House News

Leftroom continues its fine run of EPs (recent outings have come from Kate Simko, Sam Russo, William Djoko, Matt Tolfrey and others) with a first appearance on the label from Lil Mark. Born Mark Currell, Lil Mark has been producing top-notch house since 2001 when he appeared on Classic and Music For Freaks, and more than a decade later still puts most of his peers to shame. The two tracks he supplies here come with remixes from Matt Tolfrey and Matthew Styles.

First up is '1994', a house track with a heavily vocodered vocal that works to a peak with elastic synths and slapping claps helping to drive the thing along. Peppered with little pricks and ticks, bubbles and pops it's an arresting joint that pleasingly recalls the old school but in a less than obvious fashion.

It's boss Matt Tolfrey who tackles the re-rub. Naming it his 'Freedom To Party Mix' he opts to pin the whole ting around an undulating, neon glowing bassline as percussive. It's loose and malleable with FM tones and party-fuelled percussion helping to colour the overall picture.

Lil Mark's 'Dark of Pain' is another tight as hell house joint with finger clicks and buried deep synth line setting the early tone. Despite the pace and tightness of it all, there is a micro funk which emerges as the tune plays on that really gets under your skin.

It's Ostgut Ton amd Running Back associate and all round-revered producer Matthew Styles that turns in a 'Tropicana Remix' of this one. He ups the drum quotient and stiches in a bobbling, grubby bassline before unhinging things at the mid point with some nice filters, effects and colourful synth work.

A brilliant EP of no nonsense house music from Matt Tolfrey's Leftroom . House Music that goes its own way and is hugely refreshing as a result.

Squarehead, a Sheffield-based up-and-coming talent, is the lucky producer to nab LPH's 25th release, a landmark to say the least. (As such, the label is printed with touches of silver inks.)

Hot off a thrilling 12' for Manucci's Mistress and a nasty one for Shabby Doll, Squarehead's LPH contribution is, as one should now expect, all lean muscle and no fat. 'Dead Reyt' gets the record going at a feverish pace; a propulsive and peppy bass gets you moving straight away, with well-placed synth washes, vocal drops, and an arpeggiated, loopy melody making it playfully suspenseful and engaging. When it sputters out after seven minutes, you either hit repeat or eagerly move on the next cut, 'Got2Know,' an equally forceful and headfirst piano house boogie.

The B-side begins with 'Vishen,' an elastic, whimsical jam that's laced with a bouncy synth hook and sporadic bits of extra fills, claps, and supplemental bass licks. The 12' closes with 'Someday,' a rigid, square house tune built around a sprightly steel drum part and swinging hats that coalesce into a euphoric conclusion to this already lighthearted yet masterfully arranged and executed collection of originals.

Killer shit from the London Housing Trust featuring a remix from RAD favourite Bintus.

DJ W!LD is back, this time on Crosstown offshoot Rebellion with a stomping summer anthem featuring Cari Golden on vocals 'Shape U'. The original fuses the solid punch of a club weapon with the laidback feel of poolside disco, while the Fur Coat Remake gives the track an entirely different sheen all chugging disco bass-line, dark synths and pitched down vocals. An aptly named WILDER remix and dub from the producer ties up an unmissable EP.

The prolific DJ W!LD is one of France's longest serving underground house heroes. As part of the Cocoon family and as a Circo Loco resident, DJ W!LD under various aliases has released on labels such as OFF Recordings, Robsoul, and his own imprints Catwash Records and W including debut album 'Palace' in 2011. Second album 'D!RTY' landed on Cabin Fever last year.

Originally from Dijon, W!LD's passion for graffiti, street culture, disco, funk and hip hop led him into DJing, taking his name from cult 1983 film Wild Style. Relocating to Paris in 1996, DJ W!LD was instrumental in the French house scene, pouring his energies into the city's underground club community and later becoming a globally successful artist and fixture at the best international clubs and festivals.

Fur Coat have been blazing a trail since their mighty debut album in 2012 on Crosstown Rebels 'Mind Over Matter' also featuring Cari Golden on vocals on the massive hit 'You And I'. The fast-rising Venezuelan duo have been remixed by TEED and have a single forthcoming on Crosstown.

Rawthenticity is proud to present this new EP from Fulbert - where distorted raw drums meet soulful deep house. Powerful cuts.. slamming Detroit influenced 'Pernicious Planet', gritty deep ghetto-reminiscent 'Ideals', raw drum madness 'Meditation in a Forest of Shimmering Mirrors' and the ethereal 'Clouds of..' as a closing track for this EP. Maybe - or maybe not - Fulbert's most introspective release to date.

Following last year's "Unicursal Hexagram" lp Brooklyn producer Jahiliyya Fields enters a new realm with this four track ep. Taking elements from his past industrial fueled efforts and this time expanding upon them with the addition of the kick drum. One can hear a non-traditional and refreshing approach being brought to traditional beat driven electronics with piercingly harsh undertones and creeping melody. This ep explores the vast sonic elements which are designed to affect the body, the mind and the relationship between the two and the music. Big TIP!

The new Komplex De Deep just arrived... from the label chief himself and one of our big favs Master-H. STUNNING... again!
Do UR thang ! EP will be released vinyl only, with 4 Bomb tracks from the purest house music style to the deepest detroity techno dancefloor killer.
Master-H is now showing is own vision of Electronic music with Soul..Don't miss it!

the production outfit of Daniel Varga, Michael Kuebler and Sascha Hedgehog, earned their dance music stripes around the turn of the millennium with a series of strong releases, most notably on Frankfurt-based techno institution Playhouse. Describing their musical aesthetic as "cabaret-independent-house", the act forged a distinct sound that combines icy minimal structures with catchy euro-girl vocals, Anglo-French funk antics and a dash of dancefloor melancholy. This summer, Rework return to the fray with a two-sided affair for Paris-based Meant Records that shows they have not lost the electric energy that characterised their earlier work.
Lead single "Werewolf" evidences that that made early Rework productions shine still abounds in their newer material: with ticking drum machines, subtle filter work and no dearth of low-end éclat, it is clear that the Rework sound is still in full vigor. But, far from being a simple rehash, the track ventures into unexplored sonic territories, with shimmering synthetic high-end, buzzing and overdriven sawtooth bass and mantra-like vocal repetitions all contributing to an indelible party vibe.
B-side "Touch Yourself" also hearkens back to the Rework sound of old while, moving in exciting new directions. Shuffling hi-hats jitter along, acid-tinged bass gurgles and spits while aqueous digital washes moil in the sonic periphery, producing an atmospheric narcosis that looms over the track like an overdense cloud. Meanwhile, female vocal imperatives to perform the titular act inject a dose of playful hedonism.
Items & Things's Magda takes on remix duties of "Werewolf", and much like a feat of lycanthropy transforms the gentlemanly pulse of the original into an off-kilter stomp. With a soundscape populated by dissonant synth bursts, fluttering toms and reverb-laden hats and snares, the track reveals its tension and dynamism in its subtleties, and indeed the whole thing seems a knob-flick away from breaking into all-out chaos. Providing a Late Night remix of "Touch Yourself" is Meant label head Remain, who adapts the original's atmospherics to a slinky evening cocktail template. Cavernous bass, adenoidal sqelch and gauzy shimmers shellack the track in a cosmopolitan gloss, a deadly combination for humid summer dancefloors.

Midnight Shift returns with its sophomore outing Shift 002, presenting two artists recontextualised from the conventions from which they came : Iron Curtis from depths of the deep house realm and one Ultrademon, the notorious inventor of the seapunk scene. Once again, a notable split EP with each of the 4 tracks owning its unique place in the world.
Already support from Claude Young, Josh Wink, Trevino, Ian Pooley, Xhin, Nick Hoppner, Ame, Oliver Deutschmann, Tiga, Marc Schneider, Vince Watson, Nick Warren, Funk D'Void, Slam, Angel Molina, Luca Bachetti...

Glasgow Underground launches a new mix compilation series in May with the release of Optimo:The Underground Sound of Glasgow mixed by Optimo's JD Twitch. Each installment of The Underground Sound of... will see a DJ focus on his or her home city, compiling mixing and collection of music from said city.
Keith McIvor, aka JD Twitch is a name synonymous with quality and eclecticism in modern electronic music and his Optimo project alongside Jonnie Wilkes is no different. The duo's Optimo (E!pacio) club night, which ran from 1997 to 2010 on Sundays in Glasgow's Sub Club, is the stuff of legend. McIvor had previously been an electro, rock and punk funk DJ as well as promoter of Pure, a techno night that dominated Glasgow's clubbing landscare for ten years, until by his own admission, seamless mixing and 'obvious, easy and predictable' musical selections wore thing with him - planting the Optimo seed.
This 12' features 5 of the rarer tracks from the mix.

only 1x each customer !!!
Vinyl + Innersleeve !!
Infinite waves shaped this rough stone.

If you're going to beat 'em down, you need the right tools. On the label's second release, Grimy Trax has given you a couple hammers.
The A-side, DeJay Cease's 'The Fixer' is straight Chicago. We're talking banging 909 funk that might be found buried on a particularly unhinged Ron Hardy mix. A simple bass line and two notes of acid are all it takes to make the floor go wild. This is functional heat with enough atmosphere to engage the mind, body and soul.
On the B-side, rising Chicago son Boogienite proves he's earned the hype. 'Boy, OK' is an instant classic thanks to some recognizable disco strings and a funky escalator of a bassline. The producer uses a trippy, rubberband synth which eventually turns into rhythmic, teasing vocal. The mixdown is ridiculous, especially as the lengthy track passes the halfway mark. Boogie brings the bassline in and out in between beautiful ambient rhodes and a call and response male and female vocal. Those strings hit again and you feel no pain.

Number 3 on Ruff Draft comes from Louis Guilliaume. Having met Louis back in 2009 and followed his music since way before then, it was an exciting day when we received these tracks from him. Known more for his harder edge techno productions on labels such as Soundtravels, Bio Rhythm Holland, Teng, SD Holland and a remix on Skudge, here he edges slightly away from that harder sound. The tracks vary from deep, groovy and meandering house to a beatless soundscape reminiscent of early Larkin and Pullen to a powerful kick drum driven sermon.

in the past ten years lots of little and big stories happened in the music culture. house literally disappeared almost from the scene in order to come back as strong as never before. 

minimal morphed back into techno while leaving the question mark why the term minimal ever got invented. some originators like frankie knuckles or romanthony passed away, while others like larry heard just stopped to perform. 

in-between countless new artists appeared, twisted dance music with new perspectives on the old, and released their fresh ideas on even more countless labels out there in the void called music market. 

one of the rare platforms that stayed solid as a rock in all these years is mule musiq, the tokyo based label that spreads miscellaneous sound vibes that long from jazz to disco, house, and unobtrusive ambient since 20

with a versatile artist roster consisting of producers such as henrik schwarz, lawrence, dj sprinkles, dj jus-ed, kuniyuki, eddie c, roedelius, or new kids on the blog like barnt or lord of the isles the japan based record company developed a status of her own for being one of the most free spirited organisations in contemporary music. 

'if the music is good, any kind of music is welcome. i don't like labels which release one style music.' 

mule musiq's mastermind toshiya kawasaki once said in a rare interview. now he celebrates a ten years of freedom jubilee with the sixth instalment of his famed 'i'm starting to feel ok' compilation serial. 
it is a double cd with 24 tracks. they are all totally exclusive and you will stick to them as on a linoleum floor flooded by a bottle of coke. 

the first cd lifts off with a short but extra smart arranged track by matt karmil, an englishman in cologne whose house music easily loops in your head forever. just as the other house leaning one-off-tracks by the likes of the hamburg natives lawrence and julius steinhoff, new berliner eddy c, amsterdam's rush hour weapon tom trago, or sweden's always smiling seducer axel boman. 

between their exceptional always good for dance tracks some cosmic, more disco related tunes by artists such as legendary italian disco icon daniele baldelli and his compatriot marco dionigi spread catchy deepness that is never fishing for compliments. 

where the first cd is dedicated to more warm, flooded with light atmospheres, the second one grooves in a more dark, melancholic, and blue emotional direction.  

optimo music head honcho jd twitch opens the second cd with a dark futuristic roller that melts in his tripping foggy end with a bewitching vocal sample of the mysterious noviciat de soeurs missionaires de notre-dame d' afrique & four religious drummers. 

also long term mule musiq related artists such the japanese producer and ardent record collector kza, the spanish house master eduardo de la calle, producer and underground quality head honcho dj jus-ed, or kuniyuki, one of the finest japanese producers at the frontier of classic, jazz, house, ambient, and electronic songwriting, groove down the gloomy way. 
sometimes in a strictly sexy house outfit, sometimes as a dub loving loop jazz sensation, or as a jazz bass driven tribal stepper. 

again between them are new faces like the german house rookie johannes brecht, the swedish leftfield/experimental producer porn sword tobacco, or naum gabo, the glasgow based duo consisting of jonnie wilkes of optimo and his mate james savage, hand out arrangements who intended to be more then just something to dance along. 

a real massive international anniversary celebration that is ventilating all what happened in the past ten years in order to form something that travels right into the future. and that is where mule musiq tries to be since a decade to tell some unheard musical stories that stay for good even when the future is long past.

Short Black are very happy to present SB002. Two originals tracks by Time Division with remixes from Amir Alexander & Dakini9. Time Division supply two raw Deep Techno cuts, phat, warm and dope. Amir Alexander's remix is a Techno bomb and should work wonders on the dance floor. Dakini9 goes deep into the pits of techno showing us why she believes in deep.

Following a double headed debut on our recent Nasty Rips comp. - a crisp remix of Hackmans ' Always' and a fizzing solo outing -'Not Afraid', Montreal Producer Reagan Grey makes her full Shifting Peaks debut with a high grade 3 track EP, alongside 3 useful remixes.

Opener 'OWL' featuring Sandy Duperval on vocals, takes a neat song of love and life and rolls it over a punchy UKG/House groove, adding classic sounding organ stabs and swingy rhythms, with a tight arrangement keeping things moving along.

'Feel the Pressure' features Christie Nelson on vocals, with an equally strong , R n' B inflected song woven in and out of a looser, spacier arrangement; RGs snappy drums again underpin proceedings.

'Not Afraid' reappears, having made friends along the way via it's Nasty Rips inclusion thanks to driving Detroit-influenced synths, a pulsing bassline and sweet builds and drops.

On the remix front, Lukas ( Future Boogie ) keeps things simple on OWL, with a fat, kick-lead groove and sparing use of the vox before drifting into a crowd-pleasing breakdown halfway through. Benway (aka fast rising Muscovite Nphonix) takes swathes of the Feel the Pressure vocal for a ride over broken beats and a bass heavy backing, with hints of techno torque setting his Pressurize mix apart from the similar De Pressurize version.

This is a brand new collaboration between two neighbors from Puglia, Italy. After years of not seeing each other they reunited and came together in the studio to deliver the Neighbors EP. Both are prolific Italian dj/producers having released on several international house and techno labels worldwide

That man CHICAGO DAMN brings THE FILTH for the third release on his eponymous label. Unique and incredible modern club music of the highest calibre right here on this 3 track EP

Toronto trio My Favorite Robot team up with the ever excellent No.19 Music for a brand new single featuring remixes from Juan Maclean & Louie Fresco...
My Favorite Robot has come along way over the past four years. Launched in early 2009, originally as a duo and with a fledgling label in tow, the My Favorite Robot bandwagon has grown month on month, seeing the expanded line up of Jared Simms, James Teej & Voytek Korab become an international force to be reckoned with and their label become a hotbed for world class electronic music.

'Looking for Frost' sees the Robot trio journey into blissed out, emotive territory with a record that fuses stirring pads, ethereal vocals and a catchy arp loop with subtle drum programming and deep bass, leading to a pulsing rhythm section as the kick drum drops almost two thirds of the way in. The incanted 'Sometimes I get the feeling something ain't right' vocal is a haunting yet memorable line that help makes this one of, if not the most, impressive My Favorite Robot song to date.

The original track is backed up with two sterling remixes on the vinyl package, the first delivered by US production heavyweight and DFA man Juan Maclean who turns in a delightfully hypnotic slice of leftfield house that pulls the original elements into a swirling, dark edged dancefloor destroyer. This is followed by a remix from one of Mexico's rising stars, Louie Fresco who twists 'Looking for Frost' into a deep and acidic cut that swirls and bubbles with its heavy FX and deft understated piano hits. The digital package also provides an exclusive dub mix from Mr Fresco that strips back the vocals and lets the instrumentation take centre stage with a wonderfully bright and intense version.

My Favorite Robot never fail to deliver and now paired with one of the hottest labels in electronic music one can only wait with anticipation the release of their artist album in the autumn.

Romanthony "Let Me Show You Love" (2013 Remixes)
Following on from the much hyped (plays on Tong/Mosca/Todda T shows) and big selling re-works of "Bring U Up", Glasgow Underground dust off "Let Me Show You Love", arguably Romanthony's biggest club hit (outside of "One More Time", and hand it over to Gerd, Oliver $, Gavin Herlihy & Laura Jones, Mia Dora and label owner Kevin McKay for some 2013 touches. This 12' features Gerd, Kevin McKay and Oliver $.
Gerd is dutch producer Gert-Jan Bijl. Under one alias or another he's been making records for labels as varied as Universal Language and Rejected since 1994. Most recently his "Palm Leaves" 12" on Royal Oak (as Gerd) showed that he's up there with Andres & KDJ when it comes to soulful Detroit style house music. Recording as Geeeman his huge warehouse anthem "Bang't" - the kind of no-nonsense jacking groove that you'd expect from Dance Mania - was one of Phonica's records of 2012 and as NY Stomp he delivered "The NY House Trak" a slice of rolling house business that harks back to Black Traxx and Mijangos and forward to Bicep, Huxley and Ejeca.
On the subject of his "Let Me Show You Love" mix, Gerd said, "Best mixes of this ultimate classic are the Crooklyn Mix and Quick Dub. But both mixes do not contain the full vocal. When I was asked to do this remix, I decided to go for the same vibe but make use of the whole vocal (verses, chorus, etc). I thought there was no use trying to do something completely different. it's hard to beat this classic. Now there finally will be a Crooklyn Mix and/or Quick Dub with the amazing verses! I only received the vocal parts, no other parts, so it took me a while to rebuild the track with same sort of ingredients and especially to get the sounds very similar to the original"
Glasgow Underground owner Kevin McKay has been making records since the 90s. From remixing Andy Weatherall to producing Mylo, his discography runs to over 250 productions. Here he delivers a house groove with Romanthony's trademark M1 organs and classic piano hooks.
Since 2011 and his ubiquitous, monstrous Beatport #1, "Doin' Ya Thing", Berlin's Oliver $ has been a huge name. There is an art to making records that are so effective yet at the same time so simple, and when it comes to putting them together, Oliver $ is one of world's best. For this remix, he doesn't mess with the formula and fixes Roman's paean to lost love to one serious tribal groove. Add a system shaking baseline and some special fx and there you have it. Simple. Effective. Massive.