Bargrooves: Frosted

Juggling the sophisticated with the surprising, Bargrooves: Frosted has tasteful grooves and some surprisingly fresh sounds. Much of the collection sticks with a Naked Music-type aesthetic -- which makes for fine, pleasant deepness -- but there are some welcome risk-takers here too. Greens Keepers ignore deep house's rather conservative rule book and add some spacy beeps and bloops to "Mesopotamian" while Sharon Phillips thumps like house rarely thumps on "Touch Me." Alan Barratt's excellent "King of Rock" is a wonderful exercise in stop/start tension, and everything else ranges from pleasant to delicious. Ben Sowton gets disc one for his traditional mix while DJ Gregory uses disc two for his more tech vision of deep house. Smooth mixing, deep moods, and extra flair; hard to go wrong with that combination.