Dave Martins – Natural

The latest here from Switzerland's Southpark Records, who've definitely been on something of a roll this past few months.

Label co-founder Dave Martins is the man at the controls, with remixes taken care of by Kenny Ground and Hector Couto. Martins' original of Natural is an atmospheric tech-houser with a touch of deep prog around the edges, Kenny Ground's remix rides much more strident percussion while Hector Couto's rub, the standout for me, filters the drums and takes us into deeper territory.

Another solid dancefloor bet.

Out: This week

About: You can find Southpark Records on Facebook, on Soundcloud or at their own website.

Juliche Hernandez – Knockout/One Second

The latest from ever-checkable Swiss tech house label Southpark Records here.

It's a simple two-track job, as you'll have guessed from the billing. On Knockout, slammin' kicks, wobbly disco synth stabs and sampled spoken "thank you father" vocals add up to a sheer GEM of a dark room 3am dancefloor epic, while on One Second, the tempo drops slightly, the beats are so sharp you could cut yourself on 'em and a detuned/downpitched and slightly deranged-sounding spoken male vocal takes us on a journey into the heart of darkness.

Superb stuff that the more underground floors will lap up, and that continues a great run of form from Southpark.

Out: This week

About: You can find Southpark Records on Facebook, on Soundcloud or at their own website. And, I don't normally do this but we haven't had a Soundcloud player to pretty up this page for a while and this is pretty awesome, so…

Kenny Ground - Mia

Staying on a tech-house tip, here we have the latest from a familiar name on the scene, Kenny Ground.

There are five mixes of Mia to choose from, but to save time I'd just like to draw your attention to two of them. The Lorenzo Navarro Remix is heads-down, chuggy and the kind of thing that could work on deep, tech and prog floors alike. It's good, but just pipping it for me is the J&S Project & Kubeck Remix, a far housier pass with a rolling b-line, fem vocal "baby!" snips and occasional fluttering Spanish geetars.

Elsewhere, the original has a little too much of said Spanish guitar for me, while the 2000 Analog Dub and Dave Martins Remix are a bit too bleepy/glitchy (again, for me). But this is worth picking up for the two rubs mentioned above all the same.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Swiss label Southpark Records, who I've gotta say have been doing some great stuff lately… and which Kenny co-owns. Find them on Soundcloud, on Facebook or at their own website.

Testa Rossa – Music EP

Testa Rossa takes us on a trip to the deeper, darker side of tech-house with this three-track EP.

Music itself is fairly upbeat and percussion-led, with a one-word vocal sample and all kinds of atmospheric pads n' stabs adding the slightly darker edge. It's Groovin' is bassier and sleazier, its centre-stage rollin', rumbin' b-line topped off with analogue synth squiggles and bursts of Latin hand percussion. But the standout here for me is Fuck With It, an impressively dark and ominous-sounding affair sitting right where deep house, deep techno and tech-house collide.

Solid stuff from a label that's always worth checking.

Out: This week

About: This comes, I should probably mention, on Swiss label Southpark Recordings… here's the usual website Facebook and Soundcloud links

So many tunes, so little time 21

Good Lord, another week gone by! So here's our regular Sunday night round-up of the best of the rest of the week's releases… some of which might definitely have had a full review had I not had to spend most of my spare time at the hospital this week!

Alex Savanin is up first with InFlight on Highway Records, a pleasantly drifty progressive houser with an unusual sampled vocal (the clue's in the title) and remixes from Hernan Cattaneo + Soundexile and, for lovers of the deep, Neil Quigley… next there's Christian Sol with Mist on Troll Records, a fairly gentle tech-house four-tracker with a remix of the title cut from Kruse + Nuernberg… another Christian, Christian Zimmerman, gives us Gas Hero on Birmingham's Out Of Bounds, a laidback cut sitting somewhere between deep house, Balearic, slo-mo and nu-disco, and coming with a remix from Pete Herbert… Damon Martin serves up some good old-fashioned vocal house rawness in the form of That Ain't Right, coming on Disco Bloodbath… Dave Crane's Oh No on Zipped Records is one for those that like their tech-house on the techno side, with a little added glitch… DJ Sulli's Mercury Rising on Innerflight Music is a Brazilian-influenced Ibiza terrace party cut… Enigma Dubz bring us a four-track sampler from their second long-player Genesis on LU10, of which more soon… Floska's Sunset On Ocean Drive EP on Turquoise Blue is mostly fairly acceptable-but-average tech/prog fodder – apart from Dorsmachine which is a MONSTER of a tune, check it!… JP Soul's Backsliding EP on California's Roam Recordings features a mix of bouncy house and mid/downtempo funk sounds, and comes with a Q-Burns Abstract Message mix of the title cut… Micha Mischer's Space on MUM is driving, druggy tech-house and comes with a Mark Holmes Remix… Montana + Stewart serve up some gentle, sun-flecked soulful house vibes on Universe Media with Slow + Steady… Sounds Of Juan deliver the tech-house goods once more with Nick Robson's Edvard Monogram Remixes EP, while Essex neighbours Stripped Muzik do likewise but on a slightly proggier note with Pao Calderon's Kiss Me Like You Do… Latin percussion dominates Tony Barbato's tech-house four-tracker The Tuscan on Favouritizm, but do make sure you check for the organ-laced Pharda… there's lots more drummy tech-house and bouncy, house-y techno on Southpark Recordings' eight-track V/A sampler Ibiza Summit 2012… and finally Vex Vexino's Simplicity for Headset Recordings sees us in more leftfield deep house/deep techno/slo-mo pastures, with Jay Tripwire on the remix.

THANKS ALSO this week to: Alessio Frino, Asymmetric Soul, Common People, Dr Kucho, Jeff Moore + Jamie Lie A Kwie, Jennifer Pliester, Jurek Przezdziecki, Monitor, the brilliantly-named Peter + The Stringfellows, Peter McGill, Project Inertia, Ray Rosenfeld, Spacebats and Swindle…

Insinio - This Feeling

Some no-nonsense good-time house/tech-house grooves here courtesy of Zaharia Cristian, AKA Insinio.

In its Original form, This Feeling is a lovely musical slab of deep/tech house, with parping sax, stomping jazzy Rhodes chords and sharp, insistent percussion. On the Kenny Ground Remix, meanwhile, things get a little more stripped-back and a notch more techy, though by bringing the sax to the fore he manages to retain the track's quirky charm.

There's nothing especially ground-breaking going on, admittedly, but this is very solid stuff all the same.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Swiss label Southpark Records… here's the usual website, Facebook and Soundcloud links

Kenny Ground - Eleven

Some nicely varied remixes on this latest offering from Swiss house imprint Southpark Records.

The original of Eleven is a pleasingly old-skool houser with Chicago-style synth stabs, almost garage-y female vocal snips and insistent, driving 4/4s throughout, not to mention a more contemporary-sounding Afro-y breakdown in the middle that saves it from being mere retro fodder. On the remix tip, Mad Raf & Tom Zenith strip things right down for a more percussive take that'll work on more laddy tech-house floors, Roberto Palmero’s Hot Remix is a more sophisticated n’ sultry rub, while Massa take us down a more upbeat but somewhat darker path.

Like I said, quite a varied mix package, but I could see myself playing at least three of the four in different circumstances… which makes this a very solid bet, n'est-ce pas?

Out: This week

About: Southpark can be found at their website, on MySpace and on Soundcloud (where you can HEAR THIS). And here's what Resident Advisor have to say about ’em as well, just for luck.