Jesus Soblechero – Followers EP

And from one Jesus to another! But while Jesus Pablo is an old friend of this blog and hails from Liverpool, Jesus Soblechero is a new name to me, about whom all I can tell you is that he's described on the hype sheet as a "Spanish funk master". Which has to be the coolest job description I've read all week.

There are four tracks on the EP in total: three mixes of the title track plus bonus cut Sangha. In its Original form, Followers itself is a tuff-ish deep/tech houser based around rattling snares/hi-hats, weird chopped-up vocal snips and an equally weird (possibly reversed?) pulsing synth line. A remix from Darkrow ups the tempo, largely drops the synth and makes a little more of vocal, while the Fernando Mesa rub is similar but more energetic again, veering towards Great Stuff-esque tech-house. And then finally Sangha is another percussion-led deep/tech affair, but with a slightly more organic, soulful feel.

All told, these are stripped-down, jackin' cuts made for moving underground 4am dancefloors. And we like that sort of thing round here, don't we?

Out: This week

About: This comes on Soblechero's own ThreeSoul Records, who (obviously) are also new to me. But thanks to the power of Google, here's their MySpace, Facebook and Soundcloud.

Jesus Pablo & Adam Brass – Jet Lag

Good to see Jesus Pablo getting some more widespread recognition, with this latest release (this time in cahoots with one Adam Brass) coming via the mighty i! Records.

In its Original form, Jet Lag is a fairly sedate deep houser, with a lounge-y kinda sound set but a glitchier feel, particularly to the top-end percussion, than my saying that might lead you to expect. House Riders tone down the glitchy elements, bring the male spoken vocal snips to the fore and add some lovely mournful, jazzy sax, the Kirby Remix is a slightly dubbier and hence slightly more floor-friendly pass, while finally the Patrick Podage mix takes us deeper in late-night territories again.

What's perhaps missing here is a mix that really flips the script, but these are very solid grooves as ever from the Liverpudlian boy-done-good all the same, with the Kirby and House Riders rubs vying for the top honours for me.

Out: This week

About: You can find i! Records at their website and on Facebook.

ALBUM Sun 7 – Into Deep

I was gonna try and catch up on the week's single releases tonight but now we're in an albums groove we might as well stay there… especially as this is, I have to say, one of the most pleasant 'unexpected treats' I've had through in a while. 'Unexpected' because Sun 7 is an artist I've not come across before; likewise I wasn't until now familiar with Raygun Records, either. So when I first stuck this on I didn't know what to expect at all.

Suffice to say that first time I stuck this album on turned out to be the first of many! "A variety of house styles, ranging between chilly, soulful deepness and proper danceability" is how the hype sheet describes Into Deep*, and that's a pretty fair description. Opening with the off-kilter, jazzual nu-disco grooves of House Me (Apollo 11) working its way over the course of the ensuing 11 tracks through deep, techy, soulful flavas before ending with the appropriate-titled Closer featuring sometimes Manuel Tur and Pezzner vocalist Larissa Kapp, this is as fine a full-album house music listening experience as you're likely to find this month.

So go find it.

Out: This week

About: Sun7, I now know, is Barcelona's Armando Mendes, who we're told has roots in jazz-funk and a fondness for classic Chi-town house and Motor City techno. None of which will surprise you've if you'd heard this album. If you want to know more, this link to the Raygun Records back cat on Beatport is the best I can do right now.

* So all right, I had some idea what to expect, but you know what I mean…

ALBUM Various - House Of Ibiza 2012

Okay, so I'm just a little bit confused, cos didn't we look at an EP of this name from Street King just recently? And none of the tracks seem to be the same so it's not like that was a sampler. But anyway, yes, here's the second of tonight's King Street long-players.

Again it's a V/A compilation and again it's very Ibiza-oriented; yet it's also a very different beast from the Chris Brann mix below. It's unmixed, for one thing. For another, where that album's packed with big names from the more traditional US house scene, on this one we're treated to upfront and unreleased nuggets from today's house heroes and rising stars, with Tom De Neef, Spettro, Filtertypen, Scott Wozniak and Satoshi Fumi being some of the names that you'll probably recognise.

With tracks ranging from terrace-friendly percussion workouts like Pacha DJ's Danza Loca, to throbbing strobe-lit 5am chuggers like T Ruggieri's Destroy, from the deep grooves of Benjamin Shock's Five Smooth Stones to the unashamed hi-octane party vibes of Yakka's See The Light (which samples Grease and actually carries it off*), if the Brann mix is Ibiza 2012 by day, this is Ibiza 2012 by night. And it's sounding pretty good… with Ben Royal's Let's Go, Spettro's I Felt Raised and, yes, the Yakka track among the highlights for me.

Out: Last week (sorry)

About: Same link, but this one is flying the Street King flag. As I believe I said at the start. Oh yeah, and this one's SK178 by the way; the five-track EP before was SK179. In case that assists in your no-doubt-imminent purchasing activities.

*Quentin Kane's M.U.S.I.C pulls off a similarly unlikely sampling coup, utilising the very familiar riff from a certain well-known disco-era cut by the misunderstood genius that is Rod The Mod.

VARIOUS Chris Brann – A Long Hot Summer

The first of two long-players for you tonight from the legendary King Street stable.

First up, this mix album from Chris Brann. You've got to give Mr Brann one thing: he's no one-trick pony, flipping effortlessly back and and forth between the chilled, soulful grooves of Ananda Project, and his more experimental, forward-thinking work when wearing his P'taah hat (see last year's excellent Perfumed Silence album: it somewhat unjustly didn't get reviewed on here cos I was on holiday the week it came out, but if you've not heard the album then trust me, it's a cracker). To name but two of his various guises.

Here, though, he's billed as 'Chris Brann from Ananda Project', which gives you an idea of what to expect: laidback, sultry house grooves tailormade for lazing on beaches. It's a little polite in its earlier stretches, perhaps, but the energy levels do start to pick up as the mix progresses… just like you'd want them to if you were sat on an Ibizan terrace watching the sun go down.

With tracks and mixes from the likes of Groove Assassin, Frankie Feliciano, Jay-J, Sunshine 'Dubtribe' Jones, Tiger Stripes and Kiko Navarro, this has summer written all over it – quite literally. Mojitos, anyone?

Out: This week

About: You must know where to find King Street Sounds by now, surely? This particular comp comes under the Nite Grooves banner.

Rob Cook & Hapkido – LEP033

A three-tracker from the secretive Lepento… can see why they'd want to keep this one a bit on the downlow though, cos what we have here are three cheeky reworks of three very well-known vocals. Well, two, anyway…

Forget Me is a surprisingly not-too-cheesy disco-houser with hip-house trimmings… 'surprisingly' given that it's a makeover of Patrice Rushen's Forget Me Nots, which if asked I'd have said shouldn't work, but it kinda does. Next up, What You Need pulls off a similar trick with Cheryl Lynn's To Be Real (well, a similar disco-house trick, but without the rap element this time). And then finally there's Treat You Right, which reworks the vocal from… er… oh I dunno, some R&B thing.

A more uptempo affair, this latter reminds me a little bit of all the R&B boots that came to dominate the Brummie bassline scene back in the mid-00s… as such I've got mixed feelings about it, it kinda makes me smile but it IS a bit cheesy, to be fair.

The other two, though, should serve you well as party-starters on any floor that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Out: This week

About: You can find Lepento on Soundcloud.

Morcee – It's You

A trip into garage/dubstep territories now, with the latest from Four40 Records.

In its Original form, It's You fuses elements of dubstep and vintage rave, with a vocal that owes a great deal TO but isn't, I don't think, sampled FROM Onephatdeeva & Lisa Millett's Bad Habit. The Lakosa Remix is a deeper, darker and dubbier pass with lashings of sub-bass, while Majora's Unorthodox Mix veers towards dubstep's more experimental fringes with its chopped-up beats and heavily treated vox.

If pushed it's the Lakosa mix that's doing it best for me, but all three mixes are very respectable and, most importantly, not one of them feels the need to get all stoopid and gnarly for the sake of it. Excellent work.

Out: This week

About: You can find Four40 Records on Soundcloud and Facebook.

Pirupa – My Trainer/Want More

Hands up everyone who likes big, squelchy 303 basslines? Thought so. Okay, so hands up… who "wants more" of them?

You can see where this is going, can't you?! Two tracks here from Pirupa, an artist I know precisely nothing about, and for me the standout by far is Want More which, as you might have guessed, features as its predominant musical element a big, squelchy 303 bassline, accompanied by solid kicks and cowbells galore. Nice.

My Trainer's cool too, with its heads-down, driving deep/tech house groove and whispered male "work that body" vox. But Want More is the one.

Out: This week

About: This comes on a label who haven't featured on here for a bit but are always worth checking, Riva Starr's Snatch! Records. They live here, and on Soundcloud as well.

Ill Cows – Sweet EP

Who said all the good band/artist names had gone, eh? Ill Cows indeed… I'm actually not sure whether that's the most rubbish name I've heard all year, or the best. But I'm erring towards the best.

Anyway it's not who they're by, it's what they sound like that matters, and this two-tracker from Unrivaled sounds pretty good, truth be told. On the A, Sweet Street kicks off with some fairly harsh percussion that sounds like we're gonna be in boys' own tech-house territory, but then surprises by dropping down instead into a stripped, raw house groove reminiscent of vintage Serious Grooves tackle. Over on the B, meanwhile, Hello is a fairly par-for-the-course techy chugger but distinguishes itself with a quirky, French-accented spoken vocal – saying "hello", obviously.

Which is always good for breaking the ice with that cutie on the dancefloor…

Out: This week

About: Every week I tell you how Unrivaled is part of the Endemic Digital stable. Soon I won't have to, though, cos TIWWD is having a makeover – stay tuned for more details…

Various - 124 Recordings Vol 1 EP

The very first, vinyl-only release from a brand new UK label here… always words to excite round these parts!

Butler & Murt's Norwood leads the charge, a retro-yet-contemporary slab of deep jackery complete with a male "house!" vocal. Hot For You from Coles Mezcla De Acido follows, which takes samples from the late Willie Ninja (who yours truly once kissed, in a desperate but thankfully successful bid to get into the MAW party in Miami… no tongues, though) and places them atop a throbbing deep acid squelchathon. And finally there's Toben's I'm Hot For You, which – yeah you guessed – samples the same Nervous classic, but this time for a slower, NJ garage-y cut with some nice old skool organs.

Proper underground bizniss and there's only 300 copies so get 'em while they're "hot", people!

Out: This week

About: The new label in question is called 124 Recordings, and you can find 'em on Facebook or on label main man Owain Bellis' Soundcloud page.