This week's first update is online now at Primalrecords.com, and this time, we've got over 50 new titles added to our House, Tech-house, Progressive, Techno, and Breaks catalogs--including a half-dozen brand new pre-release white labels to boot! I'll try to cover as much ground as I possibly can here:

SCOTT PACE "Westbound & Down" EP Household (Promo) [House, Tech-house] Midas crew member Scott Pace goes solo for a massive 3-track EP for the local Household label. If you're familiar with his previous work for labels like Honchos, Doubledown, or Crack & Speed, you know the score here: Tight, techy house with a boompty Chicago bump and a debt to Detroit. In my opinion, it's Household's best release yet.

www.householdrecordings.com

MARKY STAR "The Acid Orchestra" EP Lifted (Promo) [House, Tech-house] Hot on the heels of his latest for Big Chief, Omni AM member Marky Star makes his debut for Lifted Music, Household's fledgling acid house imprint. Dusting off the 303 for this 2-track EP, Marky rediscovers his Chicago roots with this vintage acid tribute, merging modern tech-house programming with classic tweaked-out bass freqs so authentic you'd think Adonis was behind the board.

LHK "Do This" EP Overdrive (Promo) [House, Tribal, Tech-house] Best known for his work on 20/20 Vision, Tango, Camouflage, and others, UK producer LHK makes his production bow for the new Overdrive label, here on exclusive white label. Also on a bit of an acid tangent, LHK gets tough and funky on "Do This," a peak-time percussive houser with dancefloor resonance. Equally as hard-hitting is the swing-and-jack groove of "Nite-Day," a hypnotic tech-house cut that stakes its own claim on a wicked b-line and a bevy of mind-absorbing FX. Fantastic.

www.overdriverecords.com

COMMUNITY HOUSIN' "Galavanting" (Original, Brett Johnson, and Funky Transport Mxs) Flygaric Tracks (Promo) [House, Tech-house] Iain MacPherson's Flygaric Tracks labels is off to a brilliant start, first with their EP for Slater Hogan & John Larner, and now with this excellent EP for Community Housin'. The original mix is a chunky house cut with a deep-but-dancefloor bent, relying on a fat b-line and a fine dose of warm synth stabs, while Brett Johnson simultaneously brings down the BPM and somehow beefs up the energy factor with his signature tech-house interpretation. It's Macpherson's own Funky Transport guise that switches things up, offering a dubby and slightly breakbeat rub for the more adventurous jock, rounding out a truly solid package.

www.flygarictracks.com

MAYAKU "Shaped / Inside Out" Grayhound (Promo) [House, Tech-house] With releases for Wally's Groove World, Aroma, and Wha? Roots under their belts, Belgian producers Mayaku make their Grayhound debut with this Wicked-approved 2 track EP. Sounding like it came straight off a Garth tape from 1996, "Shaped" is an electro-inspired house affair that shares much in common with the organic-electric ethos of Metro Area, while "Inside Out" is a proper deep house cut with a live bass feel and a faint dubby undercurrent. Both eclectic and excellent, this is the stamp of the Grayhound sound.

www.grayhound.net

SEAN DIMITRIE "Release" (Original & DJ Ali Mxs) Manali (Promo) [House, Tech-house] Bombay's newest sister label Manali kicks things off with 2 pre-release promos this week, including a new EP from Miguel Graca and this excellent package from Sean Dimitrie and man-of-the-moment DJ Ali. Dimitrie's original mix is a solid funky groover with dark undertones featuring Tim Fuller on vocals (for those who recall, he lent his voice to DJ Ali's "You Don't Know"), but it's Ali's mix that capitalizes on the darkness. Stripping things down to a raw percussion and twisted FX, Ali's mix brings the vocal out front-and-center, cutting it up and infusing it with trippy dub-styled keys that reminds me of early Simon and San Francisco's Come-Unity parties. Still, this is one of those records where you're spoiled for choice: Both mixes will be doing the trick for me.

www.bombayrecords.com

UNKNOWN (Brandy) "What About Us?" (Natural Rhythm Rmx) White Label [House,
Tech-house] We've been hearing this in all the clubs for the past couple of months and we've been dying to see a vinyl release all this time. So here it is. It's one of those records I don't really need to say much about. Just know that it's hot, it's limited, and there's three mixes to choose from.

BRANCACCIO & AISHER "Everybody" (Original & King Britt Mxs) Bedrock [House, Tech-house] Wow. John Digweed's Bedrock label eschews the prog-and-breaks motif of the last batch of releases and finds salvation in an off-kilter funky tech-house track that is currently one of the best tracks in my crate. Brancaccio & Aisher are best known for last year's "Lovely Day," a track that transcended all genre boundaries and became one of 2002's most recognized anthems. "Everybody" is more of a subtle affair that will most likely find more love in the small rooms than the big rooms: A jacky house groove propels a techy bass line and a contagious vocal sample that gets true dancefloor response. It's gold. On the flip, King Britt takes it deep for an ethereal Scuba-styled affair, but surprisingly, I'm going with the original mix here. Don't miss this.

www.bedrock.org.uk

Also new this week is remix and production work from Departure Lounge, Harry Knuckles, Chris Carrier, Ils, Jay Tripwire, Alan Barratt, Oliver Ho (check this one out!), Deep Dish, Dylan Rhymes, Chus & Ceballos, Phil Kieran, That Kid Chris, Filterheadz, Adam Freeland, Behrouz & Andy Caldwell, Moshic, Meat Katie & Elite Force, Luke Chable, and full release copies of Phil Weeks' amazing full-length artist album Yeah, I Like That. If you missed the promo copies we had of this LP a few months back, don't sleep now.

New label output from Global Underground, SAW Recordings, Yoshitoshi, Twisted, Red Ant, Spaced Out, Low Pressings, Robsoul, Dessous, Nascent, Perlon, Kompakt, Freakaboom, Treibstoff, Shinichi, Vapour, Deep, and Zero Tolerance is also in.

Lots more to come this week, so keep an eye out. Until then, be good!

(Norman Arenas)