Aaron switched me on to a Bell Tower’s record years ago and I instantly loved the vibe. It had a great trippy loose feel, often missing from modern electronics and as a result I’ve checked anything with his name on it since. Sometimes poppy, drum machine heavy and great choppy edit action. Below are five favs from Australia’s BT…

Sharif Laffrey is someone i’ve championed for a while. He makes the kind of club music I lap up, raw, punchy with loads of switches and sometimes flourishes of hip-house. Always great to see him popping up on remix duties too, most recently for Cowboy Rhythmbox and Ruf Dug and lets be honest, often stealing the show. A guy doing his own thing, sticking to his guns and eventually winning the whole town over.

Five sure shots from the Sharif below…

What a truly brutal year and yet we are only three months in. So many bright lights getting switched off month by month combined with the global pandemic we all currently face. This month we lost Gabi from DAF, who had that live band make dance music vibe that Aaron and I both love. Last year we had decided to dedicate a track to Gabi Delgado on our forthcoming Night Drives EP on Touch Sensitive. Gone but never forgotten, thank you for the music. As usual five favs below…

Certainly don’t make them like Genesis. A true one of a kind. I have to admit to dipping in and out of his/her extensive musical output, but there are songs I absolutely adore, some of which below.

If like us you are creating self isolation sanity soundtracks, five never fail recommendations below (to suit varying lock down moods) to add to home playlists. Hopefully we can all regain normal activity asap, until then look out for each other.

That Andy Rantzen 1/66 record from a few years back was flat out amazing. No?! Sounds as great in a club early on as it does on the headphones. Such a great record, as is everything else on Efficient Space.

Such a consistent, beautifully presented and curated label. Five below…

When playing music to people in dark rooms with great soundsystems (I’ve found myself here a fair bit over the years), I often get to that point in the evening where I want to take some sort of right or left turn, spark of energy, send something to the floor that they can feel. Sometimes in these moments I turn to hip house records as they create a raw energy people react too.

Here are five repeat offenders that never fail in these instances.