Various – Finest NY House 2012

Not one but two sampler EPs here from King Street, following the label's usual, somewhat confusing strategy of putting out completely different yet identically titled EPs for Beatport and Traxsource.

In the red corner then we have the Beatport Edition. This is a seven-track affair, with contributions from Fisher & Fiebak, Satoshi Fumi, T Ruggieri, Iban Reus & Oliver Schmitz, M2, vexuS T and Mass Digital. Here, the emphasis is mostly on drummy, tracky shit: Ruggieri's Love Shines Through, Fumi's Shiny and Mass Digital's deeper Those Moments stand out.

In the blue corner, meanwhile, the Traxsource edition features a further seven cuts, this time on a more melodic/musical/funkier tip. Marco Bruzzano's Rebirth is one highlight, Quentin Kane's euphoric, Rod Stewart-sampling M.U.S.I.C another, with further contributions coming from Washerman, Alex Font, Phazed Groove, Urban Soul and Hamza.

As you might expect from a collection focusing mostly on up-and-coming names, there are a couple of tracks that fail to hit the spot but overall, both EPs do their job of showcasing the current house sound of NYC admirably.

Out: This week for the Traxsource edition; you'll have to wait till December 24 for the Beatport one.

About: As well as their own website you can now find King Street/Nite Grooves/Street King on Facebook and Soundcloud.

Various - New Breed Of Deep House 2012 samplers

The mighty King Street serve up not one but two samplers for their forthcoming full-length compilation New Breed Of Deep House 2012. But to be fair, you probably figured that out from the post heading!

As is King Street's wont, there are two completely separate sampler bundles available: one for Traxsource, one for Beatport. I'm not going into all 18 tracks individually but of the two, the seven-track 'Traxsource Edition' is probably better suited for fans of traditional-style deep house, with lots of funky basslines, sampled disco vox and warm Rhodes hooks, while the 'Beatport Edition' errs towards the skinny-jeans--wedge-haircut-and-cardigan hipster tech-house side of things, with glacial synths and strobelight throbbers more in evidence.

But that's a very sweeping statement, a picture painted in the broadest of strokes, and there are plenty of top-drawer nuggets to be found on both releases. Domscott's Ain't Playing Games No More (Traxsource Edition) is a fine, funk-fuelled gem that's got more than a touch of the Matty Heilbronns about it, while if it's more experimental/cutting-edge sounds you're after then Whim-ee's You Can Amor (Beatport Edition), which sounds like the future garage sound of Berlin, will see you right for sure.

So best be on the safe side and get both, eh?

Out: This week

About: You know where to find King Street so I guess there's room to tell you that the full list of artists featured on the two EPs includes (deep breath): Soundealers, Washerman, Domscott, Chocolate Avenue, Alfonso Ares feat Celia, Hamza, Tout Le Monde (all Traxsource Edition), Rey & Kjavik feat Kevin Iszard, SO DEAFI, Balcazar & Sordo, Shades Of Gray, Whim-ee, Nicko Vee, Kyoko Kamichika & Masahiro Suzuki, Nico Purman, 9west and Oscar Higinion (all Beatport Edition).

Hamza - Groove Guru EP

Another label I've been feeling a lot lately are Unrivaled Music, and here's yet another example of why, as Hamza – who I'm guessing, though it doesn't explicitly say so, is the same Hamza who runs India's leading house label Wind Horse Records – serves up three tracks of quality house/deep house for your dancing pleasure.

Groove Guru itself is a party-starting slab of funky-fuelled disco house done properly… with a fat-ass bassline and a vocodered vocal (I'm a sucker for vocoders), this would almost be worthy of the great Mr Lee himself circa Universe Of Love. And that's praise indeed coming from me!

Funky Chuski treads a similarly funk/disco-inspired path, but this time with the addition of some serious jazz-funk saxuality… and then, just to prove our boy Hamza's no one-trick pony, Giving It Up is an altogether deeper dancefloor nugget, with a heavy jazz influence. Oh yeah, and the female half-sung, half-spoken – and then chopped n' sampled – vocal reminds me, for some reason, of Thandie Newton in the film Gridlock'd.

Incidentally, if you've never seen Gridlock'd (with Tupac, Tim Roth and the aforesaid Ms Newton), you really should… EXCELLENT film. But I digress. What we're here to talk about is this record and, yeah, it's yet another bomb from Unrivaled.

Out: This week.

About: The currently on-fire Unrivaled Music is of course part of Essex's Endemic stable