Barcelona

Amidst the surge of electro house and nu-rave, club music has become increasingly anti-musical and it won’t be wrong to say that mainstream house music has lost it’s soulful, deep vibes. It’s a shame all the DJs I’ve recently listened to (including oldschool djs) start to play electro house when the dancefloor gets full. Is that because the new young club crowd is energetic or am I getting old?. Hopefully this trend is en passe now that the summer breeze has come and if they still want to play that harsh analog dancefloor music you can always make your home party with the help of your dear old friend.

Here’s a 2 part deep house selection starting with Cue Kids on Devon, UK’s Peng Records. Peng is the home of The Rurals one of the signature names when it comes to deep house music. Cue Kids make us smile here with a funky guitar riff, disco bass and soft vocals by Paula Bernadel. Next up is 1/4th of Metropolitan Jazz Affair, Benjamin Devigne with last years “Soul & Jazz of B. D.” on Still Music USA. If you’re one of the hip DJ crowd who doesn’t play records from the past year you’re dead wrong because this 4 tracker demand serious return plays, and let me remind you that Metropolitan Jazz Affair has released a terrific album on Infracom and I’ll hopefully review it next week.

One of the greatest tracks the legendary Chicago DJ Larry Heard played when he visited us in Istanbul was Osunlade’s remix of the classic Roy Ayers track Tarzan, including the unforgettable cry of the lord of the disco jungle now turned into a tribal party song. Another supertrack on the list is Taylor Mc Ferrin on Rude Movements with one of the best house tracks recently, where the rhythm section is composed of scat, though that shouldn’t be surprising given that he’s the son of Bobby Mc Ferrin. Very quality broken beat and deep groovy bass. Finally a classic from 2001 which had me searching for a long time back in the day, Ferris Park boss Scott Ferguson’s Dump Days. It was once in every notable DJ’s case, once again with an unforgettable vibraphone solo and the driving rhythm, that surely is a dancefloor burner.