Juno Recommends Deep House November 2020

Review: Almost two decades have passed since Charles Webster's last solo album, the largely overlooked collection of hushed deep house and downtempo soul gems, Born on the 24th July. Soon he'll finally release a follow up, Decision Time, but first he's treating us to a teaser single, 'The Spell'. Webster's vocal and dub mixes - the former featuring the seductive spoken word vocals of poet Ingrid Chavez - are typically immersive, ultra-deep house affairs that combine analogue electronic instrumentation with hazy, crackling aural textures that come courtesy of surprise collaborator Burial, who cites Webster's sound design as a major influence. Arguably the most striking mix though comes from that man Burial, whose A-side interpretation is drowsy, deep, crackly and irresistibly opaque: an artistic marriage made in heaven and then some.

Review: One of the joys of Pets Recordings' output over the last couple of years is how unpredictable it has become stylistically. Basically, you don't know what the next release will bring musically, but more often than not it will be rather good. That's certainly the case on the imprint's latest four-tracker, which sees London producer Jeigo (real name Jack Carr-Miles) flit between driving and occasionally dreamy breakbeat-house dirtiness (the retro-futurist peak-time pump of 'We Are Not Nothing'), Livity Sound-goes-deep house brilliance (the intricate percussion programming and gently swelling chords of 'Far Away'), hazy early morning deep house hypnotism ('FS Melody'), and ultra-deep, UK garage-influenced sunrise wooziness ('Beyond', whose emotive, ear-catching female vocal samples work wonderfully).

Review: All proceeds and profits from this new drop on Selections will be donated to Black Lives Matter charities, making it an even more appealing offer beyond the sheer quality of the house heads gathered together here. The mighty Kai Alce leads the charge with the sweet and bumping 'Hear The Waves', which is followed up by the punchy but warm 'Furacao Dento' by Demuir. Nick Holder opens the B side up with a killer slice of broken beat house, all crooked percussion locked into a deep, rolling groove. 83 West finishes the record off with a teasing, slow-release heater that keeps the energy simmering throughout - a masterfully executed cut to hold the dancefloor under a spell.

Review: The Masaala label are laying claim to a unique curio from the '90s here, unearthing the forgotten sounds of Cutmaster Singh from Leicester. This largely unknown DJ was amongst those trying to fuse acid house and bhangra, and on this 12" we're treated to a selection of edits that do a mighty fine job of crossing the cultural divide to bring the infectious energy of Indian music into a dancefloor context. First up is a dubplate from 1994 titled 'Acid Agah', which rides a bubbling 303 and resplendent strings to create a jaw-dropping showpiece. 'Rani' is steeped in bashy '80s drums and more of that lysergic throbbing, offset by a stunning female vocal, while 'Nachdi Drums' unsurprisingly leans in hard on percussion to whip up a frenetic energy that is as much techno as it is bhangra. 'Balle Shava' takes things back to a kind of new beat freakiness which will appeal to old-skool diggers looking for something spicy in their sets.

Review: Last year Caserta and friends had their wicked way with a classic Luther Vandross acapella, brilliant re-framing the soul maestro in a late 1980s NYC club style. A year on they're at it again on 'Luther 2', which naturally repurposes another superb performance from the legendary vocalist. On the A-side, Vandross's vocal rides a smooth revivalist disco groove created by an all-star cast including Serge Gamesbourg (bass) and Natasha Diggs (piano, Fender Rhodes). It's a genuinely impressive revision that sounds like it could have been recorded sometime in the early 1980s (despite being made during lockdown). Diggs plays an even bigger role on the flip, a hazy and groovy deep house version in which she adds her own sassy spoken word vocals in reaction to the Vandross acapella.

Review: The Sushitech festivities continue unabated with this bittersweet repress of an all-time classic from the much-missed Detroit figurehead Mike Huckaby. 'Baseline '87' ranks amongst his most fabled works, riding as it does around an irresistibly catchy square wave bass hook and one of those no-nonsense beats that the legendary producer did so well. For the sound of Huckaby in full flight though, 'Musik For The Dancefloor' on the flip soars thanks to the interplay between the pads and chords while retaining that steadfast focus. In memory of a true dance music hero, why not revisit a classic that should be comfortably sat in every record bag?

Review: No one works a mixing board quite like Joe Clasusell, and his latest project is another high water mark in a career full of them: his Claussell Edits & Overdubs version of Crowns of Glory's 'Lord Look at Your People' is getting put out on a series of 12"s, with this third one being another winner. Bishop Jeff Banks & The Revival Temple Mass Choir offer up two versions of 'Jerusalem' on the a-side, and the reverse is 'God Helps Those Who Help Themselves' by The Gospelaires Of Dayton, O. Both are intense, emotive, life affirming affairs to bring joy to any dance floor.

Review: Steve O'Sullivan's work as Bluetrain ranks amongst the finest distillations of sleek techno minimalism and spatial dubwise sonics. As part of Sushitech's 15th anniversary celebrations, they're doing us all a massive favour by revisiting their comprehensive compilation of the finest Bluetrain joints, replete with a tasty coloured vinyl pressing this time around. The tracks are beyond sublime, riding steadfast, understated grooves, which underpin beautifully sculpted, metallic chord clusters that sink in easy but run deep. If you need a dependable clutch of stellar dub-tech-house workouts to suit full-immersion DJ sets, this essential double pack will keep you trucking long into the morning.

Review: Chubby's third volume of split EP goodness welcomes two seasoned veterans of the deep to spin some yarns, with a couple of equally sagely remixers on board too. Vincent Floyd takes up the A side with the beautifully lilting house haze of "Meditation". Deep88 takes the original and gives it a more forthright set of drums - a more visceral jack for those who love the mellow moods but want some bite for the floor. Brad P's "Time Machine" is a typically refined trip into the undergrowth with gorgeous techno synth lines flitting around a warm and easygoing groove made all the sweeter by a little broken beat kink.

Review: Earlier this month Louie Vega reissued his 2006 full-length collaboration with Luisito Quintero, a veteran percussionist who has long been part of New York's vibrant Latin fusion scene. Here he delivers 'Part Two' of the same project, a shorter but no less essential collection of percussion-rich Latin dance music gems. Opener 'Acid' is a high-quality traditional salsa gem, while 'Four Beat Mambo' does exactly what it says on the tin, with a killer double bassline rising and falling beneath Quintero's killer percussion. 'Son Montuno' adds a little deep jazz-funk flavour to the percussionist's infectious rhythms, while 'EOL Intro (Clap Your Hands)' is an up-tempo fusion of deep house and salsa that has long been a staple in the sets of Vega's Elements of Life band.

Review: Get ready for a lost Japanese house classic from the rare Kino-Moderno album that was first put out in 1990. Of course, it comes from the ever on the ball Rush Hour team and features two tracks that were used on the Video Drug 2 video game back in the day. The whole collection brims with future soul, nicely defined kick drums and the sort of rich sound design details that characterise much Japanese house. Echoing greats like Dan Curtin, Soichi Terada or Harumi Hosono, these are classy and timeless cuts that cannot be sniffed at.

Review: Beastie Boy Mike D Edit has decided to rework Malian artists Idrissa Soumaoro and L'Eclipse De L'I.J.A. and their track 'Nissodia' - from the 1978 album Le Tioko-Tioko - for this new one on Brighton label Mr Bongo, the second time it has landed on the label, having previously been on The Original Sound Of Mali in 2017 Both tunes are pumping, full flavour Afro jams with screeching melodies and big, jangling, angular guitars all powered by funky beats. Each one is guaranteed to light up any cultured dancefloor.

Review: Wayfaring sound explorer Sw. is best known for his stellar stints on SUED, Acido and Apollo (often alongside Svn) but he's also got firm roots in the illustrious world of Kimochi. Area's oddball label is a perfect fit for Sw.'s roaming, inquisitive approach, where scuffed sound design exploration sits alongside subdued garage and red-lining electronica faces off with melancholic '80s hauntology. For the bold DJs, there are certainly potential bangers folded into the mysterious fabric of this record, but as with all things Kimochi the overall mood looks past functional dance music while celebrating many of its tropes.

Review: The latest must-check 12" on the hush-hush STAMP rework series comes courtesy of Paradise Pizza main man Memory Man, an Italian DJ/producer with a well-known love of vintage European house. He kicks things off via 'Don't Mess With Be', a bumpin', boompty-style affair able of creating sweaty dancefloor pressure with little more than a chunky beat, an undulating bassline, and looped samples from what sounds like a starry old disco-funk record. It's really rather good, though we prefer B-side 'Pimpin' With Dolce Vita', a rolling, peak-time house rework of an ear-pleasing, proto-house/instrumental synth-pop number. We have no idea what either track is based on, but both are tons of fun.

Review: Amadou et Mariam is a Malian duo made up of Mariam Doumbia (vocals) and Amadou Bagayoko (guitar and vocals). They are a couple and both are blind musicians who met at Mali's Institute for the Young Blind. They came together through a shared love of music and have put out no fewer than 15 albums. 'Baara' from 2009 on Sacred Rhythm proved one of their biggest hits and now fetches high sums on Discogs. This reissue is a welcome one featuring the title track - a joyous mix of live afro drumming, vocal chants and freewheeling melodies, and the touching 'Ja Pense A Toi,' with its pained male leads, desert blues and aching guitar solos. Lovely stuff.

Review: Jeff Mills recently announced that he wanted to widen the musical horizons of his Axis label, delivering a more eclectic blend of music made with both traditional instruments and the synths and drum machines he previously favoured. To usher in this new era, the Motor City legend has snapped up a simply brilliant album from Byron the Aquarius. It sees the talented artist add jazz-funk instrumentation (think spacey synth solos, fluid piano lines, breathy flutes and rubbery bass guitar) to a combination of organic and programmed deep house and nu-jazz grooves. It's a brilliantly expansive and spiritual set full of intricate musical details, with highlights including the warming, floor-friendly spirituality of 'Space & Time', the similarly heated 'Spirit of Juju' and the delightful vocal mix of 'Timeless'.

Review: For their latest trick, Moods & Grooves has decided to introduce the world to a DJ/producer who has long been operating on the Detroit underground, Marvin Panther AKA Eternal Student. His debut 12" is a slick, deep and seductive affair featuring two original productions: the deep, starry and spacey broken house dreaminess of 'Transpose Deep' and title track 'Hear Me Through', a retro-futurist deep house number smothered in jazzy guitar motifs, lilting synthesizer lead lines and tactile electronic bass. That track is remixed twice on the A-side: first by Xander Dominique, who adds a little Motor City techno shimmer, and Deepset. The latter's take is deep, driving and sci-fi-fired whilst still retaining the hazy warmth of Panther's original mix.

Review: After a two-year absence, former Perpetual Rhythms regular Victor Aguinaga AKA Chicagodeep is back on wax. This in itself is a reason to be cheerful, because the Argentinian producer is capable of crafting the kind of richly musical and effortlessly atmospheric deep house more often associated with the likes of Larry Heard and Ron Trent. He's in prime form throughout Trax Exhibition, seductively sashaying between hypnotic, acid-flecked early morning haziness ('Stray Hay'), piano solo-sporting house-not-house brilliance ('Erosion'), intense but loose limbed, Dolo Perussion-style drum workouts ('Break Tree') and shimmering, synth-heavy deep house bliss ('Last Stand').

Review: Of those labels who exist at the intersection of deep house, tech-house and what would have once been called progressive house, few are quite as consistent as Lee Burridge and Matthew Dekay's All Day I Dream. The label's latest release is another doozy. It comes from returning twosome Double Touch, who've joined forces with vocalist Reignan to deliver a pair of sumptuous tracks that combine tech-tinged dancefloor grooves with simmering strings, warming chords and twinkling piano motifs. The star attraction is undoubtedly gorgeous title track 'Greatest Day', which is also given a slightly darker, deeper and even more atmospheric treatment by label regulars Lost Desert. The EP's other cut, 'All I Want', is a melancholic affair notable for its use of what sounds like a string quartet.

Review: Belarus' Iner launches a new label with a strong cast of international names all pushing a deep and distinguished strain of house music for those who want soul and invention in equal measure. Tilman is up first with 'Sweet Dreamer', a mellow, looped up roller. Sune's 'Flutes' takes a breezier approach shaped out by fluttering jazz funk motifs. Yann Polewka celebrates the sweetest Philly strings and some classic vocal licks for a disco-infused burner you can't help but love. Iner himself keeps things loose and organic on the wonderful 'Respectfull Kind Music', while Scruscru goes for a sleek approach to chopped up funky house. That leaves it to Buzz Compass to get heady and hazy with the bass-leaning cuts coursing through 'That Nighter'.

Review: As the sweary, confrontational title suggests, this four-tracker from Detroit hero Omar-S is like a musical expansion pack for his much-discussed recent album, F*ck Resident Advisor. The no-nonsense Detroiter starts in fine fashion with 'Gonna Love You', a jaunty, piano-sporting peak-time loop jam crafted from old school vocal samples and snippets from a killer disco record, before reaching for cosmic synth sounds, lilting melodies and a melancholic mood on the starry deep house jam 'Bread Over Bed'. He subtly doffs a cap to Dance Mania style ghetto-house on the quirky, club-ready cheekiness of 'Shut Up', before smothering a classic house groove with heady hand percussion and snaking synth lines on dense and energetic closing cut 'Sloppy Joe'.

Review: Strasbourg based Ordinaire run successful and cultured parties and are now branching our with their own label. It is a split EP between Kicks and El Kazed, who are party regulars and behind the scenes insiders so make perfect choices to launch the imprint. The vibes are super sweet here, with timeless groovers 'In The Shell' and 'Keep On' sinking you into a nice deep mood. El Kazed then steps up with the cuddly and romantic deep house soul of 'Soul Motion', featuring a very nice vocal sample. 'Natural Swing' ends in a more punchy party mode. It makes a great end to a great first EP.

Review: Nebraska's Friends & Relations label continues to yield the finest club tackle for those who need the real deal in their DJ sets. 'Deep Tune' casts its net as low as the Mariana Trench while riding a sweet disco loop, setting the scene for a teasing, dramatic drum throwdown with nimble synth flourishes on 'Drum Track 01'. 'Shift' takes things on a more interstellar trajectory with a heady beat elevated by star-strafing lead lines, and then 'Drum Track 02' whips up another killer percussive workout that keeps the organic intensity of the beat intact while still making it totally workable for the floor.

Review: Futureboogie Recordings' musical transformation over recent years has been remarkable, with boss man Dave Harvey ditching the shiny, synth-powered house jams and nu-disco mutations of old for a range of releases that plough a more cosmic, psychedelic and chugging furrow. This EP from sometime Nein and Roam Recordings' producer Zakmina is a terrific example of the Bristol imprint's new trademark sound. It sees him confidently bounce between the Giallo-influenced, acid-soaked, synthesizer-driven throb of 'Church of Madness', the raw and hallucinatory, mid-tempo deep acid hedonism of 'Deja-Vu' and the frankly foreboding peak-time intensity of 'Running Amore', whose echo-laden timbales hits rise above a raw and druggy bassline. The EP's obligatory remix comes courtesy of Hungarian maestro Gnork, who re-imagines 'Church of Madness' as a punchy slab of glassy-eyed electro bliss.

Review: Two years on from his last outing under the DJ Snils alias, Oleg Buyanov AKA Ol buddies up with pal Every Korner (real name Roman Erikona) to help launch the Save the Books label. The Moscow-based pair apparently recorded the four tracks at various points over the last few years. There's an undeniably Balearic feel to proceedings throughout, from the dreamy pads, twittering loon bird samples and new age ambient melodies of 'Intro', to the jazz-flecked Italian dream house drowsiness of luscious and life-affirming closing cut 'Sector 100'. In between you'll find the bustling 'Take Money', where sampled piano motifs and huggable chords ride a chunky, bass-heavy groove, and the sunny broken beat/jazz-funk/deep house fusion of 'Black Box Riddle'.

Review: Although this is Tornado Wallace's Mule Musiq debut, the music contained on it is not brand new - though it is pretty much on known. 'We Are Where We Are' first appeared in 2018 on a Japan-only promo CD. Back then, it was presented as one continuous, 32-minute track. For its' vinyl debut, the decidedly Balearic and psychedelic offering has been split into two parts. Each is hugely atmospheric and evocative, with the Berlin-based Australian offering non-stop, ambient house style suites that layer evocative instrumentation - twinkling pianos, pulsing electronic noises, jazzy guitars, delay-laden synth sounds and so on - and crackling field recordings atop sparse, lo-fi drum machine beats and dubbed-out basslines.

Review: There is no producer named Manuel Darquart; in fact, it's a long-distance collaboration between two up-and-coming studio buffs, Louis Anderson-Rich and Sean Whittaker. Their latest EP, a first, high-profile outing on Wolf Music, is simply superb. It sees the pair offer-up a trio of loved-up, saucer-eyed cuts that draw heavily on the sunrise-ready colour of early Italian dream house, the ricocheting machine drums of proto-house and the tactile dreaminess of late 80s New Jersey deep house. Our pick is Don Carlos-esque opener 'Keep It Dxy', though the more Balearic 'Miranda' and bubbly 'Parkour' are not far behind. The EP also boasts a fine bonus in the shape of Medlar's extra-percussive 'Timbales Dub Mix' of 'Parkour', a more intense but no less huggable interpretation tailor-made for peak-time dancefloors.

Review: It's early days for Meftah, who you may have spotted remixing Amp Fiddler on Mahogani Music alongside Jahn Cloud, but this low key 12" highlights him as a serious talent to keep tabs on in the Detroit music community. There's no hiding his musical roots and influences, as dusty keys, live bass and loose, expressive percussion intertwine in a mellow, bluesy haze. This is cut from the same cloth as Kenny Dixon Jr, Theo Parrish, Jay Daniel and scores of others, but Meftah has his own mellow mood to impart on these five addictive, seductive trips through deepest jazz-inflected house.

Review: For their latest sonic salvo, reissue specialists Curated By Time is taking us back in time to 1992 and the sophomore EP from obscure London deep house trio Raze of Pleasure. As many heads will tell you, the Eclipse EP is a genuine slept-on classic and a near faultless collection of cuts. For proof, first check the organ-sporting New Jersey garage meets UK deep house vibe of the slick and sub-heavy 'My Life', before admiring the warehouse ready, stab-sporting peak-time happiness of 'Nine Hours'. The outfit's interest in more horizontal flavours is expertly explored on the ambient-influenced deep techno number 'Global Warning', while closing cut '926 N Mills Avenue' brilliantly joins the dots between Nu Groove maestros the Burrell Brothers and the colourful, ambient-influenced musicality of Italian dream house.