OLIVER DOLLAR レコード& CD

Review: Oliver Dollar sure knows how to cook up a catchy hook and he has done so many times before on several labels. For this one he lands on Berlin mainstay Rekids and brings a very different sounds to the label's norm. Opener 'Strings For Life' is lush, airy and golden with rich strings soaring high above a soulful, rolling and simple but effective house groove. 'School Daze' is a loopy one with funky bass, jazzy chords and more timeless house drums all topped off with a retro vocal sample. 'Sophisticated Funk' is just that with its balmy and summery loops of filtered house goodness. Joyous tunes for sure, these.

Review: We can think of a few reasons why you should check out this collaborative EP from Oliver Dollar. Chief amongst those is title track 'Braeburn', a luscious chunk of tactile and emotive deep house that layers looped, 'Deep Burnt' style string samples and dewy-eyed easy listening vocal snippets around Salsoul Orchestra-inspired disco-house beats. Demuir Playboi offers up a re-edit of his own on the flip, casually re-framing the track as a more bumpin' chunk of peak-time house full of jammed-out electric piano motifs and bolder bass. Elsewhere, Brillstein collaboration 'Roots' is a dustier deep house excursion, while 'Dope Tool' is an echo-laden, disco-fired drum dub that's guaranteed to add energetic excitement to any DJ mix.

Review: Part one of Refuge's new La Decima V/A 12" series hears select tunes from select artists, all of whom have made significant contributions to the label's catalogue over the years. Spanning everything from firmly driven nu-disco to scratch n' sniff garage house to Chi-style stompers, we're more than enthralled by this well-rounded resonator. The best of the bunch has to be Demuir's 'Vibez High', which moves unabashed and stringy, its clawing claps, freeze-locked funk licks and scraping open hats painting a vivid street scene set outside the house.