Situation – Midnight

Our fourth and final S is for… Situation, a Welsh collective who've previously appeared on Nang, among others.

There are four mixes of Midnight itself, plus bonus cut Feel Like A Queen. In its Original form, the title track is a sumptuous and garage-y deep house groover featuring a jazz-tinged vocal from one Lauren Rimmell, space-y synths/FX and some light flecks of Spanish guitar. Remix-wise there's an accompanying instrumental, Griffin gives us a more tripped-out pass that flirts with broken beats, while Space Coast (them again! see below) deliver an outstanding Dub for those more jacking, afterhours moments.

Feel Like A Queen, meanwhile, is classic-style jazzy, soulful house that will delight fans of Fred Everything, Ralf Gum, Matty Heilbronn, King Street etc. Oh, and Ms Rimmer doesn't half sound like Latrice Burnett on this one as well. So that's me sold, then.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Dutch label United Recordings, who can also be found on Facebook.

Sleazy McQueen – I'm Tired

Some sophisticated grooves here sitting somewhere between nu-disco/nu-boogie and classic US garage. And with quite an impressive remix line-up, too!

Pete Herbert's remix makes much use of classic-sounding house pianos, in keeping with the current obsession with all things vintage… it's like early 90s Italo-house served with a nu-disco twist, basically (and also comes with an instrumental even though there's only a couple of lines of vocal to start with). The Yam Who? Rework has beefier drums and makes more use of the vocal, as well as some classic organ sounds, while the Space Coast Remix is a dubbier and more contemporary-sounding pass.

All four mixes are very strong, making this another must-check. We're doing ever so well today, aren't we?

Out: This week

About: This comes to you courtesy of a brand new label, Lost Paradise… not entirely sure where they're from geographically-speaking but you can find 'em on Facebook. You've gotta love a label who describe their music policy as "It's deep, it's disco, it's acid but most importantly, it's house music" really, haven't you?

Blood Groove & Kikis - Bright EP

Originally a progressive house and trance factory, Russian label Spring Tube has broadened its musical remit considerably over the past year or so. Here, specifically, they deliver what's probably their most straight-up deep house offering to date.

There are just the two tracks. Bright itself is a sumptuous, garage-y and fairly upbeat affair, while So Real on the flip is in a similar vein, parodoxically a little tuffer in the beats department yet with an even more silky, sophisticated flow overall and sporting a looping male "house music" vocal. And both tracks are FAR better than deep house records put out by former trance peddlers really have any right to be!

Check 'em for yourself – you won't be disappointed.

Out: This week

About: You can find Spring Tube on Facebook or at their own website.

T-RWRK – Bootholic001

Some cheeky bootleg action here on strictly limited edition 12" vinyl only, so get 'em while they're hot!

There's just the two tracks, with information as to the artists behind the release necessarily kept quiet. And I'll have to confess, my trainspotting powers fail me as to the source of A-side Chanté as well… the name and voice suggest a Roxanne Shanté track but I couldn't tell you which one. I am a bad blogger. Sorry.

No such worries with B-side Paqui Tu Heppa though, which is the real reason this is here. The track kicks off with the unmistakeable scat vocal from Gypsymen's Hear The Music, but replaces the original's hefty Machine sample with a more contemporary deep/tech house groove.

Grab a copy of this if you can – vintage US garage sounds are hot right now and this will bring a smile to any original Jersey lover's face…

Out: This week

About: No links on this one for obvious reasons! Happy hunting…

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.

YSE feat Frank H Carter III – Foundations EP

Finally for tonight, something of a treat for the older heads among us…

This latest from Lost My Dog sees Yse teaming up once more with NYC vocalist Frank H Carter III, following on from their 2011 collab Guessing Games. Opener I Don't Want Love marries contemporary, chuggy deep/tech beats with Carter's Colonal Abrams-esque tonsils, while Magic In Your Eyes is a full-on soul number, a new departure for Yse.

But the real gems here are Play On and the Giom Remix of Magic In Your Eyes, both of which can safely be filed under 'proper garage, the way we used to'. The latter in particular, with its classic NJ organs and, in the mid-section, MK/Todd Edwards-ish chopping and stuttering of the vocal, is sure to bring a nostalgic smile to many an old raver's face – but don't sleep on Play On either, which harks back all the way to the Easy Street days. Take a glass… put some class in it. What have you got?

Or perhaps I shoudld say, wot do u call it? Tee hee.

Out: This week

About: You can find Lost My Dog at their website, on Facebook, on Soundcloud and pretty much everywhere else, actually…

Carolyn Harding – Pick It Up [Remixes]

Many, many years ago – 1996 to be precise – yours truly was editing a long-forgotten Manchester-based music, listings and lifestyle magazine called Metropolis. A good friend of mine had just moved to Sheffield, and told me about a new US house night that was launching at The Arches (I think it was). So we went along to review it… only something went a bit wrong, and in a venue that can comfortably hold 300 or so bodies, there were about 15. Seriously.

The promoter, very embarrassed, told the big-name US DJ who was due to play not to bother, just take the cash and go back to the hotel – which he did. But when told Carolyn Harding the same thing re: her PA, she just told him nah, she'd come all this way, she might as well sing… which she did. To 15 people, getting down off the stage and wandering the dancefloor with mic in hand, serenading each and every one of the audience personally.

So, massive respect to one of the most un-diva-like divas in the game, is what I'm saying.

Anyway as for this record… what we have here are four new rubs of Ms Harding's 1995 classic from the UK's own Sean McCabe. Given that the track's been mixed over the years by Kerri Chandler, Roger Sanchez and Jon Cutler, Sean's got some pretty big shoes to fill, but he does so admirably. His Club Vocal does the trad vocal soulful thing, comes with an accompanying instrumental, and is just fine… but it's the Club Dub that stands out for me here, dripping as it is in lush New Jersey-style organs. There's a fully instrumental version of this one as well but it's gotta be the one with the scat vox for me. Somewhat unsurprisingly!

If you're in need of some traditional US garage-style grooves, then you're not going to find much this week that's as good as this.

Out: This week

About: This is on King Street so you know where to go, don't you?

Yogi & Steve K – Rhythm Turns Me On

It's been a long day… busy with lots of different things and quite knackered now, so just the one review for you tonight. But it's an absolute cracker, I promise!

See how I said last week that I'd kind of fallen out of love with 'soulful house' these past few years? Well, that's true… a large part of the reason that being that the music's just gotten so polite and wishy-washy. Lacking in dancefloor oomph… lacking bollocks, if you will. So what a JOY it is to come across a soulful house record in 2012 that – gasp! – actually has dancefloor energy in spades… which this certainly does. It's also got a lyric that expresses my feelings about house music very nicely – "this music's sent from up above, let it rain down with love".

So yeah… this record is great, basically, and I'd strongly recommend you acquaint yourself with its charms at the earliest possible opportunity.

Mix-wise, well… there are seven to choose from, including rubs from Husky, JD73 and label co-boss (er, I thought he was anyway, though he's described on the hype sheet as "our office cleaner and wannabe DJ"!) Craig Stewart – but I'm not going into them all one-by-one. Partly for the same reasons you're only getting one review, and partly because while all the mixes are very playable, and while between them they cover various shades from "more mellow and musical" to "pumped-up and sporting loads of ace space disco stabs", the standout BY FAR comes from relevant newcomers dEEP DJOE & Pedro Mazz.

The Portuguese twosome give us two mixes but it's their Funky Mix that's the killer – check out its rollicking, parping Hammonds and disagree with me. I dares ya.

Out: This week


About: This comes on Universe Media, find them online here. If you read the 'about' bit, it seems the label's solely Martina Lancaster's baby so maybe I had it wrong before or maybe things have changed… anyway more importantly I should also mention that Yogi and Husky should of course be familiar to you from their Random Soul guise.

Dajae – Don't You Want My Love [Remixes]

A noteworthy pairing of old-school heroes now, as Kenny Dope serves up three remixes of Dajae's Don't You Want My Love from 2011.

The O'Gutta Remix is a fairly trad vocal affair but with some added techy/acid squelch, and comes accompanied by a mix called O'Gutta TV which is basically an instrumental of the same. S'cool, but top honours for me go to the Kenny Dope Bass Dubb (yeah, two b's), a stripped-down pass with Dajea's unmistakeable tonsils still in full effect but now screamin' out atop a dark room groove made up of hefty, bubblin' bass and those trademark razor-sharp Gonzalez beats.

Respect is due, as they say!

Out: This week

About: This comes atcha on Groove Odyssey, which is of course Bobby & Steve's label… actually strictly speaking it's run by Bobby & Steve with Michael Hughes but anyway, you can find 'em here.

London Electric Orchestra - Deep Moves EP

F*** House Music label boss Robin Tabor dons his London Electric Orchestra guise once more for this three-track EP.

The headline event has to be If Ever You're Lonely, a remake of the 2002 Joi Cardwell cut featuring none other than Ms Cardwell herself. Something of a coup for the label, and if you're in search of traditional vocal house vibes, you won't find much better this month. Stuck, by way of contrast, is a much, much deeper, warm-up/post-club kinda thang, with two minutes of beatless, atmospheric intro, shimmering pads that go on forever and barely-there snatches of spoken female vocal.

But the standout for me is Want What, a garage-y Rhodes groove with chopped vocal stabs and some subtly-applied sax appeal… sterling stuff.

Out: Just

About: Just to confuse matters, Robin is also Rob Made of Sleazy Deep fame… and a 32yo plumber from Ipswich called Dave, and a teenaged girl called Claire. Multiple personality syndrome is a terrible and tragic thing. Anyway, you can find F*** House Music at their website, on Facebook and on Soundcloud.

Chuck Love feat Demonica Flye - The Voice

Not heard from Minneapolis housemeister Chuck Love for a while, but now here he comes again with a soulfully-inclined number that will delight lovers of traditional vocal house/garage vibes.

Ms Flye's voice reminds me a little bit of Celeda and a little bit of Michelle Weeks, as she delivers a rousing part-spoken, part-sung call to arms. "What's up with that last cut, dude?" she asks. "It sounded like R2-D2 getting busy with Ms PacMan. Where's the soul?". In the current techy and largely instrumental house climate, there will doubtless by many who are hearing that! Parping organs and a harmonised gospel-style chorus further enhance the vintage US feel… you can see this going down a storm at pool parties in Miami next month.

On the remix tip, Monte's Main Mix takes the track into shinier, spanglier, more main room territory, while Bryan Gerrard pares the vocal back a little and lets the organ come to the fore, but the pick for me is the Jevne Remix, a stripped-down and far deeper affair that chops and loops the vocal, and that will be just perfect for those 5am moments in the more specialist clubs.

Mixing soulful vox with plenty of solid dancefloor bump was always somewhat Mr Love's stock-in-trade… nice to see he hasn't lost his touch!

Out: This week

About: This comes on Vino Recordings. Like Chuck himself they're based in Minneapolis, and this is number 8 from the label, though the first that's come to my attention I will admit. You can find 'em online here, or visit Chuck Love's own website

Matt Prehn feat Lu Chase - Still Got Love

Oh God, where do I start with this one? Because the South African house stalwart has here served up a little belter of a tune, with mixes to suit a range of tastes.

The original's a gentle soulful house affair that wouldn't sound out of place on Om, or on Naked back in the day. The Nutritious Mix sticks to the soulful house vibe but with a more sumptuous feel, DK Watts (of whom more in a mo') serves up Dub and Instrumental passes (so there's even something for the vocal haters!) that are pure deep house dancefloor bump, and Chemical Warfare (AKA 3am's Al Bradley)'s mix will delight lovers of old skool US garage… specifically lovers of those big sparse organ dubs. And then finally, Eric Sharp's rub takes us into spaced-out future garage-esque territory, with quick n' clicky beats underpinning a very big and echo-y mix.

Whatever flavour of deeper house grooves you're into, then, you're likely to find something to please here. More likely, if your tastes are anything like mine then you're gonna be spoilt for choice. Go seek.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Bounce House, the label run by the Short Bus Kids of whom DK Watts is of course one-half. I've said how good Bounce House are so many times, both on here and in iDJ, that it's getting quite embarrassing now… but what can I say, this is another bomb! Anyway, here's their website.

Sean McCabe & Stephanie Cooke - Just A Little Bit

King Street's not-at-all-fierce ruling diva (I've met her, she's lovely, and a very classy lady) teams up with rising UK star Sean McCabe, which you have to think must be something of a dream come true for the young lad from south Wales.

Just A Little Bit is one for those who like their soulful house/USG in the traditional vein, for sure. Mix-wise you get three from McCabe himself, two from Black Sonix and one from Marlon D but to be honest they don't vary hugely… still, if pushed, I'd go for Marlon D's rub, which while still using the full vocal, strips things back a little musically for a slightly less sweet sound.

My personal tastes might have moved in a deeper/techier direction in recent years, but this is exactly the kind of thing I used to feen for and it's good to see that there are still those pushing that sumptous, Jersey-inspired vocal vibe… and this oozes quality from every pore. With not a lame-ass broken Afro-jazz rub in sight!

Out: This week

About: You know where to find King Street by now, surely? They're on Facebook as well. Oh, and you can find out more about Mr McCabe here.