Guaranteed Raw – Get a load of this (instrumental) (R&S Records, 1990)
An early fusion of serious techno music with breakbeats brought by the pioneering R&S label from Belgium. Great tune to start a club night or taking the vibe to a funky and deeper, slower pace. A pity the sound quality of both vinyl and digital recordings have always been so so. This just screams for a newly mixed and mastered version. Classic though; we must have wrecked quite a few of the 12 over the years.
Motorbass – Les Ondes (1996)
Going deeper then deep with one of the original French Touch acts in house music, the projectproject by Etienne de Crecy and Phillipe Zdar. Caused a major stir at the time, setting a high standard for years to come and clearing the path for Daft Punk. The album ‘Pansoul’ is still a must-listen for every deep house head.
Jeru the Damaja – Come Clean (1994)
Of course we were already blown away for a couple of years with (weekly!) excellent hip hop releases, but this golden age wouldn’t be complete without this track that dropped jaws everywhere. Felt like one of the first more abstract sample productions, breaking away from the jazzy and funky samples that dominated most of the scene at the time. DJ Premier at it’s finest. What a killer crate sample find.
Simple Minds – Theme for Great Cities (1981)
Early favorite by the Glasgow band that later on became so famous through the ‘Breakfast Club’ movie. Their first couple of albums mixed New Wave with electronica, quite experimental, and even a dose of funkiness. This instrumental classic is a five and a half minute dancefloor journey, combining an unrelenting drums and bass groove, a driving guitar, and of course the o-so typical melancholic synth chords on top. They were fond of delays at the time as well.
Shriekback – Tench (1982)
Coming from the 80’s New Wave and Punk there was Shriekback. One of the first bands, together with A Certain Ratio, that made bass and groove based music with roots in rock/wave. For us this was one the first steps into dance music and an introduction to funk.
Check the Facebook event for coming Saturday here. Last tickets are still available.
