Collection: House

Scottish house music duo Silicone Soul aka Craig Morrison & Graeme Reedie's turn-of-the-millennium deep houser 'Right On!' certainly made a big splash back then, breaching the UK dance singles chart by bringing the genre an oily soulful emulsion. However, not their first release for the esteemed Soma Quality Recordings, 'Right On!' was an expert construction and a favourite for lovers of vocal house at the time. The track is a cover of Curtis Mayfield's 'Right On For The Darkness', a paean for living in the now and grabbing life by the bullhorns).

Manabu Nagayama's 'Light & Shadow' was released back in 2015 but never really got picked up despite being something of a gem now we listen back. Rush Hour co-founder Antal Heitlager knew it had more potential than it had shown so asked Masalo to remix it. Over the course of the last few years he has done that on and off and now finally we get to hear what he came up with. He elevates the track to new levels with subtle tweaks of the arrangement. It has now become a popular hit on the underground circuit with its heart-melting keys and deep, rolling drums.

Enduring Detroit maverick Omar-S celebrates 20 years since he released one of his most iconic 12"s by pressing it up as a new double pack with two new versions of two originals and one bonus unnamed track. The standouts of this EP were always 'U' and 'Set It Out'. The former is a raw as-you-like drum track with bounce in the kicks and pure machine soul in the vamping chords, and the latter shows Smith's other more tender side with smart 80s samples and new school r&b vibe on a dusty house beat. He has mashed them together perfectly on the new cut 'U Set It Out' and added extra weight to 'U 2023.' Add in the other two originals and heavy beatdown 'Track 3' and you have an essential new double pack.

The Known Artist imprint deliberately eschews the self-effacing tendency of contemporary house music artists to hide from the limelight; these lot are on a mission, from start to end, to get the artists under their aegis known, their legacies cemented forever more. Their third release, this new record hears a selection of two original club mixes as well as remixes from Rosa Red and Jex Opolis respectively, laying down alternate perspectives on each. On the A, 'I Need' gets a trippy 90s dance reshape from Rosa Red, while 'X83' becomes a punchy acido-bass roller in the hands of Jex Opolis. Dancefloor bombs only - the piano-house ecstasy EP makes a full comeback!

Passport is the inter-Atlantic duo of George Btp Dan Piu and Roger K. Versey and their all-new album is a truly global voyage of musical adventure. Wonderful Elixir is all about seeking the deeper grooves in dance music from a range of different genres. It's a seamless fusion of jazz and acid, deep house and street beat with special appearances from DJ Nata, Jesus Gonsev, and Grant. The likes of 'Prelude Turismo 97' is a Balearic beauty, 'Oceans of Emotional Wealth' is a shimmying groove with sensuous vocals and lush keys and 'Dream Delivery' is more prickly for those late-night dances.

Off The Grid unveils the second chapter of its label, this time with two tracks (A1 and B1) from Mataemon, an alter ego of Tolga Fidan, who puts his years of experience into forging two powerful cuts that balance the strengths of the past with the visions of the future, laying driving, deep and playful elements over steady grooves, raving straight from the heart.

For this release we decided to go back to the golden era of house, where we found an old misterious producer called Zeno Pisu. You might know him from his obscure EP called “Electric Voyage” made in 1995, but we decided to dig a bit deeper then that. The track A1 “Waiting For A Train (Crystal Edge) is a reissue from the Train Driver record made by Zeno in 1996, a super weapon that we have been playing for some time now, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to see this remastered specially for our label. We also went through old cassete tapes and some lost files to find the tracks A2, B1 and B2, which are some of Zeno’s unreleased productions made in the 90s, that are now finally seeing the light.

Japan will always be a source of great wonderment to us over the rest, as well as being a hugely inspirational land when it comes to all manner of cultures. Take electronic music, and specifically house and techno, which have always had their own distinctive take on the genre and that is now tapped into as Alex From Tokyo Presents Japan Vibrations Vol. 1, a tasteful compilation that transports you to the Far East and some of its finest moments from the 80s and 90s. Each tune comes from a trailblazer of the time and elements of ambient, downtempo, dub, world beats, deep house, new jazz and techno are all fused together into a faultless and tasteful collection.

There's no shortage of gems in Larry Heard's authoritative deep house legacy worthy of a fresh airing, and his Alleviated label embarks on a reissue campaign to bring some perennial classics back in arms reach. Heading to the turn of the millennium, this particular 12" pulls together a couple of tunes from different releases. 'Another Night' originally landed on the 2001 album Love's Arrival, and it sounds utterly timeless as it tenderly bumps out in a configuration of hazy chords and infectious groove, capped off by Shelby Johnson's smouldering vocal. 'Time Machine' came out the same year as a B side to the single release of 'Direct Drive', and it shows Heard's mellow tones set to a tougher beat when you want to bring a little bite to deeper-than-deep scenarios.

** Repress of the reIssue ** Ooh if there's ever a deep house history lesson wrapped up in a 12" then it's this reissued Stomp The Beat EP from Gherkin Jerks aka the master Larry Heard. The Gherkin Jerks project originally surfaced back in 1988 with this 12" on the Chicago based Gherkin Records label, released anonymously at the request of Heard himself who viewed the Gherkin Jerks material as a creative experiment. Later revealed as the work of Larry Heard, original copies of Stomp The Beat rack up a pretty penny on Discogs so it's good work all round that the producer's Alleviated Records label has teamed up with Clone to release a digitally enhanced version. From the mind bending stereo panning of opening track "Don't Dis The Beat" it's easy to see why the Gherkin Jerks material has been so widely praised - Jamal Moss is a big fan - whilst the general off-key melodics and tough 909 arrangements of what follows still sound futuristic some 15 years on.