In the spirit of the season, I wanted to share my favorite releases of the year. Not exhaustive, just some personal highlights. Happy holidays!
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Tag: house
[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 41
My newest episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio is an hour of housey favorites with a few R&B and trancey moments thrown in. I hope you like it! You can download an mp3 version here; thanks as always for listening.
Tracklist: 1. Bappi Lahiri – Dream 2. Sybil – Don’t Make Me Over (Daytime Mix) 3. Craig T. Cooper – Sweet Water 4. Marco Tegui, Max Almazorra & Cari Golden – Next To Me 5. Artful & Ridney ft. Terri Walker – Missing You (Eric Kuppers Directors Cut Tribute FK Mix) 6. Crazy Penis – Keep On (Daniel Wang & Brennan Green Vas Referens Mix) 7. Chris & Cosey – One Minute More 8. Frankie Knuckles, Director’s Cut, Sybil – Let Yourself Go (A Director’s Cut Master) 9. Laava – Wherever You Are (I Feel Love) 10. Kim English – HIgher Things
25 Favorite Releases of 2018
In the spirit of the season, I wanted to share some of my favorite releases of the year. Such a nuts year for music, with huge leaps of brilliance happening in so many radically different genres! Obviously this isn’t meant to be exhaustive or authoritative; just some personal highlights. Quite a few of these are giant major label releases, so I’ll be taking down those download links quickly or leaving them off accordingly. Let me know if links are broken. Happy new year!
Previously: 2017 | 2016 | 2015
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[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 25: Summer Disco Special I
My newest episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio is a mix of some of my favorite disco, funk, soul, boogie, and house. It’s meant for a day at the beach, a barbecue, or attempting to persuade your hydrophobic dog to swim in a creek with you. I hope you like it! You can download an mp3 version here.
Tracklist: 1. Soul II Soul – Back To Life (Acapella) 2. Taana Gardner – Heartbeat (Club Version) 3. Mtume – Love Lock 4. Brenda & The Big Dudes – Weekend Special 5. China Burton – You Don’t Care (About Our Love) 6. Greg Henderson – Dreamin’ 7. Double Vision – Clock On The Wall 8. Guardian Angel – Last Funk 9. Band Of Gold – Never Gonna Let You Go 10. Wish & Fonda Rae – Touch Me (All Night Long) 11. Dusty Springfield – Baby Blue 12. Stevie Wonder – Love Light In Flight 13. Pastor T.L. Barrett & The Youth For Christ Choir – Like A Ship (Without A Sail)
25 Favorite Releases of 2017
In the spirit of the season, I wanted to share some of my favorite releases of the year. Obviously not exhaustive; just some personal highlights. Quite a few of these are giant major label releases, so I’ll be taking down those download links quickly or leaving them off accordingly. Let me know if links are broken. Happy holidays!
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Soul Connection – Rough & Ready
The first of two full-lengths from Toyin Agbetu and Earl Meyers. Toyin Agbetu was the owner of four independent dance labels, including Intrigue, the label who released all of Soul Connection’s output; and between his work with these labels and his work as a musician and producer across a slew of groups, he’s been a defining figure of UK street soul. Still, his Wikipedia page doesn’t even mention his musical body of work, as he has risen to global prominence as a Pan-African human rights activist, artist, author, filmmaker, and community educator.
Rough & Ready is an unusual instance of ballooning rare record prices on Discogs that feel somewhat justified. It’s consistent and excellent all the way through, with slinky R&B grooves, housey drum loops, and slick vocals courtesy of Thomas Esterine. Some have called this an ideal makeout soundtrack, but personally I think it’s night time driving music: discrete, minimal, tasteful, monotonous (in a good way), and although it’s technically dance music, it never picks up too much speed.
(download removed as reissue is forthcoming)
[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 16
Here’s my newest episode of Getting Warmer for NTS Radio. This is effectively about me wishing I had a car to drive around in all summer. If you like it, you can download an mp3 version here. Enjoy!
Tracklist:
1. John Martyn – Hole In The Rain
2. Afro-Cuban Band – Something’s Gotta Give (Todd Terje Re-Kutt)
3. Mave & Dave – You Are Delicious
4. High Resolution & Paolo Del Prete – Sweepin’ Off
5. Gaznevada – I.C. Love Affair
6. Taro Tokugawa – Here My Dear
7. Felix – Tiger Stripes
8. Kid Creole & The Coconuts – Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy
9. Salif Keita – Koukou (Hober Mallow Remix)
10. Miki Matsubara – 真夜中のドア／Stay With Me
11. Key Tronics Ensemble – Calypso Of House (Paradise Version)
12. Roxy Music – India
13. Commodores – Nightshift
[Mix for NTS Radio] Getting Warmer Episode 9: Disco Special
I spent the weekend after the inauguration at the New York Women’s March and finishing this mix. I wanted to use all American dance music as a way of recognizing the enormous creative debt we owe to people of color and the LGBTQ community. Since I’m not great at cross-genre mixing (yet!), this veers mostly towards disco. As such, I was also thinking a lot about the recently departed David Mancuso as I worked on it. I recorded this live, so I hope you’ll excuse some imperfect mixing and enjoy some very perfect songs. If you like it, you can download an mp3 version of it here. Thanks for listening!
Tracklist:
1. GQ – Lies
2. Finis Henderson – Skip To My Lou
3. Scherrie Payne – I’m Not in Love / Girl, You’re In Love
4. Vincent Montana Jr. & The Philly Sound Orchestra – That’s What Love Does
5. Kenix ft. Bobby Youngblood – There’s Never Been (No One Like You)
6. Karen Carpenter – My Body Keeps Changing My Mind
7. The Pointer Sisters – Telegraph Your Love
8. Mariah Carey – Make It Happen
9. Curtis Hairston – I Want You All Tonight
10. George Benson – Give Me The Night
11. Krystal Davis – So Smooth
12. Sharon Redd – Never Give You Up
13. Lace – Can’t Play Around
14. George McCrae – Rock Your Baby
Mr Fingers – Ammnesia, 1988
Was on the fence about posting this one, as its origins are dubious, but it feels like the best full-length collection of Larry Heard’s genius, and if I had to pick one record to dance to tomorrow night, it might be this one. Happy new year!
[Mix for Self-Titled] OMG Japan: Rare & Experimental Japanese Pop
cover image by whtebkgrnd
We’re so excited to release this mix of experimental Japanese pop, up today on Self-Titled Mag.
“This is a mix of Japanese pop songs, most of them with a synth funk backbone. The most exciting aspect of this era of music, though, is how unafraid these musicians were to push the limits of genre: They loved Van Dyke Parks, Kraftwerk and Martin Denny, but they were never confined by any one sound, nor were they afraid to poke fun at western constructs of the ‘oriental’ or Japanese fascinations with Western cultural novelties.”Read more HERE, and if you like it, download it HERE.
Tracklisting: 1. Chiemi Manabe – Untotooku 2. Miharu Koshi – L’amour…Ariuwa Kuro No Irony 3. Hiroshi Satoh – Say Goodbye 4. Colored Music – Heartbeat 5. Minako Yoshida – Tornado 6. Ryuichi Sakamoto – Kacha Kucha Nee 7. Mariah – Shinzo No Tobira 8. Yukihiro Takahashi – Drip Dry Eyes 9. Sandii – Zoot Kook 10. Haruomi Hosono – Ohenro-San 11. Osamu Shoji – Jinkou Station Ceres 12. Kisagari Koharu – Neo-Plant 13. Inoyama Land – Wässer 14. Aragon – Horridula 15. Asami Kado – 退屈と二つの月 16. Tamao Koike & Haruomi Hosono – 三国志ラヴ・テーマ 17. Hiroyuki Namba – Hiru No Yume