DJ Mag

Alexis Raphael
Into The Light (Hot Creations)
Hot Creations' sound has become distinct over its 19 releases, and Alexis Raphael's 'Into The Light' has it nailed. 'I Know', on the flip, has got it too. Super.

Tom Trago
Use Me Again (Rush Hour - Voyage Direct)
Amsterdam man Tom Trago dusts off his mirror ball for this deep disco production, coming as it does with a remix from the singular Carl Craig.

Joey Negro pres Z Factor
Sounds In The Air (ZR Records)
If there's a more capable pair of hands in house music, we'd like to see/meet them. So why would we expect anything other than solid, hands-in-the-air magnificence from Mr Dave Lee?

Mr G
Danceholics (Holic Trax)
Veteran producer Colin McBean, aka Mr G, assists party people Holic in their new record label concern, the lucky things. Four tracks of splendidly deep house music is the result.

Faster
Intors EP (Bloop)
Portuguese party people Bloop (they run underground parties in both Lisbon and Porto) return with a quite devastating EP from Romanian producer Faster, an unctious blend of deepest bass and darkest rhythms. 'Intors', the title track, is simple almost to a fault - an undulating bass beneath shaking percussion. 'In The City' is jazzy, almost Latin in flavour, an ideal foil to the moodyness on the flip, which is kindly offered two brooding mixes from Livio & Roby, and another from Varoslav.

Deepgroove
Poems EP (Four:Twenty)
West Country house music through and through from Bristol's Four:Twenty, marking the return from a brief hiatus with this gorgeous EP from Deepgroove. The title track hints at instrumentation from the East, layered with breathy vocals and a bassline that rolls and pulses its way into your psyche. Glimpse turns in a complex dub, an earth-shattering bass accompanying clattering atmospherics. Finally, Duncan Crane smashes it, to use Cheryl parlance, turning in a nine-minute chugging belter. Whatever that is.