Umek & Mike Vale – My House

Long the househead's favourite techno producer thanks to his funky, loopy take on the genre, Umek has of late reinvented himself as a fully-fledged tech-house purveyor par excellence.

That transformation continues apace with this latest offering, as Umek teams up with fellow Slovenian producer Mike Vale to create a tech-house floor-shaker that leaves you in no doubt, thanks to the endlessly looping "my house" vocal, exactly which side of the equation it leans towards – a head-frying techno synth breakdown five minutes in notwithstanding.

Tech-house of the highest calibre is what we've come to expect from Umek, and it's what he delivers here. It might not do anything massively innovative or clever but it'll move bodies on the dancefloor without a doubt… which is probably why they stuck to just the one mix!

Out: This week

About: This comes on the mighty Great Stuff, a label who can likewise generally be relied upon!

Stefano Noferini – Refusal EP

A nice quick one to start with tonight, cos there's only the two tracks, in one mix apiece. Which makes a blogger's life easier!

Refusal itself is a perfectly acceptable but to frank also fairly unremarkable tech-house chugger… it'll keep 'em moving but that's about as much as I've got to say about it, really. Numa on the flip, though… that's a different matter.

It's not clever, but it certainly is big. BIG, in fact. If bouncy, house-y club techno with an oink-oink bassline and a nu-NRG/hardbag-style* three-note synth riff sounds like your idea of a good time on the dancefloor, then you're going to love this.

Sometimes you don't need to be clever, do you? Sometimes you just need to make people jump up and down. And with energy in spades, this'll do that for sure.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Umek's 1605 Music Therapy. Who've gotten quite good at this tech-house lark over the past couple of years, just in case you hadn't noticed… here's their website proper as well.

* Dare I say almost trance-y? Well yeah, I dare… I'd just rather not.

Umek & Mike Vale – Point To Consider EP

Time to pick up the pace a little now with this latest from European techno stable 1605. Regular readers will know I've long been a big fan of Umek's house-informed take on techno… well, this is one of his housiest, dare I say it even discofied in places, efforts to date.

That's not to say it's not plenty tough and pounding enough for the techno floors – it is, and in fact techno floors are undoubtedly where it's gonna be most at home. But there's no mistaking the influence of classic jacking Windy City house music in the two tracks here either. B-side How's Your Body, in particular, comes on, to these ears at least, a little like I Feel Love reworked for Tresor in the 1990s, with a very familiar Chi-town vocal sample thrown in.

Pump up the volume and listen without prejudice!

Out: This week

About: Here's the 1605 Music Therapy website, here's their Facebook page and here they are on Soundcloud

Umek Vs Phntm - Freaks On The Floor

Okay, so Umek normally does techno in a housier way than most anyway, but this I think is quite possibly the housiest thing I've heard the man yet.

Based around a "all the freaks get on the dancefloor" vocal sample, a jaunty walking b-line and looping disco brass, Freaks… is an uptempo partytime stomper and no mistake, guv'nor. Vaguely reminiscent of DJ Sneak, only a bit more full-on, it'll get those freaks on the dancefloor for sure.

Out: This week

About: Umek needs no introduction, of course, but here he teams up with Neptuun City boss Phntm. Apparently this was out before, in 2005, but I can't remember hearing it at the time… anyway it's on Umek's own 1605 Music Therapy label, so here's their website.