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?

Zoe Xenia – I Know You Can [Remixes]

And speaking of thinking man's deep grooves, here's some more… from that Irish bastion of all things deep, Elevation.

I Know You Can was first out in 2011, we're told, though I'll have to be honest and say I must have overlooked it at the time, or not had it or something. So it's a good job they sent these remixes then, cos this is cracking! Mixing tech-house beats with a sultry, garage-y swing and a vocal that recalls all those 'chopped-up blues' cuts from the likes of St Germain, Moby etc, it's the 2012 Remastered Edition of the original that does it best for me, but with rubs from label boss Darran Nugent & Pavel Lenchenko (more heavily electronic), Zoe herself (infused with a dash of gypsy swing) and Werner Niedermeier (techy and twisted), there's fun to be had here for lots of jocks… always assuming you're playing to a reasonably educated/discerning floor and not your local Ritzys, that is!

Out: This week

About: Find Elevation on Soundcloud or MySpace.

Noah Pred – Find Your Way EP

Joachim Speith's Affin label can usually be relied on for some quality house and techno of the 'thinking man's' variety… this new offering from Noah 'Thoughtless Music' Pred is no exception.

It's a four-track affair, kicking off with the deep, dubbed-out tech-house groove of Broken Links. There's more deep techno/tech-house on the title track, before Jay Tripwire serves up a remix that manages to both housify the track and up the dub factor at the same time. And then finally Sliding Walls takes us into slightly more out-there, experimental territory, starting out all laidback before dropping some crazy-ass wibbling synth action.

It's the Tripwire mix that's the killer here for me but like I said, if thinking man's house/techno (that's not 'Thoughtless' at all, ho ho) is your bag then this is well worth checking for generally.

Out: This week

About: You can find Affin at their website, on Facebook or on Soundcloud.

David Garfit – Warning

Now here's a surprise – and a very pleasant one at that. See, Nocturnal Recordings to date have ploughed a fairly steady disco-house furrow… not that yours truly has any problem with that. It's fair to say some of their releases have veered towards the, er, 'accessible' end of that particular spectrum as well, but horses for courses and all that.

Tonight, though, the label throws us something of a curveball because what we have here is a slab of straight-up retrofied boogie/electrofunk… done very well. So well, in fact, that were you to hear this on the floor at Horse Meat Disco (for instance), you'd be forgiven for assuming it was a long-lost nugget beamed straight in from 1983.

Mike Gillenwater's remix on the B introduces some subtle filtering to give the track a slightly more house-ified feel but the overall retro tone remains, making this something of a surprise disco/boogie gem.

Out: This week

About: Nocturnal Recordings can be found on Facebook and MySpace

So many tunes, so little time 21

Good Lord, another week gone by! So here's our regular Sunday night round-up of the best of the rest of the week's releases… some of which might definitely have had a full review had I not had to spend most of my spare time at the hospital this week!

Alex Savanin is up first with InFlight on Highway Records, a pleasantly drifty progressive houser with an unusual sampled vocal (the clue's in the title) and remixes from Hernan Cattaneo + Soundexile and, for lovers of the deep, Neil Quigley… next there's Christian Sol with Mist on Troll Records, a fairly gentle tech-house four-tracker with a remix of the title cut from Kruse + Nuernberg… another Christian, Christian Zimmerman, gives us Gas Hero on Birmingham's Out Of Bounds, a laidback cut sitting somewhere between deep house, Balearic, slo-mo and nu-disco, and coming with a remix from Pete Herbert… Damon Martin serves up some good old-fashioned vocal house rawness in the form of That Ain't Right, coming on Disco Bloodbath… Dave Crane's Oh No on Zipped Records is one for those that like their tech-house on the techno side, with a little added glitch… DJ Sulli's Mercury Rising on Innerflight Music is a Brazilian-influenced Ibiza terrace party cut… Enigma Dubz bring us a four-track sampler from their second long-player Genesis on LU10, of which more soon… Floska's Sunset On Ocean Drive EP on Turquoise Blue is mostly fairly acceptable-but-average tech/prog fodder – apart from Dorsmachine which is a MONSTER of a tune, check it!… JP Soul's Backsliding EP on California's Roam Recordings features a mix of bouncy house and mid/downtempo funk sounds, and comes with a Q-Burns Abstract Message mix of the title cut… Micha Mischer's Space on MUM is driving, druggy tech-house and comes with a Mark Holmes Remix… Montana + Stewart serve up some gentle, sun-flecked soulful house vibes on Universe Media with Slow + Steady… Sounds Of Juan deliver the tech-house goods once more with Nick Robson's Edvard Monogram Remixes EP, while Essex neighbours Stripped Muzik do likewise but on a slightly proggier note with Pao Calderon's Kiss Me Like You Do… Latin percussion dominates Tony Barbato's tech-house four-tracker The Tuscan on Favouritizm, but do make sure you check for the organ-laced Pharda… there's lots more drummy tech-house and bouncy, house-y techno on Southpark Recordings' eight-track V/A sampler Ibiza Summit 2012… and finally Vex Vexino's Simplicity for Headset Recordings sees us in more leftfield deep house/deep techno/slo-mo pastures, with Jay Tripwire on the remix.

THANKS ALSO this week to: Alessio Frino, Asymmetric Soul, Common People, Dr Kucho, Jeff Moore + Jamie Lie A Kwie, Jennifer Pliester, Jurek Przezdziecki, Monitor, the brilliantly-named Peter + The Stringfellows, Peter McGill, Project Inertia, Ray Rosenfeld, Spacebats and Swindle…

Mateo & Matos – Deep Afro Rootz

Blimey! Seems like years since I had anything through from Mateo & Matos, who at one time used to be among the most prolific producers in house music. Not sure if they've actually been quiet or if I'm just out of the loop or what… but anyway here they are again.

The title of this one does give the game away somewhat… and as regular TIWWD readers will know, I'm not usually the biggest fan of Afro grooves. But while the Main Mix goes a bit overboard on the chanting for me, the Beatz mix could come in handy I'm sure. More to the point, you also get two rubs of Open Minded, a more straight-up house workout with a neat line in understated organ sounds and warm Rhodes chords.

It's definitely the latter track that's doing it more for me but plenty of people will lap up the A-side and anyway, it's just good to see Jon and Eddie are still going strong!

Out: This week

About: As befits two veteran NYC producers, this comes on veteran NYC label King Street Sounds, who I believe I may have mentioned once or twice before recently…

Aartekt – One More Chance

Some typically strong deep/tech house grooves from Something Different here, with mixes to suit a range of moods and tastes.

In its Original form, One More Chance features distorted, technoid kicks and is long on big room drama. The Patrick Podage Remix takes us a little deeper and has a proggy kinda feel, while the Soulight Remix is more straight-up house-y, but the pick of the mixes for me comes from Kevin Martin Spelle, in which Deep Spelle's brother serves up vintage-style drum programming, chopped and reverbed vocal stabs and a simple but effective organ/keyboard hook, in a rub that's sure to do the do on the afterhours floors.

Out: This week

About: You can find Something Different on Soundcloud and Facebook.

Dave Mayer & Ebbo Riginal – Your Story

The latest here from Seamless Soul, who definitely seem to be going for the 'quality not quantity' approach with their release schedule!

And quality is the word here, have no doubt. Your Story is a soulful house cut that – unlike a lot of such tackle in recent years, sad to say – isn't all muso-y and polite and oh-so-freakin'-earnest, and actually has nice solid kicks and a proper big hip-shakin' bassline! Said b-line is topped by a spoken vocal that sounds like it might be sampled from an evangelist or self-help guru or black power dude or something, hi-hats that chish-chish along nicely and some lovely energising jazzy piano/organ licks. Think west coast circa 2000-4.

Simply accompanied by a more percussion-led dub, this is, equally simply, soulful house as it should be: with plenty of funk in its veins and plenty of bump in its grooves. Niceness.

Out: This week

About: This comes, as I said, on Seamless Soul. Here's their Facebook and Soundcloud.

Chris B – Sunday Stomp EP

The recent flow of top-drawer goodness out of the King Street stable continues with this seven-track EP/mini-album from Chris B.

Again, I'm not gonna go into every single track cos time is of the essence right now, but overall the order of the day here is sumptuous, musical deep house with just the slightest hints of tech around the edges… generally speaking the tracks are aimed primarily, I'd suggest, at the afterhours joints, but you also get a more hi-octane stomper in the form of Funbags and, in Nineoneone, one officially certified Big Fuck-Off Organ Tune.

And you know me and organs… so obviously it's Nineoneone that stands out for me here but this is a very classy EP all round. Go seek.

Out: This week

About: This ones sailing under the Street King flag and, as ever, the King Street website is the place to head if you wanna find out more

Smak AKA Steve McCready – The Summer Of Love

Some cool, largely instrumental house grooves here from a man who really does need to make up his name as to what he wants to be called… typing "Smak AKA Steve McCready" every time is a nuisance!

But that's the only grumble I've got with this EP. There are four tracks on offer, which between them straddle the borders between deep, tech and progressive house, with the emphasis perhaps on the latter, and which collectively demonstrate Mr McCready's flair for lush, musical productions.

Not gonna do a track-by-track cos time's short, but the drifty and Balearic-leaning Audio Input stands out to these ears.

Out: This week

About: This comes on Hype Muzik, which as you know is the most techno arm of the Stripped Muzik empire, but rest assured this is an EP that will please househeads and the techno massive in equal measure. Anyway, the best place to find Hype Muzik online is at the Stripped Muzik blog.