Session Victim drop the tempo and go all after-hours on their Low Key, Low Pressure. Elado remixes Nadeem Khan’s Bollywood boogie. Howard Dodd revives his Anoesis alias for Cyphon. Andy Bainbridge releases his solo debut on Not An Animal. The cream of the UK can’s house and broken scene give David Schwartz’s expansive Detroit Rising project a good going over. Anna Cavazos gets piano-tastic on Love Interlude. Foundation Music license an E.P. from the force of nature that is Johnny Dangerous…

Super selections and wonderful words by our favourite four-to-the-floor expert, The Insider. 

SESSION VICTIM / LOW KEY, LOW PRESSURE / NIGHT TIME STORIES 

Highly impressive sonic scenes here from Session Victim, who come up trumps with their new album, Low Key, Low Pressure. The German underground experimentalists dabble with a whole range of fresh sounds, tempos, and textures, while staying deep and highly musical thoughout. The jams are full of atmosphere, and take in not their usual house, but instead jazz, trip hop, and head-y grooves, designed for smoke-saturated rooms, altered states, and hazy after hours. A collection of slow burning head-nodders that will hit you in all the right places. Even though the LP steps well away from what we might normally associate with the Neukölln duo, this is undoubtedly 100% Session Victim to the core. My personal highlight is Porchless. Ooff! 

NADEEM KHAN / TU TAK TU TAK TUTIYAN (ELADO REMIX) / RAZOR-N-TAPE 

Nadeem Khan originally released Tu Tak Tu Tak Tutiyan back in 1990. The Hindustani, synth pop classic was out on Rena Records as part of an album of the same name. The track spent time whipping up a frenzy in Bollywood, before being dug out by some expert deep vinyl excavators, and doing the rounds on the beard-stroking DJ / collector circuit. Tel Aviv’s Elado had been playing out his own dubby acidic edits of the OG for some time. After seeing how it made his dancefloors erupt in pure happiness and total joy, he took these edits to Razor-N-Tape who have now pressed it on a 7” for our listening pleasure. The original CD sleeve art has been used as a homage to the first release. 

ANOESIS / STASISLOGUE / CYPHON RECORDINGS 

Cyphon continues to make strides and build momentum with its run of groundbreaking and peerless electronica. Keeping the quality and the innovation high, Anoesis is up next with his Stasislogue E.P. Anoesis, the UK based producer Howard Dodd, has been out of the limelight for 20 years or so, but he’s back with a bang, and a lesson in how to make mindwarping IDM, house, and electro. Having put out some killer cuts on labels like D*Fusion back in the late `90s, Dodd hasn’t lost the knack of making music that freaks out folks and makes dancers, well, dance. Callisto is the cut for me. It’s deep, jazzy, Detroit-inspired, and demonstrates a depth and understanding of someone who really knows what they’re doing in a studio.

ANDY BAINBRIDGE / UP TOO MUCH / NOT AN ANIMAL 

Not An Animal releases come once in a blue moon, but when they appear they are special. The imprint was born out of hedonistic East London parties run by Chris Stoker and Andy Bainbridge, under the banner Bad Passion. When the parties came to an end, the leftfield label rose out of the ashes, and it’s now on its 19^th release.  Up Too Much – a rough, ready, and raw late-night cut for maximum heads down stomping – is Andy’s solo debut. Donald’s House and Komodo provide a pair of spectacular remixes but it’s the OG that’s really doing it for me. Hypnotic and mind-bending. Hallucinogenic’s were most definitely involved.

DETROIT RISING / ROCKET LOVE REMIXED / DOWN JAZZ

In 2018, David Scwartz of Down Jazz Records pulled together Detroit Rising. The collective, made up of industry gods – including George Clinton’s granddaughter Tonysha Nelson and folks who’ve played with Parliament-Funkadelic, Prince, Public Enemy and Mary J Blige – put out an album entitled A Cosmic Jazz Funk Adventure. The set included sessions recorded live at several locations, such as Detroit’s Motown Studios. Selected tracks have now been taken and remixed by some heavy UK producers. Jimspter tackles Rocket Love, with a re-tweak and also a dub, while Bristol’s Sean McCabe injects the sun in to Little Bit of Love. Keyboard wiz Kaidi Tatham reworks Our World, plus Peace & Harmony, while London Co-op artist, EVM 128, adds so much swagger to Gorgeous that there’s simply not enough space on this page to fully describe its effect! To top off this starry affair, all tracks are mastered by the legendary Martin Atjazz. 

ANNA CAVAZOS / LOVE INTERLUDE / LITTLE GIANT

After tasting success as an in-demand vocalist, working with top talent like Sandy Riviera and Bah Samba, Anna Cavazos kicked off her own DJ career. Soaking up vibes from these aforementioned masters, Anna then moved into the studio herself. Her productions have included collaborations with Eli Escobar and Satoshi Tomiie, and been hosted on respected labels like King Street, Madhouse and Nite Grooves. Here Anna steps up on her own imprint, Little Giant, which she founded in 2016. Love Interlude is a piano heavy, melancholic house cut soaked in warm and soulful tones. Melodic and dreamy, it channels Kerri Chandler in places, while also being warm, luscious, and uplifting. The track gets a rework by New York’s leading lady Rissia Garcia, while German DJ, and jazz pianist, Matthias Vogt, also has a stab. The final remix comes via super heavyweight, Rick Wade, whose version radiates pure New York basement vibes! 

FOREMOST POETS / THE FLOWERS / FOUNDATION MUSIC

Foremost Poets is Johnny Dangerous. “Innovative”, “creative”, “genius”, are just some of the words people used to describe Johnny, who is one of house music’s outliers. This E.P., on Foundation Music, adds to his legacy of classy leftfield heaters. I have so many memories of this man’s music, from the original release of the stone-cold classic, Reasons To Be Dismal, on Nu Groove – now reissued here – his political A-bomb, Problem 13 (I Beat That Bitch With A Bat), The Vision on Nervous, to King Of Clubs on King Street. Far too many to mention! His new track, Flowers In The Attic, is exactly the kind of idiosyncratic missive that makes him, the coolest cat of house music, such a vital and welcome presence in a scene drowning in generic beats. The broken rhythms and maverick arrangement of closing cut, Don’t Shut Your Eyes, is also monumentally fantastic. Reasons to be Dismal sadly seems too appropriate with what’s going on in the world this week.