Soulful Solutions, the label that brought us the great release of The Promise EP by Each 2 Their Own, is back with a new release by Sugar Funk, another alias of Rob Webster (aka Boy Wunda). Real Love is a nice guitar-led house song with vocals by , telling us that 'real love is what we need'. This certainly sounds great on the right sound system and on the dancefloor, but for me it lacks something of the specialness Soulful Soultions' previous release had, that made it even great for home listening. Summer Madness is a cover version of a Kool & The Gang song and alright, if you like your house with some Balearic influences. But the one track that does it for me here is Velvet with some sampled vocals, bubbling sound effects and nice vibes that really gives this tune something special.

From Estereo's wonderful first ever compilation Something Estereo 01 comes this great remix by Codee of Marlo's great soul song Wait Until The Morning. With this being the fourth release of this beautiful tune it hopefully gets the recognition that it deserves. Get it and encourage the mysterious Marlo (not even the label head of Estereo knows who Marlo is) to record much more songs in the future.

This may look more like putting old wine in new bottles to sell it again, but Disorient is a label known for quality releases and this re-release of Kenny Bobien's Dance For Life, that originally appeared on Soundmen On Wax is no exception. The Little Big Bee Latin Break Mix just oozes perfectionism over 9 1/2 minutes with a great break with handclaps and latin percussion. So it's more like putting new fire to an old flame with this remix. Little Big Bee's Little Snatch version is a reprise with Kenny singing over some percussion...and to give you more value for your money there's even Kenny Carpenter's Classic Vocal Mix which is a fine four to the floor house version.

Hipbone is a nice label with some quality releases so far, unfortunately they only release a record every now and then. This time we see another release by the Revisionaries that comes in four different mixes. The Sole Mix by Stevie 'Sole' Middelton is a solid four to the floor house version with fine vocals by Alexis P. Sutter, Glenn Turner and Elsa Cornish. Frankie Valentine's Instrumental sounds like a funky throwback into the 70ies and as a mixture of James Brown with an old Blaxploitation movie. The Bone Diddley Dub means nothing to my ears, but the real winner here is the Hipbone Cover Project Version that just sounds so damn 70ies like with an organic live feeling to it and the chorus of 'love, love, love'. For all those who like their music a little more retro.

Ah, summer's coming quickly and this latin house stomper just sets the perfect mood for hot summer days. For me this works best in its Original Mix with some nice organ licks and some vibes...the JK's Summervibe is also nice but minus the great organ and vibes. Also worth mentioning is the reprise-like JK's Summerlounge version that focuses more on Coco Gala's vocals...although I still don't speak Spanish (but I understand everything when I'm dancing)..to quote my favourite Bobby Matos song here :-).

It's good to see that Mica Paris is still alive and sings. But I'm not so sure about this tune, Bodyswerve is a rather mediocre house song with a more commercial appeal...ok, maybe not unlike some other Grant Nelson releases but this lacks some of the inspiration releases like Step 2 Me, Cada Vez or Save Your Life had. And I doubt that I would be still a Mica Paris fan after all these years if this record would've been her debut record. It's not a bad record but not really a good one either.

It's been some time since I saw a release by Laws Of Motion and judging by this release it's a pity that their other releases aren't more widely available. Green Fridge' Come Down was produced by 'Duke' Luke McCarty for Restless Soul Productions so it comes to know surprise that this is a little reminiscent of a Phil Asher remix. The Vocal Dub (with Caroline on lead vocals) is just a fine example of today's British uptempo soul, something you're favourites acid jazz/rare groove combos from the 90ies would do if they would be still recording music today. There's also a radio mix and an original version but they don't sound too different from the vocal dub mix.

With an catalogue number of CCM004 this must be the fourth release from Coco Machete Records, which is a new label to me and EPOD is the first release I've noticed from them. Just go straight to the Brennan Green's Trackdown Mix that has all the right ingredients, a dreamy intro, a slight latin feeling with nice percussion and vocals by Q. Harris that creates a great tune perfect for a warm summer night. There are also some electro influenced radio, dub and instrumental mixes but they really lack the charm of the remix version.

If you know this site for some time now and followed my advice to get a copy of Bah Samba's debut album you may already be familiar with the original version of this fine piece of Brit Funk that would've made D'Influence proud. The original appears also on this 12" from Estereo together with a slowed down version courtesy of DJ Spinna. Although it's not a bad remix, I still prefer the funkier and faster original mix of It Tastes Good, some things just can't be bettered.

You may know Corrina Joseph's voice from her collaboration with Basement Jaxx for their Atlantic Jaxx label...but all in all she's more an overlooked session singer who's featured on some fine records every now and then. Like You Do is best described as funky house in my ears, just like the producer Crispin J. Glover tried to bring some of the old funk flavour into this millenium by marring funk with house on the mix on the A side. Nice mix that really needs more than one listening to show it's potential, but I'm not so sure about the flipside mix that misses that special something for me.

The strange thing about Soundmen On Wax is that they release nothing for months and then out of nowhere we get two doublepacks with Su Su Bobien and Jovonn and a single 12" by Trispirit...so April is going to be a very expensive month.
Su Su Bobien brings us two new songs: Joy a very good house song that appears in 3 versions (vocal, dub and instrumental). Produced by Manfred Kling, Krisitan Prinzjakowitsch and Albert Koler in Vienna this is quite a deep surprise out of Austria. I'll Be Loving You was produced by Markus Enochson from Sweden and is another instant winner and just a modern soul tune with the tempo slowed down compared to your average four to the floor tune. Great double 12" release and really worth the money.

The good thing about labels like Soundmen On Wax is that often you just know what you'll get without actually listening to the record. And Rejoice is no exception to the rule and a mix by Big Moses makes this gospel influenced song even better (although there's only Big Moses vocal and intrumental version on offer here). Rejoice starts with citing the old negro spiritual Wade In The Water and then turns into a great gospel house song I could die for :-)
Never heard of Tonni Smith or her backing vocalists Sharon Jones, Monica Hope, Ambrosia Gainous and Marshae Williams before but they certainly know how to handle a tune.

That's the third Soundmen On Wax release that surfaced at the same day as the two 12"es above. Jovonn brings us three new tracks, the afro-influenced Afro Man (hence the title, I suppose :-)), the mellow Sunday Down with Jovonn's typical sound (there's also another version called Sunday Down (Smooth Intro) that isn't very different from the original except for the intro) and Mind Game that uses a sample telling us "no more mind games" and is dark and moody with a nice piano part. Not really the re-invention of house music but fans of Jovonn's sound won't be disappointed.

This record is just a dream! Produced by Marlon D and George Mena for Underground Collective this features an endless piano over a slightly latin influenced beat until Jaqué's heavenly vocals kick in. There's a great vocal and an even better dub mix along with an instrumental and an a capella to choose from. Definitely one for all those lovers of early 90ies Frankie Knuckles remixes and lovers of deep house should get this anyway!