When in 1982 the Hacienda opened its doors in Manchester, it was the begin of a real legend in the history of clubbing, this famous venue was owned by the Factory Records and New Order and during the long history (that ended in 1997 when it was closed and in 2002 was demolished)
This Is Italo House at its best, one helluva track that became a genuine anthem, that piano riff is a masterpiece and the voice of Katherine E works perfectly well on it. Marvellous!!!
This belongs to 1986, year where the incredible talent of Sylvester took a different direction in dance music respect to the past phases. Produced and written by the already mentioned Euro couple , popular for their work with Mai Tai, the beat were slightly slower than usual for a Sylvester track and with a Euro/electro approach, the remix was cared by Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero and gives a new dimension to the incredible tone of his voice.
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Sylvester - Mutual Attraction (Come Together Mix)
Sun - On My Radio (Album Version)
And another track of the series "There is life after my man left me", the theme is not original, but the track is, Cheryl Lynn leaves the usual Funky stuff and goes in more electronic territory, and let's face it with a voice like that she can go wherever she wants, remixed by the magic hand of John Jellybean Benitez and produced by Bernadette Cooper, name already part of the band Klimaxx and Madam X.
This is a (apparently) rare 12'' from an American label that corresponds to the name of PARC the same one that published originally tracks by ANA, between House and Freestyle, nice vocals and
This is in my opinion a beautiful track, Nick Straker Band were a British band that reach major success in USA thanks to track like "A Little Bit of Jazz" and "Straight Ahead" and "A Walk In The Park", this last one has been remixed several times during the years. This Is taken from the Album they recorded for Prelude in 1980, I never knew why never released as a single (or for that matters not even in their greatest hits collection) cause for me it has all the elements to be a hit, great arrangement with a great sequenced piano, amazing saxophone solos and beautiful lyrics:
This belongs to a period where the Europeans were excellent in producing Dance music that was different from the classic Euro/Italo stuff and from the American one. The producers are Fluitsma & Van Tijn, gifted dutch duo responsible for all the hits by Mai Tai (Do you remember "History"???), "Mutual Attraction" by Sylvester and "Dance Around The World" by Richenel (all the producers have some LOW moments!!!!). "Save me" is beautifully arranged and has got a bass that kick ass. I remember making it listen to a friend that told me "God, they stole the chords of the vocal verse from Corona's "Rhythm Of The Night", they sound exactly the same!" He was right, (in part) the basic difference is that this was made in 1987 and the Corona's one in 1993, so, obviously was the latest that was copied by "Save me"!!!!!!
I remember that in 1985 during a night in the infamous London club Heaven, the great Ian Levine, at the time uncontested resident DJ, near the end of the night in the middle of his High Energy selection dropped this bomb, percussive, a killer sub bassline and with very low mysterious and hunting semi-talked vocals that keep repeating "Again....again...again" during the verses and explode in an instrumental strings played chorus. The crowd (and ME!!!) was absolutely mesmerized. The track is produced by a Frenchman called Jean-Jacques Souplet , popular artistic director, responsible amongst the other things for the Afro orientated track "Sultana" by Titanic.
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Do Piano - Again (Remix)
In the History of Disco there are some real beautiful gems, is in my opinion that this is one of them. Few years ago a Disco-Monster (and I say this with the most utter affection and admiration for his legendary Disco-knowledge!!) called Birdy introduced me to this tune and I immediately fell in love with it and have been thankful to him since! Taken from the second solo album of Gladys Knight, is an absolute Dance triumph. Here you have it in a rare extended and remastered version. I hope it will bring in you the same joy that brought to me!! Enjoy!
This is another one of our favourite and quite unknown tracks. Once again the original was a downbeat track produced by Martin Ware (from British Electric Foundation and Heaven 17) but thanks to the great remixer Paul Gotel was transformed in a great House tune (Way before than the terms Disco-House and Funky-House were conceived!!!). Note of curiosity: it appeared that at the time Lena Fiagbe was quite unhappy with the Remix cause it was way too different from her musical direction!!! (But this didn't stop him to remix her in the two following singles!!!)
This is one of the less popular tracks by the Odyssey and is pure class like most (or should I say ALL???) songs written by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (read Chic), taken from the album "Happy Together". Velvety voice and "that" funky guitar are to die for!!!!
This is a quite obscure deep house track produced amongst the other by Youth, the ex Killing Joke responsable for great tunes like "Little Fluffy Clouds" by The Orb and "Naked In The Rain" by Blue Pearl, with a great sitar playing on the background, slow but highly effective with an optimistic message.
