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Picks of the Week
Funk La Planet All Stars featuring Toni Smith "Summertime" (Funk La Planet Records CD Promo)
Summer is finally here, and with their cover of the Gershwin' jazz standard "Summertime" Funk La Planet present the appropriate anthem for it. Andy Funk & Benjamin Deffe provide an old-school flavored twelve minute journey into uplifting soulful house grooves featuring lovely guitars, classic strings, melodic keys and an inspirational vocal by Toni Smith over a percussion enriched, smoothly stormin' groove. DJ Fudge provides a funktified, steadily groovin' interpretation featuring great keys and a wicked organ solo. His dub is absolutely irresistible, with a relentless groove leading the way for the keys that create a hypnotic feeling.
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Soularis "Back together" (SunSoaked Records CD Promo)
The next release on SunSoaked will be a cover of the timeless Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack classic "Back together". Produced by Soularis and with vocals supplied by Pete Simpson and Mandy Edge, it stays true to the timeless original, paying it the respect it deserves. The groovy 'SunSoaked Mix' smoothes things down, spreading an uplifting feeling through the passionate vocals and organic instrumentation. The 'SunSoaked Instrumental' strips back the vocals, letting the rhodes to the talking. DJ Meme and MoD team up, powering things up on their take and adding additional funky ingredients that make it a peaktime favorite.
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Ten years ago, Jamie Lewis founded the now legendary Purple Music which since then has celebrated many legendary parties and record releases. Purple Music celebrate the 10 year anniversary with parties around the globe as well with volume four in the successful "Master Collection" series. This latest edition features highlights of their previous and current releases as well as exclusive unreleased tunes such as "Music is my shelter" by Ray Paxon featuring Syb & Freda Godlett, "Change" by Djaimin featuring Crystal Reclear & Buddah Monk and "Mountain high" by Smooth Touch featuring G. Sax. Also included is the WMC smash "Unity" by Jamie Lewis (which will soon get a full release). A highly recommended compilation featuring some of the hottest house music around. |
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Picks of the Week
Domenico Navarra featuring Monique Henry "So lonely" (Grooveland Music Records CD Promo)
One of our favorites tunes of the year so far (we got it as part of the "Grooveland Music WMC 2007 Sampler") is getting a full release soon, coming complete with brand new mixes. "So lonely" is produced by by Domenio Navarro and features a heartfelt vocal performance by Monique Henry over a deep and mellow backing groove that is enriched with a lovely guitar and great keys, giving the track a laidback feeling. Jihad Muhammad (with the help of Vincent Jeffries on piano and Kelton Cooper on guitar) takes the track to the next level, reworking it into a soulfully groovin', jazz-flavored masterpiece. On a different direction comes eDeep's interpretation that turns the track into a deep tribal house track with a slight dark edge that features wicked synth lines.
Dajae & Bernard Badie "Tonight" (Tony Records CD Promo)
With "Tonight", Tony Records present one of the standout tunes from this years WMC. Dajae and Bernard Badie team up for a deeply rumblin' funktified track spreading a distinct Chicago house feeling through the moody keys and sexy female vocals that creates an irresistible vibe. The 'Git Down Tonight Dub' is a relentless affair that is all about the funky house groove and bassline hook, with the vocals only sparsely used. David 'Vibes' Tobon delivers the 'Redirekted Mix', a mind-blowing reworking that combines the vocals with a thumpin' beat, acoustic and electronic keys, jazzy organ and a wild rock guitar to create a resistless vibe on the dancefloor.
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Studio Apartment (aka Masanori Morita and Noboru Abe) return with their 4th original album, following up the success of the highly acclaimed "People to people" longplayer from 2005. On "For her, for him, for you", they showcase their love for mixing different genres such as house, jazz, latin, afro and brazilian, with the result being innovative dance music full of creative moments. The list of guest artists includes Monique Bingham, Kimara Lovelace, Blaze, Ron Carroll and Deborah Bond who all contribute to this outstanding album. |
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Picks of the Week
Rachel Claudio "Freedom" (Jaffa Music Records CD Promo)
Jaffa Music follow up their massive debut release "Miscommunicate" with "Freedom" by Rachel Claudio which is guaranteed to take dancefloors by storm. "Freedom" features a heartfelt, gospel tinged vocal performance over a ferocious funk flavored house groove that is enriched with wicked keys. Remixes are courtesy of DJ Fudge who reworks the track into a stormin' peaktime affair with an irresistible piano, while Raw Artistic Soul deliver a more laidback, beautifully instrumentated interpretation. Lastly Ralphski takes it to deeper and even more laidback grounds, letting warm melodic chords and a smooth groove create a mellow feeling.
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Picks of the Week
Steve Paradise featuring Kiara S. "Carnival" (Gotta Keep Faith Records CD Promo)
"Carnival" is a beautiful samba-flavored latin house production featuring seductive vocals courtesy of jazz singer Kiara S. (aka Chiara Santagiuliana) and wonderful keys over a deeply stormin' groove. Spiritual Blessing give the track a deeply thumpin' tribal-ish outfit on a smooth edge, while Melchyor A. reworks the track into a deep'n'groovy, funky ingredients spiced monster jam (don't miss to check out his sexy bonus beats). Also included is the bonus track "This is house jazz" performed by Kiara S. which features a beautiful jazz piano that is leading the way for the smooth 4/4 beat and sexy vocals.
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Picks of the Week
The Brooklyn Knightz "He'll give you shelter" (Rapture Trax Records CD Promo)
"He'll give you shelter" by The Brooklyn Knightz is a timeless gospel house production featuring both marvellous instrumentation and vocals. Produced by Phil Hooton and Rob Noize Temple , "He'll give you shelter" features wonderful keys, horns and guitar that together with the masterly performed vocals by Temple Dynasty create a feel good vibe every time you're gonna hear this uplifting and spiritual journey into house music. With a variety of instrumental versions included, this one is not to be missed.
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Picks of the Week
Franky Boissy featuring Michael Watford "Back to my roots" (Purple Music Records CD Promo)
Franky Boissy has taken on the timeless Odyssey classic "Back to my roots" and together with the incomparable Michael Watford he delivers a magnificent cover. His original version is a smoothly stompin' affair full of funky flavors reminiscent of the 1981 classic. The Muthafunkaz rework the track into a resistless gospel house stomper, with their 'Huge Vibe Dub' being all about the vibes and the relentless groove. Italy's Luis Radio completes the package with a lovely reworking that is on a more laidback tip, preserving the classic funky feeling while adding some sweet balearic flavors to it.
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Dennis Ferrer has been chosen to mix the 20th edition of the mighty "In the House" series by Defected, one of the best selling house mix series available worldwide. He is known first and foremost as a producer and remixer with the midas touch - just remember his timeless reworking of Blaze' "Most precious love" or the defining Fish Go Deep "The cure & the cause" which still bring the dancefloors to a frenzy. On the other hand, he became one of the most versatile and innovative producers in recent years, and with his debut artist album "The world as I see it" he delivered a masterpiece that deftly linked soulful vocals with stripped down techy flavours. On his two "In the House" mixes, Dennis Ferrer elegantly blends soulful house grooves with deep techy vibes and peak time monsters, illustrating why he is considered one of the most skilled and sublime producers and DJs today. As a bonus, the package includes a third CD with a collection of tracks that inspired Dennis Ferrer. |
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"The Godfather of Disco (G.O.D.)" - a documentary about Mel Cheren by Gene Graham
Based on Mel Cheren's powerful autobiography "My Life and the Paradise Garage: Keep On Dancin", "The Godfather of Disco (G.O.D.)" is a feature length documentar by director Gene Graham that will give you an overview of the rise and fall of the 70's era dance music. Through a series of interviews with a who's who of the dance music community, G.O.D. uses the arc of Mel's life to examine the early 70's musical and cultural currents that gave birth to disco, West End Records' contribution to that scene, the rise of Paradise Garage, and the onslaught of HIV/Aids and it's impact on New York City. The documentary look at Mel's activist years as he harnesses the power of music to fight Aids via his charity work for GMHC and 24hrs for Life/LifeBEAT. Through it all, Mel has been there, done that, lived to tell the tale and continues to do it all today.
The movie had its world premier at the 2007 Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival where director Gene Graham received the Emerging Filmmaker Award. More information, including a list of future screenings, can be found at the official website.
Mel Cheren - he's the guy that put an instrumental mix on the b-side of a 45rpm record.
Mel Cheren - he's the guy who put out the frist 12" DJ record.
Mel Cheren and Gene Graham in Minneapolis (picture courtesy of the official website)
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Picks of the Week
Miguel Migs "Those things" (Salted Music Records CD Promo)
"Those things" is the title track from Miguel Migs new artist album, featuring the lovely Lisa Shaw on vocals. On this track, Miguel Migs delivers a slammin' blend of dirty funky house grooves with electrofied flavors, while Lisa Shaw provides a passionate vocal to it. On the dub, the vocals are stripped down to let the music do the talking. Scott Wozniak comes up with stompin' reworking that features wicked snyths and organs that give it a classic NYC tip, while Simon Grey reworks the track into an old school disco-funk monster that is masterly instrumentated and arranged.