From Rivera's Groove Box #149: Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls

Pet Shop Boys very first released single. It came first as a more straight club oriented dance hit, with a more Hi-NRG, electronic disco or even early house influenced production by Bobby Orlando (Bobby O). That was in 1984. Then the track got a more radio and listener friendly mix by Stephen Hague - that's the version we hear nowadays in the radio and have been accustomed to. Without a doubt, the best Pet Shop Boys song. Great synth bassline, electro beats, soothing strings, deep vocals and chants all fitting together so right. 

From Rivera's Groove Box #148: Unknown Artist - Benga Benga 1

Porridge Bullet PB005 - Afrobeat edits from Raul 'Ajukaja' Saaremets. Re-edit of Sampa Mapangala 'Yembele'. Got the repress. I didn't like the release that much at first, so I skipped this when it came out. But I heard it at the local parties in Tallinn, and it kinda grew on me. Give it a few spins if you're not feeling it right away! It's really simple edits with some lo-fi drum machine beats underneath the African funk tracks, but somehow it works!

From Rivera's Groove Box #147: Tanel's Hot House Trax - Autokuur

Whoo-eeee-dooo-deee-dooo. Some self promotion. Just another generic garage track I made the other day. I just love how a pure and simple garage groove sounds, it feels just so right. Comes with a download. 'Autokuur' means 'garage' in estonian. Ha, clever!

From Rivera's Groove Box #146: Saint Etienne - Nothing Can Stop Us Now (Kenlou Dub)

Remember when Little Louie Vega and Kenny Dope from Masters At Work used to do great remixes and house tracks? I remember. The rhodes chords have been sampled both by Carl Craig on 'Sub Seducer' and Paris Underground Trax 'Hardcore Deep House'.

From Rivera's Groove Box #145: Ajukaja & Maria Minerva - All The Heart Breaks

Such a nice song, isn't it? Careless and quirky house-pop with all the jazz they can blend inside it. Ajukajas's and Maria's first attempt to cook vaudeville-disco. 

From Rivera's Groove Box #144: Legowelt - Beach Oceano

Legowelt is probably one of the most talented electronic music composers out there at the moment. He's got a home full of synths and machinery to make music. He's a total geek, in a good way - he's fascinated by old computers, UFOs and science-fiction, he used to make music on a audio tracker program, for heavens sake! He's been a member of the Unit Moebius crew. No doubt he has left his footsteps in the European techno scene and continues to break the frontiers. He is a professional musician. And that's why you can categorize his productions 50/50 into two sections - 1) hastily made studio jams and 2) amazing groundbreaking electronic music. The problem with people who make a living with music is that they have the need to pump tracks and songs out all the time, and so it can result in a lot of tracks lacking in quality. Legowelt is always quality, but many of his tracks feel the same - quick studio jams with many synths. Same synth lines, patterns... but not this song here, this, I feel, is one of his best works in the electronic dance music area! Bonus points for sounding like a japanese N64 video game music piece.

From Rivera's Groove Box #143: Mutual Attraction - Lost Tape

Can you believe that this wonderful track is the first (and so far the only) officially released track by this artist? This track is supersweet. It's like an instrumental jazz track, but entirely an electronic piece. I checked the artists instagram page, and from the pictures I saw loads of different analog gear. Very nice! We need tracks like this in times when the deep house genre is in a danger of being hijacked by commercial appealing dance music. Which is unfortunately going on right now. This is a reminder - don't let bad music win.

From Rivera's Groove Box #142: Palace - Touch Me

Wow, what is this? A minimal lo-fi garage groove track? Pretty much sums it up. A very rough and minimal production with only a repetitive drum loop, vocal samples and few out of place piano chords. But somehow it just works. I couldn't make a track so minimal and simple, it's just not my thing - I'd stuff more drums and sounds to the track. Coming from the so called 'oddball' house label 'Unknown To The Unknown' - probably one of my favorite house labels at the moment.

From Rivera's Groove Box #141: Delroy Edwards - 4 Club Use Only

I sleeped on this at first when it came out, and when I stumbled on this finally, it didn't move me at all at first. I have records like Virgo 'Release Yourself' and the classic stuff of Mr. Fingers, also a lot of Dance Mania and the rough basement sound of Chicago. So it didn't really impress me much on the first listen. But then it grew on me with every listen. Maybe I forced myself to like this release. It's super simple in it's sound, but then again it's also a very honest no bullshit or filler type of record. For die hard underground people, like the title says '4 Club Use Only'. But not in those fancy glimmering glamour clubs with bottle service where everyone is wearing fashion clothes and Gucci handbags. Rough dark clubs which resemble abandoned warehouses, basements and nobody asks for a dress code.

From Rivera's Groove Box #140: Floating Points - Nectarines

Everyone is raving how the latest Floating Points 'Nuit Sonores' is the best thing ever, but I really don't care for that track. To me, it's the second track of the release - 'Nectarines' - the better one. It's a fact that Floating Points made 'Nuit Sonores' very hastily just before a gig, so basically it's just an extended jam strecthed to a full track. But 'Nectarines' is a very beautiful track, it's simple, but it works. It's the way the vocals are played around like a real instrument what makes it stand out. I hope Floating Points keeps on creating electronic music what is superior to everything else out there and doesn't lose his groove!