Unreleased material by Chicago’s great Vincent Floyd. Early works, mastered from the original DAT tapes. Electronic soul classics, now available for the first time. All tracks are drowned with warm leads, dreamy drums and dragging melodies.
chicago house
Brad Peterson – Virtual Headspace [7SR025]
Brad Peterson delivers the 25th release from Glasgow’s 7th Sign Recordings. The imprint is back with a bang as Scotland-based American producer Brad Peterson, serves up deep and spiritual sounds with shades of Larry Heard interwoven with the unique, abstract, thoughtful, groovy sound that is all his own. A powerful remix by house music hero Neville Watson completes this fine addition to the remarkable 7th Sign catalogue.
Simoncino – Dreams Of Konders [CR1277]
Italian producer and classic Chicago house student Simoncino returns once more to Creme Organization for four tracks made using a wealth of Roland machines. Opener ‘Meggaton’ is a sombre, downbeat house affair with a doom laden one note bass sound that reverbs forever. The title track surely named in homage to legendary New York City producer Bobby Konders is a snaking, spiritual deep house jam shrouded in mystery and fuzzy textures that puts most ‘deep’ house to shame. On the flip, ‘Pyramids’ is a stuttering, staggering percussive house jam that builds pressure before relieving it with some seriously emotional synths, then ‘Space Is The Place’ wallows down low in a thick baseline, is paired with crisp and icy hi hats and exposes some nicely starry night skies up top.
Mituo Shiomi – Japanese Tape [HM014]
Straight up deep, analog steez from the promising Japanese producer Mituo Shiomi. Five tracks in all, ranging from the heads-down jams to more melodic cuts. Retro nu-Chicago analog house tracks with this Japanese twist.
Traxx @ Nation Nite, Concrete (Paris) 03.10.2014
VA – The House That Jackmaster Hater Built [STILLMDCD012]
Jerome Derradji is gaining something of a reputation as one of Chicago’s premier house archivists, having previously released compilations celebrating some of the Windy City’s most influential – but previously overlooked – labels. Here he’s teamed up with KStarke Records boss Kevin Starke to deliver a two-track set largely made up of material found on tapes that were once traded between Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardy and other legendary Chicago DJs. Confusingly much of the material credited to Jackmaster Hater is of unknown origin, while there plenty of other unearthed gems with little or no information. Thankfully, the material – largely mid-to-late ’80s jack and early acid, with a sprinkling of deep house and Italo-influenced fare – is uniformly excellent, making it a “must buy” for anyone with a passion for early house music.
Chicago Jim – Chicago Jim LP [LT008]
The Lobster Theremin label is finally ready to make the move to the full-length format. Interestingly, this first LP – a double album, no less – comes from a largely unheralded source, former Vancouver resident Chicago Jim (AKA Space Jim). Chicago Jim replicates the contents of his self-released 2012 cassette of the same name, bringing his blend of Larry Heard-inspired analogue deep house and stargazing ambience to vinyl for the first time. With nods to Heard’s recently reissued Alien LP, early Transmat and Virgo Four style acid house, it’s an analogue-only set – recorded mostly using vintage kit – that ebbs and flows with great emotional intent.
Paradise Box – Reel Nitty Gritty EP [EVR016]
Fresh from his outing on Inkswel’s Hot Shot Sounds label, ex UK now Melbourne based artist Paradise Box brings four freeform Nu Groove style excursions to Echovolt, flipping the quintessential house acapella on Reel Nitty Gritty into a Burrell Brothers style banger. The other tracks touch on Virgo Four, Mr Fingers and classic WBMX style hardware soul, making a virtue of idiosyncrasy and showcasing the fallibilities of the human touch. The whole EP harks back to an era where having limited means meant that loose and expressive soulful endeavor was pursued over high production values and rigid conformism.
Mick Wills @ Nation Night, Concrete (Paris) 03.10.2014
Jeremiah R. – Underwater Title [TABR028]
The somewhat mysterious Jeremiah R. is steadily earning a reputation for putting out quality electro. Having first surfaced on London label Organic Analogue, Jeremiah R now boosts his profile further with a seven-track mini-album on the supreme Tabernacle operation which shines further light on his Drexciyan inspirations. It’s not all deranged synths and brittle snares shots though, with tracks “Far Sight” and “Twin Paradox” suiting the Tabernacle mould of jacking, Chicago-themed house music.
VA – RDY #17 (Ron Hardy Edits) [RDY017]
Santos – Beat The Knuckles, Fiona Franklyn – Busted Up On Love, Ron Hardy – Sensation (unreleased mix 1).
Ricardo Miranda – Up On The Scene EP [RAWAX007LTD]
Spacey deep house release by Ricardo Miranda on Rawax Limited. Includes a drumtrack on the flip.
The It – The It EP [ML2229]
Alleviated Records is proud to present the latest ep release from THE IT. Produced by Larry Heard (a.k.a. Mr. Fingers, Loosefingers, etc.) and featuring the unique vocal poetry stylings of Harry Dennis, whom fans will also know from his releases under the moniker of ”Jungle Wonz.” We hope that djs, dancers and listeners will enjoy this set of 4 selections with music composed by Larry.
Scott Ferguson – Keep It Deep Podcast 010
Giorgio Luceri – Pherenike EP [DAS007]
Ron Trent – 7th Heaven – Tribute To The Memory Of Frankie Knuckles [EB004]
Nick Anthony Simoncino feat. Robert Owens – Some People EP [TRA028]
Italian producer & Hot Mix label boss Nick Anthony Simoncino is back with “Some People”, a collaboration with Chicago’s legendary House vocalist Robert Owens. Simoncino’s 3 original mixes sound just like tracks lifted off lost EP’s straight from the mid 80’s with deep, melancholy synths, driving analogue drum machine sounds and Owen’s yearning vocal performance coming together beautifully while showing off Simoncino’s versatility as a producer. “Some People” is perfect late night House music with a classic sensibility, for the deepest hours of the night or the morning. On remix duties we have the UK’s very own Chamboche who delivers a deep, rolling version of “Some People” keeping things nice and stripped back and adding a dubby quality to his mix while Finnish new school House head Trevor Deep Jr’s “Warehouse Mix” keeps Owen’s vocals right up-front with some killer drum programming and percussion rounding out the EP while keeping the old school vibe firmly anchored to the dance-floor.
Andreas Gehm aka Elec Pt.1 – Voodoo Wolf [CCC514]
Six nu-jack/acid trax by the Gehm. Voodoo Wolf features a sextet of stripped-back machine jams, which range from the spooky acid house of “Warming To The Galaxy” and ragging, Steve Poindexter-meets-Phuture wildness of “If I Was”, to the riotous, Dancemania-ish ghetto-house revelry of “Clap Your Hands” and the Larry Heard-ish melancholia of “77-88”.
Perseus Traxx – Schwein Hogcast 07
Chicago Skyway – EP Fall Down [MDREAMS014]
New release on Machining Dreams, this time from Chicago Skyway who is rocking with a 6 track release called EP Fall Down. Five beat tracks and 1 deep house tune that has come to be Skyway’s signature sound over the years. Classic in the sense that beat tracks have formed the glue between styles in many djs bags. Skyway use of arrangement and familiar drum kits will sure to bring the nostalgia back to the djs who were in it before the technology revolution and interest to the djs who came after it.
The Hipodrome Of Music 