Toy Tonics 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Toy Tonics is a real favourite here at Juno - their house is always fresh, never cheap and often with an authentic link to the past. Next up they have London's Cody Currie serving up his debut long player. Lucas is a nice broad work that opens with some of the broken beat the UK capital is so well known for before progressing through loose house funk on 'Money,' percussive and soulful vibes like 'Red Hot' and steamy slow jams in the form of 'That Stick.' And that's just the first side of the first record with three more to come that are just as good.

Review: Second time around for Toy Tronics' co-founder Kapote's debut album, which originally appeared in stores back in 2019. This time round, he's tweaked and rejigged things a little, offering a re-edited and lightly reworked '2nd Version' that arguably improves an already excellent album. For proof, checked the hushed, TB-303 sporting jazz-funk-goes-loop-house flavours of 'Jaas Func Haus', the carnival-ready, electric-piano sporting dancefloor sunshine of 'Brasiliko', the bouncy and loose-limbed excellence of 'Salvation' (whose rubbery bassline is an addictive delight), the organic 21st century jazz-funk-goes-electrofunk headiness of 'Fusion 79' and the wonderfully warming organic house delight that is 'LOVE'.

Review: Toy Tonics is a label that has always done house music well - it doesn't follow trends, it doesn't look to reinvent the wheel, it doesn't repeat the same old tricks. What it does is serve up superb good grooves with plenty of character that are always going to get any crowd going no matter the time or place. The label now goes big with this double 12" of Gomma Dancefloor Gems Vol 1. It is, they say, a collection of "Y2K indie dance tracks" that were all originally released on the German Gomma Records label between 2001 and 2010 and were right up there with music on labels like James Murphy's DFA and Trevor Jackson's Output Records as the hottest of the day.

Review: Gomma played a vital role in the popularisation of the indie-dance explosion that happened some 20 years ago now. Best known for being spearheaded by US indie outfit LDC Sound system, it combined dance, disco, wave, post-punk and more into a party-ready sound that found favour with both ravers and guitar heads. This second collection from the German label highlights the best of music they put out back then with names like In Flagranti, label co-founder Munk, Nancy Whang & Bonar Bradberry and many more all present and correct.

Review: Toy Tonics has established itself as one of house music's most interesting modern labels. It deals in all the myriad niche styles with equal elan, and always manage to call upon producers with something original to add to the conversation. The musical take on house is exemplified again on this second volume off their Mushroom House series from Kaputt. There are bright, glistening melodic cuts from Harry Wolfmann, tribal grooves from Kiwi, deep basement tackle featuring Italian designer Mathew Burlon and typically balmy and elegant grooves from the always on form DJ Sprinkles. The whimsical charm and lightness of touch displayed by Art Alfie on 'Dance To The Conga' is also to behold.