Reign of Drums/Gave Up The Dance by X-Press 2 – Skint Twenty years in and still going strong, X-Press 2’s influence on dance music runs far and wide, just as their appetite for music seems unabated. Residents at Brighton’s Skint since the monstrous AC/DC in 2000, the pairing’s...

Ray Okpara is a German DJ and producer whose star has been in the ascendancy since the middle of the last decade. The Mannheim artist was part of a group of producers that emerged from the city’s scene at the time, and his groove-led, deep house won him acclaim with releases on Oslo and...

Clock Opera may have only existed back in early 2009 as Guy Connelly’s project to coalesce the whirling sounds of his head into discernible tracks, but the four-piece that Clock Opera have morphed into in the intervening years have gone beyond gigs at festival ‘introducing’ stages to a...

The Inflated EP by Mr Ho – Klasse Recordings With the avalanche of polished, pristine house music that has come with the digital age, it’s quite reassuring hearing a record that sounds like it was pressed on thick, musty vinyl and bought from a smoke-filled backstreet record shop. In...

You Gotta Be by Geddes – Mobilee As the Berlin label approaches its landmark 100th release, it looks to London to close out the 90s, with their latest EP taking the form of a trio of housers from London stalwart Geddes. The Mulletover man was putting on warehouse parties in the middle of...

Kontrol EP by Hugo Barritt – Vitalik Despite what the hype machine may have you believe, thankfully not every aspiring producer and DJ that comes to Europe ends up in Berlin. Aside the trends of the last few years, London still draws many to the capital, and in the case of Kiwi Hugo...

Head First Then Heart by Flowers and Sea Creatures – Buzzin Fly Ben Watt’s Buzzin’ Fly’s house may be built on four-four foundations, but there’s always been more than ample space for diversions from this path, and the label head has shown himself to be a shrewd ear for more...

Golden Dawn by Ben Rau – Luna Records Paul Bowen’s Luna Records sits like a beacon in the north east of England, railing against the traditional London/Manchester/Leeds triptych with its own slant on deep and all-enveloping house music. Now in its third year, it’s played the long...

Secret Moon by Klartraum – Lucidflow Nadja Lind and Helmut Ebritsch’s five year journey as Klartraum sits comfortably outside the average Berlin artist’s party-after party-studio-party stencil, and it’s one that’s taken their production partnership and resultant Lucidflow label...