Spirit of House

Since buying his first record aged fourteen in the mid 90's, Peter Oakden can already look back at an illustrious career, with him being one of the brightest young names on the UK's underground house scene. Peter's past few years have included a residency at the prestigious Ministry of Sound Red Sea back in 2006, working for Hed Kandi's deep and soulful sister label Stereo Sushi in 2007 (he helped out with marketing and promotion for album releases and events in the midlands and north as well as resident DJ'ing duties). More recently he has played at many events and countries around the globe - USA, Slovenia, Spain, Greece, Lithuania, Portugal and Africa to name but a few, not forgetting his regular weekly bookings in the UK.

In 2008 he teamed up with close friend Jay Grooves to form Soul Free Productions then went on to release various records and remixes together, which got supported by the likes of Tony Humphries. Building up from this success, Soul Free Records was launched a short time later, which again, also gained sudden elusive support from Phil Asher, Osunlade, Ralf Gum, Anthony Nicholson and Groove Assassin amongst others, and all this within the labels first eight months… Soul Free Records is already growing into one of the UK's most sought after independent labels dedicated to releasing QUALITY MUSIC with SOUL.

After 7 years of collaboration, and methodically gaining support from a "Who's who" list of industry taste makers and a legion of fans throughout the world, Evan Landes & Parrish Wintersmith (aka Groove Junkies) have amicably parted ways to pursue individual interests. Their collective success story and achievements have made an indelible mark on dance music's history – one can hardly imagine soulful house music without thinking of the inimitable Groove Junkies sound and the uncountable classics they are accountable for.

A new chapter though has unfolded as founding member Evan Landes now represents the highly regarded Groove Junkies brand in a solo capacity. Right in time for the release of the debut artist album "In the Zone" (out October 4th on MoreHouse Records), Evan took the time to answer our questions.

Don't forget to check out our Review of the album and Fresh Grooves 598 featuring selected tracks from the album.

House music is a labour of love. You only have to listen to it for a very short time to realise that at its best, house music can be an uplifting, all-encompassing, life-affirming experience. For some, the relationship they have goes beyond simply loving it to being an essential part of their existence. Once such man is DJ Spen, an artist who has spend his entire career creating music that stays as true to the roots of house as is humanly possible.

As such, he was the ideal candidate to select and mix the latest "For the Love of House" compilation - a retrospective series picking house gems from an exhaustive potential catalogue. We caught up with the man himself to get his views on love, life and most importantly... house music.

Osunlade is an intelligent, spiritually minded and classically trained musician, DJ and producer. Drawing influence from the wider sphere of world music and live instrumentation, Osunlade isn't a created professional persona, he really is at one with his art.

African beats, Jazz, Soul and captivating vocals are all part of the Osunlade sound, a sound with uncommon depth for house music but one that remains focused on the dance floor.

Here he tells gives us the 'scoop' on his new artist album, why he is so in love the work of the contemporary surreal artist Wangechi Mutu, his grumbles on remixes and why you won't be able to stop dancing to his new Strictly Rhythm Ibiza mix. Here's what the legendary producer had to say first hand...

On 17th of August, one half of Masters at Work - the legendary Kenny Dope - drops "Dope Jams", a collection of slick beats compiled, mixed and cut up as only the original beat master can.