Terrace - Seventh City (1991)

Released in the Netherlands on Djax-Up Beats , this smooth instrumental was very Detroit sounding, when the Detroit sound was getting less smooth and more experimental. Which was good, but it took Europeans to maintain that old school techno feel, and this fantastic classic is a prime example. Floor filling and a big seller at import US record stores like Rebel Rebel and Decadance in NYC.....i love  this song still after all these years. Theres nothing to dislike....unles you require screaming vocals. Then ya may not love this jam... Off the In-Motion EP.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msnZ77mBbbs

Soul Providers - Rise (2000)

Seriously hot garage house from the UK , kinda like the next post on this blog The Goodfellas. Somehow those chaps in the UK know how to produce and mix and even appreciate SOUL. And all kinds of music really. This song was fun , very positive vocals by Michelle Sellers , and a fantastic mix particularly by Bini & Martini, though the original mix and the Steve lawler mix and the .....

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2deTLzys9M&feature=related

The Goodfellas - Soul Heaven (2000)

Hot disco house record from Azuli UK, sounding an awful lot like Sister Sledge ' Lost in Music'. Quality house here, the European producers hi-jacking urban American house to great effect. This track has serious soul. Disco yet garage, and easy on the ears, the words are very simple and uplifting you just have to dance.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUi0wu24HqY

Pennye Ford - Dangerous (1986)

Fantastic Cherelle style sounding /r&b dance classic, follow up to the urban hit 'Change Your Wicked Ways' , which was also a really really good  dancerecord in the mid1980's , just before the onset of house music (at least for me.) I usually didn't play a lot of records like this, but this one works. And even though its somewhat mainstream, it's still fresh and kinds underground to me right now....not electro. But dance music is losing directions to turn, electro's getting worn out. Why not that Skyy/Lakeside stuff revamped ?

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY3SYiNnISs

Sterling Void - Runaway (1988)

Its that dub. That fierce beat. The vocal is good of Course....nice follow up to the huge hit 'It's Alright', which went on to be a big hit for Pet Shop Boys as well as Sterling Void. But Runaway was actually a bigger hit for me, and I played for a very informed Chicago house crowd at the time. That dub drove people crazy in my neck of the woods.

dub
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI0JpI5VbLE&feature=related

Farley Jackmaster Funk - Love Can't Turn Around (1986)

Easily one of the biggest early house records to come out of Chicago in the late 1980's, at the birth of the house era. Both vocal and dub smokin' , the girl answer version was even good. The remixes,  all bazillion of them they were all good. I wouldn't do an electro version.....ah it's probably already been done. This is pure raw male vocal /post Colonel Abrahms style early garage house.

audio link dub mix
http://www.youtube.com/user/6robski8#p/u/69/mxh-kROv13c

Naked Eyes - Promises Promises (1983)

"Promises, Promises" was the second hit single for the British new wave group Naked Eyes in 1983. The song went on to become a top-20 hit in the US that October, peaking at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It was their follow up to their earlier hit "Always Something There to Remind Me" by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, which was a top-ten hit in the US in mid-1983. This song has no relation to Bacharach and David's 1968 title song to the musical Promises, Promises. Madonna performs background vocals on the Jellybean 7" and 12" mixes of the song. These versions weren't released until 2001 in the compilation album Everything and More.

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJP2PH8WKaI

Skyy - Here's To You (1980)

Skyy was a R&B/funk/disco band based in New York. They are perhaps best-known for their 1982 hit, "Call Me," as well as their 1989 "comeback" hits, "Start of a Romance" and "Real Love."

In the late 1970s, Skyy signed to Salsoul Records. After several albums that saw moderate success in the R&B market, the group crossed over to the mainstream in a big way with the release of the Skyy Line album in late 1981. Featured on this album was the single "Call Me," which gave the group their first (and only, to date) top 40 hit on the pop charts, peaking at #26 in 1982. It also became the first of several #1 R&B hits for Skyy. Meanwhile, the group continued to record for the Salsoul label up through the release of their 1984 Inner City album (Salsoul would fold in 1985), scoring several additional hits on the R&B chart during that time.

In the mid-1980s, the group signed with Capitol Records and released their next album, From the Left Side in 1986. Apart from the top ten R&B single, "Givin' It (to You)," the album saw limited success, and the group left Capitol soon thereafter.

Things were looking rather bleak for the band by the late 1980s. However, after signing to Atlantic Records, Skyy launched a major comeback in 1989 with the release of their extremely successful Start of a Romance album. This release spun off two #1 R&B singles, with both the title track ("Start of a Romance") and the Quiet Storm classic, "Real Love" claiming the top spot. "Real Love" also became the group's second and final crossover pop hit peaking at #47 on the Top 50 Billboard charts in early 1990. The second single released from the album (between the title track and "Real Love"), "Love All the Way" also cracked the R&B top 50. Unfortunately, by the release of the Nearer to You album in 1992, the hits had again dried up, and the band has not released a new studio album since then.
Skyy were known as New York Skyy in England due to there being another group with the same name.
(wikipedia)


video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIxaT8YOvxY

Kim Carnes - Betty Davis Eyes (1981)

Bette Davis Eyes" is a song made popular by the American singer-songwriter Kim Carnes.
The song was written in 1974 by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon. DeShannon recorded the song the same year on her album New Arrangement. But it was not until 1981, when Kim Carnes recorded her version of the song, that it became a commercial success.

The Kim Carnes recording of the song spent nine non-consecutive weeks on top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 (interrupted for one week by the "Stars on 45 Medley") and was Billboard's number one single of 1981. The single also peaked at number twenty-six on the dance charts . The song won the Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The song was also a number one hit in 31 countries, including Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Japan, and Brazil, but it achieved more moderate success in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number ten. The music video was directed by Russell Mulcahy.

Bette Davis admitted to being a fan of the song and approached Carnes and the songwriters to thank them for making her "a part of modern times."
The song was ranked at number 12 on Billboard's list of the top 100 songs in the first 50 years of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Al9blQOhNw

G.T.O. - Pure (1990)

Greater Than One. Fantastic band, here releasing records not on Wax Trax Chicago but Go Bang!. Hot on the heels of many other similar Northern UK hits like Aftermath and LFO etc, this track has withstood time and still kicks ass. Most songs dull over the years. What was once hard is now easy listening. You know the drill. But this Inner City sounding treat is quite familiar in the UK and Europe where it was a huge hit.

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B30T7Ryo3mc

Soft House Company - A Little Piano (1990)

Deep Italian house from 1990 when the quality house music was pouring out of Italy on labels like IRMA and UCC and even ZYX...A Little Piano was actually the B-side to the huge club smash What You Need, which you heard everywhere in Europe and evn sophisticated dancefloors in the US in 1990. A Little Piano was huge for me. huge. always packed the floor or kept it packed.

audio link
A Little Piano
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyyZA_MOF0o

audio link
What You Need
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok5Fepg_Lh0

Pulse - The Lover That You Are (1996)

Produced by Soul Sensation and Hex Hector with help from Chris Lake , this summer of 1996 (summer olympics-atlanta) vocal club banger crossed over into the lower spectrum of pop charts, but to the top of plenty of dance charts back in 1996. Popular at the time NYC NRG-pop remix team Soul Solution teamed up with huge in demand remixer Hex for this one thats still sounds great.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK8op0UHeY8&feature=related

Love Tribe - Stand Up (1996)

Hot UK vocal house based on Machine's mega disco classic ' There Before The Grace Of God '....used that deep bass driven disco loop with a gospel infused club anthem that rocked floors immensely in 1996...the Crystal Waters 100% feel to it didn't hurt on crossover dancefloors. Massive in its time.

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inRZi5ZJbQM

Quincy Jones - Ai No Corrida (1981)

"Ai No Corrida" is a song written by Chaz Jankel and Kenny Young, first recorded in 1980 and featuring on Chaz Jankel's self-titled debut album for A&M Records. It was covered by Quincy Jones in the following year (peaking at #28 on the US chart; #14, UK) on the album The Dude and by British dance act Uniting Nations in 2005 (album One World). Quincy Jones also recorded a Spanish-language version for the 2006 charity album Rhythms del mundo, with vocals by Vania Borges.

The song's title is taken from the original Japanese title of the 1976 film In the Realm of the Senses.

video link
Quincy Jones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMLLbk790m8&feature=related
video link
original Chaz Jankel version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_UVTYKRNN4

Fatboy Slim - Rockefeller Skank (1998)

The Rockafeller Skank" is a song by British musician Fatboy Slim. It was a hit single on the 1998 album You've Come a Long Way, Baby.

The single peaked at #6 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1998. The song is one of the most popular tracks on the album, and was the first Fatboy Slim single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #72.

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmsTwQb1csc

INXS - Meditate (1987)

Mediate" is a song by INXS from their 1987 album, Kick. The song is a segue from their big hit single, "Need You Tonight." The song has the distinction of having almost every line rhyme with the word "ate" (as in "Mediate").

The song was never released as a single, but there was a video for it, which followed "Need You Tonight". Both the video and the song pay homage to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues", as the members flip cue cards with words from the song on them, followed by Kirk Pengilly with a saxophone solo.

Beneath the lyric "a special date" in the "Mediate" portion of the video, the cue card shown reads "9-8-1945". This refers to the date August 9, 1945 which was the date the atomic bomb, codenamed Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. As the date is in the little endian format, with the day first and month second, American observers sometimes confuse the date for September 8, 1945.

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFUEgFdP5zE

Puretone - Stuck In A Groove (2002)

Breakbeat classic by the same group who brought us 'Addicted To Bass',  this track had brilliant remixes by Who Da Funk and Tomcraft and even others! All were really good, a very accessable set of mixes for all tastes. Yet in the end, as with Addicted To Bass, I seem to gravitate towards the original breakbeat version as the best. AKA album version. Stuck ia a groove showed the band as not a one song group. Though that said, I only am really familiar with two songs by them. I'm just sayin....

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psIMWRH-Qb8

Natural Born Chillers - Rock the Funky Beat (1997)

Breakbeat from the UK . But one of the best breakbeat songs to ever sit on a turntable. I was and never have been a big breakbeat fan. Anything closely sounding like an Orlando hit I generally avoided. Despite mad respect for some, like DJ Icey. But this UK break classic, released in the US on WB Records, this song has always been a crowd pleaser.

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCUXPItSwm0

Yvonne Elliman - Love Pains (1979)

I have a lot of different thoughts on this record. It reminds me of a LOT of other songs. First, Yvonne Elliman is one of my favorite vocalists anyway, particularly for that era, late seventies. The song kinda reminds me of Harmony by Suzi Lane , or Neverending Story by Limahl, or Love Dancing by...god its so many other songs. It was it's days version of Kelly Osbournes hit One World. High energy, yet people i would say generally know the actual song. Many other artists sang the tune. This is probably one of the best versions though, some people seem to like Liza Minelli's rendition, however.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRpHboZuTOQ

Monie Love - Grandpa's Party (1989)

Simone Wilson (born 2 July 1970), better known by her stage name Monie Love, is an English emcee and former radio personality in the United States. She was a well-respected figure in British hip hop, and made an impact with American hip hop audiences as a protégé of female American emcee Queen Latifah, as well as through her membership in the late 1980s/early 1990s Native Tongues. Love was one of the first BritHop artists to be signed and distributed worldwide by a major record label.


audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXtV6k-_wYE

6 Bells All - Me The Mailman (1991)

Netherland produced and released sample based house jam from 1991, with sounds blending Todd Terry, Inner City, and 2 In A Room. Pretty much a Europe only hit, and it was never released in the US. I assume for the fact that it was basically a mashup of recurrent hits (and sounds) at the time. Still, itt was big with the house fans who followed UK and mainland Europe dance charts.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN4gW8OUoMs

Second Phase - Mentasm (1991)

Dark, energetic techno that spawned a billion imitators, but no equals . Released on R&S Records Belgium, this Joey Beltram (from Brooklyn) bomb was the beat of club classic Dominator by Human Besource. But, as with his other (around that time) mega techno classic Energy Flash , this is probably one of the biggest techno records ever. Ask anyone who knows techno.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mmGxtylQXU

The Shamen - Move Any Mountain (1991)

"Move Any Mountain" was a single performed by The Shamen. With a new radio remix by The Beatmasters, the song was released in the UK during the summer of 1991 and was their first top-ten single, reaching number three in the UK Singles Chart. It was the band's only top-40 hit in the U.S., where the song peaked at number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The promotional video was filmed on the slopes of Mount Teide, Tenerife island where Will Sinnott drowned and died. This happened on 23 May 1991.


In response to demand for remixes from fans, the band released the entire sample list and a number of remixes on the album Progeny, which at the time meant the single and album release of the track made it the only record to chart on both UK Singles and Album Charts at the same time.

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0FwUzOwI9o

Ecstacy Club - Jesus Loves The Acid (1988)

Classic UK acid house , towards the beginning of rave culture. Probably fairly rare, since its so out of the ordinary we know it didn't sell a truckload of copies. Its not for fans of singing, the only word in the song is the word 'acid' repeated again and again. Drug music, not music for the family picnic. Still very cutting edge and groundbreaking in its time, it reminds me of the club  Save The Robots in New York City.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/user/memocarmy#p/u/130/XUXQAxsXYBI

Bigod 20 - Body To Body (1988)

Big industrial pre New Beat hit for the German band, released in the US and in a lot of the world on ZYX Records, and remixed by industrial leaning remix services like Razormaid. An aquired taste, a bit too house for serious industrial rock fans, a bit too industrial for hard house fans. Yet it worked well, becoming a hit in many places.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfELP6qqwes

Front 242 - Headhunter (1988)

Headhunter is a song by the Belgian EBM band Front 242. It was released in 1988 on the album Front By Front, in two versions (Version 1.0 and Version 3.0). Version 1.0 was then released as a single, with Version 2.0 as one of the b-sides. The song was a major hit in the electronic and industrial music scenes, and Front By Front subsequently became the top selling album in the history of Wax Trax! Records.


Headhunter was a groundbreaking track for industrial music  -- the first real worldwide industrial hit. But it happened to a completely deserving track -- immediately recognizable from the few notes and thoroughly danceable.

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPpUFBVSyWs

A Split Second - Flesh (1986)

A Split-Second was an electronic body music band from Belgium. The duo — Marc Ickx and Peter Bonne (under the artist name Chrismar Chayell) — were active from their debut in 1986 until they split up in 1991, and A Split-Second continued as an Ickx solo project.

After signing to Antler Records, A Split-Second made their debut in 1986 with the track Flesh.
Legend has it that the Belgian New Beat genre was invented in the nightclub Boccaccio in Destelbergen near Ghent when DJ Marc Grouls played a 45rpm EBM record at 33rpm, with the pitch control set to +8. The track in question was Flesh by A Split-Second.

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnmTtC7A_qc

File 13 - Taste So Good (1984)

Classic dirty electro classic on Profile Records back in 1984, very simple and sexy , laced with phone sex samples for your audio pleasure. Perfect for dancefloors full of smoke and sexual energy. Great for mixing two copies, as most good DJ's would.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHSYCiAVFo8

Mayday - Sinister (1988)

Classic Detroit techno produced by Derrick May, this driving 128-ish instrumental track drove the dance club masses mental when progressive DJ's played it at the onset of Detroits Golden techno era. As with Maydays 'Nude Photo' , this early techno classic helped solidify the emerging new sound as Detroit techno, much different than it's close cousin Chicago house. producers like Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson  were  key players in that new sound, and Sinister was one of Derrick Mays biggest and best known tracks by early 1990.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihRdkHSodBU

House To House feat Kym Mazelle - Taste My Love (1987)

On of only two releases on Police records US, which was a sub-label of Byron Stingleys Bright Star Records. Produced and mixed by Marshall Jefferson and written by Virgo , this is one of the earliest best examples of true 'garage' house music. Kym Mazelles first house release before she went on to solo fame. Similar in feel to CeCe Rogers ' Someday' , this is classic Chicago house at its best. Super deep, and probably very rare on vinyl.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJr2Lgz7ENM

Risque III - Essence Of A Dream (1987)

Early early Chicago house classic, with sub deep beats and vocals. Written by K Alexi Shelby and Robert McKay and mixed by Mr Lee and Robert McKay, this was one of only seven releases on the small Chicago label , the b-side featured the hot track Risque Madness. While some of the deep Chicago tracks had appeal to more soulful 'Ten City' Jersey house type demographicc, this track prob was more of an aquired taste, straight up eary jack tracks. Too deep for even the deepest of dancefloors. Except my living room. Though I managed to play it quite a bit in 1987 and 1988.

audio link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oknCjTzwthI&feature=more_related

The R.A.S.E. - Say It Loud/Get On Up (1991)

Otherwise known as the Ron Allen Sound Experience, this Ron Allen (duh) produced double sided pleasure record was released on Strobe Records Canada, a label run by Ron Allen and Hayden Andre. One of many brilliant records on the label, I used to bang the shit out of this record, both sides, back and forth. Very smooth, with just a touch of vocals , and that fantastic under-appreciated Ron Allen sound.

video link
Say it Loud
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcQlrrJ-PK8&feature=related

audio link
Get On Up
Booming System Mix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfOY8FkkYwM