I’ve bought an ungodly number of records this summer, hundreds just in the last 2 months alone. It’s really gonna be difficult to narrow it down to something palatable, but I’m just gonna try to hit some of the highest of the highlights in new and old music that has found its way into my hands…..

On the new tip, some of my favorite jams have come from We Play House (whose head honch Red D. made this wonderful mix for us a little while back) out of Belgium. San Soda has got to be one of the producers of the year for his super smooth work on the Super Pim Pam Pet EP as well as the colored vinyl release Purple EP. Deep, simple synthetic house is what he is all about, and few can do it this well. Reggie Dokes also dropped an EP on We Play House; the title “Spectacle of Deepness” hits the nail on the head as Reggie takes it wayyyy out there on some crazy afro business. Essential.

Speaking of afro, Tom Noble’s edits 12″ on the PPU label features some dope funky music that is edited down into house-like structure. “Party Together” could be an old KDJ edit, while “Africa Bump” keeps the beat a little more insistent. Danny Wang lets one of his own old sample-based tunes “On The Moon” (which was originally supposed to be on the never released BAL 002) drop for real on the sampler for his new Balihu collection on Rush Hour. While “On The Moon” is the highlight, the other Wang cut (ouch!) is dope as well and the Jamie Hodge jam is equally ridiculous. As two of these will only be coming out on this 12″, I strongly reccomend checking this out ASAP.

On the “where the hell did these guys come from?!?!” tip is the new 12″ by Mobach on SD Records. Banging out some beatdown style house, deep techno, and sweet downtempo, all in a soulful manner, it’s interesting that they seem to have come from nowhere with such a refined sound. Similarly (though I guess a little more on the “how did I miss this label entirely up until now?!?!?!” tip…), the Tetrode Sessions EP featuring tracks by Specter and Damon Lamar is essential smooth deepness in the Chicago style. The hiphop track is dope as well, but the other three cuts are so good that I can’t pick a winner. Buy on sight.

Not a “new” record, but new to me (and still available to purchase “new”) is Steven Tang’s “Windy City”, the first release on his own Emphasis Recordings from way back in 1998. This is perfect Detroit techno influenced house music, a beautiful song that I first heard when Noleian Reusse dropped it for me in Chicago in the spring. This is one of those slept on gems, definitely check it out.

Moving on to the old shit, it’s been kind of an 80′s electrofunk summer for me. I grabbed some of my favorite jams like Strafe’s “Set It Off” (original pressing in mint condition, $5. replaces the bootleg version that I never played out!), Captain Rapp’s “Bad Times (I Can’t Stand It)”, the Latin Rascals mixes of the Rolling Stones’ “Too Much Blood”, as well as some joints I never heard before like Melba Moore’s “Love’s Comin’ At Ya” and Barbara Fowler’s excellent Eric Matthew produced “Come and Get My Lovin’” on Radar.

I crossed off a bunch of long-time wants this summer, three of the most ill are:

Larry Heard’s “Missing You (Larry’s Jazz Cafe Mix)”, one of those insanely deep jams that Mr. Fingers does so well.

Paul Lewis’ double trouble selection of soul covers “Girl You Need A Change of Mind/Inner City Blues”. While I love the Eddie Kendricks and Marvin Gaye originals, Lewis turns them into uptempo disco-funk jams with EXTENDED percussion breakdowns. Both sides are golden!

Evelyn “Champagne” King’s “I Don’t Know If It’s Right”, which is possibly my favorite track of hers. Superb soulful disco music with the catchiest chorus ever.

So yeah, that’s all I feel like writing about today. Next week will kick off with one of our countless guest mixes that is sitting around on my desktop, all of which are dope. I’ll decide which one later on in the weekend….