VA – From Hell With Love [LIH016]

Eight tracks blend the boundaries between original productions, illicit remixes and straight re-edits. There’s a celebratory, life-affirming feel throughout, from the rubbery bass, D-Train synths and rolling house grooves of Giovanni Damico’s ”The Break Down”, to the bluesy deep house brilliance of Borrowed Identity’s ”Queens Bridge”. Highlights are plentiful elsewhere, too, from the hustlin’ electrofunk-meets-disco of Vogel’s own ”Come On”, to the killer synth solos and fuzzy bits of Tim Jules’ thrilling ”Slap Beat”.

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VA – From Hell With Love [LIH016]

VA – Chicago Service [LIH010]

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Here’s the pitch: ask six of Chicago’s finest exponents of bumping house and pitched down disco cuts to contribute some of their finest works, blend them all together and present in the appropriate space either side of two 12″ slabs. What’s the end product? The rather hot looking Chicago Service from the Amsterdam label Lumberjacks in Hell which features a merry cast of the city’s finest in Gene Hunt, Rahaan, Jamie 3:26, Cratebug, Hugo H and Boogie Nite across two hot plates.

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VA – Chicago Service [LIH010]

Jamie 3:26 / Boogie Nite – Do The Mickey [LIH007]

This latest missive from the Lumberjacks label features a mixed bag of reliably groovesome oddities. There’s the disco-jazz madness of Jamie 3:26’s “Can You Feel It”, and three wide-eyed bangers from the unknown Boogie Nite. Of these, the most obviously upbeat is the loopy funk/soul strut of “Do Your Thang” and James Brown-ish “Sexy Sexy Sexy”. Most interesting of all, though is “Earth Calling Mickey”, a Balearic disco weird-out that sits somewhere between oddball house and head-nodding disco.

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Jamie 3:26 / Boogie Nite – Do The Mickey [LIH007]