 12" on Radio Slave's Rekid this summer, UK techno titan Mark Broom has also assumed his Visitor alias (along with Dave Hill) for this remastered reissue of their Basement Life EP on D1 Recordings out of Ireland. 'Model Two' opens up with a deeper than usual sound that is peppered with nice heady melodic phrase and smeared chords and on the flip 'The Last Time' cuts loose on a broken beat with crispy hits and lunching bass that draws you in time and time again.

Review: Back in 2020, hip-hop, breaks and electro stalwart Freddy Fresh decided to turn his hand to vintage-sounding house and techno, self-releasing a set of tracks called The Harvest online. Rawax were impressed, with the popular label deciding to put the pick of the cuts out on vinyl. Title track 'The Harvest' sets the tone, with the veteran producer wrapping a house-tempo, post-electro groove in sustained organ chords, spacey synths and bubbly electronic melodies. 'House-Spanner' sees him doff a cap to The Middle of Nowhere-era Orbital (seriously, it's very reminiscent of the Hartnoll brothers' late '90s output), while 'Misunderstood' is a woozy, delay-laden chunk of early morning U.S deep house. Elsewhere, the deep house dreaminess continues on the interestingly swung 'Twain', and clonking, TB-303 speckled 'Horlywagon'.

Review: Iranian DJ/producer Ramtin Niazi (1000PA, Ben & Jerry, KAHKLI Cru) inaugurates new imprint Needlessness with some sleek and ravey tech funk on his new offering titled 'Reaction'. It comes with two remixes: London's Voigtmann (of Toi Toi fame) injects more groove into proceedings with his minimalist take, while Tbilisi-based Giorgi Koberidze aka Cobert (Casa Voyager/Partisan) equally impresses with his swing-fuelled electro beat re-rub, over on the flip.

Review: Andrea Ferlin is the Italian DJ and producer who heads up the Sleep Is Commercial label. His latest release however comes courtesy of Germany's Pleasure Zone, featuring two advanced and breakbeat-driven minimal cuts. On the first side of Crepuscular Beats Part 2 is the lean and subtle groove business of 'Thai' featuring enough atonal blips and clipped rhythms to soundtrack Sunday morning mischief, while the equally reduxed B-side cut 'Varia' is another hypnotic affair benefiting from a sparse and experimental arrangement.

Review: LNS and DJ Sotofett explore a new direction on their latest EP, 'The Reformer,' released on Tresor Records. Moving away from their debut album, the duo fuses digital artifacts, scanner sounds, and vocoder voices with melodic colors that radiate across cold electro landscapes. The opening track, 'Reform,' takes a deep dive into the electro sound, while 'Plexistorm' blends synthesised strings with arpeggiated acidic bleeps. 'Electric Terraforming' uncovers charged energy sources for life on another planet, and '909 The Controller' features washes of dub over a skipping beat, with a slow, rippling melody and percolating synths. The vinyl version includes exclusive locked grooves by DJ Sotofett.

Review: The Valley and the Mountain aka TVTM aka Josh Dahlberg makes a bold return with 'A Number of Northwests', an EP which tells the tale of an artist in transition. Quite literally, that is, as he moved from Detroit's westside to the very far edges of the Pacific Northwest. Musical this is a stylistically diverse offering with four cuts starting with the mid-tempo smooth grooves of 'Bretton Drive' and glistening synths and pads of the cosmically minded 'Grand River Slide'. The chugging 'Ramps to Nowhere' is a dubbed out afters classic and then the one and only dusty deep house don DJ Aakmael remixes it into another cuddly classic.

Review: Apogee Music's debut vinyl EP premieres this week. Italian melodic techno trio Folual's talent shines through four powerful tracks, accompanied by remixes from Italy's T78 (Autektone) with his pounding dub techno rework of 'Ghosts' and Swedish veteran Tiger Stripes with a peak time rework of 'Scanner'. The vinyl's exceptional sound quality adds to its allure. Don't miss this impressive release by Folual and Apogee. Tracks arranged, recorded, and mixed by Alessandro Bianchi and Luca Antolini at Apogee Music Studio, with production by Folual.

Review: Label boss Ben Jones steps up to curate the third outing on Before. It finds him working with Benjamin Joseph on opener 'Soothe', a stripped-back and warm house roller with crisp hits. Robert James then remixes with a more broken vibe and old-school baselines. On the flip, James then steps up with 'Dmode' with its a punchy cut with drilling bass and tripped-out effects. Ben Jones & Benjamin Joseph then return the remix favour with their own take on 'Dmode'. It's darker and more heads down, with silky synths and plenty of late-night intrigue keeping you locked.

Review: Few artists can genuinely to have carved their own niche within electronic music, but with the Don't DJ project, Florian Meyer has done just that. Describing his sound is notoriously difficult, but in essence it offers up a kind of twisted, ritualistic, leftfield take on tribal-influenced sounds that employs unusual, often highly complex rhythms. His latest single, which acts as a taster for his forthcoming album on Berceuse Heroique, offers a neat summary. 'Lemon Garlic' is a superb, near 15-minute workout in which looped, marimba style melodic loops, mutilated flute samples, breezy lead lines and tropical noises rise above an impossible-to-describe percussive rhythm. Wah Wah Wino crewmember Morgan Buckley provides the flipside remix, adding live bass and exotic instrumentation to a re-tooled, four-to-the-floor take on Meyer's polyrhythmic groove.

Review: Community minded eclecticists Neighbourhood continue their unifying work with the latest boundary-bender from label co-boss Birke TM. With each cut sitting in a different tempo territory, he paints a vivid picture. 'I Dream Of Jeannie' is a mid-paced 160 jungle breeze while 'Eden' is a classic atmospheric two-stepper that wouldn't have gone amiss on GLR back in the day. Flip for a tempo dip as both cuts on the B smoulder with slow beauty. 'Sanctuary' hits like a cosmic UR escapade while 'Never Lose Touch' bids us an emotional and heartfelt 150BPM farewell. Visionary.

Review: .Anthem incoming! Having generated some powerful hype and attention online through an unofficial stream, Lyra's take on Ojerime's 'Give It Up 2 Me' now finally gets an official release on Leisure Collective. Capturing the universal turbo movement that's taking most genres by storm right now, each version tickles a different spot. The original is a pounding speed bass bumper, L Major brings some jungle magic to the mix while Limoux drops the tempo for a bubbly bass house cut. Finally Jag Limbo takes us all the way to trance town. All corners covered.

Review: .Aussie DJ/producer Monika Ross delivers a stellar EP of deep and groovy house music on London-based Discotech, a label dedicated to underground sounds. The 'Space Is The Place' EP features four tracks that showcase her talent for crafting smooth and hypnotic rhythms, warm and soulful chords, and subtle and playful vocals. From the uplifting title track to the funky closer 'The Way', Ross takes you on a journey through the cosmic realms of house music on this limited 12' vinyl.

Review: With previous sermons on the likes of Black Acre and Hooversound, Prayer now clasps his hands on burgeoning Irish label Spheres. As always his love for the foundations shines through as we're taken on a whirlwind tour through jungle, hardcore and rave. 'Set Me Free' nods towards that 92/93 era of atmospheric hardcore and jungle which the likes of Jack Smooth was behind. 'Breakthrough' goes a bit deeper into the foundations with its slower tempo and four beat energy while 'Reteoric' closes the EP with pure euphoria. Oh Prayer, ye of plenty faith.

Review: Straight off the back of Nicolo's deep, dubby broken beat escapade, Baroque Sunburst strike again with two beguiling breakbeat originals from rising Milan-based Brazilian talent Worli. 'Dynamo' is a purring, rolling tribal breaks piece with strong undertones of techno that you could imagine anyone playing from Villalobos to Meat Katie. 'Breathe - Dance' meanwhile takes a more glacial, up-tempo twist as a foggy, steppy slab of drum & bass that's reminiscent of a Metalheadz B-side or something you'd find on Samurai. Complete with a nutty junglistic remix from Etch and you're packing serious heat. .

Review: Elevated Senses is the new series from the prolific Berlin-based producer Todo Kunst aka Zug (aka Gruvaldo among many others), this time exploring such concepts with the third eye, premonitions, telepathy and other arcane subjects. On the A-side you've got the deep groove of 'Tercer Ojo' followed by the late night affair of 'Premonition' - both on a housey tip. Over on the flip is the subtle computer funk 'Telepatia' and finally 'Seres De Luz' is a contemplative IDM affair that's perfect for drifting beyond the afterhours.

Review: Tommy Largo is a big deal in the world of jacking house and here he lands on Greenhouse Recordings with plenty of evidence to support that. His sound comes steeped with Southern influences on opener 'BBQ Ribs' with its noodling jazz chords and spoken word mutterings making for a lively atmosphere over funky beats. The Jam Funk Remix has a Chicago bump to it with the jazzy keys left in place over well-swung drums. 'On No Not Again' hints at new jack swing with its steamy sax lines and effortlessly catchy groove before 'BBQ Ribs' (Oddphonic remix) closes out with the deepest sound of the lot, perfect for when the sun has gone down and the party heads indoors.

Review: Winthorpe Electronics signs up Dublin musician and producer Daniel Jacobson aka ZOiD for his debut on the label. What a fine one it is too with a real creative freedom in the melodies and rich sense design bringing each of these curveball cuts to life. '2-Oh-Techno' is a loose mix of bumpy drums and smeared chords, zippy leads and pixelated melodies that shine bright. 'Winthrope Acrid 2C (2-5s On The 303)' is then a double-time and wonky workout with a collage of synth textures all intertwining. 'Sunrise Acid' is another unusual but effective techno cut with a happy heart and 'Megajazz Acidhops' is a final collision of synths and rhythms that leaves you wanting more.

Review: Canada's Aquaregia comes of age with a 20th EP that continues in its own tradition of serving up emotional techno rollercoasters. Nicola Dal Sacco is behind this one with opener 'Wirrwarr' layering in bright tartan chords to deep linear drums. 'Gelato' takes on a more undulating form with soft acid lines changing shape throughout and 'Parapiglia' layering up more deft acid, progressive melodies and serene synths. 'Linea' flips the script with a slow-motion dub cut for late-night star-gazing. This is well-crafted techno with a real emotional impact.

Review: .

Review: Martin James Ziggy Norman Riley deiced that he would be known as Jimmy Riley when in recording more. The Jamaican singer worked solo but also as part of the Sensations. Here he worked with producer Freddie McGregor on a contemporary lovers rock jam that was originally released back in 1993. 'Badda Than Them' has great patois vocals over fresh production that has clean digital synths over clipped beats and plenty of swaggering and original dub style bass weight. On the flip you get two different versions that tweak and tease out different elements from the original.