Archive | May, 2018

Anything But Straight – Diagonal Records

Don’t have much to say about this label apart from it’s pushing the boundaries of interesting ‘dance’ music into all the right territories. Covering many of the sounds I like and putting the fakers to shame. Hats off to them!

Big Cats

I’ve fallen in love with the Swedish imprint Born Free, as it’s releases are unique and fresh sounding. Their club ready output in particular is just what I look for in modern dance music, hypnotic grooves built around a few key elements that sound huge on a decent soundsystem. I also love the broad range of styles they release across, meaning you never really know quite what to expect. Here are five personal favs from their back cat.

DFA 2000 – 2010

For a decade they reigned supreme in my mind. Going back on these records now they still sound amazing. As a label they managed to salute the past without being a pastiche, which is incredibly hard to do.

Below are 5 that still have people asking ‘what is that record?’

Pulsefinger

I have loved a lot of this Austrian man’s output over the years, mainly because he confidently hops between modern jazz, funk, panel beating techno and slow mo electronics and as executed in such a timeless fashion, a lot of his releases (esp from the nineties) still make perfect sense today. He seems to have slowed down a touch in more recent years (haven’t we all) but here are five from Patrick Pulsinger’s extensive back catalogue that in my opinion are still good to go.

Bobby ‘O’ the master of HiNRG aka….

1 Plus 1Barbie & The KensBeachfrontBobby “O” & His Banana RepublicBubba & The Jack AttackCharlene DavisClaus V.CondoDarlene DownDressed To KillFascination (3)Focus 1Free EnterpriseGangsters Of House (2)Gina DesireGirls Have FunGirlyGomez PresleyGringo LopezHippies With HaircutsHotline (2)House Of ‘O’Ian DarbyJohnny BankcheckJoy ToyLifestyleLilly & the PinkLola (31)M.C. Fritz & The P-RockersMalibu (2)MandarineMiss Tammi DeeNancy DeanNew BreedOh RomeoOne & Two TeeniesOne-Two-ThreePatty PhillipeSandra FordSomething AnythingSpooge BoyTeen-RockThe Beat Box BoysThe Boyd BrothersThe College BoysThe Fem-SpiesThe FlirtsThe I-SpiesThe New York ModelsVision 1Waterfront HomeWowZwei Maenner

HiNRG doesn’t get the love or recognition that disco or italo does, but for me it should. At the heart of it was Bobby ‘O’ – an incredibly strange man — a complete contradiction on a lot of levels. He’s a hyper-macho homophobic ex-boxer who made gay disco. He once backed out of a lease because he found out the previous tenant was gay, yet he produced legendary drag queen Divine, and worked with the Pet Shop Boys. Most of his songs are brazen odes to sex and partying, and yet he’s a fundamentalist Christian who penned a (still unpublished) book on creationism. Make of that what you will.