Jeff Keenan – Sweet EP

We jump back over to the other side of the pond now with this latest from Boston's Headtunes Recordings, which comes from local boy Jeff Keenan.

There are just two tracks, but six mixes in total. Sweet itself is, again, a very now-sounding affair, peaktime deep/tech house with garage-y overtones in its original form. NYC's Daniel Marin pushes the 'deep' slider up and the 'tech' slider down on his mix, while LA's Android Cartel do the reverse on theirs and Brummie lad Dan Warby represents for the UK, taking us into organic, soul/funk-fuelled pastures with a Rhythm & Sax mix that's got 'Southport' written all over it. 

Need Love, meanwhile, is all Murk-y drums, some of the deepest pads/drops known to mankind and layered ethereal female vox… a 5am dancefloor dream… while Tamer Maliki & Sergio Santos give the track a more straight-up 4/4 backdrop and downtune the vocal half an octave or so. 

The original of Need Love and the Marin Rub of Sweet would be my picks here but it really is all… the opposite of bad, to coin a phrase.

Out: This week

About: You can find Headtunes on such popular social networking services as Soundcloud and Facebook, or alternatively, you might like to visit them at their own website. 

Jesus Pablo - The F Word

Four mixes here of the latest from Jesus Pablo, coming on Boston's Headtunes.

In its Original form, The F Word harks back to the days of deep Jersey garage with its simple piano loop, crisp beats, vocal wails and understated disco b-line. Tony S serves up a remix that's a touch more energetic and floor-oriented, while Tom Lown goes the other way and takes us further into late-night, sofa-surfing territory with glockenspiel (??) hits and pads that are a thousand miles wide. And then bringing the EP to a close, a refix from Poland's Robot Needs Oil is more stripped-down and techy with tons of space in the production, looping up the "running to you" vocal hook and adding some wicked organ drops.

Every bit as we've become accustomed to from the prolific Liverpudlian producer, with mixes to suit a range of moods/times/settings.

Out: This week

About: You can find Headtunes on Soundcloud, on Facebook and at their own website.

**PS: UPDATE 4 MAY
After speaking to Tom today I can now tell you it's not a glockenspiel, it's a marimba. I am useless. However Wikipedia lists them both as members of the xylophone family so I wasn't THAT far off!

ALBUM Sleazy McQueen - 5+1

Opening with the soaring pianos of Jesus Pablo's C Major, here's as good a picture of the current state of the art when it comes to dancefloor-oriented deep (as opposed to tech) house as you'll hear all week.

From Senor Pablo we move into the Crazy P-ish vibes of Tres Gueros ft Anne Mantone's Your Love, and from there into the sheer retro joy of Crazy Boogie's Marshall Jefferson-esque Feel It. Now they're moving, a couple of more contemplative grooves keep the vibe steady in the form of Peckos's What Are You? and Sleazy's own Trains Over Broadway, building up nicely into the quirky leftfield disco-house of Z Track 05 by Noise Destruction. Then it's heads-down for Grant Dell's Don't Need Ya and Do It Proper's Love Haight, before Anne Montone's tonsils grace us once more on SMQ's Anna Due.

That's followed by the Balearically-tinged The Ride from Do It Proper again, before we come to what's the standout for me, Sleazy McQueen feat DJ Itek & Q-BAM's massive acid-tinged, Plastic Dreams-referencing Big Times, Big Tings. Grant Dell's House Tribute – which has cropped up on this blog before as I recall – and Dirtyworx' Una Cola then calm things down a little, before Tres Gueroro's Instead You Go lightens the mood with some punk-funk vibes. And then finally Mario Dujic's My Need Is You plays us out with some blissed-out space disco.

It's a thoroughly enjoyable romp, all told. And, quiet interestingly, it was brought to you by the magic of Kickstarter.com, with a list on the CD cover of all the people who chipped in to make sure the album came out. Nice work, philanthropic types – househeads worldwide will be very grateful!

Out: Today

About: This comes on Boston-based label Headtunes Recordings. Here's the usual links: website Facebook Soundcloud MySpace.

Florida boy Sleazy needs no introduction from me these days but I should also point out he's also SMQ (of course) and Tres Gueroros, so quite a lot of this album is his own work.

As regards Anne Montone… no idea. But a great voice, let's hope we hear more from her soon.