Collection: New Releases

To mark their 50th release, Brooklyn scalpel fiends Razor-N-Tape has put together a triple-pack of tried-and-tested reworks from some of the scene's heaviest hitters. It's as strong as you'd expect, with highlights including the heavyweight, delay-laden disco-funk brilliance of Dimitri From Brooklyn's "Hooked On This Feeling" (a dub disco revision of an old Frank Hooker jam by Dimitri From Paris), the Clavinet-driven, piano-laden peak-time hustle of Joey Negro's "Let's Get Ornery", the Clarinet and trumpet-sporting hedonism of Jacques Renault's emotive and heart-tugging "Said I Would" and the screaming, hands-aloft rush of Superprince's "Dependable". Fittingly, label co-fouder JKriv delivers one of the standouts, a rolling revision of an Italo-style, arpeggio-driven delight titled "Lovin' Lasers".

Belpaese Edits

Remarkably, almost a decade has passed since the first missive from re-edit crew Heavy Disco (AKA Ashley Beedle, Dave Jarvis and Darren House) landed in stores. Here the London collective returns for the first time in four years with two more tried-and-tested dancefloor rubs. "Run Down World" is particularly delicious, delivering a groovy revision of what sounds like one of the Police's hazier and more groove-based moments (IE there's less reggae influence and more of an AOR disco flex - think great grooves and flanged, spaced-out guitars). On side B it's all about "Times Are Bad", a fine extended revision of Tavares' deep disco/Steely Dan-goes-jazz-funk rub "Bad Times" that seems eerily fitting for the situation the world is in.

Like many Australian artists, Melbourne's Mildlife are keen to raise money for the Bushfire Relief Fund. To do that, they've decided to offer up this surprise Artwork re-edit of 2018 album track "Zwango Zop" and donate all sales revenue to the appeal. While the band's original version is a deep and groovy chunk of spaced-out disco, Artwork's version is a far more forthright, peak-time ready affair. He's beefed up the beats a little, pitched up the band's fine instrumentation and added some densely layered new synth sounds of his own. The result is an intergalactic disco workout straight from the top drawer that could well become one of the underground hits of the summer.

Ghosts Of Venice Edits

The Anything Goes "Rollover Edit Service" continues apace with this latest grip of four unique choices of forgotten disco treasure to get a 2020 spruce up. Ferraroni is on "Le Soleil Bateau", a sunkissed schooner by any measure with a Balearic tint in the easy tempo and cheery disposition. Jacques Renault brings equally slick vibes with "NYC Lights", which teeters between yacht rock and synth pop to perfection. Makossa's edit of "Dio Come Ti Amo" is a more reflective cut, subtly dubbed and revolving around an introspective guitar hook. Pasta brings the tempo back up with a version of "Di Di No" that will have party people young and old dancing in unison.

Spaziale Recordings

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!

Apparently DJ Harvey and Lovebirds have been hammering these "personal edits" from the Sirsounds crew in recent DJ sets. Listening to the clips, it's easy to work out why: they're a cut above the rest, edit-wise. There's a good variety of sounds and styles on show, from the stuttering drums, blissful guitars, dewy-eyed vocal snippets and rich boogie synths of "Love Me Right (Version)", to the eyes-closed synth solos and driving disco-funk grooves of quirky closing cut "What Does It Take". Our pick of the bunch though has to be the effortlessly eccentric Italian electro-funk insanity of "SASA", which sounds a little like it could be a lesser-known outing by Tullio De Piscopo (though don't quote us on that).

When it comes to hybrid blends of intoxicating world music sounds and contemporary dancefloor rhythms, few producers are quite as accomplished as Nicola Cruz. He's at it again on "Hybridism", the Equador-based Frenchman's first EP for Multi-Culti for almost three years. Opener "Aima" sets the tone, with Cruz wrapping lilting synth lines, weirdo electronics and chanted vocals around a bubbling electronic groove, while "Naeku" makes the most of echo-laden drums, what sounds like an African children's choir and faintly foreboding acid lines. "Drom Tradisie" is an exercise in trippy sounds and layered percussion, "Third Eye Dub" is a darker and moodier slab of techno-exotica and "Kawe's Dream" is a blissful blast of clarinet-sporting musical positivity.

Record Shack have unearthed another rare gem from the early 80s and worked hard to give it its first officially licensed 12" release. Before now, no one has quite known the proper title of these tracks as they were on white label only, but now that is cleared up once and for all. "Bad Guy Good Guy" opens with a killer bit of early '80s jazz funk with boogie bass vibes while the infectious guitars and summery leads also colour the flipside - "Synth Good Guy " is still as glorious and full of radiant sunshine as it was back when first put out.

Originally released back in 1996, Felix Da Housecat's one and only release under The Visionary alias gets a much needed reissue here on original imprint Music For Your Ears - a lesser known sublabel of NYC legend DJ Duke's Power Music Distribution, While the mesmerising energy of "Free My Soul" does well in its own right, here it's accompanied with remixes by the legendary Danish-born label boss: the first being the sensual and emotive deepness of the "Deep Skool" Mix, followed by the stomping "Visionary" Remix that's powered by a thunderous rhythm department and a hypnotic vocal refrain. Get your hands on a piece of proper house music history!

After five years of on-off collaborations and side projects, Aaron 'FIT' Siegel has finally got round to making a new solo record. It's rather good, with startling A-side "Exist On" delivering a brilliant blend of breakbeat-driven turn of the '90s grooves, chunky bass, ultra-dreamy chords and the kind of bleeping top-end melodies more readily associated with the early releases of Warp Records. Title track "Formula" moves even further towards bleep techno territory via deep space chords, thumping techno beats, Kraftwerkian lead lines and the kind of distorted analogue bass found on LIES releases, while "Wayne County Stomp" sounds like a mutated, mind-altering cover of Steve Poindexter's "Computer Madness".

Four highly requested remixes of Jacques Greenes sophomore Dawn Chorus album by Fort Romeau, Big Miz, Ciel and Martyn Bootyspoon. Last years “Dawn Chorus” album showed Jacques Greene outgrowing the limitations of the tempo-defined dance genres he rose to notoriety within. And while his own music grew in scope, Dawn Chorus became his most collaborative work: courting friends and instrumentalists to lend their work to the album. For that reason, Dawn Chorus feels so much richer than his prior, solitary bedroom production and spoke to Greene’s competence as a curator. Inviting friends to contribute original remixes to the Deluxe Edition of the album which speaks to his ability for curation in a whole other sense: building on the album with club primetime house and techno, afterparty warehouse versions from Greene’s friends and family.

Over a decade after the first LiveJam collaboration surfaced - on a strictly vinyl-only basis - an entire cosmos of interconnected artists, labels and releases have spawned off its mystery - a perpetual praising of the shadows that is less and less present within the underground. At its core, it instilled an ethos and a clear aesthetic both for the label’s regulars, and for the wider house and techno spectrum as a measure of quality. The initial collective, led and curated by founders EMG and John Swing, gave rise, together with the Analogue Cops, to the tirelessly anonymous APPOINTMENT project - an improvisational, techno-minded session - and the SPS moniker that includes talented producer Battista, with both sets of crews making a return after a long break from the label. Ten years later and the cooperative expands, finding mutual respect and admiration among two heavyweights of the UK house and techno ecosystem - house maestro, Mr G, for the former, and British techno luminary, Ben Sims, for the latter. Even so, this remains consciously limited to vinyl, and while they now have official support from two of dance music’s legends, it’s been earned through a dogged pursuit of Livejam’s founding principles. Simply, a physical production ethos from conception through to performance.