Tags: New Jersey Garage

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.

Review: Kerri Chandler's first album in over 14 years, 'Spaces and Places', is a celebration of club and sound system culture. The album features 24 tracks, each inspired by and recorded at a different club around the world, such as Ministry of Sound, Sub Club, Watergate, Output NYC and more. The album showcases the veteran NYC producer and DJ's signature sound of soulful, deep and groovy house music, with vocals, piano, sax, strings and synths. 'Spaces and Places' is a testament to Chandler's love for music and dancefloors.

Review: Last year, Kiko Navarro unveiled a regularly updated Spotify playlist, entitled TwentyFour, which he uses to showcase his favourote productions, reworks of other artists, an d remixes if his work. That playlist has now spawned the first of what we believe will be an ongoing series of EPs. The long-serving Spanish artist (and Afroterraneo Music founder) begins by showcasing his fine, pleasingly rolling re-edit of Blaze's hybrid soulful house/Earth Wind & Fire style disco classic, 'Breathe', before treating us to a superb, sample-heavy and piano-rich Tucillo remix of his own 'The First Time'. Over on side B, he serves up some bouncy disco-house action ('Jammin' All Night Long', with its female spoken word vocals, jazzy pianos and killer groove) and an authentic-sounding Afrobeat re-make of 'Isao' by DJ Fudge.

Review: Todd 'the God' Edwards might now be a household name, who in particular is revered for his contributions to the early sounds of UKG, but he first rose to fame in the early 90s amid New York's bustling underground where hundreds of producers competed for recognition weekly. His innovative sound with its rhythmic cut-and-paste vocal samples, rubbery basslines and slapping percussion set him apart and in 1994, as The Sample Choir, he released this fine EP on Nervous Records. It was huge over here in the UK and played a pivotal role in transforming Britain's Sunday club scene into the cultural phenomenon of speed garage.

Review: The Peppermint Jam label is buzzing to be serving up a true house music classic from 1991: Urban Soul ft. Roland Clark's 'Alright!' is an iconic track that was originally written and produced by house legend Roland Clark. It now has been revamped for today's house lovers with some modern production heft. Vocal credits go to Roland and the late Ceybill Jeffries of course as both voices remain prominent here but the remixes are massive, with DJ Spen and MicFreak delivering a soulful masterclass featuring fresh chords and an irresistible bassline. Mellow Man, one of Peppermint Jam's early artists, adds a jackin' groove that takes things back to house music's glory days. These mixes are vinyl only so do not snooze.