Sonar Kollektiv

2005

Berlin collective Jazzanova flipped this 1983 proto-house classic in 2005 into a stripped down, percussion-forward dub. It never really gets out of first gear, but first gear is just right for the first song of this mix.

MAW Records

2021

Hometown heroes Masters At Work bring the energy up, as always, with a laid back, 2021 party starter I’ve heard Louie play a few times this year. It features the immortal voice of Donnell Rush, whose vocal career was cut tragically short in 1996 at age 35, due to heart failure. RIP.

White Label

2009

DJ/Prodcuer Rainer Trueby hails from Stuttgart but commands dance floors in Berlin and Frieberg and at festivals all over Europe. This has been a favorite of mine since it came out in 2009. Has a soulful, Moodymann vibe that just lets the groove do its thing. I’m quite sure you’ll agree.

ITOM Records

2013

Barcelona DJs Qmusse & Dubaa tapped Budapest DJ Krisztian Dobrocsi aka Forteba for this remix. Forteba also produces drum and bass and other electronic excursions under the pseudonym Krisztian Decay. This came out on the Hungarian label Itom in 2016.

Coloring Lessons Records

 2021

NYC DJ Malik Hendricks is part of a new generation of house heads coming up that seem thankfully less constrained by the orthodoxy of the old guard. This is a good thing, as they’re breathing new life into this thing we call house and carving out space for themselves and and their audience, who were too damn young for Hubert St or King St. Go ‘head, Youngblood. I like this track so much I bought it twice, by accident LOL.

Epic

1994

The clean and polished, big room sound of 1993, when house was big business, especially in the UK. MK hooked this up nicely, with his usual reductiveness and restraint, letting the vocals shine though. Sounds like being at The Tunnel to me, and it really holds up.

Sulfuric Trax

2018

John Julius Knight kinda does one thing and he does it well. I am not always in the mood for it, but sometimes a little filtered disco is all you need. And Double Exposure’s “Everyman” is certainly in many people’s top 10 disco songs of all time, so turn it up and get down.

Merecumbe Recordings

2022

My man Doug Gomez continues to rule the Afro House charts from his roost in Costa Rica. I try not to look at his social feed too much, especially during the NY winter, because he really seems to have “the life” down there. More power to him. This is a collab with Conway Kasey, who like Doug, really knows how to hook up some drums for old Shelter heads like me. This shit is epic.

Brownswood Recordings

2016

Parisian DJ Débruit makes sparse, staccato, synthy, percussive tracks that just have an indescribably HYPEness for me. A bit of Pepe Braddock’s loose experiementation – but less layered. More stripped down and just bumpin’. This came out on the remix pack for Gilles Peterson’s Havana Cultura Band in 2016.

Aluku Records

2019

DJ Dafro riffs off of some of the techy droning vibes coming out of South Africa for the last decade, creating something very hypnotic for 2021. It’s the kind of track that makes me wish it was 6am and the system is deafening and the smoke machines and strobes are running full tilt and I can just get lost in the moment. Feel me?

Vega Records

2022

LLV hooked up this conga breakdown for Tony Touch. Both brothers know just what something this essential does to a dance floor. Not rocket science, Just the roots of this things we call House.

Naked Music NYC

2000

The incomparable Monique Bingham, doing what she does best, for Jay Denes aka Blue 6. This came out in 2000 and absolutely saturated NYC at the time. Naked Music was putting out a ton of this schmoove house in those days, and it came to really sonically define that era, to a degree. It was certainly over-exposed for me personally, due to being snatched up for compilation after compilation, but when I haven’t heard it in awhile, it’s blissful.

Top Shot Music

2021

One of my DJ heroes, and a cool-ass mofo, Sting International is at it again, tapping Inaya Day, who’s been in the game for 20+ years but seems to just be wrecking shop lately. That’s right. I’m bringing back “wreck shop”. At this rate, I’ll be catching wreck in no time.

Stereo Productions

2014

Kind of a big room, party-rocking vibe on this, remixed by big room, party rocking Spanish techno kings, Chus & Ceballos. I usually hate when producers just throw on acapellas with no regard for tempo or timing, but Barrington Levy’s voice cuts through so clear, it just kinda works.

DJ & Producer Rampa is one of the founders of Keinemusik

2019

This came out in 2019 but I just heard it this past summer and I love these kinda techy tracks. I threw some added percussion on top to keep the mix from going too dark LOL.

Swing City

1995

Speaking of OGs, UK super producer Grant Nelson released this jump-up floor stomper in 1995, with my man, Brooklyn’s own legendary DJ Disciple on vocals, schooling them young cats on the metaphysical, existential, universal philosophy that we now simply take as a given: house is a feeling. Cliche? Perhaps. But not in 1995. And not to me in 2021. How 'bout u?.

King Street Sounds

1994

While we’re in the Way Back Machine, let’s stop in on 1994 to peep Kerri Chandler and Shuji Hirose aka Bassmental, who were effortlessly laying the foundation for generations of house newjacks. Kerri continues to blaze trails to this day, thank god. The man is a BEAST.

Geffen Records

1990

More fresh sounds of 90s New York, with Clivillés & Cole at the controls, in 1990, sort of right before they blew up with Deeper Love. This track is a journey, and I didn’t even play the whole thing. I think I first heard Danny Tenaglia play this. If you ever have a chance to hear Danny play house classics, do NOT miss that shit. He is a master, particularly of this era.

Rise Music

2019

To be straight up, I’m a bit burnt out on much of the Afro House I hear in NY clubs these days. Sometimes it’s damn near all you get, all night. But when a track hits for me, it hits. This was an international hit in 2019 but entered my life this past year. Miriam Makeba’s voice is just unparalleled, and producer Godfrey Hlapa aka G-Washington from Limpopo knew just how to let her shine.

Kalawa Jazmee

2018

More South African grooves, from Professor, Ndu Shezi, and Thebe, from 2018. OK so maybe I’m not totally over SA house just yet.

A bit of a palette cleanser, here. Dubby, spacey, deep house vibes from UK beat junkie Chris Upson aka Tenshu. This came out in September of this year.

 I Ner Zon Sounds

1993

Back to 1993 again, cuz nothing else quite sounds like it. I would be DJing Hip Hop upstairs at Nell’s and sometimes they’d shut down early, and I could head downstairs and listen to Pal Joey playing acetates of Hot Music. Truly blessed, I was. Whatup, Joe!

Kunye

2021

Louie Vega doing what he does best, hook up some vocals so we can sing along and get our groove on. A lost art, some would say. Singer Malehloka Mary Hlalele AKA Maleh from Lesotho, SA has a beautifully warm tone, and Shimza’s original version was uncharacteristically light and bouncy, setting up Louie nicely to bring it home for NY dance floors.

Knee Deep In Sound

2018

My man Matty Matt texted me this track, simply saying “this went off at 718”, referring to Danny Krivit’s 718 Sessions, one of my favorite NY parties. DJs look out for each other like that LOL. Give it a listen and I’m pretty sure you can see why that might be the case. Themba is Themba Mbongeni Nkosi, aka Euphonik, who’s been blowing up dance floors in South Africa and around the world for damn near 20 years. Okay maybe I’m not so sick of Afro House, after all. yo DJS, just give me some screaming church divas every now and then, between your Jo’Burg beats, and I’ll stop complaining.

Stil Vor Talent

2018

DJ Cioz is the founder of Knobs Bergamo,, a creative musical hub in Bergamo, Italy for musicians and artists to collaborate and make magic. Bergamo is a hop skip and a jump Northeast of Milan and a nice place to find yourself of an evening.

Compost

2021

I seem to put at least one Atjazz (Martin Iverson) track on just about every house mix I make these days. This one has two. Dude does not miss.

Restricted Access

2005

I wish I was exaggerating when I say hearing this song gets me seriously verklempt, but it was an anthem in a particularly golden era of the 39th st incarnation of Shelter that is near and dear to my heart and hips and soul. Scott Wozniak was absolutely murdering it in those days, with a remarkable ability to churn out anthem after anthem, usually R&B vocals that sounded made specifically for me and the other 400 regulars in the club. Anyway, who feels it knows it. And probably sings along to it, too.

Blue Note

2020

I’m bringing it back down to first gear for the last track of the mix. Myself and every other DJ on earth played this song to death in 2000 when it came out. It set a new standard for Jazz-infused house that a helluva lot of people spent the next decade trying to reproduce. It was the brainchild of Ludovic Navarre aka St Germain, who's been in this game since the mid 90s, and he continues to make dope records to this day. This year they released a bunch of remixes and Martin’s was the one for me. Thanks for listening and have a great holiday!