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Review: Gold standard house label Razor-N-Tape looks back to Guinu's modern LP of Brazilian jazz-funk, Palago^, and has some key cuts from it remixed by a selection of assured studio hands here. First up, Jose Marquez reworks the title track into a heavy and hypnotic jam with big percussion. The Faze Action remix of 'Haha Fe' brings some fresh disco sounds and RNT stalwart Diogo Strausz brings big room synth energy and cosmic vocal filters. Last of all, Brazilian Carrot Green brings the 80s boogie brilliance to 'Porao de Ferro.'

Review: Thrill Jockey present a sumptuous accompaniment to Wooden Ships' excellent LP West in the form of this Remixes EP which surely wins artwork of the week hands down! With Andrew Weatherall and Spaceman 3's Sonic Boom called on to provide the remixes, you can bet the music matches the presentation here. Weatherall steps up first with a sprawling, intoxicatingly psychedelic rendition of "Crossing" that swerves the gripping feedback of the original towards a throbbing arpeggio pulse and grinding bass line. The Sonic Boom contribution is altogether more ambitious with "Wiking Stew" Pete Kember's self styled "Red Krayola-ing" of the many tracks from the album into one heady, delay laden melange of brilliance.

Review: Jamie Paton has been a regular fixture on [Emotional] Especial since the label first came to light, conjuring up a seductive blend of leftfield dance music with a broad range of influences. This time around he's turning out some of his remixes, leading in with the sweaty, dense throb of Sexy Merlin's "See You In The Dark". Guy Schlalom's "Habibi" by way of contrast becomes a lighter confection peppered with bubbly synth lines and an almost poppy persuasion. Blancmange's "Feel Me" has a more cosmic lilt in its voluminous tones, and "Overdrive" by Gatos Negros drifts out on an off-kilter kind of boogie for all manner of deviant dancers to get head-nodding to.

Review: Emotional Especial comes together with Future Nuggets for a "Special" one-off collaboration. Reinterpreting the music of Steaua de Mare are four remixes from rising (Eastern) stars Khidja and Mehmet Aslan.

The first in a short series of Especial "Specials" - where new artists are brought together for unique releases - we start by teaming up with Future Nuggets to present again the sonic offshoot in the unique band, Steaua de Mare. Returning in remix form, songs from their self-titled album, as well as extra additions, are specially reworked.

First Khidja take album track Babadag to new psychedelic depths, adding multiple layers of guitar and synths, all inexhaustibly dubbed and re-dubbed until a whole new track emerges for the more discerning minds.

Next Mehmet Aslan is focused on the dance-floor, carefully reconstructing new track Shop into a club orientated groove, aiming straight at the feet with inevitable results. On the flip, Mehmet then reworks album highlight, Doamne ce greseala am, amassing tension in careful, subtle ways, crafting a version that is a proper meeting of hearts and minds.

To finish, Khidja return to remix the previously unreleased 1 Septembrie. Going to great lengths in managing a myriad of details, with balearic, kraut, pseudo-disco and exotica reverberations all pulsating, here then are on point examples of remix manipulation. A perfect way to start this series and showcase these wonderful artists.

Review: Especial returns to its concept of taking music it loves - in this case Sfire's debut EP - and remixing them for a stand-alone release. Teaming up with Berlin's Cocktail d'Amore Music, mixing desk duties are taken by newcomer Kris Baha, as well as label mainstays Jamie Paton and INHALT and the esteemed Lauer.

Sfire's debut EP was one of those records that comes out to little fanfare but steadily becomes a sought after classic - something unique and until the recent repress was unsurprisingly going for casino money on the second hand market.

Following Discodromo's remix of Khidja (EES019) the EP was born with an aim to include all 3 originals in remixed form. Prime space is given to Melbourne / Berlin producer Kris Baha. With is Power Station label and parties now names to watch, plus releases upcoming on Kinfolk and Bahnsteig23, his version of Sfire 2 takes the original's prominent 80s' heartfelt influences and adds arpeggio's, shredded guitar and DMode keys on a bumping, throbbing journey down the Cosmic Hole.

Next Jamie Paton goes deep, with subdued arps, dubbed percussion and haunting bass refrain, all pulsing the vocals to a Distant Dreams meets Goodbye Horses sonnet.

This is backed with versions of Sfire 3. First San Fran's INHALT return with their unique modern Italo and West Coast Cold Wave mix, adding guitar and bass on a trip across the trans-peninne highway from Mancs to Sheffield and back with love.

Finally, Lauer's killer 303, electro reversion is the apt end. A remix that is more than a simple Synth-Pop retake, with 909s lifting the EP to finale. "You felt so close to me..."

Review: Emotional Especial and Cocktail d'Amore Music enter 'cahoot-mode' once again with a second round of Sfire remixes that take proceedings down a deeper, more stripped-back path courtesy of the inimitable Timothy J Fairplay and Willie Burns. Two artists who need little introduction offer up two remixes each that take the unique original to new dance floor extremes. Timothy steps up first with his take on "Sfire 2" via differing vocal and instrumental versions. His trademark, echo laden rolling percussion and John Carpenter-style key lines take the original Synth-pop homage to the dark room. Adding Arps, a lifting, hedonistic breakdown and the scatter-stepper drums and claps found on the Instrumental version and this is pure COTF territory and the better for it. Mr Willie Burns meanwhile has long followed his own path for his take on "Sfire 3", offering one of his deepest remixes to date. Thudding kick, brooding pads and dark strings force the vocals to go down, way down for examination. The distorted vocals of Remix 1 are countered by Remix 2 letting the track shine via a seemingly endless 4/4 beat. Psychedelic, trance inducing, pulsating, this is an ever growing mind expanse.

Review: Released on the Night Time Stories Ltd subsidiary of Late Night Tales last year, Khruangbin's debut album, The Universe Smiles Upon You, was quite the unique proposition; a wholly psychedelic homage to '60s Thai rock/funk. Tracks from that LP form the basis of this latest 12" from Future Boogie's own sub-label Boogie Futuro which, as the title suggests, features some killer remixers doing their thing to Khruangbin. Session Victim bring a sense of deep house class to "The Man Who Stole My Sunglasses," identifying some cooing vocal tones that work so well amidst the shuffle of their Hamburg groove, whilst DJ Milo's tweak of "Balls & Pins" proves he's lost none of his talent for using samples effectively. Maribou State get their percussion on with the heat-treated take on "People Everywhere", leaving Vuelo to deliver a sense of space with his dubbed out revision of "Zionsville."

Review: Following up on their highly acclaimed debut release from 2020, raster presents Il Quadro di Troisi's Remixes album, an eclectic collection of reinterpretations of eight of the group's tracks. By inviting fellow label artists as well as friends and long-term collaborators to contribute, Remixes flaunts a broad spectrum, from colorful, loop-based renditions by Toulouse Low Trax and Tropicantesimo, to (Italo)-disco-inspired versions by Daniele Baldelli & Marco Dionigi and Chloe, to more rhythmical and functional tracks by AtomTM, Dasha Rush and Front de Cadeaux. The album also includes a dub-infused reinterpretation of the original album 'Il giudizio' by the artists themselves; all tracks amount to womping, texturologic electro-dub-outs, and dazzle with their no-wavey, muted sophistication.

Review: It's a while since we last heard from Bruno 'Patchworks' Hovart's Afro-disco focused Violaaa project, so this surprise set of remixes of back catalogue tracks is more than welcome. Fittingly, three of the versions come from Hovart himself under different aliases. There's a fine, tropical-tinged, sun-splashed Violaaa revision of 'Tu Mens Divant Moi' that doffs a cap to zouk music, and two deep house-tinged Patchworks versions of classic cuts. The mix of the outfit's underground hit 'Spies Are Watching Me' is a brilliant alternative take on a familiar favourite (it certainly breathes new life into the track), while the samba-house-in-Ghana revision of 'Ben Bene La' is brilliant. Throw in a quality J Kriv deep nu-disco version of 'Ku La Foon' and you have an excellent EP of tasteful, club-ready cuts.