EP compilation of essential UK house cuts recorded between 1987 - 1990. TIP!

Before British house and techno found its’ distinctive groove at the turn of the 1990s, one act led the way: Bang The Party, a trio who emerged from London’s vibrant underground party scene in the mid 1980s and proved, beyond any doubt, that UK producers could make music every bit as magical as the pioneering productions put forward by their counterparts in Chicago, Detroit and New York.

By the time long-running DJs and party promoters Kid Batchelor and Leslie Lawrence joined forces with trained engineer Keith Franklin at legendary North-West London reggae studio Addis Ababa in 1987, they’d spent years as DIY dance music activists in Britain’s capital city. They channelled these experiences and their love of imported house and techno sounds into a new project, Bang The Party, in the process becoming the first British act to appear on Transmat, a reflection of the quality and authenticity of their music.

The latest Rush Hour Reissue Series release offers a snapshot of some of the numerous gems nestled in the Bang The Party catalogue, delivering a much-deserved celebration of one of Britain’s most significant early acid house collectives. It features four fully remastered cuts recorded and released between 1987 and 1990 – on-point and far-sighted club workouts that sound as fresh and timeless now as they did when Britain was sweltering under its infamous ‘second summer of love’.

Fittingly, the EP begins with ‘I Feel Good All Over’, the group’s ground-breaking debut single. Dedicated to their home city and one of the earliest UK interpretations of house music, the track exists in the grey area between Chicago house and New York ‘garage house’ – all jaunty organ stabs, jacking Windy City beats, restless bass and soulful vocalizations. ‘Jacques Theme’, which follows, originally nestled on the B-side of that single release. An early, acid-flecked expression of hip-house with a British twist, breakdance-friendly bongo patterns and a dose of Larry Heard-inspired deep house dreaminess, the track remains an under-appreciated classic whose rap verses reflect the popularity of hip-hop in London at the time.

1988’s ‘Release Your Body’, Bang The Party’s most celebrated early release, was reissued in the United States by Transmat, reflecting the strong working relationship between Derrick May and Kool Kat Records’ Neil Rushton. A hypnotising affair propelled forwards by sweat-soaked drum machine beats, jacking fills and an addictive bassline, the track offers another near perfect distillation of the band’s Black American musical influences while delivering something genuinely new and fresh.

Rounding off the EP is a choice cut from Bang The Party’s sought after 1990 album Back To Prison. Doused in the star-lit synth sounds of the Motor City with jaunty organ stabs inspired by the kind of New Jersey jams championed at East Orange institution Club Zanzibar, ‘Let It Rip’ is a superb slice of deep house soul featuring a lead vocal every bit as emotive as anything laid down by Robert Owens. Like the rest of Bang The Party’s output, it has stood the time better than anything laid down by their London contemporaries.

Matt Annis More

2021 *REPRESS*

Compiled by Hunee, 'Sounds from the Far East' features highly sought after material by legendary Japanese house producer Soichi Terada and fellow producers Shinichiro Yokota, Manabu Nagayama!

Soichi Terada is an adventurous multitalent and over all a good sport. He was born in the sixties, and as a child he loved to play on his fathers' electric organ. Terada majored in Computer Science and Electric Organ and after he graduated, he founded his Far East Recording in 1989, because he couldn't find a label for his compositions at that time.

The sound of Far East Recording is very much inspired by early nineties US deep house. Soichi Terada went out to parties in the late eighties, were he was equally influenced by house and hip-hop. A few years later, Terada took on producing music by using digital sampling. In the early nineties he occasionally DJ-ed with a DAT player and some reel tapes, instead of using records and turntables.

"Sounds From The Far East" shines new light on Soichi Terada's label and consists of material that was originally released in the early nineties. Next to Terada's music, Hunee also selected a few tracks by fellow artist Shinichiro Yokota for this compilation, as well as 'Sun Showered', a track based on the incredible Paradise Garage gem called 'Sunshower', by Terada and Nami Shimada. More

Repress!

Tracklist:
A:Message Is Love
B:Message Is Love (Edit)

First time (commercially available) 12" pressing of this seminal U.K. House production. Originally released in 1989. For fans of Dream 2 Science / Sha-Lor ao. TIP!

"The United Kingdom has long been an ardent supporter and consumer of African-American music. Dating back to the electrifying earliest performances of blues artists like Big Bill Broonzy during the early 1950s – an influence on Eric Clapton and John Lennon – right through to the dawn of Chicago house and onwards. In fan clubs, like the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society, started by soul writer Dave Godin, to the numerous fan magazines that have documented dance music culture from Blues & Soul to Mixmag, there has been an extended obsession with black music culture.

This lineage continued into the house era, our generation’s defining dance genre, and one with which British producers were swift to adopt. This record is a prime example of this. Although Mother Tongue was a one-off project, its history is rooted in this long-standing culture stretching back decades. The main man behind Mother Tongue was a drummer and record producer named Richie Stevens. Stevens was steeped in music and the industry, thanks to his father, John Stevens, also a professional drummer. Stevens senior played in numerous jazz ensembles during the 1960s and onwards, including performing with Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and was a session player with John Martyn (among numerous others) during Martyn’s finest period (it’s John’s drumming you can hear on ‘Big Muff’).

His son, Richie, was playing professionally while still a teenager for the Dennis Bovell Dub Band and has subsequently backed everyone from Tina Turner and Simply Red to Hugh Masekela and George Clinton. He is also a long-term collaborator with Boy George. But the story of Mother Tongue begins with a band called Well Red. This group, effectively a studio creation by Richie and his then manager Martin Poole, recruited vocalist Lorenzo Hall, a fixture on the London reggae scene and sold the concept to Virgin Records. Well Red yielded two albums – Motion and Respect Due – but never really got the crossover success their songs perhaps deserved. “Virgin were very supportive of us,” recalls Poole, today. “They gave us a lot of money. They pumped money into it, and it never quite paid off, but we did okay. We recouped and got to make a second album with George Clinton. It was a good move, recording with him. It did us a lot of good here and in America. We did pretty well in the US. We were very well-supported over there.”

This same team, working in a tiny studio near Richie’s house in Wood Green, north London, called The Watershed, produced ‘Message Is Love’. It features the vocals of Syn-Dee (Sindy Finn) and Lovebase (Louise Porter), who co-wrote the track with Richie and Alan Lane, another Stevens collaborator, and Ian ‘Spy’ Austin, who’d previously played in the same reggae band, The Instigators, as Lorenzo Hall from Well Red. “Remember it well,” says Martin Poole. “We were just writing it there and then in the studio. It was me, Richie, Spy, and I think Syn-Dee was there as well. When I got home later, Richie played it to me over the phone and I said, ‘That just sounds brilliant,’ from how we'd started it off, you know?” Thanks to their experience in the studio with Well Red, they managed to produce a song that has the timeless feel of all good music.

Mother Tongue was the opening track on a compilation called On The Loose Volume 1 on their own Furious Fish Records. Every track on the album, despite having different artist credits, was done by Stevens and Poole, often using a rotating cast of characters that had also appeared on ‘Message Of Love’. Although it did not sell especially well at the time, it’s become a collector’s item over the years. This is the first time Mother Tongue has appeared as a 12-inch single, a long overdue (but very welcome) happening. "

(Notes by Bill Brewster) More

Repress!

Otherworldly Caribbean electronic dance floor cuts! Arousing prog-zouk and abstract futurism from the French West Indies by synthesist Claude Rodap, released on vinyl for the first time. HUGE TIP!In the early eighties, a time where French Caribbean musicians were searching for their own sound, Claude Rodap mixed traditional Gwo-Ka, Bel Air, Biguine with synthetic sounds, resulting in magical, adventurous outcome. Recorded in the nineties and in 2000, the dreamy, sensuous three tracks on Beletronic are the deliberate result of more than a decade of his experimentation. More

Part 1 of the Needs (not wants) retrospective, comes with an insert with a collage of archival photos and liner notes by Gerd Janson. Re-mastered by François Kevorkian.

Sometimes, three words are enough to tell it all. Accordingly, the core story of Needs – the musical adventure of brothers Lars and Marek Bartkuhn and their partner Jan “Yannick” Elverfeld – can be understood from the inspiration behind this compilation’s title. Paying homage to the title of a lesser-known Marshall Jefferson and Ce Ce Rogers production for Strictly Rhythm, Needs (Not Wants) typifies their aesthetic, ethos, innovations and modus operandi.

Materializing in this collection are some of the outfits’ best takes (from 1999 to 2006), moments of glory and predictive flashes of genius paint a beautiful picture of what can happen if devotion and imagination are paired with moxie and skill. More

Part 1 of the Needs (not wants) retrospective, comes with an insert with a collage of archival photos and liner notes by Gerd Janson. Re-mastered by François Kevorkian.

Sometimes, three words are enough to tell it all. Accordingly, the core story of Needs – the musical adventure of brothers Lars and Marek Bartkuhn and their partner Jan “Yannick” Elverfeld – can be understood from the inspiration behind this compilation’s title. Paying homage to the title of a lesser-known Marshall Jefferson and Ce Ce Rogers production for Strictly Rhythm, Needs (Not Wants) typifies their aesthetic, ethos, innovations and modus operandi.

Materializing in this collection are some of the outfits’ best takes (from 1999 to 2006), moments of glory and predictive flashes of genius paint a beautiful picture of what can happen if devotion and imagination are paired with moxie and skill. More

REPRESS!

Following the Dream 2 Science release on the Rush Hour Reissue series earlier this year, another NYC garage classic by Ben Cenac, also known for his Newcleus outfit, gets a much deserved reissue. Tip! Unlike Dream 2 Science, which remained an obscure record at the time, Sha-Lor became an international club hit and a Summer Of Love staple song. The timeless feel of this innocent, heartfelt vocal song sounds as fresh as it did back then and is sure to fill people's hearts with joy again. This reissue features the Caught Up Version, which was the most popular mix from the origin More

2021 Repress!
Official re-release of this 'lost' 6-track mini album by New Yorker Ben Cenac (of Newcleus fame). Recorded and released in 1990 and is an absolute gem of a record - very much in the vein of Larry Heard's best recordings. MASSIVE TIP!

Electronic soul classic! Now available again for the first time in 22 years, remastered + full artwork.

'A truly, dreamy, beautiful classic deep-house mini-album from the golden-post-Larry Heard era. New-yorker Ben Cenac, who was also member of electro pioneers Newcleus (and part of Sha-lor, who had a cool jazzy garage-house hit in the late 80's), shows a great sensibility and delicacy here in following mr Heard's path.

His approach is perhaps slightly more sci-fi in the synths and pad sounds, and perhaps a tad less crafted and mercurial in production than the master (i.e. less timeless), but this adds in realness and charm.

So, past the classic deep-garage dream "My Love Turns To Liquid" (in the vein of these sultry garage productions from Peter and Vanessa Daou), the rest of the record shows constant quality, with song titles that could have been (or actually have been) used by Mr. Heard himself, and a content oscillating between warming deep-house, sweet acid, lush garage and relaxed spacejazz piano parts, the whole thing also evoking the Beloved's better 'rave' moments ("The Sun Rising" etc).

This record could be studied in university as the synthesis of the deep-house scene of the early 1990s. Classic.' (Review by Restless, taken from Discogs). More

Repress!
One On One Crew are Leslie Lawrence & Danny Arno. They experimented with various styles and directions with the aim of creating different music; a deep house sound. There are strong influences from Detroit and Chicago, but still with an unmistakable London style and identity. Both tracks were produced in 1989, and this is the first time either are released on a full length 12". More

Repress!
The 80s Italo disco /proto-house classic ‘MBO Theme’ by the mighty Klein & MBO, repressed! Comes with a heavy South African version on the flip. Huge Tip! “The MBO Theme” (1983) has been a dance floor favorite since decades, created by Mario Boncaldo and Tony Carrasco - the legendary Italian/US duo Klein & MBO. The track got support in NYC and Chicago by greats as Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy.
The rare version on the flip is created by a South-African band called Warrior. Rush Hour explain how they came across the track: “We bumped into this version on a South African record digging trip. It took us a few months to realize the scarcity of this version. Ian Osrin, a well respected engineer in South-Africa who was involved in many 80ties and 90ties Bubblegum, Kwaito and South African disco records, explained us about music distribution in South Africa during apartheid. Because the country was culturally banned at the time, a lot of releases weren’t imported or exported. Even when a track was huge, like “The Klein & MBO Theme”. So South African musicians would create their own versions which were sold locally.

We got in contact with Tony Carrasco from Klein & MBO. He also hadn’t heard Warrior’s version before, but he liked it as much as we do!” More

Repress!
Proto-house classic 'Nightgruv' gets a re-release and includes a longer unreleased edit!

James Mason is mostly known for his late 70's album 'Rhythm Of Life', which is a soul-jazz classic. Soon after music trends shifted to (electronic) disco and James' music became out of fashion, leaving 'Rhythm Of Life' to be the only album he released to date.

The early early 80's saw him have a few studio sessions from which more electronic output like Wuf Ticket / The Key (Prelude Records) resulted. James also produced various disco acts like Disco 3, Earl Flint and Brenda Bayton.

However, most of his early 80s studio sessions have remained unreleased until today. 'Nightgruv', which was recorded in 1984, did eventually get a release when it was picked up 12 years later (!) by a small UK indie label and was again reissued in 2000 by Soul Brother. Both pressings are still highly sought after and go for a lot of money on Discogs, mostly to do with the timeless nature of this prototype house wonder, which sounds like a recording Larry Heard never made. A magically seductive groove, recorded at a time when house was still in its infant years.

Not only is this release offering a remastered version of the original, it also includes an unreleased edit which stretches the original to a cool 6 minutes. The B-side features the epic 11 minute original version of 'I Want Your Love', a soul classic. Comes with original artwork! More

To celebrate two decades of Metro Area, Environ has partnered with renowned mastering engineer Matt Colton (Metropolis Studios) to remaster and recut the first four Metro Area 12"s: Metro Area, Metro Area 2, Metro Area 3 and Metro Area 4. Unlike the album reissue, these records include the original, extended 12" versions of all songs, including some which have never been re-released. Metro Area 4 is the duo's fourth 12" EP, originally released in 2001.



TRACKLISTING

A. Metro Area - Miura
B1. Metro Area - Let's Get...
B2. Metro Area - Strut


INFO

Autumn of 2022 marked 20 years since the initial release of Metro Area's first and only album, Metro Area. Environ had already remastered and re-released this essential LP for its 15th anniversary. So this time around, we're doing something a bit different.

To celebrate two decades of Metro Area, Environ has partnered with renowned mastering engineer Matt Colton (Metropolis Studios) to remaster and recut the first four Metro Area 12"s: Metro Area, Metro Area 2, Metro Area 3 and Metro Area 4. Unlike the album reissue, these records include the original, extended 12" versions of all songs, including some which have never been re-released.

Metro Area 4 is the duo's fourth 12" EP, originally released in 2001. More

The hugely influential British DJ and producer Bushwacka bursts onto Nu Groove with a four-track EP, ‘House Sound Vol. 1’, that demonstrates the touch of an expert. A member of the legendary Rat Pack rave outfit, Bushwacka’s impact on the underground scene of the ‘90s was felt worldwide; together with fellow Brit Layo Paskin, the pair created spellbinding compositions that defined the sound of house and techno, blending the two genres approaching the new millennium.

For this fresh outing on the pioneering NYC label Nu Groove, Bushwacka taps into his unwavering knowledge of dancefloor culture. The opening, an ode to the legendary imprint ‘Strictly Nu’, builds infectious loops with ease before dropping into an arresting four-on-the-floor club feel.

The subsequent tracks follow suit, with ‘Love Can You’ and ‘Right Now’ showcasing the producer’s unique club-led sound in full flow, while ‘True For You’ has a more minimalistic approach. With this new delivery of originals, Bushwacka further cements his status as a genre-defining electronic innovator. More

EP compilation of essential UK house cuts recorded between 1987 - 1990. TIP!

Before British house and techno found its’ distinctive groove at the turn of the 1990s, one act led the way: Bang The Party, a trio who emerged from London’s vibrant underground party scene in the mid 1980s and proved, beyond any doubt, that UK producers could make music every bit as magical as the pioneering productions put forward by their counterparts in Chicago, Detroit and New York.

By the time long-running DJs and party promoters Kid Batchelor and Leslie Lawrence joined forces with trained engineer Keith Franklin at legendary North-West London reggae studio Addis Ababa in 1987, they’d spent years as DIY dance music activists in Britain’s capital city. They channelled these experiences and their love of imported house and techno sounds into a new project, Bang The Party, in the process becoming the first British act to appear on Transmat, a reflection of the quality and authenticity of their music.

The latest Rush Hour Reissue Series release offers a snapshot of some of the numerous gems nestled in the Bang The Party catalogue, delivering a much-deserved celebration of one of Britain’s most significant early acid house collectives. It features four fully remastered cuts recorded and released between 1987 and 1990 – on-point and far-sighted club workouts that sound as fresh and timeless now as they did when Britain was sweltering under its infamous ‘second summer of love’.

Fittingly, the EP begins with ‘I Feel Good All Over’, the group’s ground-breaking debut single. Dedicated to their home city and one of the earliest UK interpretations of house music, the track exists in the grey area between Chicago house and New York ‘garage house’ – all jaunty organ stabs, jacking Windy City beats, restless bass and soulful vocalizations. ‘Jacques Theme’, which follows, originally nestled on the B-side of that single release. An early, acid-flecked expression of hip-house with a British twist, breakdance-friendly bongo patterns and a dose of Larry Heard-inspired deep house dreaminess, the track remains an under-appreciated classic whose rap verses reflect the popularity of hip-hop in London at the time.

1988’s ‘Release Your Body’, Bang The Party’s most celebrated early release, was reissued in the United States by Transmat, reflecting the strong working relationship between Derrick May and Kool Kat Records’ Neil Rushton. A hypnotising affair propelled forwards by sweat-soaked drum machine beats, jacking fills and an addictive bassline, the track offers another near perfect distillation of the band’s Black American musical influences while delivering something genuinely new and fresh.

Rounding off the EP is a choice cut from Bang The Party’s sought after 1990 album Back To Prison. Doused in the star-lit synth sounds of the Motor City with jaunty organ stabs inspired by the kind of New Jersey jams championed at East Orange institution Club Zanzibar, ‘Let It Rip’ is a superb slice of deep house soul featuring a lead vocal every bit as emotive as anything laid down by Robert Owens. Like the rest of Bang The Party’s output, it has stood the time better than anything laid down by their London contemporaries.

Matt Annis More

Nu Groove spotlights the artists that made the legendary NYC label a firm favourite of crate diggers then and now with a series of their vital tracks re-edited by leading industry figures and choice selectors of today.

‘Nu Groove Edits, Vol. 1’ celebrates the champion of that quintessential New York house sound, Rheji Burrell. Together with his twin Rhano, the Burrell brothers were instrumental in defining the sound of Nu Groove, often releasing under a slew of monikers, four of which appear here.

First up, the underground pioneer Bruise aka Christian Campbell takes on Burrell’s ‘Secret Code’ released under his Jazz Documents moniker. Anonymous Berlin duo Acid Jerks edit the deep house classic ‘Tech Trax Inc.’ by the eponymous pseudonym.

What follows is house purist Phil Weeks’ rework of Houz’ Neegroz ‘All Night Long’ featuring vocals from Quiana. Rounding out this eclectic collection of edits, the unstoppable production duo Honey Dijon & Luke Solomon take on the legendary track ‘APT. 2A’ that Burrell released as N.Y. House’n Authority. More

Legendary producer Dave Lee returns as AC Soul Symphony with the “Metamorphosis” LP - his most ambitious
production project in his 35-year career.
With an inimitable CV and discography that includes over a thousand production credits to his name, hundreds of singles
under renowned pseudonyms including Joey Negro, and three UK top 40 hits as Jakatta, Dave Lee is one of the UK’s
most revered producers of disco and house music, defining each genre with a signature sound. Always looking to push
the boundaries of what it means to make music, his latest project sees Dave return to one of his lesser-known pseudonyms
– AC Soul Symphony – to deliver an epic disco record that takes the sound back to its roots in every way possible.
“A few years ago, I produced a remake of David Shire’s orchestral disco masterpiece Manhattan Skyline under
the alias of AC Soul Symphony. I really enjoyed reworking that classic track in a way that retained my favourite
parts of the original but also writing new musical sections that gave it more my own flavour.”
Comprising 15 beautifully arranged disco tracks that effortlessly span almost two hours, “Metamorphosis” is an album by
definition, but at its core, much more than that – it is a labour of love, meticulously composed, arranged and crafted through
a very tangible and human creative process which is unmatched by many modern producers.
“I do it because I love the process of creating something. My aim is to come up with an end result I genuinely
think I’d want to buy, play and listen to if it wasn’t me.”
Inspired by happy memories from the golden era of TV and the soundtracks of his favourite childhood shows,
“Metamorphosis” was borne of a desire to put the strings center stage and “I thought making a whole album of this mainly instrumental, string heavy, tv theme like music would be a really
enjoyable project and one that would play to my strengths as a producer. It was also slightly new territory
musically and a bit of challenge.”
Taking disco back to a physical place, “Metamorphosis” was an organic writing process that saw Dave lay down his ideas
digitally, before reshaping the MIDI strings into a proper arrangement and recording them live with a 20-piece orchestra at
RAK Studios. By his own admission, it is an album of pure indulgence, but by relying on digital production methods, it can
be easy to lose sight of the soul that makes music such a unifying entity. Backing up the immaculate strings with catchy
vocals and enough groove to level a discotheque, it’s this soulful energy that Dave has captured and expertly delivered
with “Metamorphosis”.

VINYL PART TWO
Record One
A1 The Philly Avengers
B1 AC Express
B2 The Mystery, The Moment
Record Two
C1 It’s Got To Be Love
C2 Music For Your Pleasure
D1 Losing My Mind At The Disco

https://soundcloud.com/k7-records/sets/zeddlp059-ac-soul-symphony/s-HszMwWkZIal?si=f6af473f320745e7a3f209defab137e9&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing More