George FitzGerald - Child

Pick of the Week 62 - George FitzGerald

A gorgeous slice of deep house from the excellent Subsoul label. Melting vocals, old school beats and a baseline that could kill you. Smooooth!

Phonique featuring Rebecca – Feel What You Want (X-Kom Rework)

Pick of the Week 57 - Phonique

In a cynical attempt to up our blog ratings Phonique are this week’s selection. Sounding like a cross between Electribe 101 and Above and Beyond this is a quality piece of cultured deep house music. The video is another thing altogether and poses lots of questions; what the hell is she doing? Has she never heard of curtains? Or sensible pyjamas? Some nice moves though that I have incorporated into my own dance routines.

Subsoul Compilation – The Soulful Side of Bass Music

Allegedly base can kill. If this is the case then Subsoul’s compilation of ‘upfront and exclusive house, garage and bass music’ could be the smoking gun in several cases of base related murders. It’s a mysterious, underground and distinctly old school mix of vocal deep house with the emphasis squarely on your sub-woofer. It reminds me of those old Todd Edwards mix CD’s if they’d taken steroids to simultaneously beef them up and slow them down. It sounds great on paper but in reality it’s a mixed bag…

As with all ‘mix’ albums in my experience, there’s a handful of great tracks but padded out with acceptable but unremarkable filling fodder. The Subsoul compilation is no different and although the assembled tracks blend seamlessly to form a coherent atmosphere, there’s a distinct lack of real quality on show. The more soulful numbers generally hit the spot but reliance on ‘Ride on Time’ style sequenced vocals in several of the others only served to irritate me and I was soon flicking them.

Worthy of special attention are Wilkinson’s pulsing ‘Take you Higher’, Robin’s urban tinged, bleepy ‘What Ya Wanna Do?’ and Kidnap Kid’s soulful, unctuous vocals on ‘So Close’. Easily the pick of the bunch is the opening track ‘Real’, it’s a near perfect mix of smooth soul and aggressive baseline. If only all the tracks were actual ‘songs’ like this prime offering from Gorgon City.

So another Curate’s Egg of a compilation, but on the upside, it will make you look cool as you cruise round with it on the car stereo at full volume (or maybe not). It’s well worth a listen but there’s always a health warning on these DJ mix disks. Listen with limited expectations and enjoy that base!