Jamie L – (What We Saw) In The Burg

A vinyl-only release here from the mighty Paper Recordings, coming courtesy of one Jamie L, who they describe as "a mysterious figure of unknown origin and history who fits into the Moodymann/Theo Parrish school of heavy future disco".

And yeah, "heavy future disco" is as good a description of (What We Saw) In The Burg as any. It's an unhurried, lo-slung and somewhat druggy, out-there kinda groove, with densely layered production driven by warping bottom-end synths, muted handclaps and barely-there samples of party noise. The Havana Candy Mix goes deeper yet more spangly, like space disco on downers, while finally the Cottam Mix is an epic, evolving pass that fuses late-night deep house vibes and soulful wails with fierce, techy percussion.

I think it's the Havana Candy Mix that does it best for me but you've got to hand it to Paper, really. Half the deep house styles that feature on this blog they pretty much invented back in the mid-90s (well, along with Pagan, Nuphonic, Toko and a few others); now the world and his brother are doing it, they're doing something slightly different, pushing us forward once more.

Out: This week

About: Paper live here, here and here (website, Facebook, Soundcloud).

Flash Atkins – Did You Forget To Shine?

Deep house and nu-boogie collide on this latest from the mighty Paper Recordings.

In its original form, Did You Forget… is a funk-fuelled, slinky nu-boogie gem in the Crazy P mold. For me, the vocal's a little too pop-tastic but never fear, cos there's a Dubstramental on hand which is all about that pulsing synth bassline… if you've got Night Dubbin', Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing or Love & Dancing in your collection this is the mix that's gonna push your buttons. Then again the lo-slung Jamie L Remix is pretty spiffing in a sleazy, lights-down-low kinda way too. The Havana Candy Mix is, again, a bit too bright and shiny for these ears but again fear not, cos rounding out the EP is the Hot Toddy Mix, which mixes up vintage house flavas (deep, Balearic and acid) for an all-round dancefloor gem.

The beards' treat of the week!

Out: This week

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