phat 90s inspired deep house

react 2 rhythm puts a stream of classic leftfield inspired house * big room electronic house*

las vegas legend singer, comedian and actor !

analog synths meet confessional folk on the debut album from matthew o’connell aka chorusing.

when i first stumbled across mix tapes out of hamburgs seminal front club (with klaus stockhausen and boris dlugosch at the helm) during the glorious and carefree early days of the popularized internet, there were certain tracks on them that struck a chord. in fact there was one specifically, i couldnt stop listening to. the mixture of an infectious bass line, a super sharp snare, music and harmony vocal snippets, happy claps and synths lines that evoked pictures of a convertible going down a coastline, and - to top it all off - a tribal chant, was irresistible. after some intensive track-id-hunting pre-shazam, i found out that the heaven-sent hymn was music by an act called syncbeat. originally released in 1984 during the craze that was called uk electro via street sounds resp. streetwave and later licensed to german omnivore zyx records. a joint venture between the electro-funk mastermind,dj pioneer and edit maestro greg wilson as well as manchester musicians martin jackson & andy connell, it is exactly that type of dance track that eludes any classification - as you can see from my description above. or to cite greg wilson himself from one of his essays on the subject of uk electro: the track that received the best response was music by syncbeat, which was full of good vibes and could have easily been re-vamped down the line as a house track.

catherine and gerald o-connell s work as lives of angels quietly and subtly helped to define a whole generation of post-punkers for the greater part of the 1980s. much like other luminaries of the scene at the time, the couple have remained in the shadows of time, highly praised by the collectors but barely ever cited by the mainstream, and if that s not punk then we don t know what is. dark entries are doing the honours of course, and the imprint have managed to license a whole bag of previously released and unreleased material, the former from a bunch of dusty cassettes which are now going for gold on the second-hand market. this was the era of the drum machine, and these 11 tunes are all carried by that unmistakable analogue swing, at times harsh and leaning into something tech-minded, and at other times playful and quirky, a tendency which defined this outfit and the time in which they operated. what a record, this is another dark entries monster

ele returns with ha noi nights, a collection of dusty jazz samples and soulful grooves inspired by the distinct tapestry of street culture pulsating through the capital. the opening track rush recalls our affection of groove chronicles 90 s garage sound, before repelete and bini take centre stage with their infectious soulful summer beauty legislate . resonating with fans of james mason s bassline in the monster nightgruv , the b side welcomes rhythm sections contours and saxophonist callum connell who turn towards the later hours with night shift . finally, sameed returns to the dusty jazz formula with someone like me an infectious blissful sound, built around jazz samples and rhodes solos.

fatdog records returns after a break, offering contributions from 3 artists new to the label - the rutan, tom mc connell and mark hand. fdr003 offers a development from the deep house template on the last ep, this time taking us further into deeper detroit territories. mark hand offers us drexciyan techno in the form of cold feet. the rutans fable sits somewhere between vakula and some of henrik schwarzs earlier dub-house experiments, while fat dog takes us to the murky back alleys of his mind with jaffa cakes. finally tom mc.connells juniper takes us into wonkier groove rhodes stylings which rounds off the ep very nicely indeed. support by john heckle, afrikan sciences, lay-far, enrico (neroli), sonars ghost (2000 black), burnski, wolf music

1990. england. a revolution is building across the uk. dilapidated warehouses and factories come to life at night. euphoric teens defy police bans and cordons to embrace life and the dancefloor. acid house has arrived and friends matt (henry lloyd-hughes – >the in-betweeners<) and dylan (jack o connell – >skins<) are at the heart of it. this is their story. welcome to >weekender< – a brand new film that documents the rise of house music and rave culture in the uk in the late 1980s/early 90s.the vinyl offering contains 3 exclusive new edits of seminal acid house anthems >move your body (the house music anthem)< by terry farley & leo zero plus >baby wants to ride< by miles simpson & neville watson

as intergal member of britains funky hoyuse scene for over a decade, paul gardner, one part of the soul avengerz, releases his new imprint worldwide on milk & sugar recordings. alongside his soul avengerz partner wayne o connell he put out a big number of productions and remixes in the past for famous record labels like cr2, positiva, hed kandi, island records and many more. some of them, like asbos >let the beat hit em< or james domans >everything s gonna be alright< became worldwide clubhits and created a huge request for paul gardners and wayne o connells dj and production skills. together with his vocalist peyton, paul gardner put his hands on one of the biggest house tunes of all times, dj sneaks 1997 slammer >u cant hide<

integral members of the funky house scene for well over a decade, soul avengerz state their mission as simply >to create feel good funky house for the music connoisseur.< dj/producers paul gardner and wayne o connell exude true passion about the scene, testament to their many nights of gigs and hours spent in the studio. >we are, and have been for years and years, true house lovers of a funky style,< says paul. >we play it, we make it, we love it! music is about having fun and thats what we do, and we believe it shows in our productions.…<