DESCRIPTION:
Vocal House / Nu-disco 5 Tracks - Blessed Madonna, Pete Tong, Gerd Janson, Ash Lauryn... the list of great DJs playing and loving Sam Ruffillo's very special italian disco music is long. With only 3 EPs on Toy Tonics, he might be the most talked about producer on the Berlin label (with Cody Currie and Coeo). One of his Italian disco songs form his last EP ITALIANISSIMO ("Chiamami Subito“) made it into the high rotation playlist of the biggest Italian pop radio and is still growing in the international club underground.
Now Sam comes with a new EP. And this EP shows his other side. Until now Sam has been known for his Italian organic disco songs (no samples, all instruments played live). But for his new BROOKLYN TAPES EP the Italo-Sicilian DJ, producer and super styler Sam Ruffillo worked with a few American rappers and soul singers to create what a New York critic called „post digital soul house music“.
In fact these 4 songs are house and electronic funk - but it's also rap music and R&B and disco. Played in a very modern way, musically colorful and complex and extremely groovy. Its dance music made by musicians - not by DJs. And that makes a big difference. The melodic and harmonic elements are catchy and clever, the chord progressions are beautiful and the syncopated bass lines make you think about great bass play by maestros like Bootsy Collins or Marcus Miller (musicians know them!). It’s a rap house & disco soul EP and it features a well known Canadian rapper (who decided to stay anonymous) as well as Edson Sean, soul singer and composer from New York.
For Toy Tonics this is one more step in the evolution of high quality dancefloor music for the future. Combining house with soul, jazz with 4 to the floor beats, disco with Indie, the Toy Tonics crew is working hard on new forms of quality dance music. And finding the most interesting new artists. With Sam Ruffillo, and the other American artists on Toy Tonics (NY singer Kosmo Kint, American jazz keyboardist Joel Holmes...) the label is bringing together what's internationally new in the dance world - with no borders and no limits...
Remixes for this EP by some of Sam's fans: Ash Lauryn from Detroit, Eli Escobar from New York and Art Of Tones from France.
Bologna-based Sam Ruffillo is undoubtedly a rising star. What's most impressive about his work is his seemingly innate ability to blend elements of deep house (both Italian and American) and US garage with nods to jazz-funk, broken beat, soul and boogie. His latest EP for Toy Tonics is another exceptional collection of cuts. There are three Ruffillo originals on show: the slick soul vocals, boogie bass and kaleidoscopic house colour of 'Just Fine' and the electrofunk-meets-Italo-disco excellence of 'Mind & Soul (Italo Version)'. Elsewhere, Ash Lauryn turns unreleased cut 'Don't Think Twice' into a subtly disco-tinged deep house body-warmer, while Art of Tones delivers two passes on 'Mind & Soul' - a glistening, sun-bright vocal version that sounds like a classic Dave Lee production, and an equally as impressive, vocal-free Dub Mix.