Juno Recommends Deep House Best of 2020

Review: Berlin-based Korean Peggy Gou has been surprisingly quiet since first bursting onto the scene back in 2016. Here, she returns to action having graduated from Technicolour to parent label Ninja Tune. Many may already have heard EP standout "It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)", a percussively ambidextrous beast based around a bouncy, off-skilter, snare-heavy rhythm track. It has been much discussed online after Gou included it her recent Resident Advisor podcast. On the B-side you'll find tracks representative of her developing style, which draws together elements of European deep house, electro, early '90s U.S house, the rubbery disco eccentricity of Maurice Fulton and the instinctive polyrhythms more often found in traditional African music.

Review: Stee Downes is one of contemporary house music's most prominent vocalists and here he lends his silky tones to Freerange, Defected and OM Records associate, Lovebirds for this new one on South Street. "Want You In My Soul" is a mix of old and new, where disco percussion and cosmic synths nestle alongside a mid tempo house groove with plenty of warmth. Downes' vocals are the loved up icing on the romantic groove cake. Flip over for the "Summer In London Edit" - a more stripped back and direct version, perfect for outdoor stages as the sun beats down.

Review: Another week, another new re-edit series of mysterious origin. There's literally no info about the producer (or producers) behind this particular single-sided salvo, or the source material they've tampered with. Regardless, we'd heartily recommend giving it a listen. Firmly focused on peak-time floors, it wraps cut-up and manipulated female rap vocals over a formidably bouncy, turn-of-the-90s house beat and a rubbery synthesizer bassline so infectious you might need to self-isolate for two weeks after hearing it. This is hip-shaking, toe-tapping, arms-flailing retro-futurist hip-house at its very best: ignore at your peril!

Review: The crew behind the Hizou label is rightly chuffed that they've managed to secure this two-tracker from Andres, a Detroit producer whose releases - whether aimed at deep house dancefloors or hip-hop heads - are rarely less than superb. The two tracks the label has selected are suitably strong, too. Check first A-side "All U Gotta Do Is Listen", a warm and hazy chunk of break-driven mid-tempo deep house rich in jazzy samples, swirling crowd noises, chunky bass and dewy-eyed instrumentation. Andres' vintage influences are explored further on flipside "Night Time Is The Right Time", a P-funk influenced deep house bumper whose swinging drums and elongated organ chords casually tip a wink to classic New Jersey garage.

Review: The Sushitech festivities continue unabated with this bittersweet repress of an all-time classic from the much-missed Detroit figurehead Mike Huckaby. 'Baseline '87' ranks amongst his most fabled works, riding as it does around an irresistibly catchy square wave bass hook and one of those no-nonsense beats that the legendary producer did so well. For the sound of Huckaby in full flight though, 'Musik For The Dancefloor' on the flip soars thanks to the interplay between the pads and chords while retaining that steadfast focus. In memory of a true dance music hero, why not revisit a classic that should be comfortably sat in every record bag?

Review: Apart from the obvious love for his musical talents, both as a producer and as a DJ, one of the reasons why we love Theo Parrish so damn much is his repressing policy. Unlike some of his peers, the man has no problem in repressing in-demand Sound Signatures from the past, and this time it's number 32 that receives a much-welcomed resurrection. The EP features singer Dummine Depores, first on the utterly hummable and soulful "Chemistry" track, and then on "Untitled One", a classically off-kilter Parrish number filled to the brim with sampling goodness and even a distant set of guitar riffs! Killers.

Review: There's been little information released about this three-track EP, though we do known that it's the work of "a classic US label going incognito". Whatever the source, what counts is the quality of the music; happily, the EP is impeccable. Leading the charge is Karizma, whose remix of Flacko's "Lonely Town" is a breezy, soft-focus chunk of modern soul/broken house fusion smothered in hazy synthesizer chords and slowly strummed Latin guitar breakdowns. DJ Kemit dances towards peak-time floors with a wonderfully emotion-rich house version of jazz pianist Robert Glasper's "Enoch's House" built around similarly tropical drums, while KZRekchampma's glorious flipside club revision of Guy's "Groove Me" sits somewhere between bass-heavy UK house, soul-powered New Jersey garage and revivalist synth-boogie.

Review: Natural Midi has been one of the primary homes to Scott Grooves' tunes, easily the most underrated producer from the Detroit area, and he's back on his own label with four new beauties. Grooves has been churning out exquisite deep house bangers since the 90's, a very specific brand of dance music that incorporates everything from jazz, to disco and funk; his basslines are always warm and soothing, while his percussion is dusty and the synth lines musical. In an age where 'outsider' house rules, his grounded approach is always a breath of fresh air to us. The opener "Finished" is a funky house swinger choc-a-bloc with gorgeous claps and stuttering toms, and "Inspiration Sound" scratches the 4/4 off for a bit of broken trip-hop - a certified winner. On side B, "The Sauce" is moody, spaced-out and offers subtle keys, while "Nitty Gritty" slams out a dicing little percussion with a lo-fi feel. Absolutely terrific.

Review: To launch their new collaborative imprint Locus, Enzo Siragusa and FUSE have turned to Italian rising star (and INFUSE regular) Koko. The resultant four-tracker ix attractive and ear-catching, with Koko moving from hip-shaking summery deep house swing (the rather lovely chord progressions and drowsy female vocals of "Chantal", featuring Quelle Rox), to the UK garage-goes-deep house warmth of "Amor Ante Hominem Nascitur", via slick smoothness of "Your Ass, My Camel Blue" and the tough, bumpin' chunkiness of revivalist UK garage number "Love In Plexiglass". It's the latter, a pitch-perfect cap-doff to Grant Nelson rich in jazzy bass and dreamy vocal snippets, that hits home hardest.

Review: As debuts go, the first outing from Ben Westbeech and KON as The Vision is mighty impressive. With the assistance of UK soul star Andreya Triana, they've conjured up a thrilling debut cut that sits somewhere between gospel, disco and sultry soulful house. The superbly warm and groovy original version - all bold piano riffs, jazzy horn solos, crunchy guitars, rolling drums and sublime lead vocals - is undoubtedly the standout, though the accompanying remixes are also rather good. Mousse T's boogie-flavoured house remix is a great alternative house mix with a deeper and more obviously electronic flavour, while the two Nightmares On Wax rubs are chunkier, sweatier and even warmer with plenty of D-Train style synth squiggles and ear-catching musical flourishes. In a word: ace.

Review: As one of his more intermittent labels, Modified Suede has only put out a small handful of Scott Grooves releases previously, but now the imprint is back in action to offer up a few unreleased gems from the vaults. "Movin' On" is rich with vocals from Seoulonnie, keeping a smooth lounge tone to the deep house backing track with occasional chorus key-change flourishes. "Red Crates" is equally soulful although its righteous piano stealing the show instead of vocals here, while "Me Solista" gets into a Latin frame of mind with its chimes and shuffles. "French Road" represents the more adventurous side of the EP, heading into a more subtle soundscape populated by dubbed out melodics and low-bubbling percussion.

Review: Considering this track originally surfaced back in 1993, it's staggering how up to the minute it still sounds, not to mention setting the tone for the swathes of downtempo and broken beat that would flood out from the 90s and beyond into the 21st century. You simply can't measure the influence of "The Nervous Track" with its horn blasts and limber drum roll, and it proves that MAW were never just about tough New York house bump. Take your pick from any of the mixes, they're all classics in their own individual ways, and they'll set any listener adrift on a summery haze of soulful tones and magical drum patterns.

Review: All proceeds and profits from this new drop on Selections will be donated to Black Lives Matter charities, making it an even more appealing offer beyond the sheer quality of the house heads gathered together here. The mighty Kai Alce leads the charge with the sweet and bumping 'Hear The Waves', which is followed up by the punchy but warm 'Furacao Dento' by Demuir. Nick Holder opens the B side up with a killer slice of broken beat house, all crooked percussion locked into a deep, rolling groove. 83 West finishes the record off with a teasing, slow-release heater that keeps the energy simmering throughout - a masterfully executed cut to hold the dancefloor under a spell.

Review: For their latest deep dive into the world of hard-to-find house classics, Italy's Groove Records take us back to 1996. "House Music Will Never Die" marked Glenn Underground's first collaboration with vocalist Cei-Bei (AKA Curtis Harman) and has long been considered one of the Chicagoan producer's finest releases. Wisely, Groove has decided against tinkering with a classic, instead serving up all four mixes from the original Cajual Records 12". Choose between the classic deep house soul of the GU Cei-Bei Foot Mix, the wonderfully summery, jazz guitar-laden CVO Bismark Hotel Mix, Mark Grant's brilliantly evocative, stretched-out interpretation, and a killer Afro Dub that makes great use of a heavy analogue bassline. All four versions are top notch.

Review: John Beltran is welcomed into the MotorCity Wine Recordings family with his sun-drenched and soulful debut entitled "Back To Bahia". Titled after his MCW residency of the same name, the release combines Deep House, Jazz, Boogie, and, of course, musica popular Brasileira flavors to welcome the sunshine into your life. Housed in the MotorCity Wine 7" company jacket.

Review: REPRESS ALERT! In another life, the crew behind Reverberations (nicknamed Reverb to many) released literally hundreds of titles on various labels including their own. 25 years after their launch, their music is more in demand than ever before. This special release on the later incarnation, RvS, handpicks four in-demand tracks and remixes by Silverlining, Ravi McArthur and their collaboration, Impossible beings. Do not miss!

Review: Alex "Omar" Smith has covered all bases this year, offering up singles that flit between more experimental, off kilter fare, head-nodding beats informed by hip-hop culture and the unique blend of Detroit deep house and techno that has long been his stock-in-trade. His final single of 2019 sees him gleefully charge further towards disco pastures with "Another Man", a bouncy, club-ready house workout that peppers a good-time disco groove (think rubbery slap bass and crunchy drums) with spacey synth sounds, twinkling melodies and male spoken word samples ("I can quite understand... she left me for another man"). He's back on deep house mode on flipside "Suv's AKA Fatass Mobile's", where a drowsy riff and sustained synth strings bob along atop a sea of sweaty machine drums.

Review: Three years on from his latest solo outing, Crazy P founder member Chris Todd AKA Hot Toddy returns to House of Disco with a predictably fine four-tracker. Our pick of a very strong bunch is the toughened up, revivalist electrofunk flex of "Wilde Touch", where clipped guitar riffs, crunchy Clavinet lines and colourful melodies ride a rubbery bassline, though the Paper Recordings-era Crazy P deep house/disco fusion of "Still We Are" is almost as impressive. Speaking of Crazy P, lead singer Danielle Moore lends her distinctive vocals to the Imagination-ish Brit-boogie business of "Positive Emotion", while the EP's other track, opener "Synthesize", is a darker and more spaced-out chunk of weighty, bassline-driven nu-boogie goodness.

Review: Adam Feingold once again dons the Ex Terrestrial alias, this time for an outing on box fresh Canadian imprint NAFF. He's in a typically melodious and glassy-eyed mood on the A-side, where "Portal Living (Kali)" and "Portal Living (Plain)" provide two contrasting takes on the producer's warm and wavy interpretation of early Italian dream house. "Vanilight (Re-Zoned)" sounds like his tactile take on obscure bleep pioneers DJ Martin and DJ Homes' brilliant (but little-known) bass-heavy remixes of Man Machine's "Animal", while closer "2DS" is a kaleidoscopic slice of deep musical bliss that sits somewhere between original New Jersey deep house and the turn-of-the-'90s Soul II Soul sound.

Review: Italian duo Nu Guinea has previously proved adept at creating humid, sultry deep house and tropical-infused electronics. Here, they focus a little more on the latter with a concept album based around the distinctive Afrobeat rhythms of legendary drummer Tony Allen. With his blessing, and that of the Comet label on which he's been releasing since the 1980s, the Early Sounds Recordings pair has cut-up and re-constructed Allen's drums, combining them with their own steamy electronics, vintage synthesizer lines and classic drum machines. It's an intoxicating and hugely entertaining blend that sits somewhere between their previous outings, Danny Wolfers' material under the Nacho Patrol guise, and the dreamy late '80s/early '90s work of forgotten Italian producer Mr Marvin.

Review: Given the hype surrounding HNNY over the last few years - fuelled, primarily, by a string of celebrated singles on Puss, Local Talk, Let's Play House and YUMMY - it's somewhat surprising that Sunday marks his first foray into the album market. Wisely, the Swedish artist embraced the opportunity for eclecticism that the format provides, filling his debut full-length with a mix of tracks variously designed for sofa-bound listening and dancing in clubs. There's a jazz-flecked beauty to the crackly downtempo grooves offered up by the title track, while the dreamy, guitar-laced head-nodder "Sylvia" recalls the best of his Balearic-influenced work. It's these luscious moments, such as the twinkling ambience of closer "My Baby", that really resonate.

Review: There's been plenty of online chatter about the confrontational title of Omar-S's latest full-length outing, and arguably not enough focus on the music itself (or the fact that the guest list contains Rick Wilhite, Norm Talley and OB Ignitt for that matter). This is unfortunate, because as usual Alex 'Omar' Smith has hit the spot. The six untitled tracks are impressively varied, with Smith effortlessly moving between 21st century P-funk (track one), cowbell-powered deep house funk (track 2), sparse and synth-heavy acid house hypnotism (track three), disco-house jack (track four), sub-heavy Detroit-meets-Sheffield minimalism (track five) and sunrise-ready dancefloor dreaminess (track six).

Review: Those who've been paying close attention will know that Alex 'Omar' Smith has been mixing things up musically of late, veering away from the deep Detroit house he's famed for in order to explore a wider range of influences. New album "You Want" doesn't exactly reverse this trend, but it is far more rooted in his particular brand of seductive, off-kilter deepness and techno-tinged hypnotism than recent singles. That's undeniably a good thing, because nobody does crunchy, machine driven club jams better than the Motor City producer. There are nods towards Italian style piano house, disco, broken beat, jazz funk, Masters at Work and - more surprisingly - industrial techno (see the filthy closing cut) - but the resultant cuts don't sound like anything other than tried-and-tested Omar-S club jams.

Review: Planisphere is exactly the kind of cult deep house and techno producer that For Those That Knoe are all over. David Swatten's last release was 20 years ago, and that one now fetches sky-high prices online, but fortunately the good ship Knoe has taken charge of the situation and commissioned this full-length release of sumptuous electronics. As you would expect for the label, the vibe is primarily classic ambient techno with a spread of different energies from heads down club grooves to blissful back room excursions, all expressed through vintage synth tones. Consistently brilliant throughout, this is the kind of album you could happily melt into from start to finish, as well as having plenty for the mix-minded to get busy with.

Review: NYC photographer Eddie Marshall produced these meditative club tunes as Dreamscape between 1994 - 1995. Originally released on his own short lived New Age House Records, these timeless jams fetch high prices on the secondhand market, but Welcome To Our New Age House includes the best of those two releases, remastered from the original ADATs for the sixth release on Ari Goldman's World Building imprint. Get yourself a fix of motivational deepness for your mind, body and soul right here.

Review: Originally released back in 2010, British producer Kieran Hebden's much lauded opus There Is Love In You is reissued here on his own Text imprint. This expanded edition features remixes from the album which were released shortly after in the same year, available once again on vinyl. From Joy Orbison's emotive and off-kilter rework of 'Love Cry', there's life affirming vibes abound on Floating Points' perspective of 'Sing' and Jon Hopkins' glassy-eyed and bittersweet rendition of 'Angel Echoes' appears alongside the timeless originals. For example, the dreamy sonic tapestry of 'This Unfolds' as well as 'Plastic People' - the poignant tribute to the legendary London club.

Review: If your musical tastes tend towards the more melodic and dreamily deep end of the dance music spectrum, we'd highly recommend this expansive, three-disc Summer Sampler compilation from All Day I Dream, an imprint that has long championed emotive, tuneful blends of deep house, progressive house and tech-house. There's no filler amongst the 12 tracks on show, just good quality cuts that combine solid grooves with ear-pleasing electronic instrumentation. Highlights include the slow burn, delay-laden late night hypnotism of Double Touch's 'Circles', the bass-heavy beats and fluid piano motifs of Makebo's 'Just a Dream', the ultra-deep bliss of Death on a Balcony's bittersweet 'The Source', and the simmering strings and subtle Middle Eastern influences on Nebula's tech-house shuffler 'Once Upon a Time'.

Review: A few months back, iconic New York house label Strictly Rhythm notched up three decades in the business. To celebrate, the label's current owners (BMG fact fans) have decided to offer up a series of celebratory compilations featuring some of the imprint's biggest dancefloor hits. There's plenty to set the pulse racing on this first volume, from the stab-heavy, rave-era filth of CLS's "Can You Feel It (In House Dub)" and the wild acid insanity of Wink's "Higher State of Consciousness (Tweekin Acid Funk)", to the bouncy, mid-to-late-90s US garage chunkiness of Groove Patrol's "Need Your Love", Hardrive's "Deep Inside" and the organ-heavy sweatiness of George Morel's "Let's Groove".

Review: One of the joys of Pets Recordings' output over the last couple of years is how unpredictable it has become stylistically. Basically, you don't know what the next release will bring musically, but more often than not it will be rather good. That's certainly the case on the imprint's latest four-tracker, which sees London producer Jeigo (real name Jack Carr-Miles) flit between driving and occasionally dreamy breakbeat-house dirtiness (the retro-futurist peak-time pump of 'We Are Not Nothing'), Livity Sound-goes-deep house brilliance (the intricate percussion programming and gently swelling chords of 'Far Away'), hazy early morning deep house hypnotism ('FS Melody'), and ultra-deep, UK garage-influenced sunrise wooziness ('Beyond', whose emotive, ear-catching female vocal samples work wonderfully).

Review: Given the quality, depth and melodiousness of her productions, we always felt that Shanti Celeste would be capable of producing a great debut album. As "Tangerine" defiantly proves, we were right. Rooted in her dreamy but driving club sound but peppered with delicious downtempo diversions - see the Japanese-influenced new age minimalism of "Natura", the drowsy ambient bliss of "Sun Notification" and "Selected Ambient Works" style opaque fluidity of "Slow Wave" - "Tangerine" is a brilliant showcase for the Peach Discs founder's inimitable talents. There's a pleasant amount of variation amongst the killer club cuts too, with highlights including the intergalactic techno bounce of "Aqua Block", the mangled drum and bass mysticism of "Voz", the retro-futurist breakbeat garage bustle of "Want" and the dream house skip of "Sesame".

Review: Vega Records presents Elements Of Life Extensions, the live orchestral project of label chief Louie Vega. For the project's first volume of reworks, the new tracks "Messin' About", "Our People", and the unreleased mix of "Love Is On The Way" are ones not to be missed, in addition to a wide range of talents have been especially chosen to give their take on tracks from the album. Masters At Work sidekick Kenny Dope's take on "Cerca De Mi" (with Raul Midon), Joe Claussell on the spiritual perspective of "Sunshine" (as Scared Rhythm) and a respectful remaster of the Candido classic "Thousand Finger Man".