ALBUM Pretty Criminals – Underground Vol 4

It's almost pointless me reviewing this album, to be frank. After all, I've been banging on about how good Savoir Faire Musique is for ages. I've been banging on about how good Pretty Criminals are for even longer.

So when I tell you that here, the Essex duo present their personal favourites from the SFM back catalogue, you can guess I'm going to love it, can't you? I guess I should point out quickly, though, that the album features two unreleased cuts from the PCs themselves: their shuffling, percussive mix of John Diloo & Dimi Wilson's 3 Dots, and the languid, sumptuous What I Know.

Otherwise, I'm just gonna say that with cuts from the likes of Patrick Podage, Danny Quattro, Tony S and Jeremy Breen, this is as fine a consecutive 69 minutes and 48 seconds of deep house music as you're gonna hear all week, and you should purchase a copy at your earliest opportunity.

Out: This week

About: You can find Savoir Faire Musique on Soundcloud or on Facebook.

Bluford Duck – Eye See

Is it just me, or is Bluford Duck a rather odd name for an artist?!

I only point that out because it's the only unusual thing about this latest Savoir Faire Musique. That, and the blue (not two-tone black/white) label. Otherwise it's business as usual… Crisp deep house beats? Check. Sophisticated, multi-layered production, with an emphasis on the musical and the soulful? Check. A remix roster featuring some of the hottest producers around? Check – stand up Jesus Pablo & Adam Brass, and Patrick Podage & Nikola Kotevski.

Glowing review on TIWWD? Check. Podage & Kotevski's mix just edges it for me but if sumptuous deep house vibes float your boat you can't really go wrong here.

Out: This week

About: You can find Savoir Faire Musique on Facebook and Soundcloud.

ALBUM Various - Future Sleaze Vol 2

Hot on the heels of volume 1, which back in June and which I shamefully never got around to telling you about, here's a second label comp from the mighty Sleazy Deep.

"Bridging the gap between deep house and nu disco," is how Sleazy Deep describe their musical ethos and yeah, that's about the size of it. Kicking off with Adam Banks' So Confused, which with its pitched-down Colonel Abrams vocal and deep, techy East London chug is about as 'now' as it's possible to be, Future Sleaze Vol 2 crams in a whopping 20 tracks from names both familiar (William Medagli, Patrick Podage, label boss Rob Made) and less so (er, everyone else).

I'm not going into all the tracks one-by-one – it'd take all day. But do be assured there's plenty of grist for your dancefloor mill here, with the Prince-ish vocal on Medagli's This Is Amour and Made's Kariya cover/homage Let Me Love You just two of the highlights.

Out: This has been available since September 10 on Beatport, but is only getting a full worldwide release this week

About: You can find Sleazy Deep on Soundcloud, on Facebook or at their own website.

Patrick Podage & Buraq – A Piece Of Paper EP

The latest from Savoir Faire Musique here and glad to say the label's usual high-quality standards apply! That said, this isn't quite business as usual…

I say that because compared to the usual SFM fare there's a slightly techier edge to this one, particularly the title track, which comes accompanied by a Roger Meaden Bonus Beats Mix and which is all menacing low-end rumble, tuff beats and strange analogue synth noises. Bonus cut Unconscious, meanwhile, is a bit more obviously 'deep house' but still kinda sounds like deep house approached with a deep techno mindset/production values… if that makes any sense to anyone at all other than me!

But like I said, this is still the usual high quality stuff from Scott and co so it's good to see 'em broadening their palette a little.

Out: This week

About: You can find Savoir Faire on Facebook and Soundcloud.

Danny Quattro – Contact

Our second Danny of the day is Danny Quattro, coming to you today via Savoir Faire Musique.

Presented in three mixes, Contact is based around a hefty sample from Human Traffic… I might grumble about it not being the most inventive of sample sources, except that it works so damn well! The Original Club Mix is a no-nonsense dancefloor throbber with John Simms joined by "come on!" vocal inserts, both vocals sitting a top a relentlessly pulsing rhythm driven more by the hi-hats than the subdued kicks. Lee Pennington's Main Room Remix is fairly similar but bigger and spacier, while the Patrick Podage & Nikola Kotevski Remix is slower, druggier and more twisted, and does strange things to the vocal, timestretching it beyond recognition.

Very, very solid fare for your deep house dancefloor, nuff said.

Out: Today

About: You can find Savoir Faire Musique at their blog, on Facebook and on Soundcloud

Aartekt – One More Chance

Some typically strong deep/tech house grooves from Something Different here, with mixes to suit a range of moods and tastes.

In its Original form, One More Chance features distorted, technoid kicks and is long on big room drama. The Patrick Podage Remix takes us a little deeper and has a proggy kinda feel, while the Soulight Remix is more straight-up house-y, but the pick of the mixes for me comes from Kevin Martin Spelle, in which Deep Spelle's brother serves up vintage-style drum programming, chopped and reverbed vocal stabs and a simple but effective organ/keyboard hook, in a rub that's sure to do the do on the afterhours floors.

Out: This week

About: You can find Something Different on Soundcloud and Facebook.

Pretty Criminals – Broken Heart Pt 1

With their recent releases having gone down more of a techno route, it's good to see those Essex boys Pretty Criminals back in the deep house saddle with this latest offering.

Broken Heart comes in three mixes (for now… I'm guessing there IS gonna be a Pt 2!). The Original and Miami Ice mixes don't vary huge amounts, though: both are fairly straight-up deep housers in the contemporary style, with looped-up lines of soulful vocal and an insistent organ riff throughout. Okay so, yeah, The Original makes more of the beats, the Miami Ice rub more of the organ, and I'm just SLIGHTLY preferring the latter, if pushed… but to any but the most nerdy deep house spotter they'd be two peas in a pod. Both also have more than a little of that Berlin flavour about 'em, which makes them the obvious choices for dancefloor play in non-specialist clubs.

For TIWWD's purposes, though, it's the Patrick Podage & Nikola Kotevski Remix that's the real find here – a sparse n' dubby heads' delight. Like the song says: shake 'em down…

Out: This week

About: This is another gem brought to you by that bastion of all things deep, Scott Harrington's always-checkable Savoir Faire Musique. Click through for a fresh DJ mix from Mr Harrington himself as well.

Patrick Podage & Nikola Kotevski - Life Must Be

More top-drawer deep house vibes – and it's been a good week for them – from Savoir Faire Musique.

In its Original form, Life Must Be is a slow, shufflin' groove with a jazzy, almost beatnik kinda vibe… if you were a beret-sporting, chain-smoking French philosopher type, this'd be the house record for you! Remix-wise you're then spoilt for choice: Martijn's mix is a slightly more driving take that's nonetheless faithful to the feel of the Original, while Eliot Wright serves up a mix that ups the dancefloor quotient quite considerably, with more urgent percussion and a 'bigger' sound overall.

I repeat: top-drawer deep house vibes, not much more to be said.

Out: This week

About: Keep up with all of Savoir Faire Musique's goings-on at their brand-new blog.