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"Now that you're gone/what am I gonna do?/Now that you're gone/what am I gonna do?/You're my friend, Armando/now that you're gone" from Mike Dunn-"Now That You're Gone" (Deep Soul/Chicago) The second release on the Chicago based Deep Soul Recordings, the latest project from house veterans Byron Stingily and Mike Dunn, holds special meaning. Dunn's "In Memory Of A Friend" EP is a tribute to the late Armando Gallop, a brilliant, young producer who released early house gems like "Land Of Confusion" before his death from leukemia two years ago. Opening with Dunn's spoken word over a bare beat, "Now That You're Gone" goes on to add eight minutes of strings and live flute with a result that is simply beautiful. This deserves to be the deep house anthem of 1998. On the flip are two supremely playable versions of a spicy latin number, this time featuring live sax work--an added bonus in a time when so many instrumentals are merely sub par filter tracks. Speaking of saxophones, check out too the musicianship and sweet scatting of Norma Jean Bell on Kenny "Moodymann" Dixon Jr's new take on "Sunday Morning" from his "Silent Introduction" collection on Detroit's Planet E. "Track Four" on the B is a workable wiggler. Doing the rounds on test is the for-commercial-release version of "4 My Peepz" from Carl Craig's Paperclip People. 50 white labels of the initial recording were passed out at Miami's Winter Music Conference in March, but Craig realized while playing out his own cut at the event that he'd like to remaster it. The buzz on this track has grown in the ensuing months to the point where many DJs who don't even have a copy of the record have charted the song. Perhaps we should call this the "Music Sounds Better With You" syndrome? Suffice it to say, Paperclip People do their style of house like an instrumental version of Moroder's classic production on "I Feel Love"-a driving, vortex of sound with precise doses of atmosphere that few manage to master. You'll want two copies of this one. JT Donaldson has been proving himself on a number of labels recently, and on the "Decked Out" package he teams up with Lance De Sardi for 4 deep tracks with a similar feel. Short sampled loops bubble through the mix, but it's Donaldson's way with them and his knack for weaving his own contributions throughout-instead of merely letting a loop play constantly-that makes this a must have. The title track to Gene Farris' "Northern Lights" (whether in its original form or reworked by label head Woody "DJ ESP" McBride) is a punchy looper with dollops of bass and a busy, uptempo presentation. Backing the A is the more cerebral Farris with "GF 101" and the pay-attention to-this introed "Destroy All False Prophets". The man does have a way with song titles, dontyathink? The first release on Farris' own much heralded label, Farris Wheel (apt, as always), is the "Copa Cabana" EP, 4 diggin'-through-my-disco-crates Relief-style pieces that succeed based on the originality of the sampling and Farris' patchwork. Medusa is a new imprint under the Under Cover Music Group umbrella with Chicago's oldschooler K-Alexi Shelby in the A & R chair. First release is the "Dub Cross" EP from Crew 69, a chunky bag of cutups. New from the rejuvenated Exist Dance label comes Le Pimp. His "Hijack Party"takes the Daft Punk tack with a maelstrom of beats that screams "so sue me!" to any lawyers within distance-yes, there are that many samples. Most notable throughout is the use of the title from Instant Funk's Salsoul classic, "I Got My Mind Made Up", which seems to be the track de jour for dusting off and sending into the sampler input. C.J.D. Project's "Ping Pong" continues in a long line of quality releases from the British Kingpin label; grooves with attitude and plenty of bass bizness. It's always a good day when you've got releases from Germany's Compose on the table. Newest of the bunch is DJ Linus & Jan Krause presents Bassline Members, where the track "Sam" is clubbed up by Linus and dubbed down by Jan. As Mr. Dunn would say, "Deep Latin Soul". Lovers of Masters At Work will want this and Rainer Truby Trio's "Donaueschingen-Galicia" 12" on the sister Compost label. "Galicia" is four on the floor goodness, while Pete Kruder (of Kruder & Dorfmeister) does what he does best in jazzing up the other side. Simply scrumptious. All this trackiness can sometimes leave one wondering "where did all the vocals go?". Every good DJ knows it's all about balance. You can't bash them with instrumentals all night, and, on the other hand, you've got to air out the vocals with a little bit of tracks here and there. Nothing better to bridge the gap than a spoken word vocal to ease in the wordcount. Blaze have finally put their splendid "My Beat" on the remix block. While the original mix is nothing to laugh at, Derrick Carter and Frankie Valentine do wonders on what would be thought impossible-improving a gem-while the British City People mix would have been best left off the package. Blaze have been on a roll lately with their recent material, but let's not forget they've got ten years worth of incredible back catalog, all of which can still make waves when it matters. Start digging. In that haughty New York style comes the Dat Oven duo, Shunji Moriwaki and Jeffrey Gratton, teaming up with art dealer Patricia Findlay for "Jet Set" (US Jellybean), a dark cut up to shame the little people. Sounding even less interested in her vocal approach is Ana Voog on "Hollywood" (US Radioactive). Unfortunately, remixes from Eddie Baez and Davidson Ospina in murky house mode reek blandly, while the trancier mixes are best left unmentioned. Johnny Dangerous gives us a bit of everything on his "The Vision" EP; "Visionary" is an aquaticly angled instrumental, "Face It" pairs an engaging spoken word with moody background, and "Stormy Weather (I Don't Mind)" is a midtempo full vocal cut. Nice of him to think of everyone, eh? Arista in the States have finally got their isht together on Deep Dish. Months after it took the UK and Europe by storm, the full length debut from this Washington, DC duo will now be available on our shores on Deconstruction/Arista. Promoed first is the sublime "The Future Of The Future" (with Everything But The Girl's Tracey Thorn on vocals), flipped with a chemical far-from-house instrumental. Look for remixes of "TFOTF" in stores soon. It's no surprise that ruling things in the full vocal category once again this month is New York's mighty Nervous camp. Tikko presents The Groove featuring Dawn Tallman's "Feel It" is the perfect package in that it caters to both worlds-Razor-N-Guido (the mixers of the moment) do their do on the main mixes and much mayhem is the result. Think BIG, think anthem, think drum rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrolls and even more drama. This is going to be the fall's peak hour monster. Much tamer on the flip are mixes for the warmup and afterhours crowd from Playin' 4 The Deep. It doesn't hurt that Tallman has written a powerful song and perhaps this will lead to her finally getting the recognition she deserves as a performer, producer, and songwriter. The current hot track from Kim English's "Higher Things" full length on Nervous is "Missing You", out now with remixes from DJ Dove and Frankie Feliciano, including a remix of "Tomorrow" from Emily Ng. On Feliciano's own label, Ricanstruction, comes Modu presents Innervision featuring Melodie Daniels (whew! Can these artist names get any longer?) with "Don't You Ever Give Up". More meaningful lyrics sung well over a choice musical foundation, can't ask for more than that. Top 10
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