With his remixes of Inaya Day's Shout It Out and Ann Nesby's Let Your Will Be Done it looks like Louis Benedetti is quite a busy man right now. This time he adds his magic to Jay J's & Chris Lum's Stronger. Although this remix is not as fast as the two already mentioned you can still recognize it as Louis' remix that adds more soulfulness and depth to the song. One for the deep house/garage lovers!

There have already been a few house remixes by song of Stevie Wonder and Poolboy (whoever he may be) did another. This time we see and hear the rebirth of Love Light In Flight from Stevie's infamous soundtrack album The Woman In Red. Poolboy only uses some of the verses of Stevie's original so it's not really a remix of the song and with it's driving rhythm and filter effects it may only appeal to people who like obscure versions of infamous songs like I do :-)

This one's of course a must have for me since I'm a fan of Osunlade's music and his remix work. With the Yoruba Soul Mix we get another deep remix by Osunlade. And what makes this 12" real value for money is the string laden epic remix by Bayaka. Nearly 13 minutes that turns this song into a mellow late night opus with percussion, piano sprinkles. Great remix package.

Unfinished Business is a very pleasant instrumental house influenced groover with Mornington Locket on horns and Matt Coldrick on acoustic and electric guitar. There are four mixes available but the differences between the Morning Has Come Mix, the Morning's Gone and the No Nord Mix are really not very big, only the Notenshun Beats sound different, i.e. a lttle repetitive like you would expect it. Just go for the No Nord Mix that happens to be the longest version of Unfinished Business.

High On Life is Chilli Funk's 50th 12" release, so congratulations to Lofty and Bob Jones. And what's more important there are hardly a release on Chilli Funk that wasn't worth it's money (unfortunately I've missed some of their releases so I really can't judge all of them). High On Life works best in the East West Connection Main Mix for me. This version is as deep as you know Chilli Funk's music with a driving bass, deep keys and some meaningful lyrics. There's also a nice dub version by East West Connection. But I really could have done without the lame and rather uninspired remix by Lexicon Avenue on the flip side.

I've never heard of this label before but it's good to see some soulful house music coming from the UK. Since The Promise EP is labelled as Soulful002 I guess it's already their second release, I wonder what I have missed with their debut release. The Promise EP gives us 3 different and good songs. The Promise is an uplifting gospel influenced house song that's got all the right ingredients, stomping rhythms and a choir.
Lift Your Head Up is a bumping house song with a positive meaning and some preaching vocals.
You Don't Know is the highlight here with reminiscence to the likes of Blaze or MAW with vibes and beautiful lead vocals by Martin Miller. So make sure you'll find a copy of it.

With the only infos on this record being 'Frenetico' and 'Deep Swing Mixes' I'm not so sure who's behind this. The song title is certainly Don't Look At Me and it's a very nice 4 to the floor uptempo house song with some great horns and sung by an unknown female. There are three mixes (main and two dub versions) and an a cappella version. A sure dancefloor filler with the right crowd!

One look at the record and you know that this must be a remix of Roy Ayers' 3rd Eye. I must admit I don't know the original version so I can't judge what has been added and what has been omitted. But in the Numix it's a pleasant slow afro inspired song with Roy's vocals and his vibes. The House Mix is a little bit faster and more, er, house like. The Ddubb Mix is more like the Numix without vocals. Nice and a should have for Roy Ayers fans.

Now that's what I call a clever name for a group...Lady Alma featuring herself :-)
Lady Alma is of course Alma Horton, who recorded some songs with King Britt's Sylk 130 and the wonderful Lies on Diaspora Recordings. Dreams is an uptempo, very soulful song with vibes and Alma's great voice. Dreams can come true with this record. Really, really a must have for anyone into vocal house!

The fellows at Oyster Music spared neither trouble nor expense and gave Shawn Escoffery's Let It Go to one of Germany's best-known remixers Jazzanova to do a tasty remix of a more laid back electro-influenced original, that suits house and lounge/jazz-not-jazz fans equally. And again the people at Oyster succeed to broaden Shaun's appeal to musicfans with doing something different musicwise for the single releases. I wonder if there will be a remix album in the future with all these good remixes of Shaun's songs already released?

Like I've already mentioned on various reviews here, Kerri Chandler really can't do wrong in my opinion so my reviews of his releases may be a little bit biased. Large's 75th release features 4 tracks by Kerri so it's real value for money. We All R 1 is a hypnotic groover with Kerri repeating the title to nice effect, The Fix Is U features Isis on vocals and she does some talking over a fine sax ridden track. On Carnaval Kerri raises the tempo and it's a great jazzy excursion. But the song that outshines the others here for me is the classic deep house song Tomorrow sung by Erik Landcher. A great voice, fine percussion and a great piano on top...just what the doctor ordered in some soulless times.

After some very good and inspired releases by Big Moses, Subliminal Soul comes with a more disco inspired song produced and sung by Pat Fulgoni and produced by . This sounds more like Subliminal itself sounded when the label started. The song is ok, but it lacks some of the soul I've got used to with each Subliminal Soul release. But it may sound great somewhere on the dancefloor with the right sound sytem.

That's of course Let Your Will Be Done from Ann Nesby's Put It On Paper album. Remixed by Louis Benedetti we get a great version of this gospel inspired tune. Ann sounds like we know and love her from her day with the mighty Sounds Of Blackness. This bootleg may be hard to find but it's really worth the search. One of my favourite inspirational house songs of 2003 already!

I just love these house remixes of Sade songs. This time it's Give It Up from her Stronger Than Pride album. Remixed by MKL on the Havana Mix and by Soy Sos on the Afro Mix. The Havana Mix captures the spirit of the original with adding some more percussion to it and raising the tempo. The Afro Mix is the better version since it's really giving the song a new meaning. Starting with percussion and an organ it than goes forward with a great sax and finally we get Sade's vocals. Great! Who needs new music when you can make so much out of the old stuff?

Two songs from Snowboy's recent album Para Puente get the remix treatment. Los Rumberos De La Habana Y Mantanzas is being remixed by Espen Horne and it what was a latin dancer becomes a latin influenced lounge song with some great vibes by Erik Berg and a nice flute by Joergen Munkeby...not unlike some of the stuff Nu Spirit Helsinki does. Barrago is rather spoiled by Simone Serritella and Pete Herbert, who made an uninspired house remix.

The beginning of 2003 looks like a month of bootlegs and remixes of well-known songs with just another bootleg to review.
After the Danny Krivit re-edit of Aretha Franklin's Rock Steady on Ibadan we now get a far better bootleg version. In its original version Rock Steady wasn't one of my favourites songs by Aretha, but I really like this housed up version. There are also versions called Club Steady and Dub Steady but it's the version called Rock Steady that really rocks it. Funky and full of energy combined with Aretha's voice. This isn't really a sacrilege, like one might think, not if a remix is done that good. Really worth hunting for.

From my favourite Canadian label, Nick Holder's DNH, comes this little gem. Sung by Sacha Williamson Without Love evokes memories of some bootleg house versions of Sade songs with a lot of percussion, an Isley Bros like guitar inbetween and Sacha telling us 'without love you can't survive'...a very pleasant surprise to see a full vocal song on DNH again.

Lifted from Miguel Migs album Colorful You, The Night gets remixed by DJ Rork, Andy Caldwell, Sir Piers and Mauricio Aviles and Charles Spencer. And it's Sir Piers' Curious Mood Vocal that really does it to me, with some additional guitars we get a solid house mix with jazzy overtones that does Jo Jo Haley's vocals justice.
Rk's Vocal Mix is ok but in my opinion it really can't compare to the Mood Vocal Mix. The Movido Dub captures more of the typical Naked Music sound and is well done. Only Andy's Love Bizarre Dub with it's electro influences is a real let down for me.

Mochico is an interesting label with some good releases so far. This is their 7th and it's really worthwhile for the Vibe Mix on the flipside. This mix features, er, a lot of Roy Ayers influenced vibes with the singer Michael North telling us to Work It, Just Groove It etc...so it's a real challenge lyricwise but with such a fine jazz house song the vocals are more a less the same like someone would do some scatting. The Work It Mix has some nasty sound effects that sounds like a mixture of Visage's Fade To Grey beginning and some old acid sound effects...not my taste.

At long last Sub Urban is back with another winner. All For The Best features Melo on vocals and in it's original version it's a nice laid back house song with some great guitars in the mix. The Remix is more 4 to the floor house Sub Urban is well-known for. Es Mejor Asi is sung in Spanish and a great latin flavoured song with an interesting change in tempo at the beginning. Another 12" that offers real value for money.

The A side with Yours Truly is more of a bubblegum-throw-away-urban/R&B song and it really means much to me. But turn this 12" single over and you get Lazy Days a lush ballad that shows us that Natalie Williams can really sing and it makes you really enjoy your lazy days...trust me, I know what I'm talking about...lol

Denver's finest The Pound Boys team up with Shawn Benson again and they got us locked up in Chains with their latest release. There's the more traditional PB Vocal Mix and the faster and dancefloor friendlier Knee Deep Mix. But on both mixes we get Shawn singing her uplifting message about breaking away one's chains. Simple classic deep house and a 12" for the vocal lovers.

Seasons Recordings is the label with the brown record covers and the embossed writings of the label's name and what's more important they release good records. Like this Naked Soul release for example. Come Back Baby works best in the DJ Pap's Grit & Groove Mix for my ears. It's a deep jazzy house track that lets Cei Bei's singing shine throughout the song. Dave And Brett's Cute Mix is a solid work with a laid back lounge like feeling. Brett's Dirty South Mix sounds rather uninspired to me and I could've done without them.

What's better than to start a new year with a record by Dawn Tallman? In my opinion Dawn is one of the best house music session singers and Heavenly Light won't dissapoint those who are already converted to her gospel influenced singing style. Like most of her record Heavenly Light has a spiritual meaning and comes in five mixes spread across two 12" singles. The best mix is the Together In Spirit Mix that brings us Dawn at her best. Also fine is Ruben Toro's KISS Club Classic Mix that adds some more gospel flavour to it. Rather trashy (like in Junior-Vasquez-NY-Euro-House-trash) are the Midnight Society's Testimonial Mix and the MSP Southern Baptist Dub and I really could've done without these remixes. So head straight for the A-Side!
click here to read the opinion of Curtis L. Atchison, the remixer of the Midnight Society's remixes, to this review

Now that's a nice misspelling on the sticker (greatful instead of grateful)...although great is the aptly word to judge this 12". In my opinion So Grateful is one of Byron Stingily's best solo recordings because he seems to be confident with his voice here and doesn't try to reach the highest possible note. So no vocal acrobatics here but pure class on the excellent Classic Mix, that's been remixed by Daryl James and Fred McFarlane. And this time it's really classic because it's got the timeless quality of a great house record. In comparison the Bob Allecca and Rick Diddy mixes fail to make a good impression. But who needs other mixes with such a good Classic Mix?

Never heard of the label or the singer before but this is such a nice tune. The Lounge Mix with its slight latin feeling, guitars, trumpets, percussion and Mme Abdou's warm voice is a great releaxed late night song and it makes me wish that it'll be summer at once.
There are two more good versions of Keep on Breathing, the Costa Del Sol Mix with it's latin house feeling and the samba influenced Blue Lagoon version. The only version that's a little bit out of place on this 12" is the trashy Screaming Orgasm Mix. But with 3 winners out of 4 this is a highly recommendable record.

Soulshine is a label that becomes better and better with each release. After the brilliant Closer by Brent Laurence ft. Reggie Watts we get Inaya Day on vocal duty over a tune that's lyrically harmless since Inaya tells us to Shout It Out, but it's a good happy-go-lucky type of song with bass, guitar, trumpet and flugel horn that add more depth to the song. Very nice!

Like Dawn Tallman Michelle Wilson is another fine session singer whose voice graces many good house records. From the Italian label Equal Records comes this tune with additional remixes by The Pound Boys. But it's Stefano Gamma's Ultimate Classic Vocal Mix that really does it for me on this 12" and makes What Goes Around as soulful as if it came straight out of New Jersey.

Looks like it's Michelle Wilson month with a second 12" single featuring her voice. My Love Grows works best in the Souxsol Gospel Main Mix which doesn't aim as obvious towards the dancefloor as the DJ N-Joy Vocal Dub. Though this tune by the Deep Bros. isn't as good as What Goes Around by Stefano Gamma it's still worthwhile for Michelle's fans out there.

B.O.P. are the Brothers Of Peace who have been resbonsible for some fine deep house records with the likes of Kenny Bobien or Dawn Tallman (and don't miss their recent song with Connie Harvey on Soundmen On Wax). This time they team up with the Masters At Work to bring us a nice jazzy afro song that comes with an uncredited singer, nice drums and some pleasant vibes. All in all not really a must have but nice to add to your MAW records collection.

Finally Soundmen On Wax release the remixes of Kenny Bobien's How I Feel. Originally from his Gospel Dance Theory album and produced by the Basement Boys, How I Feel gets rejuvenate by Rasmus Farber and Markus Enochson. Both add new fire to this fine song and I really can't decide which remix is the better one. As extra there's the stripped down Breakdown Mix by Markus Enochson that concentrates on Kenny's voice. Great remix package...get it!

Hearing Connie Harvey's voice on a record is always a good sign, and hearing her sing a song by the Brothers Of Peace (B.O.P.) on Soundmen On Wax is almost ever an instant winner for my ears. Your Sun Is Going To Shine is no exception to the rule. The BOP's Soul Delicious Mix has all the right ingredients of a good garage song. Lyrics with a meaning, nice key chords, good background singers and on top of all Connie's voice. A must have for die-hard garage fans!