Soul Clap Social Experiment 002

1. Lee Foss - Foxy
2. James Teej - Galaktik Option
3. Miguel Campbell - Kiss & Tell
4. Nightplane - Parallel Lines
5. Teeloo - Sooo Oooh
6. Soho 808 - Just To See
7. Jonny White - Rainsong (Rainbeats)

Soul Clap are a DJ/production duo from Boston, which is notable only because Boston would probably finish somewhere between third and fifth in a straw poll of "least techno-y cities in America." Nonetheless, Cnyce and Elyte have been stirring there for several years now, releasing a handful of singles and edits as well as venturing out on a few tours. Social Experiment 002, both the first commercially available mix the duo has produced and the first mix on Art Department's Jonny White's No. 19 Music label, should kickstart a busy year for Soul Clap. (Social Experiment will be proceeded quickly by a DJ Kicks mix Soul Clap created with New York up-and-comers Wolf + Lamb.) While Soul Clap are arguably the most visible electronic artists from Boston in some time, one thing they are not is a harbinger of a new or exciting style or scene; their success as DJs (and producers/remixers) is predicated on an elegant, elastic mix of house and techno.

Soul Clap are also not classicists: Social Experiment mostly features tracks from young East Coast and European producers. They're kin to DJs like Seth Troxler and Wolf + Lamb in their sly funkiness and preference for making folks dance over making a statement. Social Experiement is not an exercise in momentum, studied repetition, or steadily building toward a climax. They favor quick-striking, vocally oriented tracks over tension and release. Nothing here qualifies as an anthem: even the most melodic tracks tend to be self-contained, or seem so in this context. To borrow a sports term, Soul Clap "play within themselves," never reaching for catharsis or exultation. The mix picks up quickly-- the brief cuts that dominate the early minutes are smart-- and stays tense and alive throughout.

That might make Social Experiment sound easy or even pandering, but Soul Clap avoid those trappings. There's plenty of challenging, off-kilter music here. It's just that Soul Clap are particularly adept at spinning it into warmhearted, bright-eyed jams. SECT's "H.T.A.D." is a lurching acid-bass track but any lingering salty aftertaste is exploded by Michael J Collins' whooshing, Kraut -y "Schizotypal" (and then extending the bliss with Night Plane's "Parallel Lines"). They swing the reverse trick too, leading Benoit & Sergio's silky pop-house track, "Principles", blindfolded into Tanner Ross' "4 U", a choppy, psychedelic churn. Clashes like these provide the tiny combustions that keep Social Experiment rolling.

Social Experiment is a mix without an obvious agenda. It sounds like it wants to make me dance, but it's not pushy. It's not a label showcase or a genre exercise; the only two summary descriptions I can really pin on it are "fresh" (most artists here are relatively new to the scene) and "North American" (for its creators and their choices: Art Department, Benoit & Sergio, Jimmy Edgar, Lee Foss, Seth Troxler, and Nightplane, among others, hail from this side of the Atlantic). All of this makes Social Experiment 002 unlikely to represent anything more specific than "Hey, Soul Clap: pretty good!" a year from now, but asking for anything more from a mix so contented and hardworking seems in poor taste...www.pitchfork.com

Ben Westbeech - There's More To Life Than This

01. The Book feat. Georg Levin
02. Something For The Weekend feat. by Danny J Lewis
03. Falling feat. Lovebirds
04. Same Thing feat. Chocolate Puma
05. Justice feat. Motor City Drum Ensemble
06. Stronger feat. Midland
07. Inflections feat. Henrik Schwarz
08. Sugar feat. Redlight
09. Let Your Feelings Show feat. Georg Levin
10. Butterflies feat. Rasmus Faber
11. Summer's Loss feat. Rasmus Faber

Reinvention can be tricky. Get it right, and you can become a master of musical metamorphosis like Bjork. Get it wrong, and you end up with David Bowie's's drum & bass period. Most artists trying to scrape their way out of a pigeonhole go for one of two tried-and-tested routes. The first, which we'll "the Mark Pritchard method," is to adopt a different alias for each musical pie you stick your finger in. The second—"the Madonna method"—is to keep your name, but clutch at the coattails of credibility by enlisting the trendiest producers of the moment.

Ben Westbeech has taken both paths recently. Last year's UK funky anthem "Fatherless" by Breach—which took research to reveal was indeed the work of the Westbeech—was a far cry from the acid jazz-tinged 2007 album Welcome to the Best Years of Your Life. And now we have There's More to Life Than This, the second album to bear Westbeech's own name but one that bears just as little resemblance to his debut. Welcome's blue-eyed soul has been shown the door. The new Ben Westbeech has been given a house makeover by producers like Motor City Drum Ensemble, Henrik Schwarz and Rasmus Faber.

But does this new change of direction work? Yes, by and large...even if the "The Book" and "Something for the Weekend" initially make you think Westbeech has been reincarnated as Jamiroquai. The polished jazz-funk and daytime playlist disco aren't entirely unsuccessful, by the way. It's just that There's More to Life gets better from then on. "Justice" has the trademark wintry deep house atmospherics of Motor City Drum Ensemble, "Stronger" is a slowly building groove fashioned by Midland and "Inflections" adds speedily strummed Spanish guitar and rollicking percussion courtesy of Henrik Schwarz. Westbeech has chosen his new friends carefully: This sounds like a coherent album rather than a string of collaborations, with his creamy tones—and occasionally clichéd lyrics—providing a common identity throughout.

That identity doesn't seem as convincing or confident as his instrumental alter ego Breach, however. Indeed, you sometimes feel that Westbeech is hiding behind his producers. (Especially given that "Fatherless' proved he has the studio skills to produce something pretty spectacular—and more unique—on his own.) For the next album it'd be intriguing to see him drop the pseudonyms and the hired hands and combine both sides of himself to showcase the "real" Ben Westbeech, whoever that might be...www.residentadvisor.net

Martyn - Ghost People

01. Love And Machines feat. Spaceape
02. Viper
03. Masks
04. Distortions
05. Popgun
06. I Saw You At Tule Lake
07. Ghost People
08. Twice As
09. Bauplan
10. Horror Vacui
11. We Are You In The Future

According to Martyn himself, it's a less intimate affair than his first LP, Great Lengths, which he describes as "very personal."

"A lot of the music and the themes behind [Great Lengths] were taken out of my daily life: my sorrows and my melancholy," he says. "For this album, I chose things that are further away from me: the Ghost People theme. There are references to DJing in general. Not the jet-set DJ life, but the old Paradise Garage DJ life, where people want to share and play the music they really love, regardless of if it's trendy. Nothing fancy or flashy. Just back to the roots."

Stylistically, the album continues on the same tack as Martyn's past releases, weaving between dubstep, funky, house and techno. It shows him teaming up once again with Erosie, the go-to visual artist for Martyn's label, 3024 (not to mention RA's recent X party in Sao Paulo). In addition to the cover art, Erosie has devised visuals to accompany Martyn's upcoming live sets, dates for which have yet to be confirmed...www.residentadvisor.net

Scuba - Adrenalin EP

01. Adrenalin
02. Never
03. Everywhere

The man behind Hotflush Recordings- Scuba (aka Paul Rose)- has dropped an absolute banger right here peeps! Although he is renowned for his contribution to early dubstep and the rebirth of garage, with Adrenalin, Scuba has explored deep house and retro breakbeats with main-room 4x4 beats, powerful vocals and rising synths all thrusting you into a 1980s New York disco.

The title track, ‘Adrenalin’ entrances the listener with arpegiated synth chords and a distant reverberated voice fading up slowly until the cold house-beat slams into them. The song keeps ascending until a funky bass- line bubbles up beneath it. Its got sweeping progressive breakdowns, crisp vocals and a heavy acid/deep house beat- simple but very effective. You can’t really go wrong to be honest!

On the B-side, ‘Never’ and ‘Everywhere’ are even more retro- with warm catchy bass-lines setting the bouncing rhythms accompanied with sharp and crazy kicks, claps, snaps and break-dance vibes. Again short crisp vocals are utilised very well to give the tunes more 'dance-ability' and listening pleasure.

Adrenalin is a definite salute to the retro sounds, the days of the boombox and matching shell-suites. It's a very popular sound, and Scuba has managed to capture it without sounding dated. It’s an exemplary EP that demonstrates the forward-thinking of Scuba and his Hotflush Label. Fans of Falty DL, Joy Orbinson and Hyetal should defo check this EP. Fans of Scuba, should be pining for it!...www.hangout.altsounds.com

Anthony 'Shake' Shakir / Oni Ayhun – Meet Shangaan Electro And BBC

A Anthony Shake Shakir Meets BBC
B Oni Ayhun Meets Shangaan Electro

The one we've all been waiting for! Anthony "Shake" Shakir and Oni Ayhun dissemble and rebuild highlights of the incredible Shangaan Electro comp with inimitable results. Face up, Anthony Shakir reworks BBC's 'Ngunyuta Dance' as an electrified and tribalist House rhythm, amping the kicks and shaking the percussion with a more Latin shuffle, Detroit-via-Shangaan styles. Flip it and you'll find Oni Ayhun shaping fragments of various compilation tracks into a skipping breakbeat House monster, twysted like some rude Shed riddim with a delirious case of sunstroke. Simply, they're sh*t hot dance trax and highly recommended!...www.boomkat.com

DJ Jus-Ed - Vision Dance

01. A Little Deeper
02. Acid Techno
03. Emotion
04. Ice 592
05. Project 1 London
06. Project 2 London
07. Stuck In A Train To Berlin
08. The Truth
09. This Shit Is Hot Re-Scrub
10. Train Ride To Offenbach

Jus-Ed is surely the most prolific component in the current wave of US Deep House producers. For his 2nd album this year he teams up with Japan's Mule Electronic for a standardly robust yet soulful journey into his sound. That sound has been shaped by a lifetime involved with dance music. He graduated from his studies in percussion at the University of Bridgeport in '82 and went on to DJ earliest House, '80s funk and R&B, before years of caning it took over and he returned at the start of the last decade with a tougher but more spiritual sound. The closest comparison we could make, aesthetically and productively, is Omar-S, but Ed has definitely got his own groove and identity within the scene. 'Vision Dance' is brimming with that restless soul, cutting across the floor between the sultry shuffle of 'A Little Deeper', to the rugged throb of 'Acid Techno', abstract jacks like 'Ice 592' and the two 'Project London' joints. But he's at his best when working with synths pads on the floating optimism of 'Stuck In A Train To Berlin', the hypnotic swing of 'This Shit Is Hot' or 'Train Ride To Offenbach'...www.boomkat.com

The Lab 03 by Seth Troxler

CD1

01. Hatikvah - Big Mind
02. Bearweasel - Button Down The Moose (Echologist Dub)
03. David Alvarado - Beautification
04. Lindstrom Vs Mungolian Jetset - A Blast Of Loser (9406 Version)
05. Hati Munetsi - Ceremony (African Mix)
06. Tommy Bones - After The Club
07. Home & Garden - Themes Of Yesterday
08. Dinky - Polvo
09. Soul Capsule - Lady Science (NYC Sunrise)
10. DBX - City On The Edge Of Forever
11. Daze Maxim - Tomorrow Universe
12. Deepak Sharma & Dieter Krause - Wolkenreise (DJ Qu Remix)
13. David Durango - Mosaic
14. Vernon Bara & Igor Vicente - Don't Feel No Way
15. DeWalta - Farina
16. Masomenos – Sunsun

CD2

01. POD - Rozetta Says Bad Shit
02. Ark - Arkuarium
03. Exercise One - Prowl
04. Chaim feat. Meital De Razon - Alive (Deniz Kurtel Remix)
05. Ric Y Martin - Teiwass
06. Oni Ayhun - OAR001-A
07. Crosson & Merveille - No Hastel
08. Und - Rodeo
09. Dinky - This Is Your Heart
10. Dntel - Dreams (Lawrence Mix 02)
11. WestBoy - S L I V A (Chaim Remix)
12. Daniel Bortz & Sascha Sibler - Fantasy
13. Superpitcher - White Lightning
14. Radioactive Man – Fed-Ex To Munchen (Andrew Weatherall Version Edit)
15. Dinky - Time To Lose It

After more than a year in the making, nrk have announced seth troxler has mixed the next edition of the label’s in the lab series. due for release in october, it’s the detroit dandy’s second official mix cd following on from his boogybytes effort in february 2010. this time, though, the visionquest man has been allowed to stretch his legs over two cds.

he says… "my interpretation of the concept behind the lab series was to present ideas like a scientist working in some secret base off the cost of myanmar.... when night talk with spider monkeys has just gone too far, what do you do, whatʼs there left to do? i recorded this mix live using just decks and mixer (no ableton) in my friendʼs bedroom, which for many djs is their very own domestic lab. “

“disc one for me is somewhat of a straightforward mix of contemporary and classic house, a summary of my style, a little clip from this point in time, what iʼm know for and how i tend to present ideas when iʼm touring. for disc two i really wanted to showcase my interest in the wider landscape of electronic music outside of what i do in a club. i think this mix embodies that idea, not ableton-perfect, a little rough around the edges but interesting and human.."

having had a sneak preview i can tell you it’s worth getting excited about.... drifting through styles with purpose and groove, it smoothly swells and churns, builds and drops with a lively charisma. the second disc is more un-hinged and takes in intricate, broody sounds, otherworldly samples and weaves a tight, hypnotic thread from start to finish.

unlike has become the norm for many producers when tasked with compiling a mix, seth reaches far into his record bag throughout, calling on names from myriad scenes and not just his own. the results, typically, are beguiling…www.teshno.com

Lukid - Spitting Bile EP

1. My Teeth In Your Neck
2. Park It Low
3. Spitting Bile
4. Dragon Stout

Lukid is one of those producers we're in terrible danger of taking for granted, so consistently impressive and quietly radical are his releases, and so seemingly resistant is the man himself to 'the limelight'. Even by his high standards, the Spitting Bile EP is top banana: moving ever further away from the low-slung templates of his early work and channelling instead a mutant house variant that challenges the grid and refuses to stay fixed for long. 'My Teeth In Your Neck' and 'Park It Low' are broken, mournful slow-house jams reminiscent of Kassem Mosse and Actress's Hazyville, all woozy synthesizers and clotted, earthy FX, while the EP's title track and the lurchingly syncopated finisher 'Dragon Stout' are off-kilter enough to summon the lawless, lo-fi avant-techno of KPLR and Carlos Giffoni's No Fun Acid, but actually engineered with proper UK soundsystem heft, the latter coming over like classic Eski instrumental if Wiley had been on a mandrax and Philip K. Dick thing. Serious business from Lukid, firmly recommended...www.boomkat.com

The Heels Of Love - The Heels Of Love

01. Cosmo
02. Slow
03. First Steps (album mix)
04. Chain Gang
05. Quiet Please (Break & Synth edit)
06. Old Stuff
07. Groove It Up
08. Blue Gitanes
09. Getting Down
10. Grind Disco
11. The Beat
12. Fligth 707
13. Nite Time Ride

Milan based Heels Of Love is made up of Luca Saponaro (from Krautrock-Disco hybrids The Love Supreme) and Michele Tessadri (AKA Fratelli Riviera). The pair create incredible 80s tinged, earthy, synthesized music with healthy dose of real instrumentation. After the much praised single -Chain Gang on Nang last year, and some key releases on Mad on the Moon and Under the Shade labels, we are pleased to welcome The Heels of Love back for their first album and second release on Nang this July. After the syncopated clap rhythms and dubbed out keyboards of album opener -Cosmos, the album takes you on a ride through classic grooves reinvigorated with The Heels trademark sound, spaced out synths riffs, and the occasional downright-dirty bass line. Leading through the up-tempo vocal of Max Essa on -Chain Gang, you reach the woozy halftime jams in -Blue Gitanes, onto the stark funk of Dark Esquires vocal featuring on -The Beat, finishing up on the classy synth joint -Flight 707...www.decks.de

Femme En Fourrure - Bronco EP

1. Bronco
2. Smear
3. Bronco (Nguzunguzu Remix)
4. Bronco (Teeth Remix)
5. Bronco (Square Mode Remix)

The Finnish duo, Femme En Fourrure, just released their brand-new EP, “Bronco” on Top Billin Records. The EP so generously encircles 5 tracks: two originals from FEF themselves, alongside a few elevating remixes from Teeth, Square Mode, and the L.A. duo, Nguzunguzu. All very intriguing tracks in the house, techno, funk family!...www.xlr8r.com

Lee Foss - Turn Your Girl (The Remixes)

1. Your Turn Girl (Shonky & Dyed Soundorom Remix)
2. Pyramid Girl (Anthony Collins' ''Your Turn Girl Vs Pyramid Sheme'' Remix)
3. Things Fall Apart (Seuil's Remix)

A remix package this may be but it clearly falls under the Culprit mantra of exploring newground. Shonky and Dyed, though best friends in real life, pair up for only their second everjoint production. Anthony Collins not content with remixing one track, in fact delivers a truemélange, by remixing both Your Turn Girl and Pyramid Scheme into something wonderfullynew and different in Pyramid Girl. Seuil perhaps best know for his skittish, intricate rhythmsakin to Ricardo Villalobos, explores new territory with his remix of Things Fall Apart,showcasing an unexpected deep retro, New-Wave inspired sonic side of his palette. All fourartists effortlessly compliment Foss warm yet ominous funk...www.beatport.com

Fabric 59 by Jamie Jones

,
01. Hot Natured feat. Ali Love & Kenny Glasgow - Time Intro
02. Sebastien Tellier - La Ritournelle (Metronomy Mix)
03. James Teej - Don't Appear (Redux)
04. Coat Of Arms - Is This Something (Jones Fly Edit)
05. White Lions - DePalma
06. Karen Pollack - You Can't Touch Me (Murk Remix - Jones Fly Edit)
07. Cajmere feat. Jamie Principle - God Sent ('10)
08. Felix Da Housecat - Madame Hollywood
09. Waifs & Strays - Body Shiver
10. jennygoesdirty - Amoureux Solitaires
11. Hot Natured feat. Ali Love & Kenny Glasgow - Assimilation
12. Crazy P - Open For Service
13. Panthers - Goblin City (Holy Ghost Mix)
14. Oppenheimer Analysis - The Devil's Dancers
15. Jamie Jones - The Lows
16. soho808 - Get Up Disco
17. Footprintz - Fear Of Numbers

The UK producer/DJ is a central figure in a clique of DJs and producers that includes Seth Troxler, Lee Foss and Art Department, who purvey minimal house with a sultry and accessible edge. Unsurprisingly, Jones’ Fabric mix contains a healthy sprinkling of tracks from the Hot Creations label he runs with Lee Foss, as well as the Crosstown Rebels and Visionquest imprints with whom he enjoys close ties. Amidst all this there are a couple of curveball inclusions, such as the excellent Holy Ghost remix of Panthers and perhaps most intriguingly some classic UK cold wave from Veronica Vasicka’s Minimal Wave label.

When quizzed about the style he and his contemporaries had adopted, Jones said: “”It’s important to have something people can identify with. Someone said to me recently the good thing about mine, and the whole Hot Natured style, is it appeals to a wide age range, because the music is never too hard. It’s about having fun with music and never being serious. We’re about enjoying quality music, having fun with your friends and living and breathing the party and the music together.”...www.junodownload.com

Mark E - The Day

1. The Day
2. Special FX
3. The Day The Day (Prins Thomas Remix)

B-sides are often paths to alternate routes not taken. If "Special FX," the nominal B on this three-song EP, had been on Mark E's Stone Breaker, it might have been one of the album's best tracks. It's a simple, slow-burning groove that pays tribute to electro-flavored boogie (or even, given the way it slowly builds, New Order's more cooled-down approximations of the same) that feels more lived-in than approximated. There are just the basics: a couple of neon synths, some old rhythm boxes, an enthusiastic voice shouting the title into an echo box and deep-digging bass. Mark E doesn't do all that much to it, arrangement-wise, because he doesn't have to. It shimmers.

"The Day" ends Stone Breaker with a shuffle, its fluttering female vocal and plodding bass and late-coming string fills giving the album a cushiony landing but not the kind of thing that takes off as a single. Prins Thomas's eleven-and-a-half minute remix kicks off with a minute of the strings sweeping around, as if clearing the grounds for the mother ship to land. Instead of bombast, the groove is almost woody in feel—acoustic guitars, clopping drums (which eventually come to dominate the arrangement, as everything else falls away), and an ARP that sounds like it's being manipulated in real time. Recommended for camping trips...www.residentadvisor.net

Deniz Kurtel & Mykle Anthony – Best Of

1. Best Of
2. Best Of (Dixon Remix)
3. Best Of (Deniz's Freestyle Version)

Crosstown Rebels gets set to release the next single from one of the reigning queens of House music, Deniz Kurtel. ‘Best Of’, taken from her dazzling debut album ‘Music Watching Over Me’ is a stone cold dancefloor killer, honoured here in the remix by Berlin’s Innervisions founder, Dixon.

Radiating an aura of effortless cool, Deniz Kurtel is an artist with that innate ability to communicate beauty. Whether through the visual art of her alluring LED and mirror Sculptures/ installations seen glowing at Burning Man Festival and bedecking the Wolf + Lamb label parties or in the roughed up lustre of her music, Deniz’s work has an enveloping quality that is precise yet warm and undeniably sensual. Her debut LP out this year on Crosstown ‘Music Watching Over Me’ won scores of accolades from the global music press for its mood- enhancing ingenuity and was declared Album Of The Month and among the best albums of the year by DJ Mag and Mixmag respectively.

A weapon of choice for many a prolific DJ, ‘Best Of’ in its original form has been lighting up countless dancefloors over the past few months with its breathless work out in strutting deep house. Featuring the vocal talents of Mykle Anthony, who peals away the years back to 90s Chicago, it’s impossible not to be carried away by the charged currents of ‘Best Of.’ Fluid and tightly crafted with a criminally infectious bassline pumping against the juxtaposing strings, Deniz evokes the old school house sound with a fresh modernity that defines her stripped back elegant style.

Crosstown are thrilled to have on board for remix duty one of house and techno’s finest producers, Dixon. Having started the luminous deep house label Innervisions with Ame in his native Berlin, Dixon has carved a pristine reputation through his outstanding DJ sets, magical parties and remixing midas touch. For ‘Best Of’, Dixon ups the murk factor by driving deep gaps between the sonic elements and creating a warped warehouse creeper that builds into a techy electro stomper.

In the ‘Best Of Freestyle Version’, Deniz creates a totally different atmosphere of apparitions and haunting organ melodies. A playful mix of dubby textures, down-tempo rhythms and swirling synths, it displays her technical prowess and knack for delivering a range of deep, emotive sounds. With this increasing versatility, it seems Deniz Kurtel is only getting started...www.magma.fm

Martyn - Masks / Viper

01. Masks
02. Viper (Ghost People Edit)
03. Viper (London Arches Edit)

Eagerly anticipated return for Martyn, heralding his upcoming sophomore album on Brainfeeder. 'Masks' is suave, dynamic but rude-as-f*ck steppers' house, precision engineered to rough up dancefloors without breaking a sweat - istening to the pinched chords and pistoning, minimal drum-funk on this badboy makes pretty much all club gear we've heard this year sound a wee bit sluggish and toothless. 'Viper' appears in two versions: a kickless but still plenty 'floor-wrecking version that sound like Carl Craig with some post-junglist attitude, and then the trackier London Arches Edit. On the latter Martyn pays tribute to the ravers of SE1 with a radged-up 4/4 banger: the riffage is rudimentary, but the arrangement is complex and perfectly weight-distributed, excruciating tension and exquisite release wrought out of canny percussion edits, hectoring bleeps, low-flying strings and a groove as grimy as a club's toilet floor come 6am. Potent stuff...www.boomkat.com

K-S.H.E - Routes Not Roots

01. Down Home Kami-Sakunobe
02. Saki-chan (Pt.1)
03. Hobo Train
04. Fuck the Down-Low
05. B2B
06. Stand Up
07. Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair
08. Double Secret (Dub)
09. Saki-chan (Pt.2)
10. Crosstown
11. Head (In My Private Lounge, My Pad)
12. Infected

Terre Thaemlitz's Routes Not Roots was only released five years ago, and yet here we are with a reissue at the tail end of a comprehensive campaign by French label Skylax Records. Maybe the premature revisionism is appropriate in this case: the kind of sprawling, deconstructive house statement laid out on Routes Not Roots is decidedly pre-internet in the time it takes both to unfold its carefully layered tale and to properly invest in the mammoth album. Originally released on Thaemlitz's Comatonse platform, it was, until now, out of print, and admittedly Skylax have done a service in giving the album a second go after the wave of new interest in Thaemlitz following his 2008 album Midtown 120 Blues.

Stylistically, Routes Not Roots is the logical precursor to Midtown 120 Blues, spacious deep house built from the ghosts of New York house and garage and the disquieting technological anxiety of Tokyo. Though crafted with a more diverse set of samples and moods, Roots features embryonic iterations of the luscious deep blue depression that would come to define Midtown 120 Blues; Roots is rawer, redder and more volatile. The most obvious connection is "Hobo Train," where acoustic guitar, claustrophobic drum loops and dark, discordant piano form a whirring, propulsive rhythm that itself doesn't sound unlike a rocketing train. The track utilizes the same memorable speech sample as Midtown's "Sisters, I Don't Know What This World Is Coming To," which on that album was a synth-heavy aural landscape subverting the manic-depressive hope of "Train" into near-hopelessness.

That comparison sets the crucial difference that colours this album: Routes is lively and unpredictable. Here, Thaemlitz sets his ever-active conceptual sights on sexuality and "complicating origins," exemplified in its use of samples taken from country songs (making "black" out of "white" according to Thaemlitz). "Crosstown" stretches out over thirteen minutes, a chorus of excitable drums, shakers and shimmering chords, but the somewhat festive mood is dampened by the disturbed identity politics that circle repeatedly in the form of an unforgettable vocal sample. "You my bitch!/Nuh-uh, we are bitches" sounds defeatist in the context of overwhelming cultural oppression and suppression, the kind of intra-musical critical thought Thaemlitz is known for.

Routes Not Roots largely lives up to its mission, playing with and obscuring the origins and constructions of deep house music. The all-important house piano is plastered over the album, but it's always dark, dissonant and dreadful, staining the stimulant-addled shake of "B2B" and stomping unceremoniously over the gorgeous melody of opener "Down Home Kami Sakunobe." With the stream of lengthy house workouts interrupted by tense spoken interludes and ambient meanderings, Roots is also a transparent self-portrait of Thaemlitz, exorcising and fearlessly exhibiting every aspect and facet of his personality as it pours out in awkwardly sized, uneven chunks.

But that's what Routes Not Roots is all about: Thaemlitz makes his audience feel things, channeling every bit of pain, deprivation and release that led to house music's birth into what sounds like a rebirth, an idea he would go on to focus and perfect with Midtown 120 Blues. Even if it's a little meandering at times, imperfections or not, Routes is about one of the most unique and affecting house albums you'll ever hear...www.residentadvisor.net

Maurice Donovan - Babeh / Satisfied

a. Babeh
b. Satisfied

The 2nd SSSSS release heralds the much anticipated return of Ramdanman's fictitious Chicago alter ego, Maurice Donovan. He recently cropped up on a slick remix of Julio Bashmore's 'Everybody Needs A Theme Tune' but this time he's fully in control. On the A-side we get the horny holler of 'Babeh', a big, bad swinger with ass-pummeling bottom-end bobulations and teasing crescendos to give you a rush you'll remember. Flipside, 'Satisfied' takes Lil' Louis' girl and gives her something to moan about while churning up robust toms and ass-slapped snares to make you go for it. Bad-to-the-bone!!!...www.boomkat.com

Martyn & Mike Slott - Collabs Series No. 1

01 All Nights
02 Pointing Fingers

Martyn and Mike Slott collude on the first 12" of a collaborative series from All City. We'd guess there's a few of you breaking out in sweats already looking at the lineup, and the music should justify your giddiness. 'All Nights' is a seriously good-looking swagger-House riddim, all buff dub chords, rumping subs and a deadly percussive palette of slinking bells, slicing snares and densely padded kicks. If the Martyn influence is clear in that one, then 'Pointing Fingers' belies a fair input from Mike Slott, set to a grooving mid-tempo swing with cosmic harp and synth interplay on a Flying Lotus tip. Heavy...www.boomkat.com

Bakey Ustl - EP 1

01] A Tender Place
02] Nose Candy
03] Heroin

Floor-killing House music from Firecracker's new sublabel, dropping the hugely in-demand heat of Bakey Ustl's 'A Tender Places'. This cut has been receiving much attention of late in the sets of Jackmaster, Ben UFO and Joy Orbison, sounding like some crazy scientist with a Dance Mania addiction splicing Soundhack and Moodymann just for the hell of it. We've not heard a House record this deranged all year, and it's on clear vinyl with a very special cut to boot. Kudos! Flip it and you'll find the slightly more simmering vibes of 'Nose Candy'. Together with the limited edition, screen-printed artwork and Japanese plastic sleeve, this is every bit the connoisseur's wet dream - pressed up in strictly limited numbers so act fast...www.boomkat.com

Sound Stream - All Night

A1 All Night
B1 Tease Me
B2 Deeper love

We knew it was coming, we just didn't know it would take this long. It's been well over a year since Tama Sumo closed her Panorama Bar mix CD with "All Night," prompting speculation that a fifth instalment to Sound Stream's definitive series of cut-up disco-house was soon on its way. After all but vanishing from memory, its official release now feels like an unexpected tax rebate.

There are no surprises here: all three tracks are like any other previously released. But it's hard to think of a producer currently who slices, dices and loops in the same devastatingly effective manner as Frank Timm. The lead track on this record is a fine example of his approach: take one bar of disco with shiny Rhodes chords, loop it, hold that tension, drop a large house chug, save a moment of melodic breakdown for decoration. The simple technique has become iconic and that's why his records are indispensable. Of course, "Tease Me" and "Deeper Love" are cut with familiar scissors, although the respective, loungier string-centric and wah-wah loops aren't as likely to perk up a flagging dance floor in the same way as the thumb-slap bass on "All Night" certainly will...www.residentadvisor.net