Alton Miller

Review: Somehow, Alton Miller is a rather under-regraded, or certainly under exposed, members of the US house fraternity. He has turned out as many essential tracks as any of his peers, and continues to do so here on the fledgling Forbidden Dance label. He opens up with some of his typically musical house grooves, with loose drums, subtle acid sounds and lush melodies. A Rollin to Detroit mix of one of his older tunes 'Shine On Me' reworks it as a deep and jazzy number, while 'Headspace' slows to a downtempo crawl that sinks you in deep and 'After The Rain' explores slow motion cosmic synth work. Perfect.

Review: For some reason, Alton Miller never seems to quite get the headlines of many of his Chicago peers. Maybe this expressive new album on the Music Institute label will go some way to correct that. It's as lush and musical as house gets, with bumping vocal tunes that are laced with golden chords to percussive workouts like 'Long Time Comin' sure to work floors into a lather. There are even slow jams like the seductive 'Time Is On Your Side' showing off another side to Miller's sound. Whatever he does, there is s sense of spirituality and inescapable emotion that makes every cut here a thing of beauty.

Review: Astonishingly, Alton Miller was already four years into his production career when the "Blue Funk EP" first dropped on short-lived Detroit techno label M3 way back in 1997. The Detroiter is of course still going strong, though his productions are now way more polished than they were back then. As this reissue proves, the rawness and energy of his (relatively) early productions remains highly addictive. Check for example the hot-stepping analogue Afro-house beats, rich bass and tasty keys of "Bliss", the breathlessly loopy sweatiness of "Lovin' & Dancing" - a kind of raw disco-house cut-up masterpiece - and the trippy, breakbeat-driven sample house intensity of "Blue Funk" itself. The smoothest track of all, the NJ deep house influenced "All Tonight", is closest in tone to his more recent productions.

Review: Whether making musically rich deep hazy or hazy, pitched-down beatdown jams, Alton Miller rarely gets it wrong - as is proved by the impressive number of labels queuing up to sign singles from the veteran Detroit producer. The latest is Noble Square, a fine imprint run by Chicagoan heavyweight Ricardo Miranda. Even by Miller's standards, "When The Morning Comes" is extra-special, featuring as it does distinctive vocals from Amp Fiddler and extra percussion programming by Kyle Hall. The trio's slick, smooth and groovy original version comes accompanied by a similarly tasty instrumental mix and a wonderfully woozy and jazzy remix by Fiddler and Hall that's arguably even better than the inspired A-side mix.

Review: Stuntman Mike is a guy with special taste for cars, women and especially music. In his car radio groove is allways present. Here's a second part of what he prefers to hear when things get interesting. From Motor City , a house legend like Alton Miller, gives us a gem with this detroit house sound. From the city of rising sun Miruga makes an elegant, jazzy and groovy awesome track. And from Spain two deep house masters . On the one hand Jesus Gonsev brings a tasty bass and juicy string. On the other hand Ernie explores his dark side with this deep and dusk track. Four great artists for this new soundtrack. Mike's takes it out loud in his car. What are you waiting to do in yours? LImited to 300 copies.