DJS: MOST CHARTED - DEEP HOUSE - MOST CHARTED IN APRIL 2013

Review: Bringing a soft-focus Balearicism to deep house, Ben La Desh follows up on his inaugural release for Sleazy Beats Black Ops with a batch of simmering cuts that embrace the deep just as they pack in the detail. "In The Back" keeps the vibe light and airy, using bright samples and a crisp drum groove to drift into carefree abandon. "Escape Route" gets moodier with more dramatic pads, and plenty of tension worked into the disco loop hooks, ever-building towards an unknown end destination. "Bohican Bossa" taps, unsurprisingly, into a subtle Latino flavour just as it bubbles away on a bed of shakers, complete with muted trumpets for that irresistible piquant flavour.

Review: ** MCDE REPRESS ** Dani Plessow dons the Motor City Drum Ensemble name with Say A Prayer signaling a return to the production game following his much publicized creative burnout. It's clear that Plessow's period of convalescence has worked wonders, with the four tracks here every bit as deep and dusty as the much vaunted Raw Cuts series upon which the MCDE project was launched skywards. Proceedings open with the two part suite of the title track, laying down fuzzy chords and intermittent vocal swoons over a gritty 909 backbone on the opening track; part 2 meanwhile will have you digging out those Raw Cuts 12"s in order to do a MCDE master mix, such is it's immediate warmth and neck snapping drums. On the flip, Plessow uses "The Stranger" as a chance to traverse bleepier, rattling techno terrain with superb results, whilst "SP11" is rasping high octane house at it's finest.

Review: The Kolour Ltd label breaks radio silence and does it in style with the heavy hitting It's House Not House EP featuring contributions from Bicep, Rick Wade and DJ Sprinkles! Finding themselves in such respected company, Bicep elect to celebrate their Kolour Ltd debut by granting "Feel It" the vinyl platform it deserves, with the track a much requested secret weapon of their DJ sets. Rick Wade keeps up his near 100% appearance record in the weekly release schedules with "Free" a gem from his late 90s past whilst the flip has DJ Sprinkles going deep in the producer's own inimitably vintage style across 11 minutes on "Kissing Costs Extra".

Review: Last time it was only Omar S that could do it; this time he's thanking us for letting him be Omar S. That's right the FXHE boss returns with an eagerly awaited new album brandishing some 14 tracks. Omar S albums naturally tend to sell themselves but, for those still curious, Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself sounds like a perfectly executed culmination of the ideas AOS has explored on the numerous 12"s since his last album. As soon as the crunchy mechanical dramatics of opening track "I'll Bring U Ah Lil Sumpin Back" launch into action you feel like you're in for quite the journey and the subsequent swerves through Detroit flavoured electro, piano flecked house, beatdown and techno come with satisfaction guaranteed.

Review: Trinidadian Deep delivers his first EP for Dubbyman's Deep Explorer label and he blends murky filters with warm waves of musicality to create an impassioned EP of tender, yet zealous sounds. Delicate flutes and scuzzy synths waver like shimmers or light cutting through tropical water in "Mind Fluid", while the aquarian keys of the EPs title track push the production closer to a sun drenched surface, yet it remains submerged by a fathomless bassline and diluted pads. Above Smoke, who runs Deep Explorer with Dubbyman, reworks "Vision & Sound", reducing the originals higher tones of musicality, while calming its percussive elements and adding a part-hummed part-sung vocal line.

Review: Hot on the heels of Ornate Music's last release featuring the bumping house business of Digs, the imprint set their sights on Welsh producer Leif, who has been turning heads with his masterful deep house for labels like Fear Of Flying and Fina since 2003. Kicking off with "Circumstance 4", whose smooth organ refrain drifts over a lightly rolling groove, the vibe switches up with "Every Cloud", whose gentle jazz-inspired piano and abstract, dubbed out soundscape is strongly reminiscent of Floating Points more freeform productions. However, it's "Each Day Made New" that provides the EP's most surprising moment, an Andres style hip-hop track with a cut-up, sunshine drenched quality calling Recloose to mind.

Review: The Atmospheric Existence label puts quality before quantity; therefore a new release from Miles Sagnia's operation is always something deep house enthusiasts should cast their sensory receptors over. Their first release of 2013 sees Sagnia feature alongside Thug Records artist Jacksonville and the mysterious Tales Ov Rossi for the Altitude EP. Label boss in call shotgun shock! Sagnia takes the lead with the wonderfully inventive "Alchemy" which drops a singular 303 tone intermittently between a hurried array of broken house and rushing chords; the results sound remarkably refreshing. Alongside it, Jacksonville is in full on star gaze house mode with "Tokyo" whilst Tales Ov Rossi 's "Flatpress" takes proceedings a whole lot deeper on the flip.

Review: Big manoeuvres as usual from the Wolf Music crew on their 18th release! Session Victim must rank amongst the most high profile inductees into the Wolf Music series so it makes perfect sense for the German duo to open proceedings with the classic slab of European deepness that is "Random Blues". Worthy of a Raw Cuts release, Session Victim weave dusty drums, sweet vocal intonations and the warmest of basslines together with the resultant laid back track likely to be much played in Croatia over the summer evenings. Complementing this, "Carry It" from Wolf Music regular Medlar adopts a similar hazy house tone whilst the flip holds a pair of newcomers in Squarehead and Ishmael - the latter's cut is particularly special!

Review: Intermittent producer Gari Romalis (first seen appearing in 1996 before re-emerging last year) follows on the fine form of Rick Wade and DJ Aakmael to drop the fourth instalment for Hizou Deep Rooted Music. As you might expect, low slung house is the order of the day with a focus on samples running through errant filters and steadfast rhythms, all shot through a blue-eyed hue. "Dance Demo" lets the drums do the talking and keeps the musical elements to a minimum, whilst "Pray" gets a touch more soulful with a sweet bass lick and distant chord that gets cut through with a crunchy clap. "Detroit Shuffle" has a disco pulse running through its veins even as the drums bump and hustle in a divine, rugged funk, while "First Love" heads into a more driving refrain that simmers in all the right places.

Review: Presenting the third and final instalment of his Codes & Metaphors LP on wax, Fred P couldn't be in ruder health if he tried as he shows off so many different sides of his musical personality. "Amazing" is a nasty acidic jam that stays in the deep end just as it hints at the brawn Fred can be capable of, without ever needing to resort to obvious displays of brute force. "Love Is" comes on softer, wrapping Malena Perez's soothing croon around healing pads and chords while the beat gets intricate and technical without ever making it obvious. Aybee's remix of "Love Is" is relatively straight forward in comparison, but has its own haunting charms to impart all the same.

Review: The latest transmission from the luxuriant world of Smallville is a various artists collection that continues to weave elegiac tales via deep house means. Iron Curtis is up first with some plaintive acid in the form of "Daniel", which works pads and tender beats around the heartfelt squelch with grace. Moomin is a little more prominent in the beat department for "I Whisper A Prayer", while also feeding a hint of disco romance into a slow and simmering cut. Jacques Bon has his own acid tale to tell, and does so with a bigger nod to the jack but still keeping things respectable given the surroundings, leaving it to Rvds & Rau to happily float off on a buoyant throwdown in "Umbe Data", all positive chords and hopeful strings over a simple beat to show it's not all mournful in Hamburg.

Review: Seemingly emboldening with every subsequent release, Chicago Damns make the fourth release on his label count with three solid statements on ear-snagging and head-grabbing modern house music. "Let Your Body Rule" has a seriously rough disco loop quality to it, calling to mind the visceral approach of Soundhack without going overboard on repetition. Beyond standard disco edit techniques, this is rugged enough to make people freak out on a whole other level. "Temporary Transgression" plots a more sensitive path into lilting layers of licks with wistful dashes of horns that burrows deep into the psyche without reaching for hard-hitting beats. "Pleasure" flips the script once more with a low-slung groover full of slap bass and dubby chord echoes over a fractured bump of a beat.

Review: Belfast lads done very good Bicep return with the Stash EP, their first full release of the year and it represents a triumphant return to Will Saul's Aus label with the. It's fair to say Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar ruled 2012, helping to pioneer a trend in backwards glancing house music across their various releases for Aus, Love Fever and their own Feel My Bicep label. So it makes for pleasant listening that Stash sees the duo expanding on their sound with four tracks more reflective of their personal tastes. The title track is full on peak time bliss which dovetails nicely with the glistening deepness of "Courtside Drama" and the chunk "Rise" which demonstrates a new found passion for infectious lead synth hooks. "The Game" offers a downtempo curveball, working in samples from HBO drama The Wire amidst a generally melancholic tone that owes more to Aphex Twin than Kerri Chandler.

Review: ** Repress of the reIssue ** Ooh if there's ever a deep house history lesson wrapped up in a 12" then it's this reissued Stomp The Beat EP from Gherkin Jerks aka the master Larry Heard. The Gherkin Jerks project originally surfaced back in 1988 with this 12" on the Chicago based Gherkin Records label, released anonymously at the request of Heard himself who viewed the Gherkin Jerks material as a creative experiment. Later revealed as the work of Larry Heard, original copies of Stomp The Beat rack up a pretty penny on Discogs so it's good work all round that the producer's Alleviated Records label has teamed up with Clone to release a digitally enhanced version. From the mind bending stereo panning of opening track "Don't Dis The Beat" it's easy to see why the Gherkin Jerks material has been so widely praised - Jamal Moss is a big fan - whilst the general off-key melodics and tough 909 arrangements of what follows still sound futuristic some 15 years on.

Review: Shout outs to Larry Heard for finally relenting to the numerous requests to reissue his highly prized Gherkin Jerks material through his own Alleviated label with some digitally enhancement help from the guys at Clone. The 1990 EP was the last of the two EPs that Heard anonymously released under the Gherkin Jerks name back in the late 80s as a creative experiment. Notably less unhinged than Stomp The Beat, the six percussively taut tracks here feel like Heard was reacting to the nascent strains of techno emanating from Detroit. Opener "Meltdown" for example is a rolling slab of pitched-down techno with sharp Motor City-esque synth stabs and nagging, incessant keys, whilst the interplanetary connotations are clear as crystal on tracks such as the beautifully chiming "Red Planet" and the pressurised funk of "Saturn V".

Review: This Lifting Weights 12" is foremost notable for being the first time in a long time that Pepe Bradock has released original material on a label other than his own Atavisme. Furthermore it represents the latest excellent Acid Test release from Los Angeles label Absurb Recordings, following previous contributions from Tin Man, Donato Dozzy, Holger Zilske and the Achterbahn D'Amour pairing of Edit Piafra and Iron Curtin. Both "Lifting Weights" and "Mujeres Nerviosas" were produced and programmed in LA, but subsequently "assembled" in Bradock's hometown of Paris and bring the kooky production eccentricities of the adored Frenchman to the fore. The latter track is particularly notable for the constant shift in structure and arrangement.

Review: This bumper 3x12" release sees Joe Babylon's Roundabout Sounds imprint enlisting the help of respected Detroit house artist Rick Wilhite to curate a compilation of unreleased house tracks from like-minded contemporaries under the appropriately titled Connecting The Compass. Highlights out of the 11 track compilation, which includes the likes of Theo Parrish, Baaz and Sean Tate are numerous, but there are several standout moments; Karizma's "I Think" lays tracky breakbeats over a sonorous synth melody, Marcellus Pittman's "Wolf & Moonbeams" pairs otherworldly synths and an improvised analogue melody with a low-slung bass led groove, and Norm Talley's "Track From The East" is a devastingly simple combination of driving claps and pitched organ chords.

Review: Lucretio of the Analogue Cops has a work rate comparable to that of a trolling internet gamer. Fortunately for us, Lucretio is not lost in a world of Warcraft, but a studio of drum machines, synthesisers and dusty samplers. It's hard to keep track of who is who in the Italian realm of beat-down house, with the flurry of aliases circulating the Appointment and Restoration camps, but Lucretio makes himself known with the five track Competing Motivations - his first eponymously credited work away from the Machine States label. Lucretio adorns the A-side with his trademark slamming drums, ear-shatter claps and filter melodies with the tracks "Want" and "Tell Me", the latter sounding like a frenetic '90s Laurent Garnier production pitched way down. The B-side's "The Great Fire" and "Quash" are slowed to hip hop tempos, given staggered and lazy beat design which sees improvisation butt up against the edges of awkward but enjoyable musicality. The repetitious "Not The Music" is remit of melodiousness, but a bi-product from a looped sample somehow becomes the tracks focal point

Review: The Thunder EP is the first release from Chicago Skyway, aka Sean Hernandez, since his collaboration with DCook on M>O>S Recordings in 2011. It is also Skyway's first release on Altered Moods Recordings, offering the Californian label three tracks, with an added remix. "Pink Donut" is a wall of ethereal noise, undulating in sound before breaking into a concussive mix of percussion. "Wet Flood" chimes with sharp triangle hits, as lo-fi chords wallow in the background, omitting an analogue vibe likened to much of L.I.E.S output. The EPs title track, with its warm piano keys and italo synths, harbours a muted aggression, while Altered Moods boss Malcolm Moore doesn't hesitate to rough things up with his Tsunami Punani remix of "Thunder", boosting the synths original presence by powering in more amplitude, adding some noise and a new harsh bassline.

Review: Continuing their quest to keep the 90s flavoured house vibe alive, Music Is Love bring new producer Maxwell up to the stage with some snazzy styles primed to get the dancefloor burning. "Feel Yourself" is perhaps the lightest of the cuts on offer, riding a simple piano riff over a steady shuffling beat, but it's on "Talk About" that the fire really gets roaring with the right combination of chords and bassline, while the vocal lick would make Todd Edwards get down. Gerd in his NY Stomp guise brings a weighty vibe full of killer descending synth lines on his version of "Spun", while the original follows with a smoother kind of deep house shaped by some quirky key arranging and another of those highly sustainable grooves.

Review: **Repress** Young Anthony Naples is given the prestigious honour of the first 12" from a new label set up by the champs at Rubadub. The Glaswegian record shop and distribution network claim it's going to be an irregular affair, but if all the releases are going to be this good there'll be some clamour for a more consistent release schedule that's for sure. Arriving shortly after that killer release for The Trilogy Tapes, the RAD AN1 12" demonstrates once again how easy Naples seems to find crafting diverse approaches to the house music template. "Ill Still" will suck many people in, a gloriously upbeat combination of shimmering, warbled chords cemented by a walloping kickdrum, whilst "Faceless" is all about the sick little edits Naples employs to break up the blissful pianos and relentless drums. The flip is given to "I Don't See Them" a churning, dubby 8 minute excursion through dark, Detroit leaning house that lends some notable menace to balance out the blissful nature of what precedes it.

Review: The Year Of Naples continues apace here as the celebrated Brooklynite Anthony Naples opens proceedings on his newly formed Proibito label with a sublime 12" from Royal Crown Of Sweden. More commonly known as Huerco S, those who've enjoyed the Kansas based producers murked out house deviations for Opal Tapes, Future Times and Wicked Bass will be pleasantly surprised that Royal Crown Of Sweden is relatively straight forward experiments with a drum machine and 4 bar samples. The R.E.G.A.L.I.E.R. EP takes its cue from an old Pau Johnson record and the three original cuts veer lopsided through dusty DJ tools . For added interest, lead track "Vanern" has been rewired on the go by L.I.E.S. duo Steve Summers and Bookworms with some assistance from their friend Lori - the results will please anyone whose been digging their Confused House output.

Review: Fluttering hi-hats and rattle percussion add to the self-propulsive rhythm of Detroit Swindle's chord intoxicating "Nothing Else Matters", the title track from the 61st release by Dirt Crew Recordings. The Morning Factory only slightly touches up the original, with its emphasis remaining on chords, adding different filter techniques to it progression, while they also rearrange the tracks lowered vocals. Jazzy hi-hats continuously ride the linear groove of "Porter's House", as filter-whipped synths surge between delayed vocals and quick fire stabs coated in dub. Elef supplies the EPs final track, "Keep It Physical", which Detroit Swindle give a deep and sultry remix of subtle Julio Bashmore stylings.

Review: REPRESS ALERT!!! Matlock's finest Rhythm Plate resurface brandishing a new label in Pressed For Time, and what better way to inaugurate it than revisiting one of their key tracks. Released back in 2002 on the Mantis label run by Atjazz, "Lean Part 2" was a wonderfully sleazy slab of deepness notable for the lascivious vocal hook that hung slinkily over the production throughout. It still sounds superb some 13 years on and is backed with an unreleased version that was done in the same period, along with deliciously freaky new "Leaner" mix from the pair.

Review: Before there was the Analogue Cops or John Swing there was Enrico Mantini - an Italian house producer which in 10-plus years of releasing music, sounds as contemporary now as he did in '92. The Rough Times EP brings four of his earlier productions forward a decade, starting with "Just A Dream" originally released in '93. Drawn pads slide in and out of busy drum machine arrangements, while moist vocal shouts add some sexy swing. "Flow With Me" - also released in '93 - is a simple drum track of a basic kick drum and bass combo, with sketchy snares and the odd crash cymbal thrown in. "Man In The World" from '92 sees more traditional 909 sequences swing to Yankee stadium Rhodes and cut vocals, while the previously unreleased "Get Infatuation" is cruise piece machine funk with a 10 year analogue hum you can almost taste.

Review: Giegling is a Weimar based label which since 2009 has creatively lifted micro house, deep house and dub techno from its bemoaned doldrums. Done badly, it sounds like a clumsy baby hitting pots and pans - done well it sounds like Green Amber by Edward. "Following You" sees unsettling piano keys rise in tension to create a melancholia that so often drugs many of Giegling's releases, while "Slipslow" expels breathes of resonating synths that are blown with cold full cheeks. "True Dialogue" remains dry and straight for its entirety, with a playful cowbell adding some swing to its staunch and muscular oomph. One for the after-after party.