Deep Shizzol - Carpet Bomb EP

The ever-reliable Beats Me Music reach their 20th release with an EP that's very aptly named, taking in as it does influences from all over the house spectrum.

The overall feel is definitely deep house, but the five tracks vary quite considerably. The Deep Dub of Boogie With Deep is either very proggy deep house or very deep prog, depending how you look at it…   Golden Age is a proper back-to-the-90s organ tune… Hopscotch has something of a proggy feel again, but this time with soulful male vocals that could see this going down well on the hipster floors… This Is Our Night is a smooth, soulful fem-vocalled groover that recalls the early 00s heyday of the San Francisco scene… and finally Time To Get Busy is a straight-up dancefloor deep houser that reworks the classic vocal from Korda's Moving Power To The Music.

Golden Age and This Is Our Night stand out for me – hey, I'm old – but it's a strong EP all round.

Out: This week

About: Deep Shizzol also goes by Spencer T and has been involved in the scene since rave era, though   it's only recently that he's stepped back into the studio after a 10-year hiatus. As for Beats Me Music, you can find 'em at their own website or on Facebook.

Matt Prehn feat Dené Theron – Taking It Back

Somewhere, on a private Carribean island or in a secret underground lair or something, there's an evil genius who turns out deep house producers, arming them with a magic sack full of pads, organs and chopped-up vocal snippets before setting them loose while shouting "fly, my pretties, fly!" and cackling manically.

No, seriously. How else do you explain the seemingly endless stream of young talents who you've never heard of one minute, then who are suddenly blinding you with quality remixes of every second or third record you hear? Matches is the production wunderkind in question here, his mix of this west coast-style bumper from South Africa's finest – featuring a vocal from Ms Theron that's not a little Lisa Shaw-esque* – just edging out from a very fine pack that also includes rubs from Evren Ulusoy and Mr Prehn himself… and being just one of several Matches productions to grab this reviewer by the ears of late. Whereas six months ago, if you'd said "Matches" I'd have said "Bryant & May". Or possibly "Swan Vestas".

The EP as a whole, though, is every bit as good as the dream-team line-up of Prehn, Ulusoy, Matches and Savoir Faire Musique would have you hoping. Rewind, play it back…

Out: This week

About: This comes, as I just subtly let slip, on Scott Harrington's Savoir Faire Musique, always a fave of this blog, who live here and here and here (Facebook, Soundcloud, blog)

*Just in case Dené Theron ever reads this… being compared to the mighty Lisa is definitely a compliment in my book, NOT a dismissal!

Lance Leber – Roundi EP01

You want the good or the bad news? The good news is that, due to impracticalities of working together while living on different continents, Short Bus Kids have decided to call it a day, or at least put things on hold for a while.

The good news is that both the two producers involved are now working solo, which could in theory mean twice as much deep house goodness heading our way! So this is the first solo offering from former SBK Lance Leber, who's now returned to the studio after taking some time out to be a new dad, and consists of four tracks, confusingly titled Roundi 4, Roundi 9, Roundi 11 and Roundi 12. Go figure.

Roundi 4 (AKA Spanish Chant) is proggy and dreamy, Roundi 9 (AKA Own Thing) is typically bumpin' and hip-house flavoured à la vintage SBKs, Roundi 11 (AKA Mike N' Ally's House) is a little techier but still pretty darn funky, and then finally Roundi 12 (AKA Chemistry) draws heavily on jazz, funk and soul influences, sounding a little like Prince circa Sexy Motherfucker but at a house tempo.

A varied EP, then, that shows this west coast stalwart hasn't lost his touch. Welcome back.

**UPDATE 8/8: Had an email from Lance this morning: Roundi 11 (Mike N' Ally's House) and Roundi 12 (Chemistry) are now being released by Drop Music instead, complete with an Inland Knights remix of Chemistry… so the finished Roundi EP01 now just consists of the other two. Sorry for the confusion!

Out: This week

About: This comes on brand new label Roundi, as you might've guessed from the EP title! As far as I can make out, Lance is co-running the label with one Jerad Hioki. The only website I can find for them is this one which doesn't seem to do a lot at the mo' but no doubt it'll be up and running properly soon… in the meantime you can keep up with Lance's goings-on at Lanceleber.net, and also I can tell you now that he's got another single coming on Vincent Kwok's Eight-fifteen label very soon.

Kyka – Worry EP

Last one now before TIWWD heads off to Camp Bestival for the weekend…

Kyka is Estonian producer Jurgen Parnsalu, and here he serves up three tracks for Channelled Recordings. My Bad starts out deep, then turns acidic, then goes a bit proggy in the middle, so should appeal to a wide variety of house lovers! Two Worlds is more yer straight-up late night deep affair, with snippets of garage-y fem vox, and then finally there's Worry itself, a truly soul-infused deep houser reminiscent of the classic west coast sound.

A very classy release indeed from this up-and-coming, Manchester-based label.

Out: This week

About: Find out more at the Channelled Recordings Soundcloud and Facebook pages.

D'Experiment – Back 2 Basics EP

And from Hungary we move on to Latvia… via Eastbourne. And Liverpool. Confusing, isn't it? Let's start again. What he have here is an EP from Latvian producer D'Experiment, who's now based in Liverpool… and it comes on Eastbourne-based Beats Me Music, whose praises I've sung on TIWWD more than once before now.

It's a three-track affair. Deep Ride pretty much does what it says on the tin, and is an all-instrumental cut working lingering, space-y pads, a squelchy Chi-town b-line and crisp snares and hi-hats. Spiritual Experience then takes us on an even deeper journey musically, while a mystery Cock-er-ney producer tells us about the importance of bass over the top.

But it's East Coast, West Coast Shit that stands out for me. It features another sampled spoken vocal, this time some rapper or other discussing… well, that bit's obvious… who finds himself placed over non-frantic but still driving 4/4s and an overall chopped, skippy kinda vibe. Fans of Transport, Salted *et al are gonna love this one…

Out: This week

About: Beats Me Music can be found at their website and on Facebook.

Monitor – Blissful

The latest from Mile End Records comes from fellow Canadians Monitor, who also had an album out on the label last year.

In its Original form, Blissful is a lovely little deep house slab with a laidback, west coast kinda feel – specifically, it reminds me a little of early Migs productions in the way the vocal's slowly filtered/faded in. Oh yeah… the vocal, which has been lifted wholesale from a yoga meditation tape, making this a cert for those driftaway moments whether on the dancefloor or on the sofa.

Remix-wise, there's a Miguel Graca rub that doesn't do huge amounts different from the Original, except that the percussion is more muted at the start and then gets a tad more frenetic towards the end, with added elements of hand percussion… presumably with a view to maximising its use as a bridging tool in DJ sets? There's also a Mikel Curcio Remix which is aimed more at the prog/tech floors; this too is pretty cool, and it'll work for the jocks it's intended for, but it's the Original that wins out for me.

Out: Today

About: You can find Mile End at their website, on Facebook and on Soundcloud.

Various - Bounce House Winter Sampler Vol 2

God bless Bounce House and their uncanny knack of coming up with the bumpin' dancefloor deep house goods every time! There are three tracks in a total of five mixes here, and like Errol once sang, every one's a winner, baby...

First, you have two rubs of Andrey Slam's Shut The Funk Up. This is a fairly traditional disco-fuelled left coast house romper in its Original form, while a 420 Ceis Rebang ups the jerky/spastic factor turn it into a more jackin', Sneak-y workout. Next up is label co-owner DK Watts with This Weekend. The Breakin' Up Mix here is a lo-slung and funked-up to the max dancefloor cut in the SBKs vein, with some Hammond (?) stabs to die for, while the In The House Mix has the more driving 4/4s and general drifty feel to make it perfectly suited for small/after hours play. And finally This Beat Is Hot, also from DK, is an exercise in big kicks, analogue synth fribbles and floaty, disembodied vocals.

Vital stuff from a vital label, nuff said!

Out: This week

About: Here's where you can find Bounce House online.

Husky - Soul Of Sydney EP

The clue's in the title with Bringin' It Back, a slab of good old-fashioned disco/funk-fuelled house in Salted's traditional west coast stylee, that will delight those floors that aren't full of 18-year-olds on ketamine. The vocal's a male, semi-spoken affair that sounds almost as much like Tyree Cooper as Tyree Cooper does, and other than that I've not much else to say about that one really, it's just a jazz-flecked slice of sunshine, in four mixes that, to be honest, don't vary a huge amount.

It's complimented by two mixes of Soulfire, which in its original form is like a slightly deeper take on the above, with a Jamaican vocal urging you to "set your soul on fire", which I have to say sounds like a slightly foolhardy move to me. Husky's own RSR Rub then injects a little dancefloor bump, making for my fave cut of the EP.

Out: This week

About: This is on Migs' Salted imprint; to find out more, visit the Salted website.