New releases last two weeks: House

Review: Naya Beat's modus operandi is to champion the OG sounds of the South Asian underground through the lenticular funnel of dance music. Their latest in this effort is a breakout wonder in V/A form, herding together three contemporary club titans for a jolly trans-national dialogue over the original stylings of an inimitable key player in proliferation of Bhangra music, Manjeet Kondal. The late great Kondal hears one original piece, 'Pyaar', reissued, alongside two exclusive versions of 'Ishkaan De Mamle' by digger extraordinaire Mr. Scruff, followed by a closing, straight-from-the-stems downtempo acid dub tribute by modern day remixers and DJs Turbotito & Ragz. This is an honorific tribute to the crossection of late 80s to early 90s Bhangra music with acid house, carefully modelled after the aesthetic sensibilities of the time.

Review: The summer is almost here which means this is exactly the sort of record we want to be reaching for. It's a lush and tropical work of idealised disco grooves, deepest house, Balearic, smooth jazz and Mediterranean cool that cries out to be played loud while you sip on cocktails and dream of being somewhere utterly blissful and classy. Dreamy textures define each cut with nice fresh rhythms, glistening chords and lush melodies all sprinkled with delightful percussive detail. Big up to A Vision Of Panorama for serving up a beautiful album that is sure to soundtrack the warmest months of the year for many.

Review: Magic Number is Ross Hillard, a downtempo and orchestral composer whose engineering and bass playing can be heard on an array of releases, most notably for the likes of his own house favourites including Louie Vega, DJ Spen, Kerri Chandler, Lay-Far and Atjazz. Now debuting his first record on the latter artist's eponymous label, Badly Written Songs sounds like a slice of humble pie, but it's actually well-thought out title: in Hillard's own words, "(it's) a tongue-in-cheek reference to how transient electronic music can be." Thus, writing songs in this genre might not have been the most sensible and sustainable idea - but we all love house music, so we put everything into it, hoping that people don't discard it too soon. True to an engineer's tastes, the album is ultra-dynamic and bright throughout, serving up a consistent guest-vocal steeze reminiscent of Charles Webster or Herbert's gravitas.