Celebrating 10 years of refining its highly personal vision of underground electronic dance music, Paris’ Circus Company presents Snuggle & Slap, a two-CD compilation balancing contemporary house music with more idiosyncratic submissions. It’s more than just a label sampler: many of the artists included here appear two or even three times, having been afforded the opportunity to think beyond the dancefloor and experiment with new sounds, unusual styles, and secret passions. Hushed funk, feathery beats and spongy textures characterize Snuggle, while Slap snaps to attention with more insistent grooves straight to the heart of the label’s sweet spot: sumptuously detailed, swoonworthily deep house. Whether you’ve been following Circus Company for the whole decade or are only just now turning on, this collection of new, exclusive material is an essential portrait of one of the most dynamic labels around. Who’s on board of the 2x12″ version? There are veterans from the label’s very earliest days, including Ark and Sety. There are folks that have joined in recent years, enlarging the label’s sound along with its roster: dOP, Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts, Audio Werner, Oleg Poliakov. There are also a few familiar faces hidden behind name that might be new to you: Destination Danger is the pairing of Oleg Poliakov and Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts, and together they come up with one of the album’s most driving and hypnotic tracks. Circus Company’s Mathias Duchemin (aka Sety) sums up the project: “The concept of this compilation with to present our artists’ hidden sides. On the Slap side you’ll get their usual, dancefloor-oriented style. On the Snuggle side you’ll have the chance to discover their more ‘home listening’ directions". This 2x12″ version only provide the Slap side of the compilation. Accordingly, these tracks go far deeper than the bongos-and-keyboards model of so much current “deep house.” An emphasis on live instrumentation, acoustic samples and subtle vo