Tony Lionni - Loving You EP

Some house now from the contemporary end of the spectrum courtesy of Tony Lionni and Japanese label Apt. International*.

There are three tracks making up the EP. Loving You itself is an interesting fusion: with rave-y piano/synths, garage-y male vox and bang-up-to-date kicks, it manages to sound like 1992 and 2012 same time. Afterhours starts out throbbing, proggy and heads-down then builds with Detroitian string stabs, and then finally Anubis is seriously deep, dark and pulsating and equally well served on the most mangled of very late floors, or in the comfort of your own headphones.

If you're after some now-sounding house that's still got a sense of history, this will serve you well.

Out: This week

About: You can find Apt. International on Soundcloud or at the New World Records website.

*Don't ask me how the whole Apt. International/Tokyo House Underrground thing works, by the way, in case you're looking at the cover. I'm as confused as you are. More so, probably.

Spencer Parker – There Are A Few Things In My Life

With releases for Rekids, Buzzin' Fly, Saved, Tsuba and NRK under his belt, Spencer Parker should need no introduction to underground house lovers. This week, though, he's doing his thing for Tokyo's Apt. International.

Mr Parker, a UK lad by birth, is now resident in Berlin, and it's fair to say the sound of the New Capital Of The World permeates this single quite thoroughly. But it's certainly no less pleasing for that, and with its stripped-back percussion, freaky-deaky synth stabs/FX, disembodied vox and big, echo-y production, it should move any floor that truly appreciates house and/or techno music.

Patrick Leiris serves up a brace of pumped-up, busier and somewhat more techified rerubs, but whichever mix you plump for this'll serve you well.

Out: This week

About: You can find Apt. International at their website or on Soundcloud.

Dirty Culture - The Bright Side EP

A simple two-track affair here, as Romanian deep house dude Dirty Culture, AKA Tudor-Radu Barbu (what a fantastic name), comes to respected Japanese imprint Apt International.

The tracks in question are The Bright Side itself and My Name Is Beautiful. Both are quite trad-sounding affairs – deep house leaning towards Jersey garage rather than tech-house – but both have plenty of dancefloor energy. The instrumental The Bright Side has some wicked sax work towards the end, but My Name Is Beautiful is my pick, coming on like vintage Junior Vasquez (albeit a little mellower) with its near-tribal drums and chopped-up female vocal.

All told, something of a treat for the older heads, while the current resurgence of interest in traditional house and garage means it could reach to younger floors as well. So let's hear it…

My Name Is Beautiful (Original Mix) by Apt. International

The Bright Side (Original Mix) by Apt. International

Out: This week

About: According to the hype sheet, "In the past three years Dirty Culture has clocked up releases for Einmaleins, Greelpool and Joaqchim Speith’s Affin label, delivering smooth, contemporary deep house that which continually garner the usual suspects attention."

As for Apt International, you can find 'em on Soundcloud (obviously), and here's their website as well.