Jay West – We Can Change It

Next up tonight we move from soulful to the techy end of deep, with this latest from Aki Bergen's Neurotraxx Deluxe.

Actually, while this certainly does represent the techier end of the deep house spectrum musically, its mostly-spoken vocal (black, male, American) gives it a soulful feel too so it kinda covers all bases! Said vocal reminds me a little of the spoken intro to Jon Cutler's It's Yours, and sits atop a backing that manages to be sparse and electronic yet warm and luxurious at the same time. Over on the B, I Feel Hype operates in similar territory but is a tad more organic-sounding,  with a breathless, half-spoken/half-sung female vocal telling you that "when you touch me, I feel hype" and getting all poetic on yo' ass.

Classy stuff, basically – go seek.

Out: This week

About: The Neurotraxx stable (Neurotraxx, Neurotraxx Deluxe and Neurotraxx Gold) seem to be one of the hippest labels around right now… and compared to a lot of 'hip' labels, in this case I CAN see what the fuss is all about! Find 'em at their website or on Facebook.

Jay West, meanwhile, is a name that should be familiar to you given that he's had releases on Salted, Conya, Drop, So Sound, Adaptation Music, Funkfield, Lost My Dog and more…

Jay West - The Speed Of Soul EP

You wouldn't believe how tired I am right now. Sadly, this has nothing to do with late night carousing with the jetset in swanky international nitespots or anything like that, and a lot to do with a troublesome Bristol water main that they were digging up, repairing and replacing outside my bedroom window till nearly 3am (when some of us have to be up for work at 7, don't you know). Moan, mutter, etc.

Anyway, said troublesome water main is why I didn't get round to a blog post yesterday, and also why this might not be the most elucidating, erudite or enlightening review of a house record ever sent out to find its way in the ether, either. But basically The Speed Of Soul EP is a really rather lovely six-track slab of deep house goodness from Mr West, featuring three rubs apiece of the title track and Just For Today.

The Speed Of Soul itself features samples from Carl Sagan's Cosmos or some similar egghead astrophysics thing. The original foregrounds some nice long, resonant organ chords; Silver City's remix keeps the same but beefs up the beats a little and uses a funkier b-line, while the Javier Varez Remix takes us into more Chi-town deep territory through the strategic deployment of a fat, squelchy 303 bassline.

Just For Today, meanwhile, is in its original form a slow-building affair with a couple of different intertwining vocal snips. It's fine, but the sparser 9West Messenger Remix is pleasing these ears more with its little stabs of echo-y slap bass, while finally the Lonya & Roi Okev remix takes us off into deep space with lots of ambient noise and atmospherics, long, lingering pads, extensive reverb and heavy FX on the vocals.

Like I said, a really rather lovely slab all round.

Out: This week

About: This is the 18th release on UK label Adaptation Music, who describe themselves as releasing "Deep, soulful, jazzy [house] with emphasis on quality over quantity.". Sounds like a good plan to me! As well as the website you can find 'em on Facebook, Soundcloud and MySpace.

As for me… if you need me for owt you'll find me in bed. Night night.