So many tunes, so little time 18

And so another week goes by, and it's time for another round-up of more musical goodness we didn't quite get round to this week…

Greg Fenton – Friends Electric EP
A sterling three-tracker of forward-thinking sparse, electronic dancefloor grooves from Megacity 0161 native Greg, that you can file under deep house, techno, tech-house or minimal as you see fit! It's quality stuff however you want to classify it, and an impressively varied EP overall – though it might be a bit too "heads down and boys-y" for some.
More info 

DJ Renat – Aye Aye Aye
An energetically chugging, party-oriented tech-houser that veers a little bit too close towards Ibiza-style prog-lite at times, but don't worry, the Anton Liss Dub should see you right. Comes on new-ish (est Aug 2011) Russian label Red Stars Records.
More info

Jay Lumen – Rendez Vous EP

Jay Lumen on Great Stuff… you kinda know what you're gonna be gettting here, admittedly, but fans (and I'm one of them) won't be disappointed. Boomrush The Show hijacks a hip-hop vocal and puts it atop tuff, chuggin' tech-house beats, while Rendez Vous goes down a slightly deeper path; both are well worth checking. 

More info 

Ivan Barbero & Juan Varez – Stick
More tough tech-house action here on Spanish label Akusah. There's a lot of this stuff about, admittedly, but this pair do it as well as anyone else! Bingo works lively finger-percussion, accordions and a big room, almost Vasquez-y feel while To Stick is more funktified, with a disco-house b-line and a peacock strut.
More info

Jesse Futerman – Fuse The Witches EP
Seven tracks of lazy, dusty, jazzy lo-fi hip-hop and leftfield beats. Yes it's been done, but Futerman steers his ship between the rock of being too twee and "nice" and the hard place of being pointlessly twisted, malevolent and head-fucky better than most, making this something of a smoker's Sunday afternoon treat. The lad's only 20, as well, which bodes well for the future.
More info 

PS Oh, and it's a free download as well, so rude not to really…

Taran + Lomov – Basta! 
Coming on Stripped Digital, the six mixes of this instrumental electronic groover take in various shades of deep, progressive and tech house. Jini Cowan and Paul Alexander's rubs stand out for me.
More info

Various – House Of Ibiza 2012
A seven-track EP from Street King built with one particular island in mind. Artists include Nacho Marco, John Rivera, From P60, Ivan Iacobucci and more, with the emphasis on sun-drenched house grooves and tuff, terrace-friendly drum trax. Mr Kavalicious's bumpin', west coast-y Deception stands out for me.
More info

Thanks also this week to: Cera Alba, Paskal Daze, The Bulletz, Soulrack, Yariv Bernstein, Andy Kneale, Da Fresh + Maverickz, Ignacy Rome, Javier Perez + David Bort, Johannes Regnier, John Lee + Damage Brigade, Kill Your TV, Lerio Corrado + Max Coseglia, Nigel Hayes, Ricardo Ferri, Sergio Marini + Luciano Manci and Vanyano. As ever, sorry if you didn't make it this time but see the title of this post!

Deepfunk – Crystals [Remixed]

The original of this was out last year… and there's just the one remix to talk about so this'll be a quick post!

Deep, throbbing progressive house is the order of the day here… but of the non-tedious variety, and with enough jack in its veins to ensure that it could find friends outside of the usual prog suspects.

Nothing hugely innovative going on then, but it's a solid pumping club track, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that – particularly when it's also got a little more depth than many tracks of its ilk.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Essex label Stripped Digital. Oh, and my girlfriend thinks it has a very pretty cover, if that helps sway your buying decision any.

Demian Jack – Holograma

Not much given in the way of info here. And when I say 'not much', I mean 'precisely nothing'. So I can't tell you where Mr Jack (if that's his real name, and frankly I doubt it) is from, or what other labels he's had releases on, or where he's a resident DJ, or anything like that. Cos I don't know.

I suppose I could always look him up on Twitter and tell you what he had for lunch OMG LOL WTF!? But I'd sooner just tell you this is a quality piece of house music that I'd personally want to file under 'sort of the tech-house end of prog'. It pulls off the trick of constantly evolving without ever seeming overcrowded or going over the top… which is good.

The Checkor Remix on the B starts out even better, taking its own sweet time about slowly emerging out of a contrasting sweet-sounding synth wash and insistent gated kick… but then after about four minutes it goes a bit boy's-own-prog-unnecessary, so it's the original all the way for me.

Out: This week

About: This comes atcha on that Essex-based bastion of all things tech-housified, Stripped Digital.

Juan Deminicis - Andalucia

Nah, couldn't do it. I meant to strike a blow for house music egalitarianism and inclusivity and other cuddly-lefty-liberal words with the Geisha Twins post... but imagine if I got run over by a bus tomorrow, and that was the last thing I ever wrote? Brrr.

So here's something MUCH tastier, two slices of deep-ish but driving techy-progginess from those ever-reliable chaps at Stripped Digital.

Phew. I'll be able to sleep tonight, now.

Out: This week. Ooh, actually, last week now. But hey.

About: I can't keep up with the Stripped family, they put out so much stuff! Here's their MySpace, just in case you haven't visited it 100 times already.

Nikko Z - Happy 80'z

As we've just looked at this week's offering from Endemic Digital, now seems as good a time as any to check out the latest from sister label Stripped.

Happy 80'z is in a proggier vein than the Kirill Ivanov, but it's the kind of prog that'll appeal to deep and tech house heads as well. There are six mixes in total, from Max Mason, Nikk 3010, Joelle Atkins and Daneel, but I'm not going to go into each one individually; suffice to say if you're looking for something for those lost-in-music kinda moments on a late dancefloor, you'll very likely find something to suit here.

Out: This week

About: Find out more about Stripped Digital at the label's MySpace page.

Oh yeah, and don't be put off by the cover/title cos, to be honest, there's nothing particularly '80'z' about this one at all.

Max Mason & Ed Lee - Vida

Some straight-up chuggy tech house bizniss here courtesy of Essex-based label Stripped Digital, as Messrs Mason & Lee provide a moody, heads-down groover from that part of the house spectrum where deep meets prog.

There are five mixes on offer, the original plus rerubs from Diego Poblets, Nikko Z, Bernie Allen and Tini Tun & Mau V, but none wander too far from the above blueprint. Still, if it ain't broke…

Out: This week

About: Find out more by visiting the Stripped Digital MySpace

Deepfunk – Crystals

Just the two mixes here, which makes a nice change from labels putting out 11 mixes in the hope that ONE of 'em will catch on!

Crystals is a dark-ish, heads-down rumbler of a tune, coming from the deeper end of the prog spectrum. It's big, it's dramatic, it's brooding and exhilarating by turns… and it needs you to hear it, really, cos this kind of texture-based prog stuff is hard to describe in words.

S'good, though. So you see, we never did need those extra nine mixes!

Out: This week (NB: with everything posted today, 'this week' means 'in the week just gone' not 'in the week coming up'. Just so's we're clear)

About: This is on Stripped Recordings, who are always a solid bet for the tuffer/techier/proggier stuff that's nevertheless still definitely within the house arena. Find 'em online target="blank">here. Deepfunk, BTW, is apparently from Malta, though that's about as much as I can tell you.