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

&Co. / Staycation / Quiet Village

This is a 2-track 12 from the trio of Alberto Bof, Alex Olson and Paul Takahashi. Both numbers originating from sessions that took place a decade ago. Lean Like A Cello is house from the left field. The strings of its title dramatically cutting the tune’s banging, synth pop bass-line and 4 / 4 kick. Topped off with piano that has a classic 80s Italo feel to it, the results are deep, but robo-disco enough, perhaps, for ALFOS. 

On the flip, Liquor Run is quite a contrast. A ball of busy, bleeping electronics that bristles with punk energy. Angular and fidgeting furiously, it spins around an electro-disco express train rhythm. Shaken by the metallic ringing of big, dubbed out guitar arcs. The instrument urgent, twisted, bent into strange shapes. Pinched into short, sharp, percussive clips. Delay shattering it into showering shards. 

Kenneth Bager / What’s The Frequency Kenneth / Music For Dreams

Kenneth Bager remixes an R.E.M. classic to create a rocking, bongo-ed signature tune. Full of 89 / 90 Balearic Beat riffing, this might be a bit cheesy, perhaps for today’s tastes, but way back when / then it would certainly have had me barmily banging a tambourine and shaking my Charles The First locks at the Soho Theatre Club. Chopped, chugging and electric axe shredding, file next to Figures On A Beach, Iggy & The Upholstered Eldorados and the Flying mix of Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick. 

Convertible / Free / Sweet Free Association

The mysterious Convertible returns to Sweet Free Association with 3 fresh hits of house. The EP is poised to huge, with crossover potential to both harder and more soulful circles. The A-side, Free, is pace-y, but deep. Shifting, and centred, initially, around filtered, soft focus chords and a sampled gospel diva. EQ-ed and phased, it becomes a lot more proggy. A big room, peak moment it quickly gets to soaring, yet still keeps constantly climbing.

The 2 Bs are both trippy and trance-y. Euphoric tributes to Ibiza’s Space and New York’s Sound Factory. Sands Of Talamanca is darker, stripped back, and banging. Full of dub techno textures and fractal frequencies. Punctuated by a breathless, sexy Mediterranean minx whispering, teasing “Te quiero.”Endless Dub is a similar combination of punchy, percussive rattles and relentless heavy kick, but its rhythm locks into a breakneck skank. Basic Channel-like echoed twists surround sighs of “ecstasy”, while calm comes from a synthesised breeze. 

Faze Action / Journey Through Your Mind / FAR

Journey Through Your Mind is the first single to be lifted from Faze Action’s forthcoming album, Distant Dreams. Uptempo, uplifting jazz-funk it perfectly, authentically recreates the sort of Loft-y things that were re-edited / booted by Moton. Its virtuoso keys, for example, recalling Harvey’s classic chop of Carl Bean. Similar to the stuff that Dave Lee used to indulge in on Z, or the work of The Brothers Faze’s other compadre, Ashley Beedle. The vocals lend the song a Level 42-ish edge, and I suspect it will be a smash at discerning parties, such as the Rotation annual summer bash. 

FK & DFP / The Nassau Excursion / Rush Hour

François Kevorkian and Dimitri From Paris team up for a tribute to Island Records’ groundbreaking sound, and also FK’s own hugely influential 80s disco-not-disco dubs. The kind of cuts that inspired The Idjut Boys – all clattering, delayed congas and echoed hand claps. Compass Point pays homage to classics such as Padlock and Pull Up To The Bumper. Building to an intense battle between timbales and synths. Da Riddim boasts a bad ass slapped B-line, recalling post-punkers Fashion and Shriekback. Alien chipmunks, a la Newcleus’ Jam On It, urging dancers on, toward its mad phased and EQ-ed finale. Steppers Revenge then puts a new spin on Grace Jones’ cover of The Pretenders’ Private Life. 

Karl Hector & The Malcouns / Kingdom of D’mt / Funk Night

Between 2011 and 2015, Munich-based band Karl Hector & The Malcouns released 4 highly sought after EPs on Los Angeles label, Now Again. Due to demand these were later made available as a CD and 4 X LP box-set, the latter, itself, increasingly tricky to track down. One of the standout tracks, Kingdom of D´mt, however, was recently given its 7” debut by Detroit’s Funk Night. A fierce, firing shot of Afro-funk / Ethio-jazz, once favoured by Andrew Weatherall, it’s, given its psychedelic title, appropriately full of strange, B-movie Sci-Fi sound effects. 

Orchestra Veneta / #3

The mysterious Orchestra Veneta chop out two new flamenco cuts. Edits and extensions of a couple of relatively obscure, but still much loved sides. Victor Il Pirulli’s Señora combines Spanish strumming with a mid-tempo kick and romantic strings. Dancing sequences darting about its classic middle-aged crooner vocal. A bit cheesy, maybe, yes, but very Balearic. Its the sort of Euro-pop stuff that would have haunted 80s childhood summer holidays, and had “on one” Amnesiacs hug each other. 

More of the same, but mellower, The Gipsy Kings’ Caminando is subject to a gentle dub. Rinsed with reverb and delay while sailing off into the sunset. Echoed, emotional, laid-back and loved-up. 

John Silas / Water Sign / Love Injection

Love Injection have 5-track 12 lined up from John Silas. It’s not out until May but the label have promo-ed 2 tunes. Both are quality – loft-y, Joe Claussell-y – jazzy house. Cyber Dreams is a dubbed out drift. Instant House-esque, with virtuoso flute from Domenica Fossati, it’s like a more organic, more spiritual take on Frankie’s Whistle Song. A tranquil trip of fine, fluttering post-peak bliss. Nasty is shorter, slightly more bumping and banging, swapping Fossati’s woodwind for Marquinn Mason’s smoky sax. The harmonious honking making for a proper party starter, versus its partner’s “re-entry” soundtrack. 

Many Hands / Basement Versionz 2

Leeds based label Many Hands unleash their second volume of Basement Versionz. The 12 finds 5 likeminded friends repurposing a globe-trotting set of sympathetic grooves. Poy-Sian’s Mun Plak Dee Na rescues a piece of catchy, rocky Thai dub disco. Accentuating the track’s squelchy bass, and pushing the rapped, call-and-response vocals to the fore. Trujillo’s Space Grace is the sort of romantic pop-jazz instrumental that the Italians excelled at in the 80s. Hitting a little like a lighter shake of Willie Colon’s Set Fire To Me. Cut from similar sonic cloth, but slung slower and lower, Danny Russell’s Pay Adriano is an Ahmed Fakroun-esque boogie bumper, busy with sound effects. Jona J’s Kwaguqa Baby then takes some Hugh Masekela on a looped up, dubbed out excursion. My favourite, though, is Tom Bolas’ prancing, piano-led, Babylon Is Fallin’. A rumbling and fidgeting Caribbean collision of calypso and disco, its Rasta vocal recalling Brother Resistance’s Rapso. 

Addy Weitzman / No Man’s Land (Time & Space Machine Mixes) / Slacker 85

Addy Weitzamann released his long-playing debut, Light Months Will Fly Over Us, last year on Seth Troxler’s Slacker 85 imprint. Richard Norris, using his Time & Space Machine alias, has now reworked one of the numbers, No Man’s Land, for the discerning, leftfield, dance floor. The results come in 3 slightly different mixes, each in turn losing more of Weitzmann’s vocal. All are fast, uptempo electronic fidgets, whose emotive synth swells ride rattling timbales and an Energy Flash-esque B-line. There’s a kinda kosmische influence. More CAN jam that tangerine dreaming. Think Curt Cress meets Factory Floor. The Shango Dub strips things back to a hyper kinetic, energetic, psychedelic drum circle, while the Riddim Mix is further reduced to a dynamic echoed percussion expanse.