Back catalogue: House

Review: Luminaries of the St. Louis and Atlantan experimental dance circuits, Blvck Spade and Stefan Ringer reign over similar territories in the niche downland of raw, soulful house. Here the pair team up for the first time ever for a notable Touching Bass debut, with Ringer handling production and Spvde masterminding all things poetic, choral and verbal. Building on both artists' slowly accrued, and now prolific, contributions to such labels as Eglo, FWM and Dolfin Records, this newly erected album-temple hears the duo shift impossible sacral brickwork by the force of composition alone, with star relic 'YOURZZZ' especially cultivating an inner sanctum of humid cowbell, funky acid line, and theophanic vocal run.

Review: Massive jazzdance and UK bass fusions on the new e-glowup from Eglo (though the record is also released physically). Celebrating 15 years of the nominal "post-dubstep" label, this limited 12" EP hears four exclusive, unreleased tracks from an upcoming label-definer compilation, the third in a series. Born from the basement of Plastic People, the pressure has remained continuously on Eglo to keep the same foment of bass musical innovation that the club nurtured alive. Plastic People is a routinised object of nostalgia, and it is often deemed the last proper place for innovation in bass music before austerity Britain militated against it. Zed Bias's remix of Chunky's 'Dancing On Tables' with Metrodome - and the deep, bruk-inspired track, 'Minerals,' from Liverpool's rising star Sticky Dub - both prove this assessment totally wrong. Genius thrives. On the flip, we've also house legend Giles Smith (formerly of Secretsundaze) delivering fresh material, as well as label boss Alexander Nut making his official debut with the lo-fi electro house track 'Arcade Fun Pt. 1.' The full compilation, featuring artists like Shy One, Steve Spacek, and Fatima, drops in April.

Review: A San Francisco house producer who is taking jazz influenced house music to another level is Coflo aka Cody Ferreira 'Syncopatience' is a stunning deep house release that highlights his signature blend of soulful rhythms, intricate grooves, and rich musicality. Each track brims with personality, that blend clever and creative vocals and lyrics to a deeper level than just for the dancefloor. Side-1 starts off with 'Get Down, Show Love', a collaboration with Fenyan that exudes a hip, jazzy charm. Playful yet refined, it features catchy vocal work and a high-level jazz flair, effortlessly blending house with improvisational energy. Next, Coflo's remix of 'Cee.Side's Elektrify' brings atmospheric depth, wrapping Latin influences around a funky, sultry groove that's as hypnotic as it is danceable. Side-2 delivers Ecru, where Coflo, Steve Howerton, and Niya Wells craft a deeper, tech-tinged house cut with sharp, clever lyricism. Its polished production and layered instrumentation elevate it to a higher plane of jazzy house, demonstrating Coflo's versatility and artistry. 'Syncopatience' has the solution on how merge soulful textures with dancefloor energy in a unique way.

Review: On his new 12" for his own kickstarter label Cosada, easy riser Laseech beseeches us to dance. Jazzy, soulful house music enlists the emosh but unrushed voice of Swaylo, snaring the essence of heartfelt house in a power-of-three-tracks net. Awakening the legend Ron Trent from his slumber, his deep, percussive touch and copy-paste-happy vocal science adds a happily haphazard twist. Inspired by the melodic landscapes of the Adriatic, the inaugural label name "Cosada" holds out a personal meaning for Laseech, drawing from both an idyllic island and the street where his studio lies, symbolising his continued hope to make timeless music.

Review: Groovin Italy are the foremost label in our ranks to set their sights upon digging up and refining the very best sonic gemstones out there. Said blood diamond seam is the mythical yet plentiful vein known as deep house; here our local artisanal miners revitalise the precious contribs that especially once made splendid the faded gods of Italo house. From Italian DJ and producer Massimino Lippoli, a key figure in Italy's early house and progressive scene, to MCJ & Sima, Italian house duo, and Sima, who doubled up as vocalist and productive powerhouse, every track here is unerathed in mostly pre-polished, with the end jewellers over at Groovin needing very little work to do. David Syon's 'Swinground' closes things on a naive, part misshapen maccle, with what sound like hand-programmed brasses and pogo-synths played in above a twitchy but happy groove.

Review: Detroit-raised, London-based Demi Riquisimo assembles a dynamic mix of label favourites and fresh talent on Love State, the 22nd release from his Semi Delicious imprint. This six-track V/A hears offerings from Demi himself alongside Clint, Swoose, Lulah Francs, Dukwa, Anastasia Zem & Asa Tate, blending club modernity with classic analogue dance influences, sampling every sonic cate from Italo to tech house. Best among the bunch has to be Swoose's 'Re/Vision' and Anastasia Zems' 'Eternal Beauty', which bring together wasted electro, Italian new beat and trance for well-measured tinctures of dreaminess.

Review: There has been a whole bunch of quality reworks of this particular soul seductress dropping of late and we are all for it. What set cannot be elevated with some super smooth r&b vocals and smoky deep drums? You get exactly that once more here with 'Paradise' the first to get a clubby rework. The drums stay nice and lo-fi and paired back, the percussion is warm and dusty and the vocal injects the heart aching soul you need to get a crowd all loved-up. On the flip side, UK house don Ben Watt brings his Lazy Dog remix to 'By Your Side' and it is rife with funky guitar riffs and loose, playful grooves.

Review: Various Shades is right! Zagreb label Forbidden Dance bring together the talents of Patrice Scott, Aleqs Total, XDB and Gary Superfly for a fine gradient of hex-perimental dance music, fully exciting our many aural rods and cones. An earful of minimal moods are conveyed on Scott's 'Be Yourself', with its fidgeting stereo bass sound design especially impressing, while Aleqs Total's 'People Round Town' lets a seedier sonic underbelly of aspic acid spill out onto main street. 'Odican' by XDB is the most unsettling number, with a repetitive vocal hallucination resounding in and out of a tenebrous centre mix, while Superfly's 'Free Fall' marks a recovery from the A1's relative panic attack, through intravenous hi-hats and concordant chords.

Review: Serge Funk from Ancona in Italy, a name increasingly uttered in hushed tones within the disco and funky house edit community, unveils two formidable floor-fillers. 'Groovy Theme' and 'Cherry Bomb' showcase his remarkable dexterity in transforming familiar samples into dancefloor weaponry, expertly prioritising rhythm and groove over tired tropes like vocal hooks and predictable melodies. Funk's edits are laser-focused on DJs and discerning dancers, their stripped-back arrangements and undeniable energy cutting through the noise. 'Groovy Theme' builds with a patient intensity, its intricate percussion and swirling synths creating a palpable sense of anticipation before unleashing a groove of undeniable power. 'Cherry Bomb', on the other hand, is a detonation of pure dancefloor dynamite. Its propulsive bassline and fragmented vocal snippets are deployed with surgical precision, a masterclass in controlled chaos. This release confirms Serge Funk's position as a rising force in the edit scene, his ability to transform familiar sounds into something fresh and exhilarating marking him out as one to watch. Expect to hear these cuts dominating discerning dancefloors for months to come.

Review: While much of Mark Seven's work on his Parkway Rhythm label leans into the vocal end of the NYC proto-house/formative garage-house spectrum, his occasional 'Parkwerks' EPs are designed to delight those who prefer stripped-back, synth-heavy dubs of the kind released back in the day by the likes of Paul Simpson, Boyd Jarvis, Winston Jones and Timmy Regisford. There are plenty of "hard, raw and raunchy dubs for DJs" on this belated third instalment, with the Stockholm-based Brit offering up bassline-driven, freestyle-inspired brilliance ('Thrust'), cowbell-laden post-boogie proto-house ('Runnin' Dub') and echo-laden NYC electro ('Time Storm'). He also joins forces with fellow proto-house enthusiast Benedek on the lightly acid-flecked, Chicken Lips style brilliance of closing cut 'Got To Find Dub'.

Review: Two years ago, Italy's Balearic Gabba Soundsystem switched from remixing and re-editing their favourite cuts to curating compilation style EPs of similarly minded fare. They're in that mode again here, presenting a trio of cuts that combine the saucer-eyed warmth and loved-up musicality of Balearic music culture with grooves and rhythms firmly focused on the dancefloor. They begin by showcasing Wallace's sublime remix of Sewell & The Gong's 'Better Worlds', a locked-in, hypnotising fusion of semi-organic deep house grooves, new age melodic motifs and the dreamiest of ambient chords. Over on the flip they dip into slo-mo Italo-disco/acid house fusion via SIRS fine revision of My Friend Dario's 'Tell Aro', before treating us to a Pedro Bertho remix of Verdo's 'Belvourdier' in which sparkling Balearic house piano riffs, undulating acid lines and mid-80s "chorus" synth sounds rise above a fluctuating synthesiser bassline and hustling beats.

Review: Ripe, dripping and overflowing with spruced up sound comes Melbourne's Sgt. Slick, with a pluming four new tracks on his very own Recuts edits imprint, which bottles only the finest skimming off the top of a presumably unimaginably large carton of edits. On the A-side come edits of late 80s Janet Jackson and contemporary Lipps Inc., the latter of whose 'Funky Town' is especial eureka fodder, obviously ripe for the recutting in hindsight, where seemingly no producer has tended to its beat-tastic bowery before. The B brings chiptune melodies to the Doobie Brothers and a sped-up verve to The Ones' 'Flawless', also an especially brilliant selection for the discoizing.

Review: Four artists with a taste for classic deep house infused with more than a touch of house line on the Silver Walker label's sixth release. Following releases on the likes of Local Talk, Balance, Traxx Underground, Mate, Quintessentials and upcoming projects on Nervous and NDATL, Shaka opens proceedings with a flurry of Hammond and plenty of exotic percussion, lie Alan Hawkshaw riffing with Underground Resistance. Glenn Davis (Wolf, Yore Records, Deeper Groove and Selections Records) delivers a deeper house workout on the A2 house track, the jazzy keyboard chords, fluttering flute and restless synths working real magic. One of the masterminds behind the Silver Walker label, Diego aka DFRA, comes on all perky with the saxes and soloing Rhodes, on the second side's opener, 'Nitewax'. Then we close with Damien aka Keymono (founder of several labels including Monocturne Records and Funkyshirts) laying on the handclaps of classic disco strings, the snippets of funk guitar and vibes the cherry on top.

Review: The debut album from Ukrainian collective Noneside unites musicians and visual artists under the inspiring words of poet Taras Shevchenko, who said 'Make love, o dark-browed ones.' Framed by a painting from contemporary artist Iryna Maksymova, the music explores the trance and tech house that is destined to bring souls together on the dancefloor this summer and beyond. Shjva opens with fresh and mashed bass and sleek trance pads that are subtle but effective. Lostlojic layer sup deep, bubbly techno drums and bass with an angelic vocal tone and Saturated Color's 'Trancia' is a speedy, scuffed-up tech groove for late-night cruising. Peshka and Yevhenii Loi offer two more future-facing trance-techno fusions packed with feels.

Review: After a decade away, this revered Japanese producer returns to the label where his journey first took flight i with a stunning fifth release EP. Effortlessly blending deep house and tech house sensibilities, he crafts a polished, deeply musical EP that feels both nostalgic and forward-looking. Side-A begins with 'Summer Solstice', a crisp, melodic opener built on a minimal, techy grooveisetting a next level production right from the drop. 'Be With Me' follows, locking into an addictive rhythm, its deep, elegant production highlighting his seasoned touch. On the flip, 'The Loop Machine' stretches into deeper territory, an epic builder that grows patiently and powerfully, perfect for extended sets. Finally, 'Winter Solstice' brings a surprising yet fitting close, with a funky electro glide that feels clean, fluid and inviting. As if the seasons were changing. This is a masterclass in restraint, groove and feelingia welcome homecoming for an artist who's clearly leading the way.

Review: Diogo Strausz brings some brilliantly authentic and escapist Afro house and deep house vibes to this steamy new platter from the Razor N Tape crew. 'Canto Das Tres Racas' has it all - tropical and loose-limbed drums with lashings of percussion, soulful vocals and rich chords with delicate acoustic guitars. The Kai Alce NDATL vocal mix makes it more club-ready but no less emotive, and 'Caramba' then brings strings to the fore once more with another eco-system of busy bird calls and busy drums topped with raw horns. The Lex Wolf Technobloco remix takes things into late-night territory but the Afro atmospheres still come on heavy.

Review: First released in 1999, Swayzak's 'Floyd/Doobie' shook the British duo's catalogue. Though it wasn't 'Bueno' or 'Fukumachi', this deep house cut was the next best choice for followers of the then burgeoning tech house circuit. Swayzak were already favourites on this and the deep house scene, and had clawed in acclaim for their involvement in both as early as 1993. One particularly prolix bio deems them the incipients of "1st wave 2000-era progressive deep minimal", which is too analytic even for us manic categorisers. No, we prefer to take these two big-hitters as they are: brimming with enthusiasm for a gadget-packed future, 'Floyd' fizzes and twitches with the pulsing blurts of a saw synth, as if to suggest constant magnetic stimulation from above. 'Doobie', meanwhile, hears our protagonist disrobe the techno utility belt, returning to a wireless home, so to gaze out over a subtly detuned chord landscape set to munching percs.

Review: Reissued 30 years on, SYT's 'Deep Drift' first hover-slammed its way onto our turntables as a spinoff EP of the much-nattered-about Shave Yer Tongue free party, which took place every Sunday night somewhere in suburban West London. The night's founders, Scott James and Christopher Hayne, took on this duo-deistic alien guise as a response to the tractor-beaming blisses they'd experienced on the dancefloor, yet which they could not find solid enough expression for in words. 'Siren' and 'Loop Hole' span allotropic forms of the same style, quantum superpositions of trance: cascading, welcoming, introductory; then cautionary, hovery, supernatural. 'Drift' goes big on the surround mix with extra boxy kicks; 'Jitter' then serves as a bleeping, free-teknikal enervation in trance, and is by far the best on the record, for its unguent stereo design and strobing synth patch layers.

Review: One Eye Witness rounds up another four acts for their periodic V/A series, spewing forth four breaks-driven whooshers crossing into progressive techno territory. The Hague duo Young Adults nod to a 1997 Loveparade anthem with 'It's Only Temporary', while breaks and kick implants converge on Christopher Ledger's 'Change That', a track which sounds like the starting firings of an interplanetary expedition pod after years of disuse. Joely brings cosmic chug on the cocooning B1 'Transitional', while the Samesame closer 'Novel End' is just that, traversing a noxious atmosphere with a flexoskeletal electro beat.

Review: Over Under marks a vital moment in Secondo's artistic evolution as he mixes up the functional with the experimental in-house and techno. Reflecting two decades of exploration, this new album recalls his early production style while incorporating lessons from the years. It opens with the kosmische pulse of 'Occhi Nuovi' and moves through various tempos and moods, from club tracks like 'Unlikely Companions' to deeper, reflective moments such as 'Solar Funk'. The album's progression weaves a carefully crafted narrative, blending alien funk, mid-tempo grooves and jazz-inspired texture that all shine bright.

Review: It's a while since we last heard from Spiral Deluxe, the deep house/nu-jazz fusion project of Jeff Mills, fellow Underground Resistance affiliate Gerald Mitchell, jazz guitarist Kenji Hino and Buffalo Daughter member Umiko Ohno. Having previously released two EPs (in 2017 and 18 respectively), the quartet has finally got round to recording a debut album. Fusing beats and electronics rooted in deep house, jazz-funk and - in a roundabout way - Motor City tech-jazz - with the virtuoso playing of Hino and Ohno, the set delivers a more fluid, instantaneous and loose-limbed exploration of the jazz-house blueprint drawn up by St Germain in the early 1990s. Basically, it's an album that draws the best out of its contributors, and there's no greater praise than that.