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featured deep house: 6th august |
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JUS ED - Next Level (Underground Quality US)
Jus Ed has been crazily prolific since his debut album Carnival House surfaced in 2005 and across ten tracks, his second album Next Level demonstrates the depth of the Connecticut producer's knowledge of house music. Opening track "I'm Coming" grabs your attention the moment the raw sound of Jus Ed's voice bursts through the distinctive crunch of drums and elastic melodies. From there on your senses are treated to a variety of musical emotions as the buoyant synths of "Strings From The Hood" are sandwiched between the brooding retro acid of "20 Below" and the playful energetic jack of "Marco's Love". It's this latter track which impresses the most until you reach the gloriously mis-titled "SHIT". Anything but, across ten minutes the track hypnotises with gliding melodic builds towering over deep percussive syncopations.
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VARIOUS - Bitches Brew House (Bitches Brew)
With the onset of a new decade, Bitches Brew have decided to pilfer their archives and digitally re-release some long out of print classics via a compilation series to engage the ears of a new generation. Nominally splitting these compilations into genre categories, the sultrier end of Bitches Brew was already covered via their Bitches Brew Nu Soul release, with the focus here squarely on house music. Nicholas Matar's splendid Cielo dub of "The Real Thing" by Bamba (one of many aliases for BB boss Cosmo) sets the mood nicely with swift fingered piano atop a loose limbered bassline and driving jazzy percussion. Jimpster's talent for oven warm basslines, interesting melodic touches and off kilter drum patterns is demonstrated aptly on his remix of Jinadu's "Turning The Tide". It's this and the appearance of "Natural Thing" from Jinadu which are perhaps the focal points of this label retrospective with Jinadu's distinctive croon riding a soaring broken groove with nonchalant ease.
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ELEF - Be My Friend EP (Consistent)
Elef rocks up on Hamburg imprint Consistent after impressing for Hypercolour earlier in 2010. Across five tracks the rising star of German deep house demonstrates an already comprehensive understanding of house music mechanics. The EP's title track sets the pace with late night keys atop a rumbling groove that is endowed with energy by the scattergun vocal edits. "Panama Express" serves further notice of Elef's potential, the raw jacking dynamism propelled along by subtle manipulation of vocal samples and hypnotic chord patterns. "Sweatin" applies the same template but in a more stripped back manner, as two note melodies and vocal stabs are implemented with allure in the build up to the inevitable drop into a glorious refrain.
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MARLON D - Underground Collective In Colombia (Underground Collective US)
Underground Collective stalwart Marlon D takes a break from working with legendary producer Jellybean Benetiz to drop this near album's worth of lovely house music inspired by his Columbian heritage. Whilst the soft rock sax of "Heavens Saxophone" veers close to fromage, the dub mix levels matters out crafting a heavy bass groove. A preference for heavy percussion is on display throughout as you'd expect with three variations on "Trust The Drumz". The relentless multi layered groove of "Bless The Columbian Drum" impresses the most with the understated soaring thump of "Deep Trust" providing a stripped back contrast.
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POSTINO - Attention (Postino)
Postino is back for more jazzy deepness on his own self titled imprint - imagine a contemporary St Germain without the coffee table overtones and you've got the South Korean's style in a nutshell. "Attention" starts off with a glitchy melody and cut up vocals before dropping into the shuffling percussion and double bass groove which is central to track. Slick kicks, vocal harmonies and intermittent bursts of sax keep the energy high. Diwali clapping rhythms usher in the "Damn Hot remix" before things get progressively peak time. The "Chilly Remix" cloaks the track in an electro house groove but it's the original that impresses most. Lovely release.
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UNDERGROUND QUALITY: BACK CATALOGUE JUS' ADDED...
FEATURED DEEP HOUSE DJ CHARTS
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