2023 Repress

Tracklist
A1. Open Door (original) 11:31
B1. 00000000 (original) 18:42

C1. Open Door Theo Parrish Behind Closed Doors Remix 10:32
D1. D1 (Unreleased) 08:04
D2. Open Door (Gerd Remix) 08:51

Release Info:
In certain circles, this is a record that would easily be called „eternal“. Back in 1996, when it was originally released, it sounded like nothing else - and still does. The sixth record of Frankfurt’s soon to be imperial Playhouse label and Losoul’s first outing on the label, it hot-wired many things at once: house and techno, US roots and European fruits, grittiness and wittiness, high tech funk, the expansion pf playtimes and the concept of minimalism in dance music. Elegance met effectiveness.
A composition that hooked you and also caused a stir elsewhere. Daniel Bell licensed it to his Elevate label and commissioned a very young Theo Parrish to remix it, Michel De Hey did the same with his EC Records and treatments by Gerd among others.
Here you finally get both of those carefully restored, remastered and reissued next to the originals. Amply placed on a double 12“, it also features the previously unreleased D1. Stemming from the same time and era as Open Door it rings and feels like a compact lost brother. Addictive as on the very first day and here to stay.


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2x12"

Liner Notes by Gerd Janson

Tracklist

A1. Surprise - Original
A2. Surprise – Isolée Remix
B1. Surprise – Fake Jazz Mix
C1. Surprise – Holy Bassline Mix
D1. Surprise – Losoul Remix

In its main mix, Surprise is a classic early nineties house track that heavily nods towards the Big Apple, house music’s disco roots and the power of swinging drum programming, albeit with meticulous production work and engineering. In short, it sounded and sounds as un-German as Germans can. The Holy Bassline Mix on the other hand is already in the shape of things to come. Carried by a Roland TB-303, sprinkled with trance bits and elegiac pads, its in perfect balance.
Others thought so as well. Heavily supported by David Holmes and Andrew Weatherall, it was the manager of the latter who licensed it to Eye-Q Records UK with the addition of the Fake Jazz Mix and ordered remixes by freshmen Isoleé and Losoul who became pillars of Playhouse. The first known for his idiosyncratic and sculptural ways of creating dance music meets the irresistible funk of his peer and both add spice to the already great menu. Here you have the chance to listen and digest Surprise in all its glory and entirety for the first time. Carefully remastered and processed by Lopazz and packaged by Running Back. Remember the good times and get some more.



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Tracklist
A1. Earth Boys – Destination Heaven
A2. Family Of Few - Intervoles

B1. Dummy Head – I Have Been Wanting You (Edit Mix)
B2. Karim – In My Mind

Release Note:
Running Back’s Double Copy subsidiary for house music history returns with four musical masterpieces from Chicago, London and an international cast from Italy on its first various artist sampler.
Originally released on Roy Davis Jr.’s Undaground Therapy outlet, Destination Heaven by the enigmatic Earth Boys project delivers a piece of cloud-nine-deep-house that was a staple at Frankfurt’s Wild Pitch Club and during the early days of its successor Robert Johnson. Produced by Cloudy Eyes and Cole Brooks, we unfortunately have never heard from the duo again. Luckily, Family of Few have been a little bit more productive. Also known as Mind Readers, Kevin Elliot and Billy ‚Jack“ Williams produced some of the more tender moments on Detroits 430 West label. Intervoles is amongst the most peculiar and catchy tracks that slow-burning dance floors can hope for.
The flip side turns the attention to the conclusions that Europe drew from its US-role-models. Released in 1992 on Rena Records with the involvement of New York’s JoVonn (a distinct genius of deep grooves himself), the keyboard skills of Pierre Audetat and the production work of I. Betti, M. Clemente and W. Brown, Dummy Head is one of a kind. Swirly echoes, dubby textures and a heavy bass line mate on the Edit Mix of I Have Been Wanting You to create one of the very first examples of fully formed dub-house.
Similar pioneering properties can be ascribed to the work of Rob Mello. We don’t have enough room here to list all his merits, but rest assured that the UK’s house scene wouldn’t be the same without him (Luxury Service Records, Classic et al). Under the Karim guise, Mello delivered a unique stroke of genius. Distilling the essence of deep house, while looking far into the future, In My Mind is many things at once: broken beat, electro, house with embracing chords, and – if you will – a warm-up banger. and does, what all the tracks in here do: turning heads then, turning heads now. Hardcore Deep House!


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Tracklist

A1. Mermaids
A2. Mermaids (Demo Version)
B1. Slacker (Unreleased Extended Version)

Mermaids is many things at once: The debut single by Fila Brazillia (named after the mishearing of a Brazilian mastiff breed mentioned on the radio), the second release on Pork Recordings, a deep house master piece, the brainchild of the summer of love, a pen friend to A Man Called Adam’s Barefoot in the Head and most of all pure balearic bliss. Originally released in 1991 and subsequently featured on Old Codes, New Chaos, which according to Frank Tope at Mixmag, is "the Best Dance LP ever made”, it marked the beginning of a long and illustrious partnership for Hull natives Steve Cobby and David (Man) McSherry.
Mermaids still sounds as good and as addictive on any kind of beach or natural environment as it supposedly did on Boris Dlugosch’s Front dance floor or any other basement suffused with strobe lights at the time (or any hedonistic place for that matter). Having been already part of the latter’s and Klaus Stockhausen’s Mastermix Front Compilation, it has now been dusted off and remastered for an individual performance. Added for the first first time though is the original demo version that makes use of a different yet not less enchanting bass line.
Also included is Fila’s 1994 trippy, dare we say progressive, UK house blueprint Slacker. A seismic shift from the traditional tropes of house, it set an example for what should rock the dance music boat just a few years later. Delivered in a previously unreleased extended version for your utmost enjoyment.
Artwork note: The sleeve photograph is a proto-selfie taken by Steve in 1983 (the year the two first met). Man still has those braces.

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Re-issue of a 1990 German deep house novelty record that ended up being a Tony Humphries Powerplay on KissFm. Re-mastered, re-issued and re-designed with care and affection. Includes Original, Instrumental and Cheveux Rouge dub.

Tracklist
A1. Das Rote Haar
A2. Das Rote Haar (Cheveaux Rouge Dub)
B1. Das Rote Haar (Instrumental)

Release info:
I first stumbled across this record on a Tony Humphries Kiss FM Mastermix from 1990. While my obsession with vintage Humphries radio shows is no mystery, „Das Rote Haar“ stayed one for a while. With all the ingredients of a novelty record (German lyrics about someone falling in love with a red haired person), but graced with a backing track that sounded somehow like a Ben Cenac or Larry Heard production and not German at all, it was almost impossible to be placed in any corner. A few years down the line, I finally found out that it was by a - surpassingly enough - short-lived German studio project called Love Club. Behind it was one of Germany’s longest-serving DJs: Jens Lissat. Together with Peter Harder they recited a poem by Francois Villon that was made popular by the late German actor Klaus Kinski and built a deep house instrumental around it. According to the creator the idea was indeed to find a groove that was similar to those of the „cool records going out of Chicago and New York at the time“. So there you go. Re-issued, re-mastered and with a re-designed picture cover, it’s your chance to share my joy with a record that is as balearic as it is basement ready. Including a dub and in case the vocal creeps you out, an instrumental version par excellence. But maybe you will fall in love with the red hair, too.


Gerd Janson

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Repress Black Vinyl

Tracklist
A1. Test 1
B1. Test 2


Shortinfo:
Acid House re-release alert! For the first time after its initial release on Playhouse Records, Roman Flügel’s sought-after and classic Acid Test 10“ is available again. Now, pressed on pink coloured vinyl (first edition only!) as a Running Back 12“ Double Copy and remastered from the original recordings. But, before writing an essay about the art school of TB303-acid-tracks, we hand it over to the man himself to hear about the genesis of this project:
„I’ve always enjoyed Acid House the most when it still has that raw simplicity.
When I recorded Acid Test One & Two in the bedroom of my parents’ house around 1993, Acid House was of course already an established genre since it’s origin in Chicago in the mid 80’s. But Acid Test was actually the first time for me to record an Acid House session I was finally happy with.
It took the usual suspects of the Roland TB 303, TR 808 and TR 909 Machines along an Ibanez Time Machine Flanger and some cheap Yamaha Digital Reverb, to create the perfect balance of the few ingredients that makes good Acid House so powerful. Two or three attempts of mix downs before the right version was recorded to DAT Cassette - only some of my own favourite records were made like this and I’m happy to see it’s re-release on Running Back so many years later.“



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Tracklist
A1. Hemisphere
A2. Hemisphere (Blade Mix)
B1. Magic Phantasy
B2. The Traveller


Shortinfo:
Subtle Houzze were Boris Dlugosch and the late Gary D. The joint venture of Hamburg’s golden boy and Front resident Dlugosch and his Unit/Tunnel counterpart Gary D was like a moment in love. Written & produced in 1992, it cast the grappling statues of techno soul and deep house in bronze. Save for two tracks of the original release, albeit graced with another and previously unavailable mix of „Hemisphere“, all the glory of the future of the past is available again. Remastered, restored and reconfigured via the Running Back Double Copy series. If you need more proof, we want to redirect you to this quote from Discogs user guigui612 from 26. September 2019: „Super good EP. Very diverse, full of deepness and emotions“.


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A little while before Metro Area came into life, there was Acronym City....

Tracklist
A. Powermoves
B. Powermoves Remix
B2. The Push

Shortinfo:

A little while before Metro Area came into life, there was Acronym City. Originally released on Sub Freq Recordings in 1996, Darshan Jesrani's moniker deals with the impact that electronic music from Detroit had on some inhabitants of said metro area. Long out of print, now carefully restored, re-mastered and slightly re-edited by Gerd Janson, Darshan Jesrani finds the missing link between techno soul and the sort of contemplative and playful heavy deep house that New York's underground was bringing forth in the early nineties. Without plagiarizing the one or the other, Acronym City naturally explores form and function of a sound that will never grow old. Backed up by an ethereal stop and go remix version of "Powermoves" by DJ Sprout and escorted by "The Push", this one is for the users.


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Tracklist:
A1. Äkäsha (edit) B1. Thank You Larry (edit) B2. Let's Take A Break (edit)

Shortinfo:
Being selfish, is one of the good things about running your own label. If you please, you can just try and re-release that certain record that you always wanted for yourself, but never could get your hand on it. Now, you can just edit it the way you always wanted it to be (oh, those fade-outs...) and press it up. This is one of these occasions.
When Kalk (the collaborative project of Philippe Heinen and Joffrey Becker) was released on Julien Briffaz' label Brif in 1999, I just had started to DJ out at a Club in Darmstadt (the late Café Kesselhaus) and the restrained, yet punchy house tracks symbolized what I liked about deep house back then: a mellow alternative to the BPM hunt and rigid attitude in mainstream techno, while not losing itself in chin-stroking wisdom or pesky noodling.
It seemed that there weren't too many around with the same desire. Otherwise "Akasha" wouldn't have remained a diamond in disguise and not what Morgan Geist so aptly named an "unclassic". By his definition, that is: an old by and large forgotten record that would have deserved to be hit. If you take discogs as an indicator, more and more people start to think so though. Here is your second chance to obtain a copy of the spirit of Kalk. Mildly edited and restored in the best human-possible way. Mind you, it's old house music from days of Yore. If you look for the production values of a Phil Collins, please go somewhere else.

DJ GJ
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Tracklist
A1. It Works
A2. Without Thought (Bassline 1)
A3..Without Thought (Bassline 2)
B1. Lakeview Slang (First Mix)
B2. Lakeview Slang (The Mix)


Shortinfo:
Running Back Double Copy Re-issues the Final Cut Mateo & Matos Holy Grail Lovingly Re-mastered
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