Harley & Muscle already did a great record with Dawn Tallman some time ago (He Did It) and their collaboration with house music veteran singer Robert Owens is no exception. Inside your Love is Robert like we all know and love him on a nice and soulful house song. A must have for any Robert Owens fan out there. For me the Main Mix is the best one although the Sweet Abraham Remix isn't that bad. The third mix here,After Life Mix, is just Robert with some drums.

That's a nice record! Soul Colors in it's original version starts with a flute and then the bassdrum kicks in and it builds and builds with some keys and percussion and it's just a fine example of deep instrumental house. The Dub Mix pays more emphasis on the drums and percussion. My favourite version here after continous listening is the Interpretation mix with vocals by Echo Cybele that starts more 4 to the floor like and takes its time to build up the tension with percussion and keys until Echo's voice is heard...quite a hypnotic track.

Lifted from Ann Nesby's album Put It On Paper, the Louis Benedetti remix of Let Your Will Be Done has been available as a bootleg version before but these two 12"es comes with additional mixes by Steve 'Silk' Hurley. The Silk's Soul Groove Remix is a wild gospel house version with a fierce piano and some filtering and certainly should sound great on the right sound system, but misses the point if you listen to it at home. For that purpose the Silk's Soul Remix is better suited, still a gospel house song but with more soul and feeling to it. And of course there's Louis Benedetti's brilliant version, that has already been reviewed here.

Latrice Barnett's voice was also featured on Jay J's latest single Keep On Rising for Defected. On this song she lends her vocals to Simon Pearson, who wrote and produced This Life Is My Own, to bring us a nice uptempo house song with slight disco influences. Nothing earth-shattering here but a pleasant piece of music. There's also another 12" available but with electro influenced remixes that mean nothing to my ears.

Louis Benedetti really has the talent to make very good deep house remixes. And his re-work of Brent Laurence Closer is just as good as e.g. his remix of Ann Nesby's Let Your Will Be Done. Compared to the original this version is a little faster with more percussion and a nice organ after a great break when we hear some fine scatting by Reggie. And of course there's still Reggie Watts sweet soulful voice throughout the whole song. Real class here!

Marlon D. was the man who brought us Taana Gardner on It's You That I Need last year. This time he teams up with E-Man (famous for his work with Jon Cutler and Kerri Chandler in recent times).
With You is a very good jazz house song that comes in a plethora of remixes. The Funked Out Mix has a nice vintage house feeling to it, the Deep Rushed Mix is just the perfect late night/chill out kinda house song while the Shake That Ass Mix turns With You into a pleasant four to the floor house track with a nice piano solo in the last third. Quite a lot to choose from for each taste!

Never ever heard of Lisa Marie Bonilla before but her voice fits very well to this nice vocal house song. The King Of Tomorrow Remix adds a little more bass to the song but isn't so much different from the equally good Original Version on the flipside. A fine vocal house song that shouldn't be missed.

Quite a long name for the artist with all the presents and featurings...after a longer hiatus it's nice to hear session singer Lisa Millett again (although she's still best on Grupo X's Brand New Love).
Late At Night is a record you might expect from a label like Soulfuric, a nice uptempo house song with strong lead vocals and fine background vocals in the Main Mix. There's also a nice Reprise that starts with Lisa's vocals until the bass kicks in. Quality as ever.

Since this is just another white label, I have no further information on what says handwritten on the record cover Kerri Chandler Trionosphere V. This EP features 2 tracks with additional dub versions. The winner for me is - of course - the deep vocal house song Behold The Sun. This is more of a spiritual house song dedicated to a higher power. Another great example what happens when Kerri does a vocal song. Love it!
On the flipside we get a percussive laden house track with some vocals telling us Guess I Never Get Hurt thrown in for good effect. Another must have for Kerri Chandler fans!

This could easily have been released on Soulfuric as well. Like the Copyright song reviewed above this is straight ahead four to the floor uptempo house with Diane Carter singing her heart out. Together with a nice background chorus this is pure vocal magic. Another great release for More House and the Groove Junkies!

My banker's certainly gonna kill me this month but this is just another great record I had to have...Xavior's the same singer you may know from Deep Swing's Shelter and he's got a nice falsetto that's reminiscent of the late Sylvester. Changes got all the right ingredients, a fine singer, a lot of congas, guitar, bass and some Fender Rhodes. Also worth listening to is the more organic Jazztrumental Mix on the flipside that sounds like Acid Jazz beamed into the 21^st century. Miss it at your own peril!

After what seems to be an endless hiatus we now get two records by Kim English in quite a short time (have a look at the review for Simply Grateful here)...I just don't understand those record companies and their release schedule...although this single here looks more like a bootleg. But nevertheless it offers real value for money with two great deep house vocal songs by Kim. Really an essential purchase for vocal lovers.
(postscript: The Vaults Vol.2 was mistakingly credited to Kim English. Cry real tears is a previously unreleased remix by Boris Dlugosh of the R&B song by Eternal and the You Make Me Happy cut is the not yet released single on Yellorange by the Pound Boys featuring the very talented Yvonne Brown.)

How's life? That's a good question...if you want to answer it more globally life's on this planet is a mess and it's getting worse every day. But of course you've came to this site to read more about the music and this record certainly can ease some of the weltschmerz, life can give you. How's Life in its Original Mix is a very strong deep and soulful house song with vocal input by Ovasoul7 and Arlene. There's even a great string section with the Wallin CPH String Quartet. The Cilla Collabo Remix by Tommy Bones and Louie Balo makes this song an instant winner with every late night set. The Society Latin House Remix adds some more percussion to the mix to spice things up. Very pleasant 12" indeed!

Chance had had some success with Rescue Me and Rise Up with the Sunkids on Yellorange some years ago. Even if you don't know her voice, you'll know it, since she still sounds like the long lost identical twin of the Queen Of Soul, Aretha Franklin.
Better Way is an Australian production (mmm I guess it's the first peace of Australian house I've ever heard) but this 12" features remixes by Joe T. Vanelli and Groovehunter only so it's more Italian house then. The best version for my ears is the Joe T Vanelli House Of Soul Mix that's just a blueprint of soulful, uptempo New Jersey influenced Italian house. Joe's Attack Mix is alright until it reaches the break where it digs to deep into NY/Danny Tenaglia territory for my taste...just close your eyes and imagine Aretha doing a house record...nice!

Another week, another Waako release...this time it's Harmony Funk utilizing the vocal talents of Curtis Harmon (you may remember his voice from some Ron Trent/Anthony Nicholson productions some years ago). Remixed by Jeremias Santiago the FTL Remix is another fine piece of four to the floor deep house Waako seems to relase weekly. Also worth checking out is the Stax Original on the flipside that sees She as a slowed down piece of late night house. Very good record!

The man that brought us the uber-garage hit Gabrielle returns to Large with his new release. Closer 2 U is a fine funky house song with spoken words by Marcellus and instrumentation by the Soldiers Of Universal Love Band. Closer Rhymes is the accapella version and may be suitable for some mixing. Soul Muziq is a great ode to, er, soul music and sounds more like what you might expect from Roy Davis Jr. Nice to have Roy back.

From my favourite Italian label comes this nice piece of Vinyl. Just go straight to the Belladonna & Duranti Remix of Samba De Ile. This is a pleasant latin house/lounge song that begins with drums, followed by a guitar until the vocals kicks in. Nice song that makes me wish we'd already have summer with us here in Northern Europe. The B&D Bonus Beat Flute is very nice too, just some drums and a flute...Jungle Minas compares a litlle bit badly to Samba De Ile and I could've done without it.

The second part of the revitalization of Andricka Hall's vocal monster Stay Inside My Life comes with the remix of Switzerland's Jamie Lewis. As you might expect he does the song justice and comes up with a fine vocal house song. On the flipside there's also Louis Benedetti's Dub of Deep Swing's Shelter. Who needs new songs with re-works like these?

Now that's what one may call anthem alert! Another great remix by Blaze this time for Basement Boys. This just oozes class and is a vocal gospel-house-monster with uplifting lyrics and fine voices. 7 minutes of pure heaven! And there's also a dub version and an accapella.

Waako has recently become a label with very good releases on 12"es (although their website seems to focus more on NY-trash-house). You Don't Tell Me Anymore is no exception, just another fine deep vocal house release with Soulsistas on vocal duty. There are two equally appealing versions, the FTL Remix by Jerry Santiago which has a nice nuyorican vibe to it and the Stax Vibe Remix which is just a great example of modern uptempo soul music. Together with an Acapella Version this is a must have for vocal lovers.

This is a nice instrumental three track release by DJ Romain. The winner for me is the afro influenced Oneness Of Ra with its driving rhythm, percussion and horns. House Thang is a reasonable four to the floor house track with a nice guitar on top. Livin' It Up is more on the disco house tip with sampled vocals and a harmonica and I guess I'm not really the right one to judge this track, since it doesn't mean much to me.

Mr Hermano already brought us the monster song Free As The Morning Sun (one of my favourite songs to start the day when it's summer). Now he comes up with an extended version and a remix of Como Um Sol. Sung by Brasilian singer Ive Mendes Como Um Sol is a nice midtempo latin lounge song with all the right ingredients: percussion, guitar and some heavenly sung vocals in Portuguese. Tam Tam is just the instrumental dub version of Como Um Sol. The Disisico with its extra added Fender Rhodes, bass and guitar takes the song into house territory and makes this version a winner for deeper late night session.

It's always good to hear Kim English singing on a record and this double header on SuSu (licensed from Nervous Records) is no exeption. We get the Jon Cutler Remix of Treat Me Right and two versions of Simply Grateful. There's the more uptempo Darryl Jamed Remix and the Back To Soul Mix which turns Simply Grateful into a real soul song and it's such a shame that we don't get more downtempo songs sung by Kim because here her vocals really shine out. Certainly a rare groove for the years to come.

After their versions of An Ka Séin/Pas An Tombé for Isma'a Kemit Sources are back with a great deep house song. Play is done in a late night Ron Trent/Urban Sound Gallery/Roy Davis Jr. vein and just a very good example how I like my house records to be done. There's also a dub version but it's not really different from the original.
Bor Dlan pales a little in comparison since I miss something of the deepness that makes Play so great. There's also an I: Cube remix of Bor Dlan but it doesn't make things better.

It may be hard to improve the brillaint Part I of Rain (Let It All Come Down) but this double 12" is really worth its money. 8 more versions to choose from. Ok, it's more like a remix overkill but since each version is so strong and pleasant this is a highly recommendable release. There's the Soul Dhamma Remix with its vibes and overall soulful feeling (not unlike a slower version of Alma Horton's Dreams), Dennis Ferrer's Rainappella with horns, rainy effects and Stephanie's vocals, Dennis Ferrer's Mellow Mist Mix which is pure deep vocal heaven, Romanthony's Vocal Mix which is a little harder and darker. On the second 12" there's Jay-J Multon Studios Reprise, DF's Mellow Organ Dub with a very nice organ, DF's Rainforest Dub and the only bad remix here, Romanthony's Peak Hour Dub that's too hard and trashy for my ears.