Crosstown Rebels Presents: Rebel Rave Ii

Crosstown Rebels is easily one of the hottest house music labels around these days. Their signature blend of funky deep house and disco sensitivity makes every single one of their releases worth picking up, and I’ve done my best to do so in the last year. Now, they’re ready to make your life easier by combining all their highlight moments on two CDs with plenty of goodies and exclusives for everybody.
Try: CD1: 1, 2, 3, 10 CD2: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 11
FCC: Clean

CD1
1) 5:14 * You know the drill. Flat, lazy vocals on an awfully tight foundation. Nice and sparse.
2) 7:50 * Tightly wrapped guitar loop and some summery percussion.
3) 8:58 * Aww yeah. That same “This tape was supposed to be about love” sample with a hearty serving of slow and sexy house underneath.
4) 6:02 Funk and soul meets deep house. Some chopped up sample on top of a grinding bass line.
5) 6:37 Jamie Jones’ ‘Summertime’ is all cut up on this one. Tense and slightly acidic house.
6) 6:02 Tight yet spacey. Alternates between swooning synth chords and a minimalistic kick drum-attack.
7) 9:02 Rolling bass line and almost disco-ish vocals. Dramatic and paranoid.
8) 7:29 Pounding, sleazy. Timid synthesizer chords with a robotic feel.
9) 6:38 Casual house stuff. Female vocals adding some edge to the very clean production.
10) 5:53 * Warm and sunny. Soft vocals and catchy as I don’t know what.
11) 8:49 Dark and understated. House for the late night warehouse parties.

CD2
1) 8:02 * Dirty and minimalistic. Sampled guitar loop and with soft keys on top.
2) 6:50 * Classic Art Department style. Flat vocals, flailing keys and relentless drum machine action.
3) 8:27 Soft and somewhat mellow. Lounge stuff?
4) 8:02 ** One of my favorite house moments of 2011. Deep and funky deep house from Solomun with some great samples on top. Stellar.
5) 6:06 Determined house with narrating female vocals. Somewhat funky, but a bit over the top
6) 6:28 ** Disco party. Heavily sampled jam that borrows some cutesy disco vibes and turns it into a full-on party. Nice. Hands in the air?
7) 7:54 ** Whoa. Heavy heavy bass on this. Gorgeous. Gradually builds towards an understated climax.
8) 6:47 Lounge vibes. Soft vocals, pleasant keys and cowbell. A little too mellow.
9) 6:01 Dirty, Chicago style. Super old school, pounding, almost techno-sounding.
10) 8:03 The head honcho steps up and delivers a mean jam with rough synths and a weird, fragmented feel.
11) 7:08 * Laid back, bouncy house. Light and summery with an occasional vocal snippet. There sort of is a guitar solo on this, too.