Jonny Buzz – Piano Poker

Gonna try and be quick with a few things today, so with this one we'll cut straight to the chase. The Ace and Diamond mixes of Piano Poker are two perfectly playable slices of unpretentious, uptempo, uplifting good-time Saturday night house music which you'll recognise on the floor from the treated female "come on closer, take me under" vocal and, of course, the liberal sprinkling of old-skool pianos.

But the killer here is the the King Buzz Dub, which takes us properly back the old skool with firing Awesome 3-esque near-breakbeat percussion and a hefty vocal lift from DSK's uber-classic What Would We Do?. To say "It's not clever, but it is big" has become a bit of a dance music cliché, so instead I'll just say this isn't clever… but it is FUCKING MASSIVE.

And that's swearing. Play loud.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Influential House, who you can find mostly on Facebook.

The Heels Of Love – Flight 707

Nu-disco giants Nang come up with the goods once more, this time in the form of a new 12" from Italian duo The Heels Of Love, AKA Milan residents Michele Tessadri and Luca Saponaro.

This is by no means straight-up nu-disco though, sitting somewhere between the nu-disco camp and retrofied house, what with its mix of vintage analogue synths and soaring Balearic pianos. Remix-wise, Billy Bogus serves up a freaky-deaky cosmic disco pass, Jadoo ups the funk factor and Barking Dogs drag us to the deep house dancefloor… but none of the rerubs can compete, for this reviewer, with the sheer langorous luxuriance of Saponaro and Tessadri's original.

Out: This week

About: Here's where to find Nang online

BeLeftBeRight - The Wings Of The Mind EP

Some top-quality deep house here from Deso Records, a label from whom we've come to expect nothing less.

BeLeftBeRight are Silvio Zanfardino and Ivan Garzone, two childhood buddies from Naples, Italy, and here they serve up a four-track EP. Beat Mentalist Box is an atmospheric, almost cinematic affair with fluttering synths, pads that go on forever and chopped-up breathy vocal snips. Exclusivity is a little slower and more laidback, riding a simple breakbeat with old-skool synth stabs and more of those long, lingering pads. I Can Do It ups the tempo a little but is still pretty mellow affair with its warm chords and gently tinkling ivories reminiscent of early Italo house, and then finally Fly High is a bigger, chunkier Rhodes-driven cut.

Classy stuff all round… but then as I said, we've come to expect nothing else from the Danish label.

Out: This week on Traxsource, everywhere else from 7 May.

About: You can find Deso Records on Soundcloud, Facebook, MySpace and at their own website.

Ross Paterson - Back 2 House EP

Following on from the Cambis & Wenzel release yesterday, here come some more retrofied house frolics courtesy of Influential House.

It's a three-track affair. Feel The Music is a female-vocalled, disco-tinged number, God Gave Us Rhythm is an uplifting piano track with a neat line in parping sax to boot, and Lift ’Em Up is a full-on peaktime screamer that exhorts you to raise your hands up in the air… as if you needed telling. And all three of 'em have got that retro 90s sound down to a T.

Not the week's 'coolest' release, admittedly, but it's lots of fun all the same. Put a smile on my face during a somewhat stressful day at the day job, anyway.

Out: This week

About: Scottish-born Ross Paterson lives in Malta and – in a virtual sense – here, while you can find London-based Influential House on Facebook.

DJ Vivona & Joi Cardwell – Return To Love

Okay, so it's 2002*. I'm at a pool party at the WMC… I think it was Distant Music and Chez, and I think it was at the Clevelander, but it's been 10 years so I could be wrong… anyway this piano tune comes on and the place just goes instant-mental. The tune in question was Praise Cats' then brand-new Shined On Me and you know how big that turned out to be!

What's all this got to do with the price of fish? Nothing whatsoever – always thought that was a stupid expression. What it has got to do with, though, is that whatever the prevailing musical trends of the day, there is ALWAYS room for a rip-roarin' uplifting piano/vocal tune… and head for the Terry Hunter BANG Transform Mix of this (which comes with an instrumental as well, for the truly voxophobic) and that's exactly what you'll find. It might not appeal to the Hoxton hipsters so much, admittedly, but on dancefloors worldwide it'll slay 'em.

Meanwhile, if it's deeper, more soulful vibes you're after, then either the Original or the more sumptuous Director's Cut Treatment will suit you nicely. Not least because we have the inimitable Miss Cardwell on vocals… we don't hear enough from her these days so that in itself is reason to 'jump for Joi' (ho ho ho).

Class in a glass, basically. The way we used to…

Out: This week on Traxsource promo, everywhere else from May 20.

About: This comes on the mighty King Street, and I should also point out that the somewhat anonymously presented Director's Cut are in fact none other than Frankie Knuckles and Eric Kupper. Only a label of King Street's stature could present a team-up like that quite so nonchalantly!

*You can imagine the screen going a bit wobbly for the full 'flashback' effect, if you like

EXCLUSIVE! Jesus Pablo - The Story So Far EP

Right then, breaking the rules here cos this isn't out till next week… but as Mr Pablo was kind enough to let me be one of only two people getting sent it (i! Records don't really DO promo), it seemed somewhat daft to sit on it!

TIWWD has been a fan of this young Liverpudlian producer's style of house music for some time now. His is an approach that's respectful to the past, yet sounds as contemporary as anything else around, and that's no easy trick to pull off. Accordingly, it'll come as no surprise when I tell you… I'm loving this.

There are three tracks in a total of five mixes. The Story So Far itself is led by sparkling pianos counterpointed by Detroitian string stabs, and is gorgeously musical even if it never really kicks off, making it best suited for afterhours or sunny afternoon sessions. For club thrills, best head to the Robot Oil Remix, which adds solid, driving 4/4s and some subdued scat vox and Spanish guitars.

Behind The Line is more yer straight-up deep house dancefloor cut – not that there's anything wrong with that! It's warm, funky and a wee bit left coast-ish in its Original form, and also comes accompanied by a Howard Sessions remix that's a tad techier and dubbier. Endless Dream then brings the EP to a close on a suitably, er, dreamy note… one for those comedown sessions for sure.

A strong EP all round, as befits its appearance on such a well-loved classic US label. The boy from Merseyside done good.

Out: Next week

About: If you need me to tell you who i! Records are, then frankly I despair… anyway, here's their website and Facebook page

Doomwork – Club Abduction Pt 1

The Italian duo of Alessandro Lacavalla and Claudio Maura, AKA Doomwork, trail their forthcoming artist album for Street King with this single release, which comes – nice and simply for a reviewer in a hurry – with just the one remix from Solo UK.

The hype sheet describes Doomwork as "ready to take the tech house/house/deep house scene by storm". Only time will tell as regards the storm part, of course, but on this evidence the album is certainly going to be worth looking out for. The featured track on Part 1 is actually called This!, and in its original form it's a tech/deep house chugger (note I didn't say deep/tech house) with a hefty dose of acid running through its veins and some speaker-challenging bass drops.

Solo UK then remixes, toning down the acid (without abandoning it altogether) and giving the track more of a disco/soul slant, with crisp handclaps, wukka-wukking geetar flecks and some luscious Balearic-ish piano chords.

Again – good stuff all round. So looking forward to the album!

Out: This week, on Beatport – a full general release date is still TBC, or at least it was when they sent it across.

About: Street King is, as you surely know by now, part of the King Street Sounds empire.

Betamac - Polytrippin'

Right, I still owe you a 'So many tunes…' roundup from last week (cos there were quite a few other decent bits and pieces sent in) but for now let's crack on with some of this week's releases, starting with this from the ever-checkable Beats Me Music.

Over four tracks and five mixes (label boss Rob Clarke supplying a refix of Sleepwalker), the general order of the day is unashamedly retro-tastic big room house, with big fat synth b-lines and tinkling pianos that just SCREAM 1992, and just a little hint of classic prog to boot. How this might sounds to an 18yo today I couldn't really say… for this old raver this EP just brought a big silly grin to the face.

Naming favourites is superfluous – you're either in the market for some classic pumping, driving house sounds right now or you're not. And if you are, you're probably going to want to play all of these.

Out: This week

About: Here's where to find Beats Me online