I have the new Everything But The Girl volume of Back To Mine (DMC), which makes for a nice listen. Of course Ben Watt and Jay Hannan run the Lazy Dog club in Notting Hill, UK, which fosters deep house - I think they are celebrating the third anniversary with a big party at The End around now. Watt has expressed his love of classic Detroit techno in the past (he namechecked Stacey Pullen and Kenny Larkin in particular) and so it's cool to see that he has selected two 313-friendly tracks on this compilation - Model 500's The Flow (Juan Atkins G-Funk Mix) and Carl Craig's A Wonderful Life.
In the sleevenotes EBTG explain why they chose the various tracks - Model 500 - "At around 112 bpm this is an unfashionable tempo these days, but it has a sly funk mood from a Detroit techno pioneer, and is one of Tracey's faves. Smart, no-fuss vocal." Carl Craig - "This is like driving down Westway at night into central London. In spite of its techno origins, it has echoes of the slow tracks on one of our favourite early 80s albums, Joy Division's Closer. It was a primary influence behind Big Deal on Walking Wounded." On the same tip, I am really into the Schatrax label out of the UK at the moment and would really recommend this to those on the list onto deeper sounds, though the album I have - white sleeve with 'Schatrax' in gold letters - spans everything from deep house to electro, and there is also a second CD promo I have been given with more dancefloor-oriented material. The guy behind it, Josh Brent, has been around for a while, but I really rate him on his diversity.
