Havens & Hart – Glow EP

We move into more discofied pastures now with this four-track EP from Havens & Hart.

The EP's made up of three mixes of Upper Level, plus bonus cut Shootcha Down. The former in its Original mix is a bass-y 3m slab of nu-boogie/electrofunk shiny spangled synth-iness, while the Cristoff Remix is a tad more house-y and pumped. The standout mix for me, though, comes from label boss Rob Made, who wins my favour by the most reliable method short of oral favours – to wit, by spraying the track liberally with pyow-pyow-pyow! space disco stabs. That always works.

Shootcha Down, meanwhile, turns out to be a lo-slung homage to First Choice's The Player, done really rather well. Jolly fine work all round.

Out: This week

About: This comes from Sleazy Deep, who you can find – as you can find so many people – on Soundcloud or at their own website. And if you do, you'll notice they've currently got their second label comp out. It's full of good shit like this y'knaa.

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.

William Medagli – Everything I Am Looking For EP

Italian producer William Medagli serves up a four-tracker for Sleazy Deep that blurs the boundaries between deep house and nu-disco.

Shine On Me marries big Carpenter-esque analogue synths with a breathy female vocal reminiscent of mid-90s house, while a remix from label boss Rob Made replaces the busy percussion with more of a no-nonsense nu-disco clap-throb. And lots of scratching sounds, oddly. You also get a rub from Spaghetti Orchestra, who take us deep down into late-night, er, sleazy territory.

Over on the B, Rise Up is a slightly housier affair in its original form, albeit at a pretty sedate pace, again coming with the fem vox and a big phat b-line; again Mr Made remixes, adding some wukka-wukking guitar to bring out da funk. One for those Ibiza warm-up sessions, methinks.

Out: This week, on Beatport and on vinyl. Everywhere else from 2 April.

About: Sleazy Deep is (as I just said, kind of ) the brainchild of Rob Made, AKA Robin Tabor of F*** House Music fame, and can be found online here (website) and here (Soundcloud, where you can HEAR THIS)

Rob Made – You And Me

When Robin Tabor of F*** House Music isn't being Robin Tabor of F*** House Music, he's busy being Rob Made of Sleazy Deep. Confusing, isn't it? And that's not counting every other weekend, when he's Roberta Lovehoney… but he's asked me not to mention that in public. So I won't.

Instead I'll tell you just how good this second offering from the new label really is. The original is an unhurried deep houser with a hint of nu-disco sheen that's all about the big, throbbing b-line and soulful female vocals… think Crazy P colliding with that Jamie Jones/Lee Foss/Crosstown Rebels sound and you're somewhere in the ballpark. Quality stuff.

As for the remixes… No Artificial Colours' rub is sparser and techier, using very little of the vocal and adding some brain-addling, Radiophonic Workshop-esque synth wibbles, a Gimenez Remix beefs up the beats and sports some more crazy synth action, and finally William Medagli serves up a much more driving, ballsy take which, while sounding current, has echoes of that big, dramatic Sound Factory vibe from days of yore.

It's between the latter mix or the Original for me but all four will do the do, making this well worth investigating.

Out: This week

About: You can find Sleazy Deep at their website or at Robin/Rob's own Facebook page, but probably the best place to start is their Soundcloud page where you can hear the whole catalogue to date and find some downloadable podcast goodness to boot.

No Artificial Colours - If The Rumours Were True EP

Some no-nonsense deep, down n' jackin' tech-house here made strictly for underground dancefloors… and on a brand-new label, to boot. What more recommendation could I give it, really?

As far as the three originals go, Dangerous is a sleazy, bottom end-heavy midtempo bump n' grind number (and one of my faves), ThugMode is a Berlin-ish tech-houser with a slight nod to UKG in its skippy, staccato feel, while Tooo Skool For Cool is a chuggy affair with sampled vocal snips that remind me a little bit – in the tiniest bit of a way possible, in fact – of Alabama Blues. Label boss Rob Made also contributes a remix of ThugMode (my other fave) that drops the tempo and takes the track into more discofied territory, without losing any of its late-night, wonky quality…

As well as the obvious tech-house references, one suspects those involved may have more than a few EBM and new beat records in their collection as well… personally I've never hung around in heavy gay S&M clubs on the Reeperbahn (call me a stick in the mud) but this is sort of what I imagine they might sound like. Sleezy Deep indeed.

Out: This week

About: Rob Made is in fact Robin Tabor, of F*** House Music fame, and Sleazy Deep is a new outlet for "underground deep house funk". Find 'em on Soundcloud (where you can HEAR THIS), Facebook and at their own website.