Nukleuz are to release a special series of 3 x 12”ers in a series Entitled – DJ Nation – Summer Edition. These releases cover a diverse range of styles, from a funky house to hard as nails stuff, to more progressive and vocal, and a bit of everything in between. Ignore the genre description on this, it has allsorts to suit everyone!!

The lineup is as follows.

Vinyl 1

A1 DJ Gee & Tom Neville – Put your foot down and pray
B1 Jonathan Ulysses & Tom Neville – The Good Rhyming Bass

Vinyl 2

A2 KB & Alan Thompson – Let there be love
B2 Aluna – All of my Life (Shane 54’s Pink Flood Mix)

Vinyl 3

C1 Malixx ft John Watts – End (Marco Zaffrano Mix)
C2 Michael Splint pres Eruption – I Feel Free (DJ Choose & F’s That Mucho Remix)


A1

We start out on a sedate house music journey. A very typical kick is used, with a gentle percussion which builds slowly and progresses us to the first bit of the lyrics, which are a Male voice saying ‘You know it’s time to put your foot down and pray’ and then ‘foot down’ repeated a couple of times, as more elements are added in a style of a trumpet like sound, and A lovely bass plus soft synth are used over the top, then we’re onto just the kick, trumpet, percs & bass, leaving a very nice beginning.

At the 3 minutes mark, we lose that bass and we go back to the soft synth, with a low kick just softly in the background, the melody progresses nicely, and the vocal is back with us again, telling us to accelerate, and this is very nicely done, the breakdown commences, and we’re soon onto the low beats as the trumpet etc come back, and we break into the main melody over the bass and also the lovely soft synth from the 3 minutes break.

Another short break later, and we’re into the time that DJ’s would consider mixing out, and the beat is very predictable in this part, leaving it very DJ friendly.

Overall I was surprised with how catchy this track is, as House music isn’t usually my Forte, but I really enjoyed it. 8/10

B1

The flip side on this installment begins with a nice kick, and a really catchy range of percussions used, including the usual hi-hats, and a weird sounding vocal comes over the top for a second before it goes away as quickly as it appeared, and the tune starts to come in, in a very funky sounding synth. Building very nicely into the breakdown, we’re left with a bass & vocal for a minute, and we get a changing bass, just as the title gave me the impression that a big focus would be made on the bassline.

Breaking into a funky almost electro sound, we’re left with the changing bass again, and house music being spoken over the top of the symphony of melody, percussions, bass, vocals, all brought together as one for the main section here. Bringing the track to a close, is the inevitable loss of first melody then bass etc.

Not a bad track, but it didn’t jump out to me as the A side did. 6/10

A2

Another House music affair, this one starts with the typical beats & the likes, and slowly builds a quiet bass and melody in, starting off really quiet, in a sound that I’ve heard a lot used in house music. We’re brought a soft vocal repeating ‘The Music’ which along with the bass is quite catchy, and reminds me of the mind tingling 99.9 vocal in the great Organ Donors song, which does the same job, of staying in your mind and whirling around.

We get more vocals now, over the top off the bass, with a bloke believing about music being a foundaiton, a key to the nation, and instructing us to raise our hands, and let there be love, which is held right on until the beats are back with us. We get another similar break, and then it’s towards the end.

Quite a catchy tune, I think it needs a few listens for the non-house lover to appreciate, but does what it says on the tin, 7/10

B2

Shane 54 needs no introduction to most, being the finest producer from Hungary, and having a great reputation for bringing us a lot of great vocal tracks, seemingly having the ‘knack’ of enhancing the blend in the lyrics and the tune, and this is perhaps one of his more down-tempo tracks, a lot more progressive minded than some of his others.

We’re treated to an extravaganza of percussion, and a synth that reminds me of almost Asian sounds, from like Kung-Fu movies etc, it’s hard to explain it here, I guess you’ve got to hear it to understand what I mean.

This is on the whole a tune that’s focussed on enhancing the great vocals again, and he manages to do this greatly, with soft sounds, and the awesome array of percussion as mentioned earlier, every bit of which makes this a storming track, if a little funkier and more progressive than some of his other work is, and is almost seven minutes of musical bliss 9/10

A3

On the final 12” we get more energetic, and harder than the previous 2 offerings, and this begins with an awesome remix from Marco Zaffrano.

Beginning with a kick that reminds me of Dejure –Sanctuary, it soon changes with an amazingly hard bassline added, rolling and running, almost like water down a maze of pipes, changing directions often, but always flowing greatly.

A Melody starts to come in, just simple, but very much effective to begin with. It almost Stutters and sounds very dark indeed, carrying on & on in a mind bending order, and keeping almost a spooky or evil sound to it throughout, which I really love.

A Spooky string greets us soon, and is mellow enough to be awesome sounding, it must be scary to hear this live! The evil melody continues as the snares get rolling, ready to bring the beats back at any time, and after it’s time to go again.

Awesome offering here, 10/10 from me

B3

A Track signed from Nordic records in Norway, making it onto this disc with a special instrumental remix from DJ Choose, one of Drizzly’s best exports of late.

We begin very tech-trance sounding, in both percussion incorporated here, and the heaviness of the bass & beats, taking us into what sounds like a vastly energetic track. At the 3 minute mark, we get the synth that is familiar to anyone who knows the melody, slowly being used here, but keeping the overall dirty sound to it.

Breaking Nicely, we hear more of the melody in places, but the overall energy that was given so early is not lost, making it a great track here. 8/10

Conclusion:
Overall, if diversity is what you want, you’ll find it here, there are so many styles on offer from a sedate house music to listen to on the beach on a hot summers day to some corking tracks to keep us moving on the dancefloor well into the early hours, well done Nukleuz!!