Times Are Ruff Germany レコード& CD

Review: The Times Are Ruff collective don't sound like your average act from The Hague. While the Dutch city is closely associated with the analogue fetishism and hard-wired electronics of Legowelt and I-F, the Times Are Ruff boys make bumpin' house cuts that join the dots between Chicago jack and disco. Their musical formula - loopy and sample heavy, like a looser version of the Soundstream sound - is unflinchingly groovy and party-friendly. There's plenty of fun to be found on this latest five-tracker, from the 'Love Sensation' sampling thrills of "Kenny" and disco-funk-goes-house bounce of "That Phaser Track", to the undulating deep house warmth and hazy boogie keys of "Concrete".

Review: Germany's Times Are Ruff have managed to keep themselves in the shadows of house music over the last three years, but they're personalised brand of house music has certainly not gone unnoticed over here at the Juno HQ. For their eighth release, the crew return with four certified floor fillers, a bunch of swinging Chicago-flavoured licks for the ultimate tool use. From "Cut5" to "Cut8", the beats are grainy and stomping, the percussion is rickety and the basslines are nothing but PHATness throughout so get copping and start churning. Badboy 12". For fans of Shed's Head High project and the like...

Review: Times Are Ruff are a Den Haag based record label and DJ team. Junktion, Larry de Kat and S3A have previously appeared for the label in recent times. Their fifteenth release features the label head honchos themselves take over the A side - with the jazzy and dusted down shenanigans of "GhettoMiles" getting its swing fuelled shuffle on in style, followed by the sensual late night mood lighting of "Dr Zanbar" which gets ultra deep. On the flip, it is over to debutante Il Garage with the hypnotic disco loops of "Croccante" and the lo-slung slo-mo deepness of "Delizioso" which will appeal to fans of Berlin's Money $ex or similarly the output of Paris' D.KO.