Happy Monday dance music fans - there's a pun there somewhere. Whether you're fresh off your weekend dance floor feet or already missing your record collection from the lazy Sunday's listening session - I've got some stellar new music picks coming your way.
The weekend's special dance music event mention goes to Ben UFO, Objekt & Anz at the outdoor alleyway that is Manchester's Progress Centre. Breaks, rave, and garage were on the menu this weekend as the trio, along with local Nick Kagame, kept the rain - mostly - at bay with warming bass delivered by beefy, dusty Function One speakers. A great day out.
This week in picks however, is more on the left-field disco, balearic, and house tip - what wonderful music it is too:
Many Hands - Basement Versionz 2
All the sounds and genres that make a proto-house, wigged-out disco digging, dance floor field happy. This VA release from Many Hands does what it says on the tin: edits, chops, and cut-ups from five artists - all paying homage to the more underground, balearic-driven sounds from the most left-field caverns of the club.
Opener ‘Mun Plak Dee Na’ sounds like a deep, undiscovered no-wave dance track from early 80’s NYC, whilst Trujillo’s ‘Space Grace’ dreamily takes listeners on a nostalgic downtown journey of horns, smashing snares, and synth keys.Â
Danny Russell’s ‘Space Race’ is all funk energy, dripping with vocal interplay that would put Bardot and Gainsbourg to shame. ‘KwaGuqa Baby’ is classic dusty funk & soul, and closer ‘Babylon Is Fallin’’ from Tom Bolas takes sped-up digital-dub to the mixing desk and runs it through some nice echo FX. Â
DJ support from: Alex Nut (NTS), Charlie Bones (Do!You!!!), DJ Aficionado, Andy Pye & many more.
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Expert-editor JKriv is back for instalment #2 of his Bedits series. Four tracks of upfront, dance floor disco, Brazilian breaks and more - guaranteed to get the part starting.
‘No Great Pretender’ beefs up a disco-funk classic cut, and ‘Mukara’ presents us with a delicious slice of Afro boogie we didn’t know we wanted.
Eager-eared disco diggers will instantly recognise the edit on the B1 - ‘In The Clouds’ takes Cloud One’s classic ‘Disco Juice’ and flips it with a strong backbeat for modern clubs.Â
‘Corpo Escultural’ rounds out the record with a breakbeat special worthy of anyone’s time.Â
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A raw club classic is flipped three ways from label Gems. This time it’s a 1992 underground classic ‘Tony’s Drum’ from Eagles Prey.
Created in collaboration by the masterminds at Fat Cat and Apple Records - see also the birthplace of dubstep some 12 years later - this club cut is proud part of UK club legend.
The original mix is a four-to-the-floor stomper you could picture swiftly shaking your head to in your ski goggles during the hey day of the early 90’s warehouse rave scene. It’s got just enough progressive development and energy to make it stand up to a modern mix with today’s productions, but enough of that raw 90’s lineage to keep it in-fitting with the true house-heads.
The remixes are the icing on the cake. Jim Rivers, dubs-out the track with a washy, big-room, end of the night feel. The Circulation Mix feels airy, light, and atmospheric, whilst Ranj Kaler’s take on the classic utilises the vocals and additional breakbeats to give it a new lease of life. Â
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Until next week.
Tom