DJ MFR – Eternal

And now we lurch from some masters of nu-skool garage to some old masters of deep house, as DJ MFR serves up the latest for Transport Recordings.

"Contemporary disco with a pronounced classic house music feel," is how the hype sheet describes this one but I'd say it was actually the other way: deep house with a disco/boogie slant. But either description will give you the general idea! Four mixes on offer, all from MFR himself: the standout for me is the sparse Tribute Stripped mix with its 80s proto-garage synth b-line, but any one of 'em will do the do on more discerning floors for sure.

Classy stuff from one of the most respected labels on the west coast.

Out: This week

About: Transport Recordings can be found mostly at their own website

So many tunes, so little time 17

214 – Plastic Spokes EP
Glitchy, IDM-ish beats from the more experimental side of the dubstep/future garage/bass music spectrum, courtesy of Seattle-based producer 214 and coming on Scottish label Fortified Audio.
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Chris Brann – A Long Hot Summer sampler
A five-track DJ-only sampler for Mr Wamdue/Ptaah/Ananda Project's soon-come mix album of the same name on King Street. Beg, borrow or steal a copy if you can cos I'm not sure if this one's even gonna be in the shops…
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Danny eM – Faking Love EP
Number four from new UK label Form And Function sees Peruvian producer Danny eM serving up three tracks of proggy deep/tech bizniss. Running Late In Lima would be my pick of the three.
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DJ MFR + Devid Morrison – Wonderland
This three-tracker from the legendary Transport Recordings sees label boss DJ MFR team up with Italy's Devid Morrison for what's one of the label's techiest releases yet.
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Dual T – Bridge To The Sky
Savoir Faire Musique maintain their usual high standard with this sumptuous late-night houser from Dual T, which then gets a tuffer SMAK Remix while the garage-leaning Keep The Silence rounds out the EP.
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Stefan Kaye – Moments EP
Our second this week from the Endemic Digital camp is this five-tracker from label stalwart Stefan Kaye. Overall the mood is deep tech-house with a hint of prog, with the garage inflections of Not Without You the cream of the crop to these ears.
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Alexander Kowalski – Green Eyed
A five-track EP from the Berlin resident and Damage Music boss on Vince Watson's Bio Music label, sitting somewhere between progressive house and techno. The deep, rumbling Garden Of SEM stands out for me.
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Manuel Mazza – Shift
Funkified techno grooves on the original mix, with Alex Celler serving up a more minimalist rework. Comes on Italian techno label Diva Records.
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Maverickz – Losing My Religion
The original mix here is a fairly bouncy, housey kinda techno cut with acid twinges. Vid Marjanovic and Balthazar + JackRock take the track into tougher techno pastures.
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Nikola Vujicic Vs Baunzz! – Tears No More
Bouncy Balkan electro-swing ahoy! Just the one mix so not much else to tell you except that it comes on brand-new Serbian label Club4Club… and that while this sound has certainly been done, in spades, this really is rather jolly.
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Rampue – KopfAber
The first in a trilogy of singles, apparently, from this Berlin-based producer. Think nu-disco on a handful of Valium 10 and you're somewhere in the ballpark.
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Rhenalt – Reach Out
“Bumping vocal house with an electro edge,” is how the hype sheet describes this sixth offering from House Of Stank's Get Up Recordings. The original and Kenny Summit mixes have a little TOO MUCH of an electro edge for me, but the deeper Rob Salmon rub does the job.
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Roberto – First Principles
Deep, moody and glitchy techno with a distinct Detroit edge is the order of the day on this four-tracker from Joachim Spieth's AFFIN imprint. For this reviewer, Silvertown is the one.
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Greg Eversoul – Loan Smoke EP
Last but by no means least, here we have a three-track EP from Denver's Greg Eversoul. He's a veteran of Hipp-E's legendary San Francisco parties back in the day and it shows, with trippy, rhythmic, hypnotic house/tech-house grooves the order of the day. Something of a dub influence in evidence too.
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THANKS ALSO this week to: Betoko, BioWire, Cevin Fisher's European Tour, Daniel Mehes, dreamAwaken, Frank Martin, Julian Weiss, Nathan Swiss, Ooko, Piri Piri, Situation, Siwell, Steve Mulder, Tim Sheridan, Tom Demac vs Silverclub, Tom Wax + Jennifer Pliester and Off-Axis Recordings… as ever, I'm sure there are some gems in there that I've overlooked but there just isn't time to review everything.

Julius Papp & Mr V - Chicago Tribute Remixed

The weekend's here! So now seems like an appropriate time to talk about this unashamedly old skool, good-time house cut from two latter-day house legends.

You should know the track already – I reviewed it on here last year when it first came out, albeit only in one of the round-up things I think, or was it on an album? Either way I can't seem to find the review right now but I know I did one! – but now we have four new mixes of it, from Devid Morrison and DJ MFR. To jog your memory, it's the one with Mr V reminiscing about the early days of house and talking about "that sound, that freedom, that feeling we had".

Morrison's mix adds a little tropical/Latino flavour to the track, with busy shakers and the like, but it's the DJ MFR Deep Mix that's doing it more for me, a stripped-down and dubby pass that throbs along nicely. Both mixes come with instrumentals, which is handy cos while I'm personally something of a fan of Mr V's Tyree Cooper-esque vocal stylings, not everyone else is.

It all adds up to a very solid bet of an EP. House music all night long.

Out: This week, I'm assured… whatever the cover might suggest!

About: This comes on DJ MFR's San Francisco-based label Transport Recordings, who should need no introduction from me! Here's their website.

Satin Souls - Aziza

DJ MFR re-visits a classic Transport cut that was first out in 2001, and again in 2003.

The DJ MFR Movido Re-Dub of Aziza is the mix that's most likely to elicit a smile of recognition, thanks largely to the Spanish female vocal (though that said, everything had a Spanish vocal round about then, didn't it? To quite an annoying extent, as I recall). Its shuffling groove and sax-like synth squiggles will certainly do the do when it comes to keeping bodies moving, though I can't help thinking it'd sound far better if you heard it at, say, a pool party in Miami, rather than on a cold winter's evening in Bristol.

That comes accompanied just by an Instrumental Tool, so we can keep this one pretty short! But yeah, if sun-drenched, Latin-leaning soulful house vibes are your thing you should dig this one for sure.

Out: This week

About: Good to see Transport still going strong – find 'em online here

New Mondo - Total Control

New Mondo are better known as west coast deep house heroes Vincent Kwok and DJ MFR, but this debut long player is a bit of a surprise… cos Total Control is a far more accessible, dare I say poppy project than you'd expect from this pair.

Don't get me wrong, we're not in Spiller/Freemasons territory just yet. But still, this is the kind of slickly produced 'grown-up pop'-style house that's more familiar coming from fellow San Fran stable Om, than from the generally more underground Transport. I still quite like it, though. If you're not in the mood then it can easily start to sound a bit too sickly sweet (and those who are allergic to vocals should steer well clear), but if you're happy with a complete album of spangly (that's spangly, not spangled) vibes then there's plenty to love here, particularly Lisa Shaw's make-me-go-a-bit-funny-at-the-knees vocal on opener I Want Cha, which is coming out as a single soon, and the rumbling Chi-Town b-line on 909. 

[UPDATE Just found some audio previews on Soundcloud]

Actually, this album reminds me of  nothing so much as Stonebridge's Can't Get Enough. Which is a compliment BTW! Anyway, you can find out more about New Mondo here, or they've got a MySpace as well but they don't seem to have done much with it yet…

About the label: Surprisingly, as I said, this is on Transport… which is a wicked deep house label out of San Fran. If you don't know the label this probably isn't the best place to start, though. May I suggest a couple of label showcases instead, Julius Papp's Montreal Departure via Om or House Session: Transport Recordings on Soulstar, or better yet DJ MFR's Rome Departure on Transport itself? Yes, I may. In fact, I just have.