Nu Groove レコード& CD

Review: First released way back in 1990, 'Song Of The Siren' remains one of Ronald Burrell's most magical productions as Aphrodisiac - an atmospheric, poetic and genuinely tactile New York deep house classic that sounds as good in late 2024 as it did at the turn of the 90s. Nu Groove thinks so, because they've paired the track's most popular original mix - the gorgeous, lapping waves-sampling 'Mediterranean Mix' - with a trio of edits and reworks. Bushwacka focuses on the groove, chords and twinkling piano motifs, delivering a more DJ-friendly take smothered in echoing drum hits and delay-laden vocalisations, while Dazzle Drums opts for a jazzier and more trippy interpretation. As for the 'Gospel of Thomas' remix, it's warm, groovy, trippy and evocative, with fine use of echoing, marimba-style melodies and vintage garage-house drums.

Review: Nu Groove's ongoing edits series turns its attention to one of the legendary NYC's most iconic early release, Bas Noir's 1988 garage-house classic 'My Love Is Magic' - a piano-powered vocal number fronted by two female singers from New Jersey and produced by the Burrell Brothers. Their original club mix is featured (A2), alongside a trio of fresh re-edits. Bushwacka kicks things off with a deeper, more sonically detailed and marginally punchier rework that makes much of the Burrell brothers' percussion and piano stabs, before Mark Broom takes over on side two. His 'dub retouch' fittingly sounds like a piano solo-sporting NYC house dub of the late 1980s - no bad thing in our book - while his more revolutionary 'A12 mix' re-casts the track as a harder, heavier peak-time loop jam.

Review: Classic deep house movements from Stefan Braatz, Virgo Four and Rheji Burrell, coming through with the maximized, wally acid heat. 'Everyman Jack' on the A-side orders punters to shake, albeit whoever recorded the vocal sample is clearly so confident of their floor-command that they barely needed to do more than whisper. Burrell helms up two new ones on the B, meanwhile, with 'XTC' remaining soulful, autotuned and piano-phasey, and 'Gimme Ya Luv' leaning towards low-end-theoretic hip-house.

Review: Bushwacka is one of the UK's most accomplished underground players. From DJing to production via label ownership and promotion he has done it all, and with a lasting impact. His early days saw him as a key part of the fresh and emergent tech house sound and he has been vital ever since. Here he digs into his roots with a new EP for the iconic New York label Nu Groove and serves up just the sort of sounds the label is known for - deep house with chunky drum programming, smart synth work and warm basement vibes. A superb EP from a real veteran.

Review: US label Nu Groove and UK veteran Bushwacka! are two names that will forever be synonymous with underground dance music. To have them come together for a fresh new 12" is like catnip for the real house. This faults four tracker kicks off with the dark and menacing, stripped-back house sounds of the title track before 'Dance All Night Long' picks up the pace with some hefty kicks and woodpecker bass lines. 'Sometimes I Feel' is a jazzy one with busy chords and keys and a 90s bassline and 'How To House' shuts down with a more party-starting, playful vibe featuring chunky drums and myriad voices adding some atmosphere.

Review: Nu Groove will always be synonymies with a distinctive take on deep house - the label rose to prominance in the late 80s and early 90s in its native New Jersey and put out definitive releases from The Burell Brothers, mostly, but also a selection of other dons of the day. Some of them now come together for the first time on vinyl as Chicago legend Ron Carroll offers up a pair of tunes from his House Of Love EP. On the reverse, Trilogy Inc. come back strong with a couple of newbies in the bouncy house of 'Awakening', and 'Hi Cycle', which comes on more energetically with strong percussive patterns and classic drums. Serious heat, this.

Review: Four tracks of peerless Nu Groove jack attack, rejigged by a stellar roster of producers including Honey Dijon and the late Soulphiction, whose mardy remix of Rheji Burrell's classic stompa 'Come 'N Get It' opens proceedings in sleazy style. The Acid Jerks dub of Tech Trax Inc's eponymous 1990 banger is also a highlight, with driving, introspective organ basses underpinning snappy piano action and whispered proto-producer tags. These two are followed by a rushy, beefa-ready remix of Dee Gorgeous' 'Better Than Sex' by Dirty Channels, and an excellent spartan percussive acid flip of Ny House'n Authority (Burrell at it again)'s Ravenswood House by Honey Dijon and Luke Solomon.

Review: The second volume of edits of classic outings on Nu Groove records, assembling modern house heroes such as Dam Swindle, Phil Weeks, and Honey Dijon to re-fix tunes by the legendary Equation and The Burrell Brothers among others. Highlights include Dam Swindle's misty eyed extension of Equation's 'I'll Say A Prayer 4 U'- a perfect rainy day house anthem, and the paranoid phonk of Rhano Burrell's 'When Can I Call You' as remapped by Honey Dijon & Luke Solomon. Surefire party starters all round.

Review: Nu Groove's legacy has long been assured as one of the early and pioneering house labels out of New York. After the first wave it cemented itself in the deeper end of the spectrum with artists like The Burrell Brothers being key to that success. Here they appear under the other alias, New York House'n Authority, on a superb EP of classic cuts that also features Jazz Documents, Tech Tax Inc and House Neegroz, all of whom have been edited somewhat here by new school names. What results is four tracks of deep, jazzy house with classic grooves, superb drum programming and meaningful keys and chords.

Review: Nu Groove is of course one of the foundational labels when it comes to house music. From the late 80s and through the 90s, the New York imprint put out some of the genre's most definitive deeper sounds. Carrying the torch for that sort of quality today is Jovonn who never fails to cook up classy grooves. Here we're treated to 'The Piano Fix' which plays with a lead piano line throughout and layers up subtle acid over the simple but effective drums. A Return version is more funky and then 'Let Me Tell You Somethin' is more playful house on the flip. 'Drop That Traxx' shuts down with laidback house perfection.

Review: Nu Groove proudly share 'Anybody Out There/20 Paces From The Moon', a sexy four-track package celebrating the work of Marshall Jefferson as Jungle Wonz, and featuring two fresh mixes from the esteemed Mike Dunn and Steve Mac. Jefferson's output under his own name is often sharper and sparser than this otherwise deeper and more truer-to-desire moniker known as Jungle Wonz. Opening with the searching opine for help and salvation, 'Anybody Out There' - "is there anybody out there who really gives a care?", goes the lead vox - we hear a fundamental question firmly footed against a groundwork of bobbly acid and offbeat rimshots, provided on the rerub of Jefferson by Dunn. Dunn also delivers a string-laden dub version of this A1; then Steve Mac offers a set of esoterically extra ests with '20 Paces From The Moon' and another space-loungey version of this latter track for balanced measure.

Review: You will of course know if you are reading this that Nu Groove was a seminal New York house label that lay a blueprint for deep stuff back in the 80s and 90s. This fresh 12" serves up a third volume of label edits from various artists from across the spectrum. Metro's 'Turnstyle Turbulance' is tackled first by NiCe7 who brings bumpy drums, then Mark Broom's Vox Flanger Mixx of an N.Y. House'n Authority classic is a steamy jacker with lovely old-school vibes. Our favourite though is Asylum's 'Guitarz' (Honey Dijon & Luke Solomon edit) which is a nice mid-tempo workout with seductive claps and excellent hi hats.

Review: First released by Snuff Trax in 2015, but potentially recorded much earlier, 'U Won't C Me' is one of Mystic Bill's most potent cuts - an analogue-rich hybrid Chicago deep house/acid house cut which sounds like Larry Heard jamming with Adonis circa 'No Way Back'. This Nu Groove reissue naturally features the long-serving producer's original mix, the original bonus track 'Like a Dream In The Night' (a moody, low-slung chunk of warehouse-ready, late 80s style Chicago deep house) and two reworks of the title track. Stefan Bratz ups the acid house factor, reaching for driving drums and mind-mangling TB-303 bass, while Jake Savage's 'Acid Re-Rub' is a jacking, sweat-soaked affair smothered in red-raw acid lines, cut-up spoken word snippets and a ghostly melodic motif.

Review: If you're looking for raw, ruff and retro, this is probably the best you'll get. New York label Nu Groove continues to spotlight the artists that made the label what it is today: a firm favourite of crate diggers then and now. With this being the fifth in the series to reissue their select most vital tracks, which here come re-edited and remastered, 'Nu Groove Edits Vol. 5' opens with Ny House'n Authority's 'Fort Green House' after its re-edit by Arms & Legs' Daniel Steinberg, which sets the tone for a janky and roomy pandora's box of groovers. Also of note is the sweet, washy piano house arkenstone that is Underground Kids' 'Get Up', trumping a B-side that is, while still great, has nothing on the A2.

Review: Parisian producer Franck Roger lands on Nu Groove with 'Cosmic Tree' EP, a four-track outing of deep house perfectly at home on the legendary NYC label. Still going strong almost 35 years after its inception, it's nice to see the label is still welcoming fresh talent: Roger delivers a sultry, sauna-dunked steam on 'Part Of My Soul', one of the most contented-sounding house tracks we've heard in a while, thanks in part to the vocal stylings of Rimarkable; then there's the more repetitious ardour of 'Radik'Hall', 'Cosmic Funk' and 'The Music', all of which revel in the purely seductive potentialities of deep house production. "The music just turns me on!"

Review: The legendary Nu Groove carries a heavy signifier with its legacy in New York house's breakthrough years, and the contemporary artists signing up to its current incarnation get the memo in full. Tuccillo is a dab hand at all kinds of house, but he particularly shines crafting this gritty, inventive gear that pushes the low end forwards in the mix and uses a broad palette for rhythms and vibes. It's got the open-hearted swagger which made the O.G. Nu Groove releases so iconic, not least when Ron Carroll pops up with a pitch perfect early 90s vocal turn on 'Don't Walk Away'.