Vick Lavender

Review: As both a member of Glenn Underground's Strictly Jaz Unit crew and as a solo artist, Vick Lavender has made some mighty fine deep house in his time. Further proof arrives via this fine two-tracker, which marks the veteran producer's first outing on Alex Attias' Visions Inc label. Probably the pick of the pair is superb A-side "Beautiful Lie", where guest singer D Millz adds a soulful vocal to a glorious bed of dreamy chords, jaunty jazz-funk bass, carnival-friendly drums and colourful synth solos. Lavender continues on a similar theme with flipside "Time Passing", whose loose-limbed broken house drums recall the work of Osunlade. Add in some killer chords, jazzy electric piano solos and squelchy bass, and you have something that Ron Trent would be proud of.

Review: Strictly Jaz Unit member and Glenn Underground collaborator Vick Lavender is enjoying a successful year, with this outing on the freshly minted Forbidden Dance label following excursions on Local Talk and Visions Inc. He starts in fine fashion via "Habano", a shuffling, soft-touch skip through Latin-fired deep house wonder rich in fluid vibraphone solos, layered beats, spacey synth doodles and squelchy synth bass. Over on side B, he first reaches for the Clavinet motifs, clattering timbales and intergalactic synth-chords on the jazz-funk/deep house fusion of "The Definition", before channelling the spirit of Ron Trent on the impeccably dreamy and positive closing cut, "NiteFlyte (Jessie's Journey)".

Review: Following the summer-sizzled "LOVE Song" comes another smooth soul schooling from Victor Lavender. Smoking keys and a lolloping bassline set the scene as Diviniti's vocals cause a spell-binding ear roadblock to great effect. For something deeper and more percussive jump on ReelSoul's drum-heavy instrumental while Josh Milan Honeycomb extends the soul aspects and injects a tiny bit of jazz to recipe giving it a confident MAW-like polish. "1929" completes the set with more jazzed out leanings thanks to the dreamy keys and piano work, tied together neatly with a funky squidgy bassline and subtle percussion elements.