My (Tariq) Top Ten Tunes of 2016 are:

1. Enrico Sangiuliano- Moon Rocks

2. Rhythm 4 Reason- Make Some Noise For The Dj’s (Sound Of The ’92 Cru Mix) 

3. Rhythm 4 Reason – Rock The Beat (Maura’s Sweet Dreams Mix)

4. Vertical Drop & Bobby Tee- All In Vain

5. Spektre & Chicago Loop – Shoot From The Hip

6. 2 Bad Mice- Gone Too Soon

7. House Of Virus & Jimi Polo- Better Days

8. Skeleton Army- Shaw

9. Skeleton Army- Morning Glory 2016

10. Swankout-Original Bad Boy

Top Ten Tunes of 2016

Buy This Track Here

This is our second Unique2Rhythm review of the day and it’s a very special track indeed. A surefire contender for one of the best House music tracks of 2016. be sure to check our review of the awesome Bruno Kaufmann & Barbara Douglas release whilst you’re here but let’s talk about about why you need to support this track…

Along with U2R as a label, artists like Phil Maher & Wayne Dudley turned this writer back towards the realm of good House Music. One of the things I love about both producers is the way they integrate oldskool 90s sounds into their tracks. Take a bit of 91-94 era Rave/Hardcore, add in some classic Defected style House, and a hefty dose of UKG/Speed Garage a la Double 99, The Dreem Teem et al

These guys have their roots in those very scenes, as Phil Maher himself says:

My roots pretty much started way back in the early 90’s. I got introduced to the Hardcore Rave scene via my sister’s boyfriend at the time, who was also a DJ. Back then, I was living in Birmingham, and my Saturday’s pretty much consisted of spending most of my time in the city, in what was then “Don Christies”, “Pure Records”, and believe it or not, “HMV” when they used to have a tidy collection of Hardcore.

It was there I got to know the likes of MC Lennie, one of my good friends Rob Wilson AKA “Charisma”, and got put on “Needle To The Groove”, the same agency/books of the likes of DJ Rap, Charisma etc.

I started playing a few small venues, as well as a fair few underground warehouses, the kind where you had to knock on the door to get in, if you know what I mean lol!

It was around the same time that I started producing. With an Amiga 500, a Technosound Turbo Sampler, and Octamed as a sequencer, things were pretty basic, but with plenty of vinyl to sample, it was here where producing really started for me.

I worked along side Rob Wilson at that time, and we were producing tracks not too dissimilar to the “Slammin’ Vinyl” anthems. Real fast paced hands in the air breaks & pianos. It’s from here we caught the attention of Reinforced Records at the time, who were interested in signing us up, but being young and thinking we knew it all, we opted to go it alone. Unfortunately this never panned out, and shortly after, we both went solo, but remain to this day, real good friends.
The rest as they say, is history.

While Phil might not have been signed to the seminal Reinforced imprint, along with Wayne Dudley, he now makes memorable house anthems including those under the Rhythm 4 Reason moniker. This track ‘Rock The Beat’ combines timeless Italo Pianos, rushy synths and a jaw-dropping Rave Breaks style breakdown. You may also notice the remix title in brackets. This is in loving memory of House DJ Alan Weston’s late mother. In loving memory of Maura

Buy This Track Here and expect to see it in our yearly roundup of the best tracks of 2016

Rhythm 4 Reason- Rock The Beat [Unique2Rhythm]