Tags: Garage Classics

Review: It would be fair to say that Roy Davis Jr and Peven Everett's "Gabriel" (originally written "Gabrielle" on early pressings) has become a timeless dance music classic - a track that both soulful house and UK garage DJs reach for in times of trouble. Should it not be in your collection already (and it should be), Large Music has decided to re-master and re-press the original 1996 12". It does, of course, contain the now ubiquitous "Live Garage" version - the groovy two-step, trumpet-laden mix that became popular with early UK garage DJs - plus a trio of lesser-known remixes. The Tambourine Dub, in particular, is something of a tough, warehouse-friendly deep house treat.

Review: It's been a long time coming, but finally Defected's producer and remixer-focused House Masters series has turned its attention to the undisputed Godfather of House himself, the late, great Frankie Knuckles. This first part (of two) fittingly opens with the track that originally set out his melodious, warm, colourful and loved-up trademark sound, the Jamie Principle collaboration 'Your Love', before flitting between genuine anthems (legendary remixes of Loose Ends' 'Hangin' On a String' and 'Blind' by Hercules and Love Affair, the sleazy, acid house-era 'Baby Wants To Ride', the exceptional 'Hallucinogenic Mix' of Chaka Khan's 'Ain't Nobody') and arguably more overlooked gems (the garage-house wonders that are his remixes of Adeva and Sounds of Blackness).

Review: Defected's House Masters series tribute to Frankie Knuckles is being released as two double LPs, but it could have easily been four or five, such is the quality of the tracks and remixes that the 'Godfather of House' produced during his lifetime. Naturally this second and final part is full to bursting with colourful, tactile and wonderfully saucer-eyed classics - many familiar, some slightly less so - which deserve a place in your collection. Picking highlights is naturally tough, but for proof of Knuckles' unassailable musical majesty and dancefloor magic it's hard to beat the Sound Factory mix of 'The Whistle Song', the low-tempo house bliss of his remix of Inner City's 'Whatcha Do With My Lovin', the Satoshi Tomiie/Robert Owens hook-up 'Tears' and his incredible revision of Electribe 101's 'Talking With Myself'.

Review: Nu Groove's ongoing edits series turns its attention to one of the legendary NYC's most iconic early release, Bas Noir's 1988 garage-house classic 'My Love Is Magic' - a piano-powered vocal number fronted by two female singers from New Jersey and produced by the Burrell Brothers. Their original club mix is featured (A2), alongside a trio of fresh re-edits. Bushwacka kicks things off with a deeper, more sonically detailed and marginally punchier rework that makes much of the Burrell brothers' percussion and piano stabs, before Mark Broom takes over on side two. His 'dub retouch' fittingly sounds like a piano solo-sporting NYC house dub of the late 1980s - no bad thing in our book - while his more revolutionary 'A12 mix' re-casts the track as a harder, heavier peak-time loop jam.