- After a pleasing if slightly uneventful opening mix from David Harness, the Heartbeat series on Loveslap! Recordings hits its stride on this second volume, another West Coast house mix from the reliable Julius Papp.
Papp has the CD format in this pocket, pacing his mix to perfection, knowing when to introduce the big tunes and adding the odd stylistic twist to keep the attention – something this sort of album doesn’t do often enough.
The anthems occupy the middle part of the set – Pete Heller’s edit of Ferrer and Sydenham’s mighty ‘Sandcastles’, a crowd pleasing Copyright mix of the Deep Sensation classic ‘Somewhere Somehow’ and the rousing ‘Precious Love’ of Blaze, reworked this time by Dennis Ferrer. To get to these heady spots, Papp goes for a deep and mellow opening, building through So What’s superb ‘You’, Kenny Bubien’s vocal the discovery of the album. The ever reliable Lisa Shaw – surely one of the best house vocalists around – delivers again on Movido’s ‘You Know It’s You’, and Deborah Bond’s ‘This Is Me’ winds the mix up perfectly for the closing gospel number from Connie Harvey.
If you’ve experienced San Fran’s Foundations night, where Papp is often to be found alongside Messrs Migs and Jay-J, you’ll know the score. This is vocal house music par excellence, and should be near the top of any summer shopping list in the genre