AM/TM feat Navid Izadi – Back To Acid

A nice easy one to start the day with here, cos Back To Acid doesn't really take much explaining!

So I'll just tell you that AM/TM are of course Anthony Mansfield and Tal M Klein, and here they deliver 4.5 minutes of sheer retro squelch, complete with an Adonis-esque whispered vocal from Izadi ("Melting in my brain, you can keep your cocaine, I'm on acid"). On the B, Mansfield and his other regular production partner Nick Chacona bring us a slightly pumped-up remix that, if anything, is even better.

This is as good a slab of vintage-sounding 303 thrills as you'll hear all month. Go seek.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Hector Works, which is Mansfield's own label… find 'em here, here and here (website, Facebook, Soundcloud)

Oh, and here's something else from Mr Mansfield as well… free to download so enjoy!

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.

Cambis & Wenzel – Do Your Thing

Kosmo Records might hail from Germany, and I'm guessing Cambis & Wenzel most likely do too… but vocalist Ma'Deeva is from NYC and this has 'Big Apple' written all over it.

In fact, if I cast my mind back to dancing to Junior at The Tunnel in 95, this would have fitted in perfectly, what with its struttin', attitude-y (but positively-messaged) diva vox, tribal beats and bags of dark room peaktime drama. The deep, dark n' dirty Original does it best for me, the Club Mix (in a similar vein but a tad busier) is also fine… the dirty Dutch-style touches to the Aint & Fish Remix aren't my thing so much but that mix will have its fans also, for sure.

So yeah: driving big room house the way we used to. Hard to find fault with that, really, at least for an oldie like me!

Out: This week

About: I don't think I've reviewed (been sent?) a Kosmo Records release before, despite this being number 30 from them apparently… anyway here's their website so we can all find out more!

QuestionmarQ - Emotive Worlds EP

A five-tracker here from Cork's Vision Collective and fellow Cork resident QuestionmarQ, AKA Marq Walsh, who for many years was resident at the city's famous Sir Henry's nightclub.

Do It gets proceedings off to a fine start, fusing old-skool Chicago and Detroit influences in the sound palette, adding a little disco sheen and topping it all off with "let's do it!" vocal exhortations. Emotive is more yer typical moody late-night deep house groove, but still very cool, before Law Of The Worlds ramps up the funk factor. This latter somehow manages to be decidedly funky yet kind of blissed-out and dreamy at the same time, while Verma's Fluffed Up Mix of it leans more heavily towards the latter part of the equation, using considerably more of the new age-y spoken vox for a start.

I'll be quite honest, the more straight-up techno of Maydayz doesn't do it for me so much, but that's just me… its inclusion nevertheless serves to underline the fact that this is a very strong EP that sees Mr Walsh flexing his production muscles across an impressive range of styles.

Out: This week

About: Here's the usual links, then… website Facebook Soundcloud

Julius Papp & Mr V - Chicago Tribute Remixed

The weekend's here! So now seems like an appropriate time to talk about this unashamedly old skool, good-time house cut from two latter-day house legends.

You should know the track already – I reviewed it on here last year when it first came out, albeit only in one of the round-up things I think, or was it on an album? Either way I can't seem to find the review right now but I know I did one! – but now we have four new mixes of it, from Devid Morrison and DJ MFR. To jog your memory, it's the one with Mr V reminiscing about the early days of house and talking about "that sound, that freedom, that feeling we had".

Morrison's mix adds a little tropical/Latino flavour to the track, with busy shakers and the like, but it's the DJ MFR Deep Mix that's doing it more for me, a stripped-down and dubby pass that throbs along nicely. Both mixes come with instrumentals, which is handy cos while I'm personally something of a fan of Mr V's Tyree Cooper-esque vocal stylings, not everyone else is.

It all adds up to a very solid bet of an EP. House music all night long.

Out: This week, I'm assured… whatever the cover might suggest!

About: This comes on DJ MFR's San Francisco-based label Transport Recordings, who should need no introduction from me! Here's their website.

Groove Motion - Hazy Days

Our second slab tonight of driving, piano-led house… with some deeper, mellower rubs to boot.

The original here would play very nicely with the Betamac EP below, being another big, stompy houser with some very retro hands-in-the-air piano action as the main event. It's even got the obligatory dreamy-wibbly-Balearic bit in the middle – another treat for those feenin' for some back to the old skool vibes, then.

Pleasingly, though, it also comes with a brace of more subtle passes. The Dave Fortnum Remix leads the track away to the sunloungers, gives it a cocktail and tells it to enjoy the sunset, while label boss Fresh 27 supplies a bumpin' Deeper Dayz Remix for the proper all-night deep house floors.

I'm digging all three to be honest so, yeah, result.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Fresh 27's own Kula Records, who specialise in 'deep, souful and vocal house music' – this is their 13th release.

Danny Daze - Your Everything

Well, here we are, Monday morning again… and after a weekend where blogging took second fiddle to a) running around St Paul's Carnival in Bristol with an airhorn and b) downloading a ton of new choonage, got some QUALITY new releases to tell you about this week.

The hype sheet for this one calls it "an addictive brew of potent disco tech" and claims it was "the undeniable highlight of WMC". Strong words, but musically, Your Everything is certainly a birrova beast, with a HUGE walking bassline that recalls classic Underwater-style Brit house circa 2002. I'm less convinced by the indie-ish vocal though. Never good.

If there was a dub/instramental of Your Everything on offer, then yeah. As it is – despite the power of that bassline – gonna have to plump here instead for the straight-up retro house action of Fall Away From Love, which doesn't re-write any rule books or anything but does have some great Italo house-style stabs.

Out: This week

About: This comes on UK label Hot Creations (website here) but Danny Daze is actually from Miami, and you can check out more of his shizzle on Soundcloud.