Paraphrasing the Soul Sonic Force and sorting through today`s releases for tunes that could have graced Alfredo Fiorito & Leo Mas’ Amnesia dance-floor…

East Coast Love Affair – Tonight – Athens Of The North

East Coast Love Affair team up with vocalist, Theo Suess, for a cut of classic, yet forward thinking deep house. Titled Tonight, a frantically, flickering electro rhythm races away beneath the Theo’s fragile falsetto, and the techno-edged tones had me reaching for stuff on Chez N Trent’s Prescription Records for reference – seminal Balance sides like Forever Monna. Machined, but most definitely soulful, this is sensual post-midnight music for an enlightened / refreshed AM dancefloor moment. 

Benedikt Frey – Lost Control – Emotional Response

The Berlin-based Benedikt Frey debuts on Emotional Response with a, to my ears at least, fairly respectful, faithful Joy Division cover. Still very much post-punk in feel – it’s still an obsidian affair, serenaded by icy synths – Lost Control is softened, slightly, by swapping Ian Curtis for Carla Koller on vocals. The real draw, however, are the dubs. Benedikt’s lick strips things back to the live drums and pummelling, pulsating electronic bass. Marimba runs interrupting the delicious darkness. Lucas Croon then, initially, dramatically drops the tempo, and pushes Carla to the fore. Separating the now slo-mo instrumentation, so that it’s strung out in echo, before finally lifting the BPMs with a tribal tom tom attack. 

Future Sound Of London – Pulse 5 – De:Tuned

Future Sound Of London help Belgium’s De:Tuned celebrate 15 years in business by dusting off some of their previously unreleased early `90s DATs. Two tracks, for now, trailer a total of 8, which will be released as a 2 x 12 package in 2024. The first, Honesty, was recorded under the FSOL moniker, and shakes its stuff somewhere between tribal techno and progressive house. Built around big rolling beats, grumbling, grungy rock bass-line, and a pan-pipe like melody, the track is definitely a relative of the duo’s classic, Papua New Guinea. A hit of haunting, hypnotic rave, it explodes into shamanic shrieks, which may well be a(nother) Dead Can Dance sample. There are also echoes of the “ethno-industrial” of folks like O Yuki Conjugate. The second song, Man Shall Be Conditioned, recorded this time as Yage, is also industrial edged, a sort of clanking and rattling go-go. A downtempo chugger, in the vein of J. Saul Kane’s Depth Charge, where the sonar blips are swapped for samples from Kraftwerk’s House Phone. 

Richard Norris – Oracle Sound Volume 2 – Group Mind

Richard Norris readies Volume 2 of his reggae / dub project, Oracle Sound, and promos a couple of cuts from a forthcoming 12. Regal Dub is a nice slice of slow FM synthesis skanking. A serenade of two duetting b-lines, and elegantly echoed keys. Stronger Together is more fleshed out, featuring snatches of melodica and brass, plus a jazz-inflected vocal. Revolving around this late night, loved-up mantra – “Think of us as one, we stay stronger when we are together” – the results are poppier, “Balearic”, and recall Prince Fatty’s hits with Holly Cook, while the treated voice also shares something with Burial’s ethereal ghosts of yesterday’s rave remembered.  

Projections – Talking In Your Sleep – Ritual Release

California-based dudes, Projections, perhaps with their tongues in their cheeks, cover the early `80s chart topper, Talking In Your Sleep. Originally written and recorded by The Romantics, a band, who began life in Detroit, inspired by The Stooges and The MC5, the song’s previously been “versioned” by UK Eurovision winners, Bucks Fizz, and has featured in both Netflix’s Stranger Things, and the game, Five Nights At Freddy’s – where it’s performed by the central group of homicidal / psychotic animatronic animals. Projections play it straight, though, and their take is a perfectly produced piece of nu disco, starring vocalist, Tamara Lee. A poppy, party-starting sing-along, in a Crazy P / Midnight Magic / Beam Me Up stylee. There’s a blissed-out “Balearic” mix, which is a dreamier drift, full of picked 6-string action, and swooning orchestration. The rhythm reduced to brushed drums. A Midnight mix is darker, stripped back, house-ier, throbbing, like something on Big Shot, until it launches into a prog-y, acidic finale. 

Robert’s Diary – Dinky Bird – Is It Balearic?

French producer Jerome Barresi assumes the alias Robert’s Diary, and delivers his Dinky Bird to Is It Balearic? A four track E.P., where the titular tune is the standout. Opening with a kinda gospel acapella, the song is a sorta New Orleans nursery rhyme set to big, but gentle, piano chords and sparse percussion. The congregation joining in on hand-claps. Symphonic strings, and dancing flute-like frequencies complete this superior shot of jazzy downtempo, which could easily have slotted into Jose Padilla’s mid-90s sets, and compilations. It’s also the type of thing that Gilles Peterson used to champion on his Sunday night show on Kiss FM. Norwegian Bjørn Torske takes charge of the remix. His dancefloor dub rattles away, in reverb and delay. The bottom end growling. The keys caught in echoed cascades. 

Soul II Soul – Nothing Compares To You – Funki Dreds

Soul II Soul pay tribute to Sinead O’Connor with a cover of the Prince song that she’s synonymous with. Sinead’s version was produced by Nellee Hooper, who was a member of Soul II Soul at the time. On paper this might sound like it’s gonna be a bit cheesy, but I actually found it incredibly touching. While Nadine Caesar’s vocal stays pretty true to Sinead’s reading, remixed by UK reggae legends, Mafia & Fluxy, the song becomes a light rocksteady skank. It’s playful strings doing pretty pirouettes, and recalling the cheerful chamber music mutations of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. There’s a beast of a bionic bottom end though, which is giving full digi reign on the dub.