It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Here is a track I was sure that I had posted before but apparently not, probably when I thought about posting it before I had the same dilemma as I had last night, which bloody mix to choose, they are all brilliant.

When I used to think of myself as a bit of a DJ, I would mess about for ages mixing dialogue from the Apocalypse Now soundtrack into this track and used to follow it with Homer's mix of Persian Blues which seemed to work very well or so I thought at the time. I came across a few homemade mix tapes, one including this track  the other weekend but haven't had the courage to listen to how bad the train crash mixing is, as yet.

The Disco Evangelists were Ashley Beedle, David Holmes and Lindsay Edwards they released two singles in 1993, De Niro and A New Dawn both are very good progressive thumpers but for me it will always be De Niro, which was first released on Black Sunshine records and then picked up by Positiva and given a wider release.

The pan pipes sample comes from possibly my favourite soundtrack music for the film Once Upon A Time In America bu Ennio Morricone.

Have a good weekend people.

I'm off to Monorail in the morning to spend way too much money.

The Disco Evangelists - De Niro (The Spaceflight remix)

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Bloody iTunes, once again it lost it's way to the bloody external drive and I've had to import the whole of my library again. On the website it's easy,  just follow the steps and voila your whole library appears as before. Not for me, well,  once it did but not on the last two occassions. It's going to take me weeks again to get all my playlists back.

But enough of my tribulations, it's Friday which means one thing.  Yes.  Another in the series that refuses to just give up the ghost and fuck off. Due mainly I must admit to my lack of imagination and effort to come up with something to replace it with.

So, it's back to 1992 and a speaker shaking, structural damage creating if played too loud dub mix from a duo who were consistently on top of their game and probably along with Underworld the biggest names in Progressive House.

Release The Pressure was released in 1992 and was Leftfield's third release. The track posted is from the white label Release The Dubs ep, which helpfully has no track listing on it, side two, track one is my favourite and apologies for all of the crackling at the start, I don't think that the vinyl that it was pressed upon was of particularly good quality, fortunately  it only lasts for the first 20 secs.

Have a good weekend people.

Leftfield - Release The Dubs 3

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I don't know about where you are but it's "bloody baltic" up hear in the frozen north. I'm not sure why we say this as the Baltic isn't a  particularly cold place b ut we do and it most certainly is.

So here is a track from 1992 which from the name of the band/producers alone makes me feel much warmer. It was released on UCR records and reminds me very much of  Liberation/Liberation 2 which were around about the same time as this.

I'm off to see Jetpacks tonight, on mine and Stiff's Christmas night out.

Have a good weekend people.

Mombassa - Cry Freedom - (Malawi mix)

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

From the outset the label title said it all "Soma Quality Recordings".

If anybody can find me another independant label as ground breaking and with such consistently high quality over the past twenty years (Warp is a given) I would like to know.

Prior to the release of SOMA-1, Slam were already know as the best dj double act this side of the border starting with their Black Market nights at Fury Murrys then their Atlantis nights at the Sub Club and one offs at the Barrowlands and Strathy Park. The year after they launched Soma records saw them take up occupation of  the Arches in Glasgow which produced some of the best nights that I have ever been to with guest spots from the cream of the world wide djing fraternity.

But coming back to the music, the term "classic" is bandied about far too much these days not least by me but I think that this is a bona fide classic. When thought of now through the haze of too many years, you think that it is very much of it's time but back in 1991 Slam were well ahead of the pack when they released Eterna.

Have a good weekend people.

Slam - Eterna

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

If I were asked to pick my favourite time period in modern dance music, it would be a tough decision but I think that the period from 1991 to the end of 1993 and the genre of Progressive House would win out.  The sounds emanating from labels like Guerilla, Cowboy and Hard Hands. and from producers David Holmes, Andrew Weatherall, William Orbit and a whole host of others who produced one of belters of tracks, were in my opinion the best things that ever happened in dance music.

One of the main factors which endeared this type of dance to me as opposed to the breakbeat or Rave stuff synonymous with this time was the length and depth of the tracks. Most progressive house tracks, like progressive rock I suppose clocked in at over seven minutes and for me the longer the better, ten to 11 minutes was just about the right time for me to get totally immersed in the sounds.

Journalist and musician Kris Needs was another who got caught up in the progressive house vibe producing some great 12" singles released on the Sabres of Paradise, Hard Hands and latterly Deconstruction label with vocalist Wonder Schneider under the monikers of Secret Knowledge and Delta Lady.

Posted is the first Delta Lady single released in 1993 on Hard Hands.

Have a good weekend people.

Delta Lady - Anything You Want (The Delta Belter Vocal Symphony)

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Back to 1992, the days of leather trousers and pony tails, neither of which, thankfully I can truthfully say I owned. I was guilty of many a fashion crime in the late 80's, early nineties, at least 3 pairs of dungarees for a start but both of the above were a step too far even for me. All I can say is that some people must have been taking some really mind bending chemicals to think that a ponytail was a good idea.

Today's track comes courtesy of D:Ream, no wait come back, it is good really.

Not really got much to say about it, other than the fact that I really rather liked it and it still sounds quite good to these ears.

Baby June - What's Your Name ( Brassneck mix)