Deep House Recommendations April 2012

Review: Having announced the expansion of the Vibes & Pepper brand into record label ownership in consummate style with a timely reissue of the seminal Claude Young & Terrence Parker EP The 4 Play, the Parisian operation now is proud to present the new school of bumping house talent in the shape of Tomska. The Belgian producer has been steadily cutting his production teeth over recent times, with a few select remixes and releases that showcase his love for the sounds of Chicago and Detroit, something that is explored with aplomb on the four track Mental Raw EP. From the opening bars of "Let's Get It On" Tomska shows undeniable ease for combining emotive melodies with a crisp and contemporary treatment of rhythms, with the snapping "Everynight" a particular highlight.

Review: This has been a long time coming! News first surfaced over a year ago of Move D collaborating with Juju & Jordash on an analogue heavy live project entitled Magic Mountain High with the added promise of Workshop released material to follow. Several illuminating festival appearances and many months later and the Workshop label finally present The Schnitzel Box Vol 1, with three untitled productions from the trio that ensure the wait was worth it. Granted the freedom of the A Side, the opening track is allowed the time and space to incorporate both brooding analogue drone and sprawling key laden melodic glisten. Flip over and "Untitled 2" is quicker off the blocks, swiftly settling into a fizzing house jam rich in warm colour and tone and driven by crisp Roland rhythms, whilst the final arrangement is surely the most eminently danceable with yet more warm analogue patterns and Hitchcockian synth drones worming their way around a skipping techno beat. Simply superb!

Review: With their feet firmly positioned on Dutch soil, the heads and hearts of Detroit Swindle are nonetheless rooted deep into the soul of the motor city, and this EP of finely crafted grooves on Jimmy Posters and Huxley's fledgling Saints & Sonnets imprint is as brilliant a reflection of their obsession as you could expect. "The Wrap Around" combines a killer vocal hook with a silky line, but it's the bassline that marks it out, coming in with a thudding bassline that twists itself into all manner of unfiltered goodness at the halfway point. "Pain Tomorrow" meanwhile prefers to let its skipping percussion do the talking with a bumping chord led groove that would put MCDE to shame. The EP is rounded off with a killer remix of the title track from Deleusions of Grandeur's Pattern Select, turning in a sparse reworking which transforms the light original into a throbbing piece of basement house.

Review: FXHE maintain their monthly heat emission for 2012, with label boss Omar S displaying all aspects of his production prowess (as well as skill for a humorous track titles) across four productions - one of which features the button bashing assistance of one Patrik Sjeren. There's something icily brilliant about the restrained "Income Tax Refund Dance" melding a dark piano riff with snapping 808 kicks and rippling lo fi rhythms which only further justifies the title of Omar S's killer 2011 LP. It's complemented by the far rowdier box jam "The White Castle Song" which jackhammers a simple yet highly flammable key riff over low rent percussion for FXHE's most potent ode to the perfect warehouse moment since the all conquering "Here's Your Trance..." Given the lack of additional info, we presume the Patrik Sjeren that produces the B Side "Untitled" track is the same Patrik Sjeren that released in the mid 90s under a multiplicity of aliases, and his contribution is every bit as incendiary as the track preceding it, whilst "3c 273" sees Omar S slip into pensive utopian electro mode with aplomb.

Review: ** Repress in new DBA new labels and sleeves courtesty of Optigram design agency ** The Sun Goddess EP is Beatnick's second outing for the DBA imprint, impressing further on our ears his undeniable talent for crafting housier tackle than the smudged out boogie he came to the fore with for labels like Burntprogress and Altered Vibes. It would take an uneducated ear to not bask in the glory of the title track, which positively reeks of glowering warmth and rhythmic intricacy that's reminiscent of Theo P in his more laidback moments. This approach to programming of subtly introducing track mutations - either melodically or rhythmically - seeps through the rest of the EP ensuring each track reveals all new moments of delight with each listen.

Review: *REPRESS* Word on the street is DC imprint Future Times has plenty of twelve inch shaped heat ready to be unleashed this year, and if every record they put out is as good as this one sided house blend then 2012 will serve Max D and co well. According to the press release, "Untitled" by Unknown has apparently been a Beautiful Swimmers set staple and it's not hard to see why. A 2009 Running Back release gets rewired and flushed with the signature damp synthesizer sound by "a close friend" of the label resulting in a hypnotic tropical jacker that will find plenty of love in many a record box.

Review: When Rheji and Ronald 'Rhano' Burrell dropped their debut album on Virgin Records in 1988, there was little sign that they would eventually become one of the most influential production partnerships in house. Simply titled Burrell, the album offered a slick, radio-friendly mix of 80s R&B, synth-funk/house crossovers and the sort of piano-laden garage house - as it was then called - that was beginning to dominate the clubs of New Jersey. Frustrated by the constraints of working with a major label, they went back underground. With the backing of their management trio of Judy Russell and Frank and Karen Mendez, they launched Nu Groove Records, initially as an outlet for their own productions. But the music they made would not be created with radio airplay in mind, but rather the dancefloors of New Jersey, New York and Chicago. It was a masterstroke. Inspired by the jacking house sound of Chicago, the deepness of Larry Heard and the emotion-rich, musically minded productions of early New Jersey garage pioneers, they proceeded to make music that defied easy categorization. It would quickly become known as deep house. This retrospective from Rush Hour is both well deserved and long overdue. It should be essential listening for anyone with even the smallest interest in the development of house music during a crucial period.

Review: Although it has found emotional music from France, Russia and South Africa over the years, for this release it returns to the birthplace of deep house, Chicago, to focus on up and coming producer Matthew Wieck. Opening the EP with the wiry tones and lush pads of "Flying Feeling" whichs take you up into the stratosphere with its floaty vibe, it's complimented by "Hydroacoustics", which utilises an aquatic arpeggio lead and warm, oozing pad underneath, held together with crips, charged percussive work. On the flipside "Worlds Beyond" demonstrates Wieck's darker side, with an acid bassline riffing against cavernous piano in what sounds like a more introverted take on Larry Heard. Altered Moods boss Malcolm Moore finishes off the EP with "Cleared Direct", an 808 jam held together with foggy chords and disembodied radio transmissions - the perfect compliment to Wieck's fine material.

Review: Let's Play House, the NYC label run with aplomb by Jacques Renault, James Friedman and Juno Plus scribe Nik Mercer, unveil their latest release will be an EP from mysterious production outfit the Dead Rose Music Company. Our pick of the jams on offer has to be "Faith", a moody, thumping disco reworking which is perfectly described by the label as "the jumbled recollections of last night's disco fading in and out of strobe-lit smoke on the dancefloor". Also do check the Dennis Parker sampling epic "Nutkins"!

Review: ** REPRESS ALERT ** The Ominira imprint, purveyors of super limited cassette and CDr releases, emerges from the mist with a three track release - their first ever on vinyl - featuring cuts from Kowton, Juniper and Gunnar Wendel, aka Kassem Mosse, who adopts his new and slightly confusing Kareem Moser moniker. Wendel's majestic "OS2009" is on the A-Side, an ephemeral delight for the senses that sees the Leipzig-based producer again explore previously unexplored crevices of sub bass. A peculiar synth melody hangs over the shuffling beat for an overall sensation that is at once awkward yet indescribably delicate and beautiful - typical Wendel in other words. Bristol producer Kowton again invites us to wade through the swampy waters that characterise his knackered house sound on "117", which boasts some outrageous bass stabs, lovely rubber band synths and a hypnotic vocal snatch; this shares the B-Side with Juniper's creepy-yet-groovy cut "Jovian Planet".

Review: Having steadily climbed the ranks of the European leftfield house scene via Bass Culture, Tsuba and Morris/Audio amongst others, Rio Padice is back with some assured groovers for Housewax. On the Moon Phases EP the ghost of deep Chicago house looms heavy, not least in the opening track. It's deliberately naive, easy-going music perfectly pitched to worm its way into a warm-up scenario, but with enough grit in the production to avoid the trap of background fodder. The B-Side is a touch wilder, as the syncopation of "Track 3" does damage with a sumptuous square wave bass while "Track 4" bumps on a nasty garage shuffle. Get on it.

Review: Deepblak come in from the stark, cold silence with their first transmission of 2012, the suitably titled Astral Metronome EP from label boss Aybee. Those familiar with the label will feel immediately at home amidst the expansive, smudged out sub frequencies of lead track "No Fiction" which soon becomes dominated by the rigid, snapping rhyhtms and a echoed out textural quality that is eerily akin to rust filled water dripping down your spine. Alongside it, "Ether" scratches granular dub techno abrasions into the gloopy bottom end whose viscous form threatens to offset the swing brought by the mechanical skip of drums. This 12" is added further singularity by the monolithic slab of low frequency analogue fudge that is "Kommands", which can only be described as sounding like Aybee mapping out a dystopian nightmare on a musical mainframe that gleefully disregards notions of genre.

Review: With his long player freshly dropped for Tsuba, Canadian producer Tazz gets under the knife with a couple of reworkings aimed squarely at the deeper end of the house dancefloor. 6th Borough Project get to grips with "Worked It", going for a slightly more pumped and modern sounding cut than a lot of their rootsy disco productions, using subtle flicks of melody to create a moody piece. Matthew Styles meanwhile goes further down into the murk with a thoroughly dubby version of "Giovanni's Keys", going heavy on the reverb and submerged keys but keeping things functional for the floor.

Review: Detroit based label Black Catalogue deliver a compilation of deep and delicate music for their third release. Label boss Monty Luke opens with "Through The Galaxies", serving up some curvy Detroit house, riding on a current of dipping percussive notes and squelching pads. Fhloston Paradigm's "Chasing Rainbows" gives the impression of a live recording, with lots of rugged drum notes, wailing synthesisers and oceanic textures. The Carter Brothers' "Ritual Business" is a more typical house affair, complete with straight four-four pattern, trance soaked pads and rolling drum work. "The Draconian Hybrids" by Kuru closes the EP with horror-house synthesisers that crawl out of a messy rhythm, leaving its listener with a distinct feeling of dread.