Kontemporary

2018

Hailing from Greensboro, North Carolina, LTD (Love, Tenderness & Devotion) was formed in 1968 by 4 members of Sam & Dave’s backing band “The Fantastic Soul Men Orchestra”. They spent two years in NYC, picking up Jeffrey Osbourne in Rhode Island, before relocating to Los Angeles and getting signed to A&M in 1974. This rather apocalyptic funk track was written and produced by the Mizell Brothers, who are largely known for their Jazz Fusion work at Blue Note with cats like Donald Byrd, Johnny Hammond, & Bobby Humphrey, to name a few. This mix begins with the intro breakdown from Joey Negro’s remix, then switches into Kon’s remix when the beat drops.

BBE

2012

A funky and faithful cover of the title track to Johnny Pate’s 1973 soundtrack, a classic breakbeat from the early days of Hip Hop. Marc Mac’s studio band The Visioneers made some great music indeed during their short-lived existence in the early 2000s.

Papa Records

2019

Montreal songstress Dominque Fils-Aimé gets a proper and irresistible house remix here from Atjazz, but the real magic lies in her music as originally presented on her second album, “Stay Tuned”, released in February 2019. It’s got strains of Nina Simone and Sade and Etta James and its absolutely beautiful.

Self-released

2012

One of my favorite Peven Everett tracks, from his highly underrated Easy Livin’ LP from 2012. This was a huge hit at Club Shelter in those days, and every DJ in the 5 boroughs was clamoring for a copy at the time. Peven’s production, while consistently very… Peven…, can be a little sonically understated for a nightclub soundsystem. So I added some drums underneath this to fatten things up a bit. BTW if you’ve never this Chicago underground legend live, I highly suggest you do yourself a favor and do that.

Classic Music

2019

Speaking of underground cats from the Chi, Amir Alexander is really in his own lane with hard tracks like these that evoke a bit of a Detroit / Robert Hood / Techno Gospel sound, but still remain firmly rooted on the Chicago side of things. Amir also makes tracks with G. Marcell and Hakim Murphy, and sometimes records under the name Guerrilla Soul.

Poker Flat

2018

Drifting a bit further into Techno, Poker Flat’s Steve Bug made this record in 2018 with Clemens Kahlcke aka Cle. Dutch DJ Edwin Oosterwal tech’d-out this dub and gave his synth stabs some room to breathe. More of this, please.

Ovum Recordings

2019

Since our man Louie has kinda spent the last 10 or 15 years focused on very organic Afro-Latin house sounds with his Elements of Life band, it’s easy to forget just how adept he is at making stripped-down, hard-hitting, techy tracks. But make no mistake, he’s one of the greats. Having Josh Wink & Ursula Rucker in the mix probably doesn’t hurt, either.

Atjazz

2019

More greatness from Martin Iveson aka Atjazz. I probably put at least one song of his on every house mix I do these days. For me, he’s on a short list of masters of dubby deep house - along with dudes like Kerri Chandler, Jerome Syndenham & Vince Watson. When the bassline comes in on this, I scrunch my whole face up like GAT DAMN!

T's Crates

2016

A respectful 2016 re-touch of this Jungle Wonz certified classic. Jungle Wonz, as I understand it, was a 1987 collaboration between Marshall Jefferson and Harry Dennis. Piano-heavy records like these were my first introduction to house music, back in college dorm room parties in 1988. KenLou is, of course, another pseudonym for Masters At Work aka Louie Vega and Kenny Dope. I’ve never been clear on how they decide which name they’ll use on which record, but who cares. If they’re involved, it’s gonna be good. Here, there simply brightened up the original sounds, and added in some Nina Simone drums to throw you off in the beginning. I put the outdo vocals of the original version over the very end, as the next track mixes in.

NuLu Music

2019

Just a chunky Afro-House track to break things up from Venezuelan DJ / Producer Manybeat. This came out in July on Anane’s label NuLu Records.

Good Vibrations

2016

I was pretty light on vocals as I was compiling tracks for this mix, so I had to dig back to 2016 to find this overlooked slice of sweetness from Bristol producer Sean McCabe. First time I heard this, I really thought it was either Erro or Valvin Roane aka V singing, but it turns out it was Mike City, a Philly cat best known for producing Carl Thomas and Brandy. NYC OG Frankie Feliciano did the remix and he always delivers the goods.

Steal Vibe Music

2018

The very same Peven Everett from earlier in this mix is very much still at it, making a dope track with Steal Vybe and getting Brooklyn’s own DJ Spinna to really stretch out his synth sounds on the remix. Steal Vybe are Chris Forman and Damon Bennett aka Cee Rule and Mr. Dizzy Fingers - two Philly cats practiced in the art of the East Coast Deep House sound.

Klimaks

2018

German Techno producer Florian Kruse teamed up with Seattle vocalist Tesla Nix in 2018 for this simple, instructional track that prepares us for the wind down of the mix.

T's Crates

2019

Terry Hunter brought Kelly G out of hibernation for this very Moodyman-esque meandering party jam. Terry made great use of Aretha Franklin’s legendary, epic rendition of “Dr. Feelgood” from her Live at The Filmore West recording from 1971. Tower of Power opened up, and King Curtis sat in with her regular touring band that included Cornell Dupree, Bernard Purdie, and Billy Preston. There’s even a video, which you owe it to yourself to watch right this very second! The poster is cool too. It was released as a double live album later that year and is widely considered to be one of the greatest live soul performances ever put on tape.

Sony Music

2019

Some nice vibey, mellow deep house from Philly producer Particle Ray, who has a Buch of nice bootleg remixes on his Soubdloud. I can’t find much info on this dude, but this came out in July and it’s been getting me through some Prospect Park bike rides ever since.

Polydor

1979

I thought it might be nice to bookend this mix with a few classics, to finish things just right. Tamiko Jones was a part Japanese, part British, and part Cherokee Jazz singer who started releasing records in the mid-60s. She had moderate success and was even engaged to Solomon Burke at one time. This is written and arranged by Randy Muller of Brass Construction, which explains how she made such a great disco record that perfectly melds Salsoul realness with Giorgio Moroder synth baselines. Play this at any club full of NY house heads and the floor is guaranteed to fill.

Charlotte Amalie

1982