Nic Fanciulli - Dusty House Room 3

A two-tracker from the boy from Maidstone who's long been a friend of the iDJ family, and it sees him going back to his house roots a bit, which is good to hear!

The two tracks are called Work The Week and Feed The Freezer, which I'm guessing is meant to be a reference to stocking up on fish fingers and such once you've worked the aforesaid week? Anyway, the latter is a simple chugging, looping deep-ish house groove, with a few disco whoops thrown in here and there and a whooshy, filtered feel to give it energy. S'nice. Work The Week, meanwhile, is similarly paced, and again with a borderline filter disco kind of sound.

These more conventional house elements (disco loops, cut-up vox etc) are creeping back into a lot of tuneage right now; the fact that Nic's doing it after his last few years' flirtation with harder/more techno-oriented sounds, merely serves to underline the point.

So yeah, a nice little EP that'll particularly suit fans of Derrick Carter, DJ Sneak etc.

About: Mr Fanciulli you certainly should be aware of; label-wise this is on Rejected. A new label to me, but presumably part of Nic's very own Saved/Deleted empire? Hang on… nope, the internet doesn't seem to know, either. So we'll assume it is, cos I do have Nic's number but I'm not gonna ring the lad at 10pm on a Weds night to find out. There are limits.

Matthew Bandy feat Johnathan Houston - Going Nowhere

This is of course the latest from the man whose totally, utterly ace and inspiring This Is Why We Dance as Deep House Souldiers gave this blog its name (with Matt's blessing, I hasten to add), and it ploughs Mr B's familiar deep n' soulful furrough. And I'm happy to report that, while I've been drifting a bit away from the very soulful stuff of late - particularly male-vocalled soulful stuff – this is hitting the spot just fine. Mainly cos Mr Houston can actually sing and doesn't just make whiny, nasally noises!

There are six mixes promo'd, though the full release will apparently have a ruddy whopping great 12. As far as I can tell what they've done is just not promo the instrumentals, though. The mixes don't vary huge amounts, with just a touch more organ here, a little more percussion there and so on, but if pushed I'd plump for the Hernan Cronner mix which has a little of that 'stripped n' bouncy' west coast vibe going on. Or maybe the slightly mellower, more sophis' Douglas Marques Remix. Or maybe the slightly jazzier vibes of the Luife Remix, or… well, you get the idea. It's one for the soulful crew only, really (at least it is as long as that vocal's in place), and the subtle distinctions between the mixes will likely be lost on anyone else, but you've got your options there for sure.

About: This is on Grooveland, who are based down in Brazil, and it's OUT DEC 20. To find out more, hit up Matthew Bandy's MySpace. There's also a Grooveland website but it doesn't seem to do much at the time of writing… that might only be temporary though.

Acos Coolkas - Free Flight

Some lush tuneage here from Slovenian duo Acos Coolkas, which I'm gonna call 'nu-disco' for want of a more appropriate term. This is no camp, kitschy glitterball extravaganza, though… more an exercise in groovy electronica. So if you prefer we could go with 'groovy electronica' instead?

In any case, there's a bit of a back story to this, in that Free Flight was first picked up on by Tirk Records as an opener for their Tirk02 compilation last year. 40,000 downloads later, apparently, it now gets a full release on sister label Nang, complete with a host of the obligatory remixes. The headline rubs I guess are those from Bearfunk chap Max Essa, but fellow Slovenians Ichisan and Sare Halicek both do pretty good jobs, too. To be brutally honest, there's not a lot to choose from between the mixes to these ears, but they're all very playable examples of this kind of synth-led, disco-infused midtempo tackle and any/all of them will suit your 'nu-disco' (for want of a more appropriate term) floor nicely.

This came out yesterday, so I'm obviously horrendously behind the times now. But, y'know, it's quite good.

About: Acos Coolkas are, as stated, from Slovenia. Nang is a London-based label you REALLY should know about by now, but if you don't, here's their website. That is all.

Plaupez - Hood

Deep Class Records out of Barcelona has, this year, come seemingly out of nowhere to become one of my favourite labels. This new release from Plaupez doesn't do anything to disappoint in that respect, striking as it does a nice balance between the deep and the driving.

That is to say, Hood – which is OUT NOW, by the way – is deep enough for headz' satisfaction, but upbeat and energetic enough to work on non-specialist floors… which is about as much as you can ask from a track, I figure. With some nice Detroit-y synth sounds, solid 4/4s and snippeted-up vox galore, it's pretty much a textbook example of what's good in house music right now. It comes complete with a dubbier Cesar Coronado remix plus bonus cut Bur, which treads a similar path (and which reminds me a bit of the Derrick Carter mix of Blaze's My Beat), and I'd be perfectly happy to put my name to a DJ set that included any or all of 'em.

About: So yes, Deep Class. Based in Barcelona, run by Jimmy 'Fer' Ferrari, and pretty much a 100% safe bet when it comes to quality house music. Visit them on MySpace and HEAR Hood for yourself here.

Funky Soldiers & Robert Owens - Silence

In which west London duo Funky Soldiers team up with the legendary Owens tonsils to deliver a cover of Delerium's vocal trance classic Silence. Ha ha ha! Nah, not really. This is a different Silence altogether, one which probably wanted to be Was I Here Before? when it grew up.

The original is all mean n' broody and only a few drum rolls away from being one of those dark, proggy vocal numbers that work quite well in Ibeefa and sound rubbish most other places (see: Black AM, Dancing In The Dark, et al). The MN2S remix takes us into deeper and slightly funkier house territory, and then you also get two mixes from the equally legendary Jovonn. His Mind Remix turns the track into a squelchy Chi-town deep affair, and comes accompanied by an Owens-free Silencestrumental.

All told, a solid offering, if perhaps not the stone-cold killer you'd want an Owens/Jovonn team-up to produce.

About: This is on MN2S, and again it's OUT THIS WEEK. To check out MN2S's spanking new website click here.

Daniel Solar - Relocation EP

Coming from that techno/deep house border where Germans currently like to hang out, here we have a three-tracker from Mr Solar that will please those who think Berlin is the centre of the universe. Which seems to be a lot of people, these days.

The most individual-sounding track here is Soundtrack, which features a vocal from one Ingrid Hakanson, who could no doubt do a very good Roisin Murphy on Stars In Their Eyes. The other two cuts, Trois and Transit, are both passable enough examples of their ilk: Trois is marginally funkier but 'funk' isn't a quality that any of these tracks have in huge amounts, if we're to be honest… which is the problem with a lot of this 'new German house' stuff, don't you find? Still, the EP as a whole is pleasant enough listening, and very playable right now… oh yeah, and it's OUT THIS WEEK as well.

About: This comes atcha on Khazuma Future, who are based it transpires not in Deutschland but in sunny Barcelona, don't you know? More info at their MySpace.

Funkabit Vs Frank Agrario - Mininova

Oh God, I wish I didn't like this, cos it really is cheesy as fuck – it's even on Mozzarella Recordings for Chrissakes. Trouble is, it's ace as well.

The case against: It's a cover of the Pamela Fernandez classic Kickin' In The Beat, only with the words "kicking in the beat" strangely replaced with the words "it's a mininova," for no apparent reason. It's done in an 'accessible' fashion that's equal parts crunchy electrohouse, French touch and, well, handbag. And vocalist Michelina Needs can't, if we're being painfully honest, sing all that well.

The case for: Kickin' In The Beat is one of my favourite tunes, so that vocal was forced to raise a smile, and if we're being honest I'll admit I'm a sucker for slightly nasally female vocals. And handbag, come to that (where did you think the whole UDD™ thing came from?). And the Frank Agrario Goes To Rimini Remix reminds me of bassline house before it went all 'urban' and rubbish. And there's a marginally less cheesy piano house remix from Munk, too.

Anyway, you can HEAR IT HERE and decide for yourself. Just remember, I did warn you it's prrr-etty cheesy…

About: This is on Italian label Mozzarella Recordings (est. 2007), and it's out either on Nov 20, if you believe the Soundcloud link above, or on Dec 14, if you believe the press release that came with the CD promo. Either way, visit the Mozzarella website and you can also download the parts and enter their remix competition, if you've a mind to.