Compilation Recommendations April 2012

Review: For those submerged in the deep house/disco/slo-mo fusion scene, Kolour Ltd has been one of the standout labels of recent years. It's releases - all limited-edition and pressed on brightly-coloured wax - have offered comfy, touchy-feely grooves from such fast-rising talents as Fantastic Man, Alex Agore, Eddie C and Zoo Look. Having reached ten releases, Kolour Ltd have decided to hand over the reigns to Glasgow's 6th Borough Project for a bit of a celebration. The result is a warm, sofa-comfy mix of label highlights that effortlessly takes in US garage revivalism (Nicholas), sunny smoothness (Deadly Sins), percussive old skool grooves (6th Borough themselves) and hands-in-the-air loop disco (Norm De Plume).

Review: Amazingly, it's been eight long years since the release of Freerange's first Colour Series compilation ("Yellow"). A few things have changed in that time for Jimpster's label, but his commitment to musically rich deep house remains. That's much in evidence here, particularly on the contributions from Andre Lodemann, fast-rising starlet Mic Newman and Jimpster himself (whose woozy "Late Night Blues" is his best for some time). There's also a distinct old skool feel to some of the cuts, with Alexkid's percussive "Class of 95" and Milton Jackson's robust "DS1" offering plenty of vintage US house flavour. The real standout, though, is Arithmetic's' "Time", which sounds like a long lost deep house anthem.

Review: Rheji and Ronald Burrell have long been considered deep house pioneers, with their early 12" singles for Nu Groove - the New York label they co-founded in 1988 - currently changing hands for vast sums of money. In the early years of the label, the former major label-signed R&B duo created a huge amount of material under a barrage of pseudonyms, much of it genuinely groundbreaking. This timely collection from Dutch diggers Rush Hour showcases much of that pioneering work, from the musically rich deepness of Aphrodisiac and smooth, Detroit-influenced jack of Tech Trax Inc, to the Tony Humphries-ish garage of Metro and the picturesque sketches of N.Y Housin' Authority.

Review: Having initially sprung into life back in 2005 to provide an outlet for dubstep productions by members of Bristol's bass music community, Tectonic has since developed into a must-check hub for heavyweight floor fillers across a range of bass-fixated genres. The label's shift in recent years is amply demonstrated by this latest Tectonic Plates collection, the first since 2009. Alongside relatively traditional dubstep, you'll find the Juke-influenced 808 pressure of Addison Groove, a gaggle of future garage bangers, the electronic warmth of Illum Sphere, some hard-to-fathom brilliance from Om Unit and a pair of sweet, post-dubstep fusions from 2562 and Kevin McPhee.

Review: For those seeking classic dance music from the halcyon days of New York's legendary Paradise Garage, the Garage Classics series has always been a trustworthy source of material. This third volume presents another 11 tracks played to death by Larry Levan at the notorious venue. As usual, there's a mix of well-known disco and boogie (Chic, Dinosaur L, Chaka Khan, Kool & The Gang's ace "Summer Madness"), hustlin' funk (The Originals' "Down To Love Town") and a smattering of seemingly unlikely party favourites (Ram Jam's cock rock stomper "Black Betty", Wham's end-of-night groover "Everything She Wants" and Soft Cell's "Seedy Films").

Review: Since launching way back in 2006, Hospital's occasional Med School imprint has provided open-minded listeners with some pleasingly revelatory excursions beyond the outer limits of bass-heavy electronica and drum and bass. This latest label comp, featuring a mix of unreleased and little-known cuts from familiar artists and newcomers, continues that trend. Amidst its "bass injections that raise the bar" you'll find the wonky sweetness of Subverse, the ethereal deepness of Blu Mar Ten, the cheery vocal goodness of Twothirds & Bad Apple, the clicky electronic curiosities of Bop and some seriously heavy D&B from Royalston. A pleasingly mixed bag, all told.

Review: As DJs, record label executives and promoters gather on Miami's South Beach to test their rave endurance in the city's annual backslapping gurn-a-thon, house granddad Pete Tong joins forces with festival favourites Groove Armada for a celebratory mix-up. Tong handles mixing duties on disc one, mixing up hyped, soft-focus house fare and tech-tinged groovery from the likes of Jamie Jones, Subb-An, Deetron, PBR Streetgang and Hot Chip's Joe Goddard. Groove Armada, meanwhile, offer up a more goodtime selection on their disc, fusing disco/house crossover hits from Maxxi Soundsystem and others with vintage deep house (Fingers Inc, CLE), revivalist fun (Bingo Players covering "Devotion"), hyped bizniz (Nina Kraviz) and forgotten gems (Stacey Pullen).

Review: The Harmless Disco Discharge series has enjoyed a strange existence to date, often championing odd European disco hits over underground American originals. Here they attempt to redress the balance with American Hot, a two-disc selection focusing more on authentic disco-era cuts from American artists (and, erm, "Love For The Sake of Love" by German singer Claudja Barry). As usual, it's a mixed bag, with well-known jams, obscurities and camp silliness by the bucket load - most in full-length, 12" version form. It's nice to see Luther Vandross' "Sugar & Spice" get another airing, while Dennis Parker's "A Night In New York" is a tongue-in-cheek classic. Saturday Night Band's rousing "Touch Me On My Hot Spot" is even better.

Review: Poker Flat supremo Steve Bug returns with a ninth (count 'em) round up of releases, exclusives and forgotten favourites from the veteran German imprint. While the second CD mix from Bug himself is arguably a better snapshot of where Poker Flat is right now, it's the first CD of unmixed tracks that will be of most interest to DJs. Highlights are plentiful, from the unadulterated classic house sweetness of newcomers Tom Taylor and Gareth Whitehead, to the chunky vibes of Adultnapper, piano-laden spookiness of Roland Appel and the moody slickness of veteran Bristolian producer Nick Harris. Bug also finds time to squeeze in some melancholic deepness from Sebastian San.

Review: With a collection that takes in everything from jazz, hip-hop, soul, funk and boogie to house, garage and broken beat, DJ Spinna is in an ideal position to assess the work of Perception and Today Records, two of New York's more interesting underground labels of the last 50 years. Here he picks out two discs' worth of highlights from the imprints' combined catalogues, presenting a fuzzy mix of blistering funk (see Debbie Taylor's "Too Sad To Tell"), quirky jazz (Dizzy Gillespie), heavy soul (Madhouse), Latin flavours (Astrid Gilberto), string-laden sweetness (Black Ivory) and piano-laden sunniness (Tyrone Washington).

Review: Since first being "discovered" as an 18 year-old by Sven Vath in 2004, Chris Tietjen has been a firm part of the Cocoon family, warming up for the German veteran on world tours and mixing their numbered label comps. Sieben is his eighth DJ mix for Cocoon (the seventh in the numbered series; he also partly mixed the Green&Blue set) and sees him smoothly move through a range of electronic styles over the course of an enjoyable 75 minutes. Following a deep and cinematic opening, Tietjen ups the pace with Boys Noize's surprisingly melodic "Adonis" and Pele's trance-influenced "Nothing Else" before touching on modern Italo, darkroom deepness, wonky pop-house and latter-day prog. That it makes perfect sense is testament to his obvious skill as a DJ and selector.