Evan Iff – Sweet Babe

Finally for today, we move back into deep house territory with the latest from Jesus Pablo & Di Riviera's Something Different.

In its Original form, Sweet Babe is an interesting mix of influences: the soulful vocal's classic west coast, while the synths and percussion come from a more contemporary deep/tech school of thought. Mix-wise there's a self-explanatory Dub and a typically fine rub from Matches, who puts the vocal through the FX mangle and sparses things right up while adding lots of shuffly top-end. But taking top honours for me is Malin Genie, who gives (give?) us a deeper, sultrier rub.

You won't go wrong with any of 'em, to be fair. But Malin Genie is the one for me here.

Out: This week

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

Evan Iff – Sunlight

It's been bugging me all week what this latest from Something Different reminded me of and I've just realised… if anyone remembers Take Arms by Shimmer from back in about, ooh, 1993? (and not 2003 as, er, some elves sneaked on here and wrote before) then this is in quite a similar vein. But you probably don't. I think I was about the one person in the whole of England that played it at the time.

So that's not much use as a review, and instead I'll explain that in its original form, Sunlight is an organ-sporting and rather sprightly deep/tech throbber with a yearnsome near-falsetto male vocal intoning "I will be the sunlight in your universe". Which seems a tad presumptuous of him to me, frankly, but there you go! Great tune though.

What you also need to know is that it comes with a brace of refixes by Danny 'Moodymanc' Ward: a Daylight Dub with an expansive, almost Balearic feel and a Twilight Dub with… er… well also with an expansive, almost Balearic feel but this time in a more lounge-y kinda way.

Out: This week

About: Find Something Different where you find everyone else… Soundcloud and Facebook. Durr.

Matches – Get Loose EP

Was just singing Matches' praises on this blog a few days ago… now here he is again, this time with a three-tracker of his own on Jesus Pablo and Di Riviera's Something Different, who recently celebrated their first birthday.

Get Loose itself is a loose-limbed midtempo jam with a vaguely garage-y feel (by which I basically mean it's got a female vocal and some cool organ sounds). Never Give In is an ever-so-slightly more insistent, uptempo number with a killer acid-y bassline, while finally Two Strangers ain't nothing but a locked-on 5am afterhours groove, all rock-solid looped drums, freaky spoken male vocals and dub-wise flourishes.

Like I said a few days ago, Matches really isn't putting a foot wrong for me at the minute.

Out: This week

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

Werner Niedermeier – Insight EP

We stay on a straight-up deep house tip with this latest from Something Different.

In its Original form, Insight is an afterhours kinda affair, all ambient synth washes and disembodied spoken vocals but underpinned by a steadily chugging backbeat. The Abracadabra Remix from Stanny Abram adds extra/different drums for more of a looping, percussive, terrace-y feel, while rounding out the EP is Miles To Go, another unhurried chugging groove topped with scratchy, hissy lo-fi synths.

Three quality cuts for the more discerning buyers (that'd be you) and the more specialist dancefloors.

Out: This week

About: Something Different, as you're no doubt only too aware by now, can be found on Facebook and Soundcloud.

Soul Camp – Wonder EP

Yesterday we ended with one of TIWWD's 'usual suspect' labels; today let's start with one, namely Jesus Pablo and Di Riviera's Something Different, now into their second year of operations.

The Wonder EP opens with Baby Don't Go, a chunky yet mellow deep houser with a breathy female voice intoning the title atop a rich, warm bottom-end and pleasingly understated piano chords. The Original Mix of I Wonder If You Know is up next, a more overtly 'dancefloor' affair with, again, a warm bassline, an ominous bass-synth riff, some Italo-style synths later on and spoken male vox about, y'know, losing your mind and stuff, while bringing the EP to a close is the Sean Danke Mix of the same, a slightly more heads-down n' driving pass.

Very solid deep house bizniss as ever from Something Different.

Out: This week

About: Find Something Different on Facebook and Soundcloud.

Funkdamentalist – Exposed EP

A deep n' groovy little three-tracker here from Something Different, courtesy of Washington DC-based producer Funkdamentalist.

Exposed itself is a midtempo but quite jaunty deep houser whose organs and cut-up vox give it a garage-y kinda feel. Werner Niedermeier doesn't flip the script massively on his remix but does add a squelchy bassline that sounds a little like a far more subdued Dooms Night, while rounding out the EP is another original cut, The Grind, a more meandering and percussive groove but with those early 90s organs still in effect, alongside "baby" female vocal wails and with some old skool pianos thrown in to boot.

'Classic house vibes brought right up to date' would be the overall story here, then. Niceness!

Out: This week

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

Dale Howard – Signals EP

Two related releases in a row, now. First up, TIWWD fave Dale Howard comes to Jesus Pablo & Di Riviera's Something Different for an EP that marks one year in the game for the label.

With previous releases on Lost My Dog, Off Recordings, Neurotraxx Deluxe and more, Howard's known for his musical and garage-informed take on the deep house blueprint, and so it is here. Signals itself is a midtempo, organ-fuelled groover, while Sub Text packs slightly more slamming kicks but otherwise goes deeper still with its echo-y low-end rumble (see what they did there?). Remix-wise, meanwhile, Evan Iff pumps up Signals somewhat and adds a "get on the floor" vocal loop, while Matt Masters' rub of Sub Text adds tribal percussion to make it more 'afterhours' than 'post-club', if you see what I mean.

It's Signals (Original Mix) that stands out for me but these are four very solid tracks – happy birthday fellas.

Out: This week

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

Various – Remixes Vol 3

On now to a brace of EPs featuring a Who's Who line-up of TIWWD 'usual suspects'.

First up is this one, the third in Something Different's series of Remixes EPs (I'm told there'll be four in total). Aartekt, Dudley Strangeways, J-Kar, Left-Minded and Matthieu Duchesne are the artists getting the remix treatment, while Bubba, Stanny Abram, Ashley Casselle & Justin Steel, Dale Howard and Dilby are those dishing it out. Given that pretty much all of the original tracks featured on this blog first time around, and given that pretty much all the remixers are TIWWD regulars as well, this EP shouldn't take much explaining – it's packed with exactly the kind of deep/tech goodness you'd expect.

But special mention must be made of  Casselle & Steel's rub of J-Kar's Baby Dreaming – always something of a TIWWD fave to start with, their deep, squelchy refix of this garage-leaning groover is the reason you need to go out and get this EP.

Out: This week

About: Find Something Different on Soundcloud and Facebook.

So many tunes, so little time 27

Well, here's an all too bloody familiar situation. It's Monday evening, I'm knackered from work and there's a ton of new music piled up, all of which is out this week and none of which I've had a chance to listen to properly yet. In fact make that two tons this week, it's gonna be a busy one!

But for now, here's the rest of last week's goodies that we didn't quite get around to…

Aartekt & Zia's Autumn Mist is typically high-quality deep house fare from the ever-reliable Untitled Music… with mixes from Dave Fortnum, Matt Prehn and Marvin Zeyss, this one would probably have got a bigger review but it came in quite late… there's more very solid deep house in the form of the More L EP from Istanbul-based producer Ave Astra, coming on German label Filigran…Cybernalia's Darker Dreams is a very aptly titled EP for Stripped Digital that's packed with moody, menacing progressive house and techno grooves…  Dubesque's Something is, er, 'something' of a treat if you're in search of that classic NYC 90s house sound, and comes on Austrian label In My House…  on a deep/tech tip, check for Federico's Welcome Home EP on Unrivaled Music…  Hector Romero's Soulful House Journey comp for King Street is trailed by a five-track sampler EP… Heiko Laux & Diego Hostettler serve up some no-nonsense jackery with Girl/Jack Up, a release that Tronic Music are billing as 'techno' though it sounds pretty tech-house-y to me… John Collins gives us the Club D'Ellaria EP which is one for lovers of laidback, Balearic grooves and which comes on Irish label Vision Collective… we're back in bumpin' dancefloor deep house territory with the Big City Nights EP by Los Cuzeiros, which comes on the snappily-monickered The Cruzaders Records… Seraph's Frigid EP is a solid bet if you're after some dark-but-not-stoopid dubstep/post-dubstep bizniss… and even if you're not, then check Take It Back for some proper old-skool rave/hardcore action – it's like climbing in a time machine with a whistle, a tub of Vaporub and a gram of pink champagne… oh yeah and it's on Four40 Records… whizzing (ho-ho) forward in that same time machine, very contemporary-sounding house/techno vibes are the order of the day on the Nachts EP, from which the Pele Remix of the title track stands out for me, this one coming from Shawnecy on Lowroom Recordings… UK label Form-and Function bring us some more very 'now' deep/tech vibes in the form of Losing U from Soulight, which comes complete with a weirded-out dub from the mighty Saytek… Untitled2Music serve up some thinking man's techno on the X Project EP, which comes on Unofficial Records… and finally, "it's that man again" as Jesus Pablo and Di Riviera's label Something Different bring us the second in their series of Remixes EPs, featuring cuts this time out from Left Minded, Dudley Strangeways, Sean Danke and more…

TOMORROW night, we'll get cracking with this week's releases! Must admit to being a bit overwhelmed right now by the constant flow of good music coming in but, y'know, it's a nice problem to have…

So many tunes, so little time 26

Sorry for the paucity of updates at the weekend, I was helping my girlfriend move house so when I wasn't lugging huge boxes of utterly needless kitchenware up and down stairs I was mostly collapsed on a sofa. So before we get on with this week's reviews here's the rest of the goodies from last week…

On a tech-house tip Dekontrol's Now/Addicted on Detroit's Incorrect Music, J&S Project vs Raffaele Rizzi's White Sands on Southpark and George Privatti's Lomato on Selected Records are all well worth checking, as is The Twister & West On 27th [Jerome Robins Mixes] on Primal Recordings, which sees a couple of Hooj Choons prog/trance faves from the late 90s given a 2012 tech-house makeover.

Moving into deeper territories, Ramon Tapia's Wonderland EP is the third fine release on his own Say What? label, Inkfish's Altar Server on Form-and Function brings some deep tech-soul, and there's more soulfully-inclined deepness from Unrivaled Music in the form of the Black Sunset/Sylvie EP from Georgeous. Haldo feat Henri Kohn & Miss Ann-P serve up some glitzier house grooves with Rhythm on Conya Digital, Joe Morris gets down, discoid and sleazy with Yello Haze on 3am Recordings, while the third and final installment in the Love Is The Devil Remixes series from Blu Mar Ten on his own label is a very solid bet for deep, chilled, liquid-y D&B.

King Street offshoot Street King come strong with two different After Hours Ibiza 2012 EPs, one available on Beatport and the other on Traxsource. Between them there are 23 tracks so you can't fault 'em on VFM! Expect various shades of deep/tech house and, yes, the usual high quality standards apply.

And finally a shout going out to my man Jesus Pablo… thanks for the kind words on Facebook, it's very nice to be someone's "favourite blogger". But as you point out, I do pretty much review everything Something Different releases so for the (admittedly very fine) Something Different Remixes EP you'll have to make do with this lil' mention right here!

Left-Minded – Good Days EP

Some more very solid deep house grooves here courtesy of Jesus Pablo and Di Riviera's Something Different label.

The EP kicks off with Alive Again, a dreamy, organ-flecked deep houser that'd be equally suited to floor play or to home listening purposes, and that comes complete with a Jeff Fontaine Reborn Remix which takes into seriously deep, dubbed-out territory. The title track Good Days itself takes us back to the dancefloor with sampled disco vox, atmospheric synth washes and clean, crisp percussion, while finally you get two mixes of It's A Shame. I'm not 100% in love with the vocal on this one TBH but there are some nice retro 80s/acid house sounds going on beneath it on the original, while the Raumakustic Remix will suit the hipster floors to a T.

It's Good Days and the original of Alive Again that are sharing top honours for me, though, while Fontaine's late-night explorations into deep headspace make this a very worthwhile package before you even GET to It's A Shame!

Out: This week

About: Find Something Different on Soundcloud and Facebook.

Jesus Pablo – Simple Ideas Work Best

Regular readers will be familiar by now with Liverpudlian producer Jesus Pablo, and with Something Different Records, the label he runs with Di Riviera. This one doesn't come on Something Different though, but rather Scott Harrington's Savoir Faire – another label who TIWWD readers will know by now can always be relied on for some quality deep house grooves.

Which doesn't leave me with huge amounts to explain, really! Except to say that Simple Ideas… lives up to its title, being an almost slo-mo affair based around some simple mournful plucked strings, minimal beats and sparingly-applied synths. Think of the sparse-yet-dense production values of the deepest dubstep à la Youngsta or Distance, apply to deep house and you've got the idea.

Remixes come from Robot Needs Oil, who adds haunting M1 sounds and the merest of vocal fragments, joined later by gentle Balearic-style pianos, while Nick Devon – who so impressed with So Addicted on 3am as recently as last week – adds soulful vocals and a warm b-line.

Robot Needs Oil nudges it out of the remixes for me, but overall I think it's the original that wins out – it's a thing of delicate, fractured beauty.

Out: This week

About: Find Something Different, as ever, on Soundcloud and Facebook.

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.

Audio Analysts – LA Groove EP

A new EP here from the ever-checkable Something Different that sees the label going down a slightly more techy route than on previous outings.

LA Groove itself starts out with slightly swung and tribal-leaning beats topped off with understated psychedelic geetars buried low in the mix, then gradually introduces organ stabs and strings before finally allowing the six-string to emerge into the sunlight… "in sunlight" (perhaps on a certain Mediterranan island) being where this track would be most at home. The accompanying remix from Sergio Santos & Tamer Malki goes down a very different road, as they transform the track into a lugubrious techy chugger made for afterhours play.

On the flip, Roll Call is in its original form another tribal-influenced number that harks back to the early progressive era (think Spooky, Drum Club etc) with its chanted vox and big squelchy synth-bass, before the pick of the EP (for me) arrives in the form of Howard Sessions' ominously brooding deep/tech house rework.

Something different from Something Different, then, but solid stuff as ever.

Out: This week

About: You can keep up with Something Different's goings-on at their Soundcloud and Facebook pages.

Dudley Strangeways – This Needs To Change EP

A four-track EP here from Mr Strangeways and the ever-checkable Something Different, with two mixes apiece of the title track and b-side Trapdoor.

In its Original form, This Needs To Change is a chuggy deep/tech affair, with some neat retro Chi-town pianos and a sampled vocal (think Play-era Moby) complaining that "things ain't what they used to be". On remix duties, Robot Needs Oil serve up a more lilting pass, laced throughout with Spanish guitar. Over on the B, Trapdoor starts out as a deep, sparse groove that, while identifiably house, also betrays a dub techno influence… niceness! In Gareth Whitehead's hands, the percussion gets a little busier, while more use is made of the vocal snips and a floaty synth is added, making for a more mellow take altogether.

The Original of Trapdoor stands out for me but all four tracks are strong, making for an EP that's definitely worth checking for yourself.

Out: This week

About: Jesus Pablo & Di Riviera's Something Different Records can be found on Facebook and Soundcloud.

Matthieu Duchesne – Afternoon In The Garden EP

So this was gonna go into the So many tunes round-up… only on playing it again I realised a) it was too wonderfully varied in style to sum up quickly and b) it was too just plain wonderful to not get a full review in its own right.

Afternoon In The Garden in its original form is a tough, heads-down chugger for deep house dancefloors, preferably circa 3-4am. When the hecticness has worn off but you're feeling good and you're feeling like you could go all night… those are the moments this is for. The Alvaro Hylander Remix then heads off on a very different tip… it's a late-night deep smooth groove worthy of Harley & Muscle themselves.

Flip it over and you'll find Deep In The Night. In its original form, this is another deep n' jackin' dancefloor workout that drops down to some seriously heavy-duty, er, droppery in the middle (hear it and you'll see what I mean). Perfectly suited to today's techy floors, it'll also delight those who remember the glory days of NYC dark garage circa 1995… it's big, it's sparse as you like and it's freakin' gosh-darned storming, frankly.

AND THEN, as if that wasn't enough, there's a remix from Robots Need Oil that takes us into heavy dubbed-out territory, with reggae stabs a-gogo and rasta vox. And that's also pretty awesome.

It's a personal pet hate of mine – as a hard-working sub by day – that words like 'stunning' and 'breathtaking' get so over-used these days that they've ended up meaningless. It's doubly a bummer right now, cos it leaves me struggling for words to describe this EP. So I'll just say that I've tipped Matthieu Duchesne on this blog before – he always does great stuff. But this… this is as good as house music gets in 2012. Go seek.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Jesus Pablo and Di Riviera's Something Different label…find 'em on Facebook and Soundcloud

Mr Leman – Love That Deep

Not sure what they're putting in the water in Copenhagen – nor whether a certain famous statue is responsible – but it's got to be said: there's a hell of a lot of good house music coming outta Denmark right now.

This latest example comes from Mr Leman, and would demand to be loved for the lyric alone: "Don't you like this deep house? Don't you feel it in your soul?/Is it the thing that keeps you going on and on?/Cos I can tell you, it's my only drug/The feeling that it gives, I would describe as love". But there's more to love here than just the heart-on-sleeve lyric, from the fact said lyric is mostly delivered via that most wonderful of studio toys, the vocoder, to the crisp, unhurried beats and the warm synth sounds that warp away unassumingly in the background.

Remixes come from three very respectable names – Dudley Strangeways, Matthieu Duchesne (about whom more tomorrow) and Onur Ozman. Duchesne serves up a slightly deeper pass with less of the vocal, Strangeways delivers a much deeper Dub with NONE of the vocal, and Ozman keeps it nice and deep but gives it a little more of a fried-head twist. This mix also has a male rather than a female voice delivering the vocal.

You can't go wrong, really, whichever rub you choose.

Out: This week

About: Mr Leman is Danish, but this is number five from Jesus Pablo and Di Riviera's UK-based Something Different label. Making it five winners on the bounce by my reckoning…

J Kar - Baby Dreaming

The last in a trilogy of top-drawer deep house releases tonight comes from rising Greek star J Kar, AKA Dimitris Karipidishas, on Jesus Pablo and Di Rivera's new Something Different imprint, from whom this is just the third release.

No-one's making any use of the G-word but if the original of Baby Dreaming isn't pure straight-up garage in the deep Jersey mode then I don't know what is. Just lovely. Then throw in a brace of remixes from Harold Heath – a Dub which takes us off into outer space and a Re-Rub which beefs up the drums inna vintage Vasquez stylee. Add to that Los Rios, which comes in deep n' sparse Original or even deeper and much spacier Desos Remix flavas, and you've got another complete no-brainer of a purchase.

Out: This week

About: The Desos Remix, BTW, comes from the same Deso – AKA Brian Løgstrup – behind Deso Records, whose praises I was singing on here of late. But this comes as I said on Something Different who you can find on Soundcloud and Facebook.

Dave Martins - Deep Control EP

With four mixes in total of two tracks, Deep Control and Deep Station, the clue's kind of in the name for this latest from Jesus Pablo and Di Rivera's Something Different label.

By sheer coincidence (cos I hadn't really noticed until just now, I was just taking things in alphabetical order) Dave Martins also hails from Switzerland (see Da Funk review below). Co-owner of Southpark Records – who've also featured on here before now – his particular take on deep house is from the techier end of the spectrum, and he's not afraid to get in a groove and stay there! I'm liking both tracks but Deep Station just edges it for me, the speech samples (of an old radio announcement) giving the track a little more texture.

Remix-wise, Desos takes Deep Control into slightly more ominous and brooding deep techno territory, while Sweden's Thomas Durrani sprinkles some disco dust over Deep Station and transforms it into the one mix here you might get away with playing to a less specialist floor (but without, I hasten to add, going cheesy or obvious in any way).

All told, a solid bet with four very playable tracks. It's an EP for the purists rather than the mass market for sure… but since when was that ever a bad thing?

Out: This week

About: Something Different sum up their ethos as "releasing music on a deep, tech and groovy tip for dancefloors worldwide". Amen to that! Find 'em online here