Choices - January 2011

Artist - Title (Label)Jaime Read Presents Life In The Sea (battibatti)A three tracker from local Maltese BattiBatti label of which you can read my review in that section. I use them all!


Egal 3 - Dreams EP (Tzinah)
Five tracks in all, three different tunes all with an old school drum feel. Dreams & You which samples Loleatta Halloway is my preferred.

Pawel - The Remixes (dial)
Three remixes all of quality as is expected by this label. My preferred is surely the one by Osunlade of Panamerican.

MzkBx - Going Back To Chicago EP (karat)
The title says it all. This really looks to be made long time ago. All good.

Vakula - Nema (3rd Strike)Five tracks of pure deepness by one of the producers of the moment. All very good!!!

Spellband - Hipopotamus EP (look at you)An Italian production team which appeared in the late nighties. For Look at You they present a very mid nineties Sound Factory house style three tracker. All good.

Kimara Lovelace - Time After Time (New Generation)I purchased four out of six, the other two being an instrumental, and the Brother Vibes beats. I like the Brothers Vibe mix to punch up my set, and the others are good to go the romantic mood.

var art - 10 x 12 (I records)Twelve tracks all deep, and good. Hard to have any preferrences, when you have producers like Keven Yost, Peter Funk, Silicone Soul etc etc, but Feeling Loose remixed by Karol XVIII and MB Violence does rate on top.

var art - Mangrove (Lion1music)
Eight tracks of deepness in dub and soulful. Love them all.

Azulu Phantom / Kai Alce - Power Thru Part 3 Don't Turn On the Light (Ndatl Muzik)
Azulu Phantom / Kai Alce - Power Thru Part 3 The Re: Rubs (Ndatl Muzik)Two separate releases on Kai Alce Ndatl label. I went for four tunes of eight total, including the tune More 2 Come, and three versions of Power Thru which are the two Mush mixes and KZR Rerub.

Marcello Napoletano - The Movement Must Be the Moment (Mathematics)
Four tracks of deepness in a Chicago and Detroit style. All instrumental but very good.

var art - Re Printed (soul print)Six tunes of which two are the original and remix of Petkovski Love Machine. Damn World is the deeper of the six, while All That Jazz takes things to a live instrumental feel level.

var art - Disco Bullets Vol.2 (oryx)
Four disco reworks which are all in a different mood from this Italian label. Number four is a tribal groove with Obama's speech and Sister Sledge You Fooled Around bass line.

var art - King Street Sounds Reformed Classics (street king)Legendary remixes from the renowned King Street label. You have it all in this eight tuner from the more big room Noferini remix of Got To Believe Feat Shawnee Taylor, to underground tunes as are Mood II Swing remix, and more big room business from the likes of Supernova who remix Hallelujah by Kerri Chandler and Kenny Bobien's Brighter days.

MindTech - State of Insanity (Deeper Sounds of Rashani)
An album which has eleven tracks of all deep style. Interesting the more progressive We're Madness, or Sunset Weapon. But this is all good.

Jan Tenner - F.N.k. EP (fullbarr digital)
Six tracks of different deepness. FNK two mixes, Consciousness three mixes, and So Strong which takes things to space.

Review: Jaime Read presents Life In The Sea (battibatti bb05)

Another high quality three tracker from Malta's deep house BattiBatti label, which to be honest with every new release is setting a higher standard to follow. Number five of BattiBatti is courtesy of Brighton UK producer Jaime Read presenting the all instrumental three track Life In The Sea. Here Jaime starts the dances with the slow tempo Hanged Groove, which is an amazing instrumental tune. To The Bone as the title says goes very old school Chicago with the groove receiving high influence from the 1987 house hit "Work It To The Bone" by LNR i.e. Rick Lenoir and Larry Thompson on Jam Records. With To The Bone BattiBatti and Read also enter the Tech House and big room potential as I do feel this tune to be suitable for the larger clubs, and in a diverse varied sets. You have a deep set you want to lift up, or more friendly music you want to take to the underground, "To The Bone" can definitely do both with ease. Life In The Sea is a pad deep build up of over eleven minutes, but again in very old school Chicago House here in more Larry Heard manner influenced rhythms, high hats and percussion's, but with very Italo disco style pads and bass lines.
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