Back catalogue: Deep House

Review: B.Love is next up on Leeds legend Ralph Lawson's 20/20 label having come to his attention on Record Store Day 2024 with his Music Dance Experience EP and then later that day when playing as a resident at the Bizarre Trax party Lawson was en route to play. Here he showcases his electro sound across four cuts starting with 'Rhythm Freq', a celestial and disco-tinged sound. 'Movement Feeling' is a party starting cut with old school style and plenty of percussive lushness, then 'Soda Junior' brings louche, low-slung disco funk before 'Bisous' shuts down with more cosmic playfulness and vibrant synth colours.

Review: LEGRAM VG & Rubber Ducky Records have come together for this playful Game of Tunes series, and the third entry in it offers four more wafty tech house delights. Baldov's 'Dance Connection' is a balmy and breezy opener with some warm synth injections to soften the rickety tech beats. Sif B's 'Small World' is a bubbly cut with sci-fi motifs and Buenaguas's 'Music Or Noise?' Marries distant cosmic pads with sparky synth sequences that make for some nice colourful combinations. Alich's 'The Evidence' is the best of the lot - a pent-up, garage-tinged kicker with ass-wiggling beats and acid prickles. Pure heat.

Review: Norm Talley's Upstairs Asylum label approaches its 20th outing with more of that low-key, high-quality house tackle it has long been associated with. Black Eyes is behind the beats and opens up with the nice and lazy, low slung grooves of 'Gerry The Fish Whisperer' then 'Valley Of Sharks' gets more raw and percussive with its energy. 'Soul Fish' lands on heavy, knackered sounding kicks with soft shakers along for the ride and 'The People Want Hydro' closes down with heady pads swirls and wispy motifs that occupy mind and body as one.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Slight surface marks ***


West London label Slip 'N' Slide continues to refresh the classics, as Seth Troxler and Franck Roger deliver remixes of the 1997 Blaze favourite 'Lovelee Dae'. An artist who needs little introduction, Seth Troxler's name is synonymous with American house and techno of the last two decades, with his formative years in Detroit shaping his sound before moving to the techno capital of the world Berlin. His ventures as a label boss, and club owner of Night Tales, further cemented the talent as an underground hero, and he now joins the likes of Carl Craig, Roman Flugel, and Isolee in giving 'Lovelee Dae' an expertly crafted remix, building from minimal grooves to a grand and immersive wash of sound. Also stepping up on remix duties comes Parisian producer, crate digger and label boss of Real Tone Records, Franck Roger, adding his signature beat focussed approach to the iconic track.

Review: Keeping firm to the now well-trodden "Scientist meets" formula, this release through Convent once again hears Joseph Alpern aka. J Gabriel absorb the dubbing wiles of Hopeton Brown into his own minimal techno laboratory. 'Fly Again' follows up the first Scientist collab 'Too Far Gone' from 2023 with yet another red snapper, and comes backed by heated reworks from Steve O'Sullivan and Bluetrain, each of whose generosities know few bounds (they offer two and three remixes each!).

Review: Body Edits makes its inaugural move with a release shrouded in apparent secrecy and anticipation, responding to rumours that a revered figure in UK house (said to be twice Grammy-nominated) is at the helm. The artist is unnamed, but the production speaks volumes: sleek, functional, and brimming with vintage character and jaunt, 'Shades Of Love' counterposes 'Money' with upticks in tempo and flair, while 'Annihilating Dance' is the surreal A2 vision quest, with dissolved voices and flurried, primeval cries tearing our ears asunder.

Review: French producer Antoine Bourachot returns with his third release, delivering a trio of original tracks that blend his sharp ear for melody with a clear affection for groove-driven pop and club sounds. The warm, percussive edge of his productions hint at late-night sets and sunlit afterhours, bringing a jaunty mutant disco. Myd, Diogo Strausz and Art of Tones each offer their own take on the material, turning in remixes that stretch from laid-back funk touches to punchier zoomings into the floor. Bourachot's ability to sit comfortably between radio-friendly hooks and crate-digging sensibility makes this a record with plenty of replay value, balancing polish and playfulness in equal measure.

Review: Margate-based Braga Circuit showcases a refined signature style and knack for killer sampling with this standout debut on Air Miles. 'Fall' kicks off with amped-up chord stabs and brilliantly well-swung, rolling kicks that soon get those hips moving. 'Closer' oozes summer cool thanks to the balmy chords that soften the percussive, garage-flecked house drums. There is also plenty of Kerri Chandler soul in these here beats that makes them all the more essential. 'Filter Feed' layers up dusty perc and thudding kicks with sultry vocal whispers. It's steamy and irresistible and last but not least, Leod is another talent from the coastal town of Margate and remixes this one with a more direct and dubby style.

Review: Culture Club legend and pop maverick Boy George makes a triumphant return for Record Store Day with an exclusive coloured 12" of a long-lost gem. Originally produced in the '90s and revived as a dancefloor hit in 2007, the wonderful 'You're Not The One' now receives its first proper vinyl release, having previously been CD only, with copies on second-hand markets fetching upwards of L450. Reimagined by original producer Kinky Roland, this version features standout remixes including a sleek Vocal and Dub version by house legend Eric Kupper and a genre-blurring rework by Grammy-nominated UK talent Paris Cesvette. Superb club-ready pop nostalgia.

Review: Black Loops directs a welters' worth of experience into Always Moving, his debut full-length for Freerange. Far beyond club tools, this is a sensitive elusion of watery neo soul instrumentation and distant broken beat jazz, and we're not surprised in this breath to learn of Black Loops' own background as a drummer. Nor is it any wonder either that such auteur's disco house regals such as Harvey Sutherland, Byron The Aquarius and Berlin vocalist Marlena Dae all appear on the record, through 'CDMX' to the ever so eerie, Erie-downstream deep house of 'Detroit Love Letter'. 'Electrical And LSD' takes after such influences as Metro Area's disco house shimmer, while tracks like 'Pleasure Ride' and 'Good Bye Berlin' further locks down the abiding nighttime tension - that least comparable part of his sound.

Review: Prolific Italian maestro Black Loops returns to Freerange with Always Moving, a debut album steeped in high-grade dance heritage. Drawing on over a decade of production, he moves beyond club tools to something more personal and musical, with guest appearances from Harvey Sutherland, Byron the Aquarius and Marlena Dae. Rooted in funk, soul and 90s grooves, these are rich, warm tracks with fully authentic swing i with much of the percussion played live by the artist himself. The result is fluid and human, from the broken beats of 'CDMX' to the shimmering chords of 'Detroit Love Letter'. Marlena Dae adds her touch to several standouts, including the disco-leaning 'Electrical' and hazy deep house of 'Pleasure Ride'. Even at its most downtempo, like the closing 'Good Bye Berlin', the album stays focused and melodic. A confident and expressive full-length that shows how far Black Loops has come while hinting at where he might head next.