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MIX NOTES

This entire mix was inspired by a recent Body n Soul party at a new club on the far edges of Bushwick appropriately called Elsewhere. Joe, Danny and Francois brought the ruckus as usual, playing lots of classics and and reminding me how much damage the right song can do at the right time. I got up the next morning and immediately started compiling songs for this mix, several of which I heard the previous night. And I broke out some tried and true acapellas too, for that real deal NY feel.

The spoken word at the front of this is James Mtume from the Mtume Umoja Ensemble’s “Alkebu-Lan Land of the Blacks (Live at the East)” LP (1972). If you like avant garde spiritual Jazz with a Bed Stuy accent, look out for the record. It was recorded at The East, a legendary Brooklyn Jazz spot which was open from 67 to 85. I chopped up the invocation pretty severely, but retained the ending, which wraps up with an Ashanti proverb:

“If you understand the beginning, the end will not trouble you”.

Upright Love (Louie Vega Kat Mix) – This is Louie with select members of his Elements of Life band, calling themselves E.O.L. Soulfrito. They’re just kinda vibing and warming things up. Seemed like a perfect way to start the mix. Vocal veteran Cindy Mizelle ad-libbing some notes here and there.

Nobody Can Do What You Do (Chalk Hill Edit) – This is a very clever edit from about 10 years back of Dee Dee Sharp’s fairly mediocre Disco number “Nobody Could Take Your Place” from her 1977 “What Color Is Love” LP. She had a string of her own hits in the early 60s, and was married to Philly disco legend Kenny Gamble until 1980.

Forget It – A simple acid-laced mover from Springfield, Illinois by way of Brooklyn, NY producer Justin Cudmore. Sometimes I wish cats would stop relying so heavily on the acid house sound of Chicago in the 80s and make up their own, NEW shit, but it’s still so fucking good, I can’t hate. It’s the sound of my wayward youth.

It’s The Music – Speaking of old school sounds, this 2010 joint by Berlin DJ Murphy Jax hits the nail on the head, delivering a very slight update to the Chicago sound Mike Dunn himself was instrumental in creating. I guess I can’t complain about throwback shit in the middle of a mix I made filled with throwback sounds.

Where Love Lives (Knuckles & Morales Classic Mix) EDIT – That piano! My god does it sound good in a club! This was Alison Limerick’s first and biggest single, and is probably one of the biggest UK house tracks of all time. You could not avoid this song if you let the house at all in 90-91. There are a thousand terrible remixes, but the O.G. Knuckles and Morales mix here is that timeless, hot fire.

My Beat (David Harness Spaced Out Beat) – This is another re-working of the Kevin Hedge classic, but I just looped the basic beat and left the vocals out. Sometimes house music can be this stripped down, this simple, and that’s really all you need. It clears sonic space in the room, and gives the dancers something consistent to just work some shit out to.

Midas Touch – Tel Aviv superstar Yotam Avni is the ideal house producer to me. He makes tracks that are simultaneously deep house and techno and minimal and afro house and whatever dumb hair-splitting genre you can name. He makes it all work, and he makes it sound new every time.

My Words (Yoruba Soul Mix) – Osunlade has always had a good ear for simplicity, repetition, and minimalism. These traits might seem like a given in the house music genre, but trust me, there are always degrees. He knows when to just let shit be. This latest joint on his label from South African signer and poet Sio is no exception. By the second chorus you’re already singing along.

Never Forget (When You Touch Me) EDIT – I pieced together this edit from the five different mixes on the 12”. This is a Louie Vega record from 1999 under the pseudonym of Hardrive 2000. A DJ first, LLV has always been generous enough to give his fellow DJs every version of a track they would ever need. Having access to all of the different mixes encourages blends and remixes and fosters real creativity in a DJs set. For that, I thank him. You may recognize vocalist Lynae for her post-2000 work under the name Sara Devine. Her voice is a staple on NYC dance floors and she absolutely kills it on this track. This is a pretty weird “song”, in that there is no real song there – no verses and no real story – just a chorus, and the rest is Sara just freestyling, making you feel it. That said, it sounds as fresh as ever, almost 20 years later. Amazing.

Disco Nights (This Needs an Edit EDIT) – Just a snippet of this club classic that came out at the peak of Disco in 1979. It dominated the R&B charts and even made it to #12 on the pop charts. GQ were a funk/disco band formed in the Bronx in 1968 who went through several iterations and names before hitting it big with this record. This song is a re-working of a song they originally recorded under the name The Rhythm Makers. Fun fact #1: They were original members of the Five Percent Nation of Islam founded in 1964 by Clarence 13X. If only they had made a 5% Disco song. Fun fact #2: Lead singer Keith Crier aka Sabu is the uncle of Keith Sweat.

I’m Here Again – Disco diva Thelma Houston absolutely slays this 1976 track. It was an attempt to replicate the success of “Don’t Leave Me This Way” from the same year, which was such a huge hit, many people forgot it was actually a cover. I bring it in on this mix just after the downtempo intro verse, when the song kicks into high gear. Thelma grew up in Mississippi and California. She came up on the gospel circuit and was taken under the wings of songwriting legend Jimmy Webb (“By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “MacCarthur Park”, and the world’s only hot air balloon anthem, “Up Up and Away”). I don’t know who is playing that incredible piano walk at the end, but I fucking LOVE it!

Not Tonight (Dim’s EDIT)- An Italo Disco song that you don’t hear very often, by Mario Vincenze, who went by the one word moniker, Macho. I put the SFX from the B-Side to Instant House’s “Awade” over the top of the extended break that Dimitri from Paris created, just to bring back that old Shelter feeling. I couldn’t find my white label Awade promo vinyl to save my life, but my boy SamHyde came to the rescue with a digital copy. The track has some heavy disco guitars that kinda remind me of The Skatt Brothers’ gay anthem “Walk The Night”, which some clever Youtuber has edited with the leather club scenes from Al Pacino’s “Cruising”.

Crosseyed & Painless – I often return to The Talking Heads’ 1980 LP “Remain In Light”, which I grew up on, thanks to my sister, who bought it when it first came out. This was their biggest charting dance single, even bigger than “Once In A Lifetime”, believe it or not. You can really hear the influence of African pop music of the late 70s, that David Byrne was very hip to (for a white boy from RISD, that is). Toni Basil directed the video and used breakers she knew, including a young Popin’ Pete Solomon from the Electric Boogaloo Crew. Peep him doing the very first moonwalk ever in music video.

The World Is a Family (AfroHouse Mix) – One more from Louie Vega and Josh Milan, who employ a nice baritone sax on this to bring a slight Afrobeat vibe. Josh Milan’s lyrics are often a tad too earnest for me, but in the age of Trump and giant racist border walls, his message of world unity and love is as important as any you’ll find on a dance floor.

Electronic Frequencies – Chicago Disco Emperor Sadar Bahar teamed up with Utrecht electro DJ Cosmic Force aka Ben Spaander in 2017 to release a 5-song EP on BBE. I dig the rolling synths and scratchy guitar. I could do without the cheezy vocals, but the rest of the track is dope, so whatevz.

We Dance Again EDIT – South African man-of-the-moment Black Coffee has managed to replicate the Shelter/Jersey Afrohouse sound pretty much note for note, yet blow up on an international level Timmy ’n dem never even got close to. I am equally mad and thrilled about this. I would always prefer the originators to get their due, but at the same time, through hard work, great branding and great marketing, Black Coffee has gotten this sound out to the entire planet. And I hear he got a Vegas residency too. That is real DJ money. So, more power to this brother. I edited out most of the vocals, cuz I mainly just like the groove, but this song sounds fucking fantastic in a club. Joe Claussel made sure I left B&S with a clear understanding of that.

Urgent Rumba (Pepe Braddock remix) – This weird-ass remix has been in my gym playlist for a couple of years now. It’s a Gilles Peterson track, but we’ll never know what the original sounded like, as he only released the remix to my knowledge. Parisian DJ and producer Julien Auger aka Pépé Braddock has been continuously breaking new ground in house music since his first hit “Deep Burnt” in 1999. There’s very few DJs who claim to play deep house who don’t own a few of his tracks. I thought it was a good way to wind down the mix, as it sort of deconstructs towards the end. Aaaaaand… that’s a wrap! Thanks for listening / reading / grooving.

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