The Way Love Goes is the initial release for the new label Shack Music set up by Soy Mustafa. And to impress us all with their first release Shack Music comes up with one of house music's finest vocalists, Michael Procter (of Deliver Me, Love Don't Live or Fall Down fame). The people behind Dara Band are no strangers to the house music genre. It's a collaboration of Ralf Gum (Go Go Music), Daniel Klein ( Gucciman, Flamingo Disco) and CrisP. There are two mixes by label-head Soy Mustafa with Al Burgess and Andy F (aka Boogie Boys), the funky Boogie Boys Shack Vocal Mix with its four-to-the-floor rhythm, great piano drops and of course Michael Procter singing his heart out. If you're looking for a nice tool to mix the vocal version into your set then you have found it in shape of the Boogie Boys Shack Dub, that features less of Michael's vocal but has a fine break to play with.
The Benny Pecoraio Vocal Mix adds a touch of disco to the mix and gives this song a wider dancefloor appeal.
The Way Love Goes is a fine debut release for Shack Music and makes you curious about future releases.

The Way Love Goes will be released on July 26th on Shack Music.

Chillifunk Records are really going from strength to strength with each new release and there seems no backlash in sight. This spring/summer they give us great records en masse like releases by Snowboy, Vanessa Freeman, Ultra Nate and Verna Francis.
The fifth single release, O Misterio, from Nathan Haines' second album Squire For Hire is no exception.
Sung by Guida De Palma we get the dreamy midtempo original version for those who've missed the album (although that's hard to believe, that any regular visitor to this site doesn't own a copy of Squire For Hire). Yam Who beef things up by adding slices of broken beats, disco and soul while maintaing the original spirit and structure of the song.
There are also instrumental versions of both mixes on this 12" single.
If you're in London the next weeks you can catch Nathan Haines at his Cherry Jam residency on May 16th and 30th and June 13th.
O Misterio will be released on June 28th.
For more infos visit chillifunk.com and nathanhaines.com.

It may sound a little bit odd that the first single is released after the album has hit the stores. But then Vanessa Freeman is almost a household name amongst fans of soulful house and nu jazz music, so why not do something different.
The original version of the first single Shades has already been praised in the album review.
The real sensation here is the Rebirth Remix, available as vocal and isntrumental versions. Rebirth, a septet hailing from Los Angeles who raised to fame with their song This Journey In, transform this musical gem into a dancefloor monster. Starting with an afro-inspired beat Shades is transformed into an latin groove with lots of percussion and piano. One of the rare occasions when a remix is better than the original version and really adds a new dimension to the song.
Shades will be released on June 28th.
For more infos visit chillifunk.com.

Summer anthem alert! This beautiful 12" will be released in June and has all the right ingredients to brighten up your summer days. Verna Francis is the voice behind Nathan Haines uber-hit Earth Is The Place from his Sound Travels album in 2001. For her debut release on Chillifunk Records, Sunshine, Verna teams up with Scott Baylis and Felix Hopkins to deliver a gorgeously sung deep house winner that comes in four different mixes. The ultra soulful Extended Vocal Mix brings us one of the best uptempo soul songs in ages with jazzy keys and great trumpet licks, nine and a half minute of pure bliss. There's also a shorter Vocal Mix available. The Restless Soul Mix pays more attention to the dancefloor and will certainly dominate discerning clubs this summer. To play around there's also a Musipella version on offer.
Even more good news is that Verna is working on a whole album to be released on Chillifunk as well. And if Sunshine is an indicator of things to come then we can expect a tremendous album.
Sunshine will be released on June 7th.
For more infos visit chillifunk.com.

Ah, summer is approaching and it'll certainly be a good summer in 2004 with a new Snowboy album coming soon. This time Snowboy will release his new album, the aptly titled New Beginnings, on Chillifunk Records and this three track 12" release is a taster of the new album.
Carga Tu Bateria is a great piece of afro-cuban jazz with Davide Giovannini on vocals. Forget about all the insubstantial surrogates radio stations or hip magazines want to sell you as the upcoming spring/summer hit. Just go for this great piece of Latin ass-shaking madness, it's funky, damn uptempo and just makes you move your feet!
Mediodia Hasta Tarde and Riots Of Hadleigh (with a real crazy organ) are two fine examples of Snowboy's and his band's ability to produce impressive Latin jazz songs just like that.
The album sampler will be released on April 26th and the album on May 24th.
For more infos visit chillifunk.com and snowboy.info. For a review of the album click here.

Take three musical gems, (a jazz-fusion ensemble, a couple of innovative mixologists and a legendry jazz songstress) and a heavenly concoction is made. Ok, so it’s not always that easy, but Kaidi Tathem’s (part of the West London Bugz in the Attik collective) has an inexhaustable talent for turning a perfectly polished tune into a infectious broken beat delight. In this instance, Flora Purim’s six octave velvety voice is sliced and twisted throughout, and yet there is still room to revel in some beautifully re-worked groove driven jazz-funk instrumentals. On the flip side Mr Gone gets back to the carnival core, and his mix optimises the Brazilian beats and be bop jazz flavour of the Down To The Bone original.
(For more information and sound snippets visit downtothebone.com and narada.com and read the review for the DTTB album Cellar Funk here.)

House music fans will be familiar with Matthias 'Matty' Heilbronn mainly due to the remix work he has done so far (for example under his II Deep Productions moniker). But he was also one half of Deep Zone (Mike Delgado was the other half), who brought us the now classic It's Gonna Be Alright (with Ceybil Jefferies) or I Am What I Am sung by Carolyn Harding.
Monique Bingham is no stranger to house music either. Having sung on Sir Piers' Don't You Love Me or Blue 6 Pure you may already be familiar with her voice. But Monique was also part of the acid jazz combo Abstract Truth as lead vocalist. And yes, there was a mix on the Wave 12" We Had A Thing called Matty´s Body And Soul Remix. So this is not really the first time for Matthias and Monique to do a record together.
Go Getter is spread out on two different 12" singles. The first, which will be released on April 19th, 2004, features the Soulflower Mix and the Sensible House Mix while the second, which will be released two weeks later on May 3rd, 2004, features Matty's II Deep Mix and Matty's II Deep Instrumental Mix.
Your banker certainly will hate me for this, but I'm afraid you'll need both releases, if you like your house music in epic proportions (all mixes are 10+ minutes) with a lot of deepness and percussion (like the Sensible House Mix, which is funkier and more suitable for the dancefloor than the Soulflower Mix) or nice afro influences (like Matty's II Deep Mix). It's really hard to decide which mix is the best one, so just get both releases.
With the right exposure and promotion behind this tune Matty and Monique will soon be go-getters themselves, i.e. someone whose career progresses rapidly.
For more infos visit paparecords.co.uk.

As already mentioned on the news site Ultra Naté's Feel Love is one of Chillifunk Records' hot spring releases.
Of course we all know Ultra Naté and the string of hits she had so far with It's Over, Rejoicing, Party Girl, Joy or Free, a song that catapulted her into the orbit of superstardom. Unfortunately for most of us house music fans her last album Stranger Than Fiction on the defunct Strictly Rhythm label was a real mixed offer and for me it really lacked that special something that would've made this album more than just a stringing together of more or less mediocre songs.
But things look brighter in the near future. Ultra now has her own record label, called Blu Fire and her fifth studio album, Grime, Silk And Thunder, will soon be released. In the meantime we all can enjoy the first single Feel Love.
And this is Ultra like we haven't heard her in a long while, namely at her best. The Original Mix was produced by East West Connection (Lofty, Werner Niedermeier, Bob Jones, Neil Cowley) and features background vocals by N'Dea Davenport and Jay Williams. Together they've created a masterpiece of deep and soulful music.
But Chillifunk wouldn't be Chillifunk if they just offer one good version, so there's also the deep housed up Notenshun Remix by Lofty with even more percussion than the original version (also check out Notenshun's Soul Music release) or the remix by Kevin Hedge and Josh Milan (aka Blaze). The Blaze Shrine Vocal Mix is just what one would expect, a fine deep house version.
Finally, there's the four-to-the-floor mix of Liquid People for those who need a little more bass and bpm to move their body.
Feel Love will be released on April 19th, 2004 and is a great return for Ultra Naté and with the right promotion this will be another über-hit for her.
For more infos visit chillifunk.com and ultranate.com.

This is something of a première for me, reviewing a song that I've received as an mp3-file...so welcome to the brave new world :-)
Tim Dillinger is a new name to me although he already had some success in the gospel world before. For a short summary about Tim's previous activities have a look here.
Tim's first solo single release, Promise To Stay, is a fine soul song with all the right attributes, a memorable hook and haunting background vocals by Tim himself. And wouldn't the press release have stated, that "Tim's reputation as a rarity in the gospel world, a white singer who delivered gut-busting performances, quickly spread and Tim signed his first label deal in 1997 with an independent label in Dallas, Texas.", I wouldn't really have noticed that Tim is what you call a blue-eyed soul-boy.
Promise To Stay is a good start for Tim. Let's hope that his debut album Love Is On My Mind will life up to the standard his first single has set.
For more infos visit timdillinger.com.

You may remember Mica Paris singing Nothing Hits Your Heart Like Soul Music and judging from my record collection this is a very true statement. Chillifunk's new release by Notenshun ft. Sandy Mill isn't actually what you would call soul but deep, quality house music that hits your heart just the same. Native New Zealander Sandy Mill has previously sung vocals on East West Connection's We're Movin' On and again she does a brilliant job here.
Soul Music comes in four different mixes with the Listen Now Deepness mix being my favourite one. This mix has a great late night feeling to it and is the deepest version on offer.
Also a very good remix is the Back In The Day Mix. With its additional percussions this version will make the sun shine on even the cloudiest day and put a smile on your face.
The Danism Remix by Dan Smith (Liquid People) and Dan Gresham (Nu:tone) is a fine 4 to the floor beefed up version that will fill up every dancefloor whilst the Pianopella is a nice tool to play with for every DJ.
All in all another fine release from Chillifunk, which will be released on March 15th, 2004. By the way, Chillifunk will come up with other great releases this spring, just have a look at the news.
For more infos visit chillifunk.com.

Reel People's Second Guess album has really been a milestone for Papa Records that has so far spawn three successful single releases (Can't Stop, Second Guess and Butterflies). But since Second Guess is filled with great songs, why not release a forth single. This time it's Vanessa Freeman who steps into The Light. By the way, Vanessa is currently putting finishing touches to her debut solo album, forthcoming on Chillifunk Records and produced by Phil Asher. Not only did Vanessa did a terrific singing job for people like Nathan Haines or for the Sun Ra Dedication album but also for Reel People's The Light.
There are four mixes to choose from. The RP Club Mix stays close to the original album vibe while Copyright beef things up by adding a house groove to it and turning The Light into a winner on every dancefloor especially in their Classic Mix. There also a nice Guitar Excursion and a lovely Reprise to round up another great release from Papa Records.
For more infos visit paparecords.co.uk.

Finally one of house music's best producer/remixer teams up with one of the UK's best label and thus we see Osunlade releasing Same Thing on Papa Records. London vocalist Maiya James, who've already recorded with Kyoto Jazz Massive, Phil Asher, East West Connection or Mark De Clive-Lowe to name but a few, sings on this deep track here and in some way it's reminiscent of a slower and even more deeper version of Pride (Osunlade ft. Nadirah Shakoor)
And since nobody really needs a mix overkill if you got a perfect original version, Papa Record does it right once again and gives us only the Main Mix and an Instrumental version.
Another must have for fans of the real deep thing. For more infos visit paparecords.co.uk.

You may remember Mike Patto and Felix Hopkins aka the Monkey Brothers from their Yellorange release Some Of What You Got. Now they return into the spotlight with their new single Invisible, that will be released on November 24^th on Papa Records. Mike Patto is also one third of Reel People, who delivered a great and diverse album with Second Guess.
Invisible is a very good full vocal house song with vocals by Rikki Collins and Vanessa Freeman. Vanessa, of course, has recorded some great songs so far with the likes of Nathan Haines, 4 Hero or Reel People. Friends of Vanessa's voice will be pleased to hear that she's currently recording her debut album for Chillifunk Records. So it's no surprise that Invisible wouldn't have been out of place on Nathan Haines' or Reel People's albums.
There's also a Distant Music Re-Work Mix by Jon Cutler who takes things a little deeper and make the song more suitable for the dancefloor. And if you wanna play with the song for yourself there's a Musapella that will help you out.
All in all a must have for fans of soulful London house music. For more infos visit paparecords.co.uk.

Such a pity that Shelter Records only release a 12" single every now and then considering the sheer quality of most releases. That's How Much I Love You is on of their best releases and certainly one of the best house songs in 2003 with Ambrosia's heavenly vocals. No wonder why she's called Ambrosia, i.e., the food of the gods, said to bestow immortality. The best mix on offer is Big Moses's Original Mix giving us the most soul and deepness. The Shelter Vox Mix by Timmy Regisford is also very appealing adding a little more tempo to the track. Don't miss it, this will certainly become a collector's item soon.

I've noticed Mary Pearce first in 1992 with Love Away from an album on Intrigue Records, so it's nice to see that she's still singing more than ten years later. Take Me Higher is the first release for Martin 'Mayhem' Ikin's and Tom Gianelli's label Soul Purpose and it is a nice four-to-the-floor house song that works best in the Full Vocal Mix. There's also the Take Away Dub with less of Mary's vocal for those who like the hear the chorus only. For more infos visit soulpurposerecords.com.

Speaking In Tongues is certainly a must have for all those into deep underground house. With pleasant vocals by Nita Hutton, a tenor sax by Donald Hayes and B3 Organ by Tony 'Sache' Wilkins this sounds like a dream come true. If you liked We Lift Our Hands At The Sanctuary you'll certainly love this one. On the flip side there's The Dub, not just a mere dub version of Speaking In Tongues but another song with scats and guitar by Mark 'Led' Ledford giving it a George Benson feeling. Essential!

Lisa Millett's voice graced many good records and she's just one fabulous session singer, just listen to Grupo X's Brand New Love or A.T.F.C. pres. OnePhatDeeva's Bad Habit. This time our Lisa is the main act thanks to the Pound Boys and their Look At You label. Closer is another fine example of a vocal house monster song by Denver's finest producers. The PB Main Mix is just vocal anthem alert while the PB Dub shines with a nice piano solo. And finally there's the PB Bonus Mix that's a slower reprise version.

From Reel People's fine debut album Second Guess comes Butterflies as the third single release. Sung by Dyanna Fearon, who also appeared on D'Influence's D-Vas album singing I Wanna Know You, Butterflies gets beefed up on this 12" release by Phil Asher, whose Restless Soul Heaven Mix adds some funky house beats and turns this into a dancefloor winner. There's also an instrumental and bonus beats to play with.
If you're visiting London in October, make sure to see Reel People live at the Jazz Café on October 5th and on October 24th at Spitz as part of Straight No Chaser's 15th anniversary celebrations.

Although this lacks something in the lyric section (a title like I Just Wanna Dance is a little cheesy and too obvious for my taste), Tony Glenn's I Just Wanna Dance is a very pleasant deep house song. There are four mixes to choose from. The funky New Generation Vocal Mix, the Original Live Vocal Mix (it looks like 'live' is becoming the new hip expression for house music mixes, just have a look at B-Soul's Love), a Big Moses DML Dub and Todd Gardner's Missioncontrol Dub. So there's something for everyone here who wanna dance with Tony Glenn.

Tribal Winds is a fine label that releases music that's not so far away from the deeper releases by Spiritual Life, i.e. deep, soulful with a lot of percussion. Eesti is a good example of Antonio Ocasio's and Tribal Winds' sound. The Tribal Winds Modern World Mix is a ten minutes excursion into sound with vocals, violin, sax, guitar, percussion and keys. The Tribal Winds Dance Hard Mix on the flipside isn't so much dissimilar from the first mix while the Def Räädu Main Mix adds some housebeats to speed things up.

Wonderful Things really offers you wonderful things. Written and produced by Timmy Dee and sung by Rudy this good house song comes in three mixes, the Original Mix with it's disco influences, a Dub Mix and an E-Smoove Mix, that is the winner for my ears. But then, I was always a fan of a typical E-Smoove mix.

You features the vocal talents of Rob Burns and comes in two great mixes. The more uptempo Original Mix (by Mitch Moses and Vince McClean) that sounds like classic New Jersey garage and a DJ Spinna Mix, that slows the tempo a little but therefore gives us more than nine minutes of vocal heaven. On the flipside there are the instrumentals to play with. Another winner from legendary West End label.

Nick Holder (this time with his brother David) has created his own sound over the years, i.e. a pumping deep house beat which often uses samples of old jazz or soul songs and has a more bluesy feeling to it. Luv Got Me is just another example of this blueprint.
U Be U is a pleasant disco house track but pales a little in my opinion compared to Luv Got Me. If you like the Holder sound, this is just another must have release for your collection.

Love is another relase from the B-Soul (aka DJ Pope) album My Way. And like its predecessors Una's I'll Be There 4 U or Carolyn Victorian's I'm Feelin' U this is a deep underground house record with a welcome live feeling. There are three mixes, an A Capella Version, B-Soul's Live Mix and B-Soul's Live Jam Session. But for the maximum vocal input by Sheila Ford go straight to the Live Mix that also features Ric Watts on bass guitar, Wayne Cooper on electric guitar and Jimmy Wilson on trumpet. A must have for every deep house lover.

This nice 12" features three songs from Brazil. David & Mariza with Omorro Nao Tem Vez (meaning give the favela people a chance) appears in a City People Club Vox Mix and as House Dub. This is not your average, easy to digest piece of happy-go-lucky samba song, but a beautiful deeper song that takes a few listenings to get into.
Galera's Funky Maraca is described on the sleeve as "a happy song about drinking magical coconut milk". This magical coconut milk obviously makes you record a slow but hypnotic groove. The third song is Canto De Ossanha (Song for Ossanha, an African deity) by BPM ft. Havana Brazil who created a pleasant Brazilian midtempo groove. All in all this EP is a little obscure but nice nevertheless.

Ah summer! And this year it looks like we have a summer in Europe like never before...you may even call it heatwave. What better songs can be played while the temperature rises than a song with a memorable chorus, acoustic guitar and an overall summery latin vibe? And that's just what the Main Mix of Manana Por La Manana is. Produced by Paul 'Seji' Dolby (of Bugz In The Attic fame) under the moniker of Oreja this is the follow-up to last year's Vazilando.
Manana Por La Manana features Hector Calderon on vocals and George Rosario on guitar. To hear George playing in all his glory, check out the Acoustic Mix. There are even some Bonus Beats to play around.
Another quality release from Papa Records that will be released on September 22nd.

The original version appeared already on the Winter Sampler 2003 but if you've missed this brilliant sampler, there's no need to worry since the original mix is also included on this 12". And it still sounds great with Big Brooklyn Red's singing his heart out on this song. As incentive for buying this release includes a Scott Wozniak Remix that beefs up the original and adds some nice organ to it but mainly sticks to the original vibe. The real winner for me is Dennis Ferrer's Sunshine Remix that takes this song to a different level with extra percussion and trumpet. Really a must have for deep house fans!