Doc Martin is one of the most revered DJ’s in the American house music scene. His career goes back to the earliest days of rave culture, and he has toured the world many times over and held numerous residencies at top dance clubs. His many recorded mixes are collected in a number of places around the web: Rave Archive, Ezeskankin, and MPiii to name a few. This particular one is a favorite of mine, collecting many of my favorite house and deep house anthems in one epic journey. This recording combines all four parts of the Visions of Paradise set into one long mix, which was originally spread across two cassettes. I don’t know the year it was recorded, but given the track selections, I would say it was sometime in the late 1990’s.
Greg Wilson has been a pioneer in electronic music ever since the early 1980s. Specializing in jazz-funk and disco, Wilson is known for being the first DJ to ever mix live on British television, as well as the teacher of a young Fatboy Slim. Yet perhaps the British producer is most famous for his DJ sets, in which he scratches and mixes using two reel to reel tape machines. I’ve posted about him before, specifically his awesome BBC Radio Essential Mix and later an except from his essay on the roots of electro.
His set in May 2012 at the Movement festival in Detroit was a tour-de-force of disco dancing and seamless remixing. Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Garbage, and many others get a disco rework that’s both surprisingly funky and faithful to the originals. I’ve been listening to it constantly since May and have to share it here:
The latest edition of the Meow Mix takes you to the beach! In keeping with the Meow Mix tradition, it features lots of uplifting, melodic tunes with some Latin spice and a couple classic anthems. It kicks off with a rare live jam by BT & Danny Tenaglia called “Blue Skies,” a longtime favorite of mine. Other highlights include funky workouts by Herbie Hancock and War, Aly-Us’s unforgettable “Follow Me,” Pete Heller’s “Big Love” and a little Daft Punk. Bob Sinclair, Basement Jaxx, and DJ Gregory are all in the mix, too.
***Update*** I added six more songs to this mix on December 26th, 2010. See tracklist for update.
Here’s a live 60-minute mix I did on Saturday. I just grabbed a small stack of house vinyl from my collection and hit record. It ain’t perfect but i think it flows well and has a nice funky vibe… mix of Chicago, French, and NYC house from the 1990’s. Featuring tracks by: DJ Sneak, Dmitri from Paris, The Rurals, AV8, Kevin Yost, Jordan Fields, Montefiore Cocktail, Jamiroquai, Claudio Cocolutto, NLC, Aleem, and Bjork.
DJ Sneak is beloved among house heads around the world as one of the most famous and popular DJ’s of the “second wave” of the Chicago scene. Sneak’s deep, yet funky style is exemplified by this mix, one that I feel is the best I’ve ever heard of his. It includes many rare, sought-after house tracks, and has that deep hypnotic groove that Sneak is famous for without being too repetitive or minimal.
This is the sound of Chicago house that was contemporary to Daft Punk’s first album and provided the ground work for the French house and UK disco house genres that followed in the mid-to-late 90’s. Without a doubt, a classic of the genre. Track list after the jump…
Kenny Dope, one half of New York City’s legendary Masters At Work team, released this mix back in 2004 as part of a series of fantastic disco and 80’s mixes. This mix is required listening for fans of the old-school! Here’s a few excerpts from an excellent review I found by Michael Gill at Stylus Magazine:
As disco went back underground at the beginning of the ‘80s, it went through a bit of a stylistic makeover. Boogie, a slower take on disco with a thicker back beat, became popular in clubs, and disco labels like Salsoul, West End, and Prelude continued to flourish with a mass of underground hits. These labels reduced the diva and the orchestral quotient of disco, and added in an array of synthesizers as well as a stronger soul/R&B vibe to their tracks. The effect was that a lot of post-disco dance music had a breezy, gliding quality to it instead of feeling bombastic and excessive. A gliding quality that is similar to, you guessed it, roller skating.
All of this leads to Roller Boogie ‘80s, the first in a series of limited edition mixes by Kenny Dope, who is one-half of the production team Masters At Work. If you are a fan of underground disco, you’ll probably recognize a lot of the tracks here, as many are still staples for DJs today. Kenny is not digging too deep into his crates here, and the result is almost akin to a greatest hits selection of laid-back disco in the early ‘80s.
The big hits include Taana Gardner’s million-selling single “Heartbeat,” Junior’s throaty R&B smash “Mama Used To Say,” and Slave’s smooth funk jam “Watching You” (which later was appropriated by Snoop Dogg for “Gin & Juice.”) Just about every other track is a perennial underground classic that has been included on numerous disco compilations throughout the years, like the irresistible “I Like What You Are Doing To Me” by Young & Co., the jubilant “Walking Into Sunshine” by Central Line, and the still devastating soul-funk of “Just A Touch of Love” by Slave.
Martin Verlaan has mixed every single release from the legendary (and long gone) italo disco label Il Discotto Productions into a single awesome megamix! DJ James Stacher describes this mix perfectly:
“25 years of italy’s best dance label, listening to it makes me feel like the last starfighter on vacation in Ibiza.”
