Rob Clarke – Sometimes EP

There's no stopping the Beats Me Music boss right now, as he follows last week's Organica EP with a five-tracker on the mighty Bounce House.

The EP's made up of three mixes of Sometimes itself, plus two bonus cuts. Sometimes is a fairly stripped-down deep house groove in its original form, the sparse production allowing the chiming synths and the hefty sample from Whitney's classic Love Will Save The Day to really ring out.  Label boss DK Watts supplies a remix that's a little more chugging and throbby, while a 3am Classic Dub sees Al Bradley in typically fine and very deep, afterhours-friendly form. Elsewhere on the EP, Repeater is a techier, synthier and slightly spooky, ominous kinda joint while Solar is more organic and warm-up friendly.

TIWWD has long believed Beats Me Music deserves a wider audience, and Rob putting out nuggets like this on respected labels like Bounce House certainly won't harm their cause any!

Out: This week

About: You can find Bounce House Recordings on Soundcloud, on Facebook or at their own website.

Wusel – Dancing Illusions

Somewhat shoddily I find myself apologising once more for slow updates this week… I'm back at the day job and the first couple of days always take it out of me. But anyway here we are now and there's this to talk about, a very spend-money-on-able four-tracker from Bounce House, a label whose intermittent release schedule definitely comes from the 'quality not quantity' school of thought!

Bounce House releases are usually worth the wait, though, and this is no exception. Dancing Illusions itself is in its Original form a throbbing prog/tech kinda affair. Label boss DK Watts then serves up a remix that's a bit more obviously TIWWD-ish, a fairly uptempo and driving (deep) houser still with the proggy overtones in places but also now with a killer Gypsy Woman-ish organ riff, some jazzy sax licks and a "can't we do this all night?" spoken, looped female vocal.

Two other original tracks make up the rest of the EP. Desert City is a midtempo, meandering and slightly mournful affair with lots of Arabic-sounding flutes and horns and also a synth riff that sounds like the riff from a late 80s/early 90s Italo-house track only all grown up now and a bit calmer, while on a similar note, Irritated is remarkable mostly for a main synth riff that's oddly reminiscent of a more subdued Zombie Nation!

Like I said: Bounce House releases are usually worth the wait, and this is no exception.

Out: This week

About: You can find Bounce House on Facebook, on Soundcloud or at their own website.

Oh and no, Wusel isn't me putting on an Elmer Fudd accent!

DK Watts – Respect The Underground

About, ooh, five years ago or something, it was a track called Blow & Hos that first hammered it home to me just how special a house outfit Short Bus Kids really were. So after the cocaine-referencing track from Mr Pedros below, now seems like a good time to tell you about this new five-track EP from one-half of said Short Bus Kids, Mr DK Watts.

Respect The Underground itself is a stomping, techy affair with a walking b-line, big synths, tuff beats and the obligatory shouts out to NYC, Detroit and Chicago, The Mayor is more tuff n' techy stompiness, this time with Dirty Harry samples, while Dance Yeah! is a floaty, proggy kinda houser surely built with a certain Mediterranean island in mind. But the highlights here for me are Been A Lot Of Places and Gothic Girl.

I'm digging the former driving, big room cut – it's got almost an Lawler-esque kinda feel to it – mostly for its spoken vocal samples, which need to be listened to closely, I'll say no more than that. And I'm digging the latter simply for daring to sample The Greatest Band In History and getting away with it, based as it is around a bassline lifted lock, stock and two smoking sandalwood joss-sticks from The Sisters Of Mercy's Lucretia My Reflection.

All right so yes, I'm a sad old (ex-)goth. But it made me smile… and IMNERHO it's also one of the most effective bits of RAWK! purloinage since Tinman bit Cobain and co back in the day. So there.

Out: This week

About: This comes of course on Bounce House. Their website doesn't seem to work anymore but here's their Soundcloud and Facebook pages.

DK Watts & John Joseph - Cheap Eats & Deep Beats

DK 'Short Bus Kids' Watts teams up with Dutch producer John Joseph here… and it shows, with this being probably the least west coast-ish, most European-sounding release from San Francisco-based Bounce House yet.

Both Back In The Day and Deep Direction operate in that territory where deep and tech-house collide, with some proggier touches thrown in for good measure, particularly on Deep Direction. Both are almost entirely instrumental, though the latter cut does have a few heavily reverbed 'heys'. Friday Night Fever has a little more of that typical funky/discofied west coast flava, what with its wukka-wukking geetars, but the general ’Beefa-friendly, blissed-out vibe still pertains, while rounding out the EP is I Know, a more straight-up dancefloor houser with female vocal snips and a touch of classic Chicago/Detroit throb.

An atypical offering from Bounce House, certainly, but good stuff all the same, and with summer fast approaching, expect to hear these tracks gracing many a sundown – or indeed sunrise – set.

Out: This week

About: Here's where to find Bounce House online.

Douce Brise – Politicians

And from deep house that's all soft n' fluffy n' lovely and perfect for post-club or poolside listening (see below), we move on to some deep house that's bumpin', druggy and twisted, and perfect for the dancefloor. Which, of course, is precisely what Bounce House do best.

In its Original form, Politicians itself is a deep, jackin' workout distinguished by its chopped-up, looping vocal samples ("politicians are always coming round/promising this and that") and fat, driving bottom-end. Label boss DK Watts then serves up an SBK Remix that takes a slightly techier approach, with elements dare I say of electro in there as well?

Elsewhere, Saxy Funk is a satisfying and fairly self-explanatory slab of archetypal west coast bump that slams along at a fair old lick, while Rainy Wednesday is another upbeat dancefloor cut, this time again featuring sampled female speech for vocals, and a nagging tinky-tonk piano riff.

Check this EP out… it's about as 'peaktime' as deep house ever gets, and as such could appeal to DJs from across the board.

Out: This week

About: Bounce House has long been a favourite label of yours truly, and can be found online here. Mr Watts himself has also, I should mention – in the interests of transparency and all that – long been a big supporter of this blog, giving TIWWD lots of shouts on Facebook and stuff. So cheers for that DK, much appreciated!

Various - Bounce House Winter Sampler Vol 2

God bless Bounce House and their uncanny knack of coming up with the bumpin' dancefloor deep house goods every time! There are three tracks in a total of five mixes here, and like Errol once sang, every one's a winner, baby...

First, you have two rubs of Andrey Slam's Shut The Funk Up. This is a fairly traditional disco-fuelled left coast house romper in its Original form, while a 420 Ceis Rebang ups the jerky/spastic factor turn it into a more jackin', Sneak-y workout. Next up is label co-owner DK Watts with This Weekend. The Breakin' Up Mix here is a lo-slung and funked-up to the max dancefloor cut in the SBKs vein, with some Hammond (?) stabs to die for, while the In The House Mix has the more driving 4/4s and general drifty feel to make it perfectly suited for small/after hours play. And finally This Beat Is Hot, also from DK, is an exercise in big kicks, analogue synth fribbles and floaty, disembodied vocals.

Vital stuff from a vital label, nuff said!

Out: This week

About: Here's where you can find Bounce House online.

DJ MIXES DK Watts - House Music As It Should Be

I posted these earlier in the week on the TIWWD Facebook page but just in case you missed 'em… what we have here, for your Sunday night grooving the bluse away pleasure, are a whapping ruddy great SEVEN HOURS of really quite stunningly lovely deep house mixes from my boy DK Watts to download and enjoy.

If you miss these, then you really are more of a fool than I took you for. Nuff said!

DK Watts "House Music as it Should Be" by DK Watts (Short Bus Kids)

Matt Prehn feat Lu Chase - Still Got Love

Oh God, where do I start with this one? Because the South African house stalwart has here served up a little belter of a tune, with mixes to suit a range of tastes.

The original's a gentle soulful house affair that wouldn't sound out of place on Om, or on Naked back in the day. The Nutritious Mix sticks to the soulful house vibe but with a more sumptuous feel, DK Watts (of whom more in a mo') serves up Dub and Instrumental passes (so there's even something for the vocal haters!) that are pure deep house dancefloor bump, and Chemical Warfare (AKA 3am's Al Bradley)'s mix will delight lovers of old skool US garage… specifically lovers of those big sparse organ dubs. And then finally, Eric Sharp's rub takes us into spaced-out future garage-esque territory, with quick n' clicky beats underpinning a very big and echo-y mix.

Whatever flavour of deeper house grooves you're into, then, you're likely to find something to please here. More likely, if your tastes are anything like mine then you're gonna be spoilt for choice. Go seek.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Bounce House, the label run by the Short Bus Kids of whom DK Watts is of course one-half. I've said how good Bounce House are so many times, both on here and in iDJ, that it's getting quite embarrassing now… but what can I say, this is another bomb! Anyway, here's their website.

Short Bus Kids - Day Party

Somewhat unusually for the SBKs, this latest release actually comes with remixes rather than just a whole bunch of individual tracks. There's even a Radio Edit! Which leads me to surmise Lance and DK are hoping for big things from what is, to be sure, one of their most accessible outings to date.

Featuring one Catherine Fluss ('Cat') on vocals, Day Party is a summery and uplifting cut in a not dissimilar vein to the kind of thing Andy Caldwell and Kaskade used to do on Om may moons ago. Don't worry, though, this is the SBKs we're talking about so it's not too horribly light and poppy… and there's some very cool sax work, too.

But DK's Underground Dub is probably the mix most TIWWD readers are likely to go for, a considerably deeper pass with crisp, insistent snares, chopped-up, echo'd snippets of the vocal and pads to make you go all warm and gooey inside.

Out: This week

About: As ever, this comes on the boys' own Bounce House Recordings