HOUSEREVIEWS
BEN ARNOLD
ben.a.arnold@
gmail.com QUICKIES Candi Staton
Hallelujah Anyway Defected 7.5
The inimitable Candi Staton gets herself a resolutely classic make-over with some spanking new Ashley Beedle Yardism mixes of the anthemic ‘Hallelujah Anyway’.
Arkist & Komon
Kitchen Monks EP HypeLTD
9.0
Both from the Apple Pips stable, Arkist and Komon (Arkist also being a Hotflush alumnus) deliver a thing of dark beauty for Hypercolour’s vinyl-focused HypeLTD offshoot. Unconventionally melodic, emotive and oh- so-very-deep, ‘Brookfield’ is a genuine joy to be around. On the flip, ‘Kitchen Monks’ deftly skirts garage, with a snatched, sliced-up vocal, but laid on top of filtered synths and a clanky loop that gives a nod to the master himself, Matthew Herbert. For its magpie sensibilities, it remains skilfully, impressively original. Go forth and support your local record store.
Amirali
Melancholia Crosstown Rebels 8.0
Hitting the Crosstown sound so very squarely, Iranian-Canadian Amirali chugs his way to the darker dancefloors with this spooky, haunted vocal house number, hopefully not named after Lars Von Trier’s insufferably indulgent apocalypse film of the same name. The original mix would be eminently sufficient, but for the interminably greedy there’s two rather lovely remixes from Swiss don Deetron just to make this that little bit more essential. And it was pretty essential in the first place.
Booka Shade
Blackout: Whitenoise Blaufield 8.0
This is a beautifully-crafted slab of heads-down tech housery from Mssrs Merziger and Kammermeier on their spanking new label Blaufield, following the imprint’s debut ‘Haleshop EP’. It’s like a wonderfully well-made chair, a
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tailored suit or fine malt scotch. It’s classy. The club mix of the title track is an expansive workout, full of space to breathe, sturdy yet still dizzyingly intricate, while ‘Glory Box’ is thickly layered with stabs and pulses.
Chicken Lips
All That You Do Southern Fried 8.5
Andy Meecham and Dean Meredith continue the resurgence of Chicken Lips, following the re- release of their stone-cold classic ‘He Not In’ on Defected — which is well worth a look too, by the way. Here they go all Levan on our asses, with Charmaine Baines turning in a sterling vocal on ‘All That You Do’, a deep disco dub. Solid mixes come from Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard, Manchester’s Ben Pearce, the Rhythm Odyssey and Emperor Machine, who wins with his Chi-Town re-rub.
Jesse Saunders
On & On Rush Hour 9.0
Some regard Jesse Saunders’ ‘On & On’, released in 1984, as the very first house track committed to vinyl. This disciple of Frankie Knuckles may be the claimant, but whatever, this is a historic release given a second life by Amsterdam’s Rush Hour. The original, made with fellow pioneer Vince Lawrence, samples the bassline from Saunders’ signature DJ track, ‘Space Invaders’ by Player One. Loaded with 808 percussion, and with the bare rhythm tracks included here, Rush Hour bags yet another exclusive.
Mr Tophat & Art Alfie
KVK300 Karlovak 8.0
Only the third release from this fledgling Swedish label, it seems already to be a case of buy-on-
sight. This from Mr Tophat — Art Alfie cements this burgeoning rep, with two tracks of solid dancefloor devastation. ‘Kavolrak’ is the tougher of the two, a relentless cut made to shift a party up through the gears if used correctly. On the flip, ‘I Want You To See (That You’re In Luv With Me)’ rolls out a disco loop with aplomb. Secret weapons, both.
Sek
Brain Boogerz EP Music With Content 8.0
So, the ‘Brain Boogerz EP’, then. Deeply horrible name, great music, in short. Manchester’s Music With Content — also a most revered club night — drops its third release, namely four fine tracks from Greek producer Sek, also seen on the likes of Apparel Music. Imbued with an effortless grasp of what makes house music great, the title track is deep and effortless, a description which pretty much encapsulates this whole endeavour. ‘Leadership Skills’ is worth extra mention, a shuffling, understated smasher.
Tom Ellis
End Of An Error Flumo Recordings 8.0
Jazz in house music gets a bad reputation, and deservedly so, thanks to much of the god-awful hackery that goes on. This EP from Tom Ellis shows how to do it right. There’s a lightness of touch on ‘De Normalled’, gently filtered electric pianos and a slinky bassline. ‘Let’s Start’ features more of those smokey keys, underpinned by shuffling percussion. It’s gorgeous. Meanwhile, ‘He Wondered Why’ is a layered, building affair. Impressively, all seem to feature similar raw ingredients, yet come out sounding different.
Komon & Appleblim
Gas Jam Apple Pips 9.0
Everyone from Eats Everything to Carl Craig is giving ‘Gas Jam’ some welly, doubtless for the final third when it unleashes its quite tremendous bassline in full force.
Seidensticker & Salour
Moonlight Shadow EP Visionquest
7.5
Flipside track ‘To Real Time’ is the one here, from German-Greek axis Seidensticker & Salour, a simple but deviously effective builder. Most impressive.
Sylvie Forêt, Aschka & Jerome Sydenham
No Shade Ibadan 7.5
Big release from Ibadan, featuring four tracks of finessed firmness. The brazen ‘1000 Knives’ may be the pick of the bunch, but it’s all good.
CHRIS CARRIERAPOLLONIA
01. EINZELKIND ‘Major Brain Malfunction’ Adult Only Records “Latest release on my label, hip-house style from Einzelkind with vocals by
Julian Smith.”
02. T-RWRK ‘Chanté’ Bootholic “New bootleg label, vinyl only. Bringing past classics up-to-date.”
03. CHRIS CARRIER & HECTOR MORALEZ ‘Island Breeze’ Apollonia “From my new LP ‘Lotus Seven’ with Hector Moralez. Always gets a good reac-
tion from the dancefloor.”
04. BODYWORK & BEN CENAC ‘Deeper & Deeper’ Thug Records “Unreleased cuts from Ben Cenac, producer of Newcleus (‘80s hip-hop
legends). Features Ben’s wife Yvette Cenac, aka Vai Cee… aged like a fine wine.”
05. DJ W!LD ‘Back To My Rules’ Robsoul “Release coming up soon from my Robsoul label friend Mr DJ W!ld.”
06. POINT G ‘Underwater’ Apollonia “I used to play this a lot back in ‘98 at the time of the original pressing. I’m
really happy to have a new copy of one of my favourite French deep house tracks.”
07. ARK & PIT SPECTOR ‘Tournsoul’ Hold Youth “Funky, fun and on the forward-thinking Parisian label Hold Youth, run by my
friends Seuil and Le Loup.”
08. DJEBALI ‘Djebali 06’ Djebali “Djebali pulls it out the bag once again. Good vibes.”
09. JUSTIN HARRIS & LUKE SOLOMON ‘Death Of A Filter’ Pan- handle Records “The famous freaky duo, I just rediscovered this record in my basement last month. Funky trippy style with good bass.”
10. VALENTIN ‘Extasy’ Silver Network “Very atmospheric track, you can feel the sexy ambience.”
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