The Skylax affiliated Warehouse Classics series has always taken an authentically old-fashioned approach to the humble re-edit, serving up chopped and looped versions inspired by the loose, drum-machine heavy reworks of original Chicago house masters such as Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles. This fourth volume, the first from label boss Hardrock Striker, continues in this vein. Amongst the four tracks you’ll find a slamming early house gem (the clean kick drums, metallic hits and chiming melodies of “Mano a Mano”), a brilliantly teasted and tweaked Ready for the World revision (“Shyla”, where the French producer builds the drums before dropping into the vocals), and what sounds like a Paul Weller/Jam/Style Council rework (the undulating Balearic funk of “Precious Thang”).

listen