It’s been a long time since we’ve done a deep/vocal house selection, and meanwhile there’s been some incredible output which usually only makes their ways to DJs’ cases. Here’s a carefully picked selection.

The first compilation that reminded me it was time to make a house selection, was inspired by a reader. He pointed me to Sony’s Nina Simone remix compilation, featuring household names like Francois K, Coldcut and Tony Humphries. I’ve only listened to Tony Humphries’ Turn me on, which is a solid house track, but not groundbreaking, whatsoever.

Second track is a remix of Milton Cardona’s 1994 song Ebioso by Shelter aka Timmy Regisford & Quentin Harris. Quentin Harris being one of the soulful house gods, you should know what to expect. It has upfront percussions and some spiritual tribal chants, it’s totally hip-shakingly good but wait till the shakers and the chant of the African women enter. Out on Unrestricted Access.

The next 2 tracks are from the first ever compilation of the Dutch label Social Beats, and what a compilation it is.. I’ve barely heard some of the names here, yet the compilation has instantly achieved a minor cult status for me. The subgenre of jazzy house is not really a fertile genre. Yes, the idea of mixing jazz and house is definitely genious, but apart from 1-2 good tracks every compilation and album, jazzy house tracks don’t deliver. What’s surprising is a small Dutch label has managed to cram together so many good jazz inspired house/downtempo tunes into a compilation. I was not sure if I was doing this album justice by choosing 2 tracks as one of them was a jazzy dnb tune and the other is a nujazz tune, so I decided to add a 3rd track by Gianni De Luca which displays some jazzy house with horns as well it shows the diversity of the compilation much better now. Modern jazzy beats, definitely a label to watch.

Milton Cardona - Ebioso (Shelter Vocal Mix)
Frank Montis - A Facade (Phil Martin Remix)
Cookin’ Quintet - Little Sunflower
Gianni de Luca - Make Sense
Nina Simone - Turn me on (Tony Humphries Main Mix)