Ruben F – On The Dancefloor

Something of a 'usual suspects' feel to the blog tonight, with three labels representing who get a LOT of TIWWD love I know, but when they keep putting out records as good as these what's a boy to do?*

So this one, then, comes on Al Bradley's 3am and features three mixes of Groovin' plus bonus cut The Man Machine. Groovin' starts life as a garage-y organ groove, gets a slightly more contemporary-sounding refix from Poussez Vs Toast Burglars (!) that features elements of both tech-house and nu-disco, then on the Terry Vernixx High Desert Remix becomes a more percussive affair that'd be suited to terrace play, but without losing the deep/soulful timbre of the original. The Man Machine rounds out the EP on a deeper techy tip, with disembodied sample speech and a simple nagging organ/synth riff.

And between 'em, any DJ who plays deep house should find at least something to spin here.

Out: This week

About: You can find 3am Recordings on Soundcloud and Facebook.

*Actually I think you're supposed to build 'em up for six months then knock 'em down to make yourself look 'clever' and 'cool', that seems to be what a lot of dance music magazines/blog/etc take great delight in doing… but I've never played that. Never felt the need…

Poussez - Sandcastle Society

A five-tracker here from Poussez, taking in mixture of deep house and slo-mo/downtempo styles… and featuring as disturbing a sleeve as you're likely to see all month. Brrrr.

Sandcastle Society itself opens proceedings, a slow-moving deep houser with a heavily reverbed female vocal, throbbing b-line and plenty of dreamy atmos. Hairy Jaw drops the tempo yet further, being a low-slung groove with a spoken (male, French) vocal and a vaguely Balearic feel to the percussion – one for those lazy beach/poolside sessions. Hairy Jaw then gets dragged to the dancefloor by a brace of dubs from the ever-prolific Danny Ward AKA Moodymanc, his Close Shave Dub being my pick from the EP as a whole, before finally the rather peculiarly-titled Trinity Remix [Original Mix], which again is downtempo and somewhat filmic, closes out the EP.

Good stuff as ever from Jafar and Maxime. Apart from the cover, which is just wrong.

Out: This week

About: Poussez run their own label Artizan Music, but this one comes on Al Bradley's 3am Recordings, the latest label to join an illustrious list the lads have recorded for that also includes Toolroom, Neurotraxx Deluxe, Universal Vibes and Hudd Traxx.

For more info on Poussez, see their own website which features a handy player with snippets of almost everything they've done!

Poussez - Discuits

Right, I'm breaking all my own rules here cos strictly speaking this came in way too late. But for reasons I won't go into it's gonna get some TIWWD love anyway. And it is a very good record.

Just super-quickly, then... Big City Burning Rubber is a slow-groovin' affair with an Italo, and at times slightly 8-bit feel... Kyoto Electrics is straight-up dancefloor deep house out of the top drawer... Lost Childhood is another chilled, synthy nu-disco number... Marvin In The Disco is somewhere between deep house and nu-disco with a little bit of acid and a sampled vocal thrown in... and Discuits itself is a KILLER nu-disco-ISH slow jam with a female vocal that doesn't half sound like Kate Bush, but almost certainly isn't it.

Whether it's nu-disco, deep house or just generally chilled electronica that you're after, then, this EP is well worth checking. Even if it is nearly three weeks old.

Out: April 19!!!! But hey.

About: This is on Champion Standard for once, not the Poussez boys' own Artizan Music. Find 'em online here.

Poussez - Modern Identity [Andreas Saag Remixes]

First reviewed this earlier back in, ooh, April or so, when it picked up the highly sought-after Top Tune award on iDJ's house pages. And now it's back with remixes from Andreas Saag…

The overall vibe on Saag's four rubs is just a little less stripped-down and minimal, but the general 'for da headz' feel remains, as does the spoken anti-war vocal. The Epic Identity Remix also adds some Detroitian synth-string stabs, but basically all you need to know is that these are some fine remixes of what was already a damn fine deep house record.

Out: This week

About: This is of course on Artizan Music, which is Jafar and Maxime Cescau AKA Poussez's own imprint. More info, and lots of free DJ mixes to download, here.

Oh, and happy Xmas, by the way.