Various - New Breed Of Deep House 2012 samplers

The mighty King Street serve up not one but two samplers for their forthcoming full-length compilation New Breed Of Deep House 2012. But to be fair, you probably figured that out from the post heading!

As is King Street's wont, there are two completely separate sampler bundles available: one for Traxsource, one for Beatport. I'm not going into all 18 tracks individually but of the two, the seven-track 'Traxsource Edition' is probably better suited for fans of traditional-style deep house, with lots of funky basslines, sampled disco vox and warm Rhodes hooks, while the 'Beatport Edition' errs towards the skinny-jeans--wedge-haircut-and-cardigan hipster tech-house side of things, with glacial synths and strobelight throbbers more in evidence.

But that's a very sweeping statement, a picture painted in the broadest of strokes, and there are plenty of top-drawer nuggets to be found on both releases. Domscott's Ain't Playing Games No More (Traxsource Edition) is a fine, funk-fuelled gem that's got more than a touch of the Matty Heilbronns about it, while if it's more experimental/cutting-edge sounds you're after then Whim-ee's You Can Amor (Beatport Edition), which sounds like the future garage sound of Berlin, will see you right for sure.

So best be on the safe side and get both, eh?

Out: This week

About: You know where to find King Street so I guess there's room to tell you that the full list of artists featured on the two EPs includes (deep breath): Soundealers, Washerman, Domscott, Chocolate Avenue, Alfonso Ares feat Celia, Hamza, Tout Le Monde (all Traxsource Edition), Rey & Kjavik feat Kevin Iszard, SO DEAFI, Balcazar & Sordo, Shades Of Gray, Whim-ee, Nicko Vee, Kyoko Kamichika & Masahiro Suzuki, Nico Purman, 9west and Oscar Higinion (all Beatport Edition).

Soundealers – Keep On EP

If further evidence were required that the mighty King Street Sounds have truly embraced the deep/tech sound of Europe in recent times, look no further than this three-tracker from Soundealers – which, it's worth noting, comes on the mothership label rather than Street King or Nite Grooves.

Then again, both Keep On and I Know You Want Me (in its Original form) do feature full soulful-style male vocals, so perhaps it's not as big a departure as it might seem. Said vocals sit atop a pleasing dark n' stripped tech-house groove in the case of I Know…, while Keep On itself is more main room. It's a track you might expect to hear in big clubs in Ibiza this season and, to be brutally frank, does leave these ears a little cold.

But that matters not one jot, because the standout here by far is the Langenberg Morning Mix of I Know You Want Me, in which teeny-tiny snips of those soulful vox (a falsetto reminiscent of Gerideau or Byron Stingily) are scattered liberally atop an even more dark, brooding and minimal soundscape.

It's one more for the warm-up or afterhours than peaktime, perhaps, but THIS is the rub you'll be hearing on the cooler floors.

Out: This week

About: Here's that familiar King Street Sounds link again, then… but these days you can find the veteran NYC stable on Soundcloud as well.

Soundealers – I Know You Want Me

Just one more quickly tonight… and it's another gem from that rather excellent bundle of King Street promos I mentioned recently. This one comes from the currently much talked-about Soundealers, on the mothership King Street label itself.

There are just the two mixes. On the A is the Night Mix from Langenberg, a shufflin' midtempo groover with very busy production full of atmospheric washes, insistent shakers, solid but muted kicks and, most importantly, the underlying throbbing vox-as-bassline riff. It's cool, but the real beauty here for me is the B-side's Rey & Kjavik Remix, which is based around a simple looping three-note synth/organ riff. It's actually got a full vocal, but it's a) whispered and b) placed so far back in the mix that you could be forgiven for hardly noticing it's there… a vocal screamer this certainly isn't.

Instead, you can file it under "sparse, stripped-down grooves, aimed fair and square at the proper heads that are still on the floor at 5am". And we like that kind of thing round these 'ere parts, don't we?

Out: This week

About: I told you you'd be seeing this link to the King Street website a fair bit!