Vivien Vee - Higher [8247 - 1973]

Vivien Vee - Higher - 8247 - 1973 Carrere/Savoir Faire 12"

320kbps

This is probably the first in a series of Vivien Vee posts on here. A top notch Italo-Disco star if there ever was one, Vivien put out an assortment of top shelf records from 1979 to 1989. She was "discovered" (whatever that means) by my favorite Italo Disco producers of all time Claudio Simonetti and Giancarlo Meo. Claudio is a founding member of the much loved group Goblin who did the classic synth score for Dario Argento's Suspiria and George Romero's 1978 Dawn of the Dead and together Claudio and Giancarlo we're responsible for three of my all time favorite Italo groups:

• The duo's strongest project Kasso who put out classics like "Walkman," "Brazilian Dancer (DJ Version)," "Key West," and "One More Round." Their music has got a lot of love by DJs since House DJs like Frankie Knuckles and Jellybean Benitez played and remixed them in the eighties. 
• Capricorn who had Italo Boogie hits "Capricorn" and "I Need Love" on Emergency and Delirium Records.
• The great gay disco group Easy Going who we're named after Rome gay club that co-founder Paul Micioni was the resident DJ at. They had amazing artwork and a ton of quality singles like the 11 minute "Baby I Love You," "Suzie Q," "Fear," and best of all the absolutely massive all time Barry classic "Do It Again."

Vivien Vee's work with Claudio and Giancarlo ranges from amazing orchestral Disco to the more synth driven Italo Disco sound of this Higher release; a Melodramatic baroque eighties melancholy bop that would fit in alongside Valerie Dore's Italo classic "It's So Easy"

1. Higher
2. Blue Disease

Mr. De' - Time Space Scrilla EP [EF 2003-1 - 2001]

Mr. De' - Time Space Scrilla EP - EF 2003-1 - 2001 Electrofunk Records 12"

320kbps

I honestly don't know much about this record and I forget where I came to it from. Well executed intelligent house that includes elements of Acid, Ghetto House, and Club. "Time Space Skrilla" is a dreamy yet driving Acid track punctuated by synthetic strings and a dude saying "uh!" and "Skrilla!" "Woodward Avenue" is three killer minutes of drum programming and a synth lead that sounds like a metallic spring soloing to its heart's content.

"Whatulike" is the first song I heard (somewhere) from this EP and definitely the best track. A high energy foul mouthed Ghetto House pop hit.

1. Time Space Skrilla
2. Woodward Avenue

Missing Channel - FJAAK 002 [2018]

Missing Channel - FJAAK 002 [2018]

320kbps

I can't remember who played it but someone demolished Analog BKNY with this FJAAK remix at Wrecked's night with Matrixxman this year. I don't know much about these FJAAK guys except they smoke a lot of weed on Instagram and have a lot of chutzpah to take a 1991 Robert Hood/Claude Young Hardcore Techno gem, remix it to great effect, and release it alongside the original as the third record for their self titled label.

Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Orchestra - Steel Vibrations [PRP 198/CALYPAN 010 - 1973]

Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Orchestra - Steel Vibrations [PRP 198/CALYPAN 010 - 1973]

320kbps

Produced by Trinidadian travel agency Amral, Steel Vibrations was created predominately in an attempt to market Trinidadian tourism to Americans, The result of this band/record/marketing ploy is an incredible record of steel drum covers of popular Western music.

Steel drum "Hava Nagila?" Sure. "Rock Around The Clock?" Of course. To be frank you haven't lived until you've heard Amral's surprisingly hardcore version of "Oye-Como Va," a song that legitimately makes me want to punch a cop. 

1. Somewhere My Love
2. Hava Nagila
3. Oye-Como Va
4. Matilda
5. Love Story
6. Delilah
7. Rock Around The Clock
8. In The Mood
9. Time Is Tight
10. Caterpillar
11. Soul Chick

 BONUS BARRY

Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Orchestra - The World Is A Ghetto

320kbps

Their cover of War's "The World Is A Ghetto."

Cry to this one

Armenta & Majik - I Wanna Be With You [8.303 - 1983]

Armenta & Majik - I Wanna Be With You [8.303 - 1983 Savoir Faire/Carrere 12"]

320kbps

Big in France but nowhere else, the NYC based funk/soul group Majik spent the early eighties struggling to bring the fame tbey'd found in certain European markets to their hometown. The group burned out after a while, disbanding in some fashion until 1983 when their former lead singer Armenta had the idea to record a reinterpretation of one of the band's early singles,  "I Wanna Be With You." Teaming up with writer/producer Amir Bayyan (brother of Robert "Kool" Bell of Kool & The Gang), they produced this all-hands-on deck Boogie SMASH that ran up both Billboard and European charts.

Irresistibly saccharine hook, crisp undistorted guitar work with a tone similar Kasso's "Brazilian Dancer," long synth laden vamps, and a tribal percussion breakdown that crescendos with a fucking Vocoder solo. Masterpiece.

1. I Wanna Be With You (Part 1)
2. I Wanna Be With You (Part 2)

BARRY BONUS

Armenta - I Wanna Be With You (Club Mix)

320kbps 

This "club remix" from what I believe to be some sort of digital reissue around 2010. Nothing obnoxiously modern - just a very similar mix to the original that combines pt. 1 & 2 and bumps the drums and vocoder up a bit for club utility. 

Black Sheep - Strobelite Honey [00600753648292 - Mercury 1991/2016 UMC Digital Reissue]

Black Sheep - Strobelite Honey [Mercury 1991 12"/2016 UMC Digital Reissue]

320kbps

Black Sheep are a North Carolina born, Queens bred Hip-Hop duo from the early nineties. Their song "Strobelite Honey" sampled SOS Band's "Take Your Time (Do it Right)" and Young & Company's "I Like What You Do To Me" "and had FOUR remixes by David Morales.

The Def Mix is a clear stand out in my mind. No nonsense joyful floor filling nineties house with an Italo House worthy piano breakdown. 

1. Strobelite Honey (Dance Radio Mix)
2. Strobelite Honey (Def Mix)
3. Strobelite Honey (Hot Mix)
4. Strobelite Honey (Momo Beats)

Cartouche - Running Up That Hill [ZYX 8643-8 - 1997 CD Maxi-Single]

Cartouche - Running Up That Hill [ZYX 8643-8 - 1997 CD Maxi-Single]

320kbps

Cartouche's Euro House cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)." 

Ice cold and porcelain smooth, this sounds like something that would play in a Gap dressing room at the mall in the late nineties. It's all pretty similar but I'm partial to the Club Vocal.

Fun fact: Myrelle Tholen from Cartouche has retired from music and now runs a "streetdance school" in Belgium.

1. Running Up That Hill (Radio Mix)
2. Running Up That Hill (Club Vocal)
3. Running Up That Hill (Club Strumental Mix)
4. Running Up That Hill (Dance Mix

Platinum Crew - Getting Me Hot [SR12198 - 1993]

Platinum Crew - Getting Me Hot [SR12198 - 1993]

320kbps

Absolute knock out of single from Strictly Rhythm. The "Double Platinum Club Mix" is the cut; vocal house perfection with an ear worm synth line reminiscent to "Gypsy Woman" that morphs into a dueling synth/horn portion by the track's end. Fantastic main vocal on the whole release from Troy Cooper as well as background vocals from the queen Barbara Tucker and Zhana Saunders. For a less vocal driven take, there's also the quality "Erick "More" Dub."

1. Getting Me Hot (Double Platinum Club Mix)
2. Getting Me Hot (D.P. Radio Edit)
3. Getting Me Hot (Erick "More" Dub)
4. Getting Me Hot (D.P. Club Instrumental)

Rittenhouse Square - Rittenhouse Square [CCSS-1214 - 1972]

Rittenhouse Square - Rittenhouse Square [CCSS-1214 - 1972]

128kbps*

Self released 1972 mini-album from a Winston-Salem, North Carolina high school blues rock band that Mitch Easter (Let's Active, Sneakers), Chris Stamey (The Db's, Sneakers) and Peter Holsapple (The Db's) we're members of.

The closest Winston-Salem, North Carolina ever got to having a proto-punk band, Rittenhouse Square was a group of fifteen odd year old long hairs who played battle of the bands and church basement events billed as "coffee shops."

"King of the Battle of the Bands" features some pretty impressive dueling guitar work for a bunch of teenagers. The ultimate Winston-Salem dirtbag anthem "Like Wow"  details an average night of a 1970s Winston teen burn out, "trying to find a dealer," and hanging out at local haunt The Garden alongside "all of Winston-Salem's best."

Overall the standout track for me is "Gone Again;" a hopped up pubescent love scorned ballad that sounds like a redneck teenage garage band version of the Kinks's at their most melancholic. 

"This was shot behind Reznick's Thruway where I worked. Shirts are from Miller's Variety Store on Trade Street."

- Peter Holsapple, on the Rittenhouse Square sleeve/insert photo

1. King of the Battle of the Bands
2. Screamin' And Yellin'
3. The Hots
4. Like Wow
5. The Plant Song
6. Gone Again

Ron Rogers - Don't Play With My Emotions [IRSP 30 - Ze Records - 1983]

Ron Rogers - Don't Play With My Emotions [IRSP 30 - Ze Records - 1983]

320kbps

Stone Cold Masterpiece

An all time weirdo Disco classic from ZE Records and Ron Rogers (Gichy Dan, Aural Exciters, Don Armando's 2nd Avenue Rhumba Band). The man who wrote ZE classics like "Deputy Of Love" and "Cowboys and Gangsters" delivers four tracks of sublime white boy mutant Disco including the one in a lifetime cut "Ya Ya." Don't sleep on the vulnerable funk of the title track and "Somewhere In Space" tho.

1. Don't Play With My Emotions
2. Ya Ya
3. Somewhere In Space
4. Naughty Boy

Fred - Loverman / Hollywood Rolling [PEACH002 - 2017]

Fred - Loverman / Hollywood Rolling [PEACH002 - 2017]

320kbps

1. Loverman
2. Hollywood Rolling

"Floating, big-bootied and early ‘90s toned UK/US house pressure from Bristolian lad(s), Fred, on Shanti Celeste’s Peach Discs, so titled ‘cos they are. Uptown the duo roll out intoxicatingly happy chords, wide pads and perfectly placed female coos on a truly debonaire B-line. This is admirably optimistic, timeless gear certain to work its magic on any loved up crowd. Downtown, Hollywood Rolling cruises with a duskier swagger bending descending keys and tucked, bumpy Chicago bassline hustle, perhaps imagining Glenn Underground soundtracking a dance on Sunset Boulevard. Hard to deny this one." - Boomkat

Jayda G - Sacred Spaces [JMG01 - 2018]

Jayda G - Sacred Spaces [JMG01 - 2018]

320 kbps

Debut release from Jayda G's newly formed imprint JMG Recordings.

Praise The Groove" is a rough-around-the-edges hand made vocal house hymn. Jayda's brother Sol G lends spoken word vocals to the spiritual myth of "Seventh Generation." A slightly different version than the one included in Allergy Season's Physically Sick compilation, "Sestra's Cry" is a aiight female chanting vocal loop House track. 

1. Jayda G & Alexa Dash - Praise The Groove
2. Jayda G Ft. Sol G - Seventh Generation
3. Jayda G - Sestra's Cry

Patrick Cowley - Kickin' In [HNY-009 - 2015 RE]

Patrick Cowley - Kickin' In [HNY-009 - 2015 RE]

320kbps

Vocals on "Kickin' In" by Loverde, Linda Imperial, Timmy, & Patrick Cowley

Background vocals on "Thief Of Love" by Loverde

1. Kickin' In*
2. Thief Of Love
3. You Gotta Make It Loose

Honey Soundsystem is proud to present an unreleased disco 12” by San Francisco-based musician and producer, Patrick Cowley. Perhaps one of the most revolutionary and influential people in the canon of disco music, Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music, “The San Francisco Sound."

During the 70s, Patrick was the lighting technician at The City disco in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. This was SF’s largest Gay entertainment complex, where everyone from Grace Jones to Sylvester would perform. Frank Loverde was performing there with his band Loverde when Patrick asked if the band would like to do backups on some songs he’d been working on. Frank, Linda Imperial and Timmy went to Patrick’s studio and laid down vocals for songs, most of which were never released and remained buried in the Megatone vaults.

In 2007 Honey Soundsystem was contacted by the former owner of Megatone Records John Hedges. Hedges’ was moving to Palm Springs and invited us over to his basement to collect over 2,000 records from his collection. Among the archives we noticed three moldy boxes of quarter inch reel to reel tapes. Included was the final mixed down reel for “Kickin’ In”, an epic 12-minute journey through disco, that Patrick recorded with Loverde in 1978. From the two minute plus drum solo that builds up to the introduction of a bouncing arpeggiated Prophet IV and the harmonized vocals, all transport the listener to another realm. The song encapsulates the Hi-NRG dance music that Patrick became known for. It was an “up” sound for the gay disco scene, music that would compliment and sometimes enhance all night dancing.

On the flip are two earlier songs produced between 1975-77 featuring basslines by college classmate and studio mate Maurice Tani. Both songs feature Patrick narrating erotic gay sex fantasies inspired by San Francisco’s leather bars, back rooms and bathhouses. These songs show the sleazy side of Cowley’s slow burning, oozing electronic creations with layers and layers of synthesizer, guitar, drum machine and vocoder.

All songs have been mastered by George Horn, who originally mastered all of the Megatone Records releases at Fantasy Studios. Each 12” comes housed in our custom Honey Soundsystem die-cut jacket featuring an illustration of the San Francisco skyline. Also included is a 8 inch square postcard of the original “Kickin’ In” reel to reel box with Patrick’s handwriting on the front and lyrics on the back. “Patrick parted the veil and entered a dark world of forbidden vices, wondrous musical panoramas and bold, strident, hopeful possibilities. Patrick brought the future to us and laid it at our feet.”

- David Diebold ’Tribal Rites’

Project Bass & Stevie B - You & Me [DINK048 - 2001]

Project Bass & Stevie B - You & Me [DINK048 - 2001]

320kbps*

Australian Hard House bliss from Project Bass & Stevie B. You And Me is the cut. 

*Party Jam (Original Mix) is 128kbps (if you got a better file hmu)*

1. You And Me (Original Mix)
2. Make The Miracle (Original Mix)
3. I Want You (Original Mix)
4. Party Jam (Original Mix)*

Ty Brunson Featuring Chanelle - All Of Me [NU 1.0006.1 - 1993]

Ty Brunson Featuring Chanelle - All Of Me [NU 1.0006.1 - 1993]

320kbps

Written by Kerri Chandler & Ty Brunson

Produced by Kerri Chandler & Ty Brunson

1. All Of Me (Vocals)
2. All Of Me (Instrumental)
3. All Of Me (Alternative Mix)
4. All Of Me (Alternative Dub)

House Is OK - Gemišt Part 1 [HIOK010A - 2018]

House Is OK - Gemišt Part 1 [HIOK010A - 2018]

320kbps

1. Kornél Kovács - House Is OK
2. Gavri & Mcqueen - Dead Sea (Handshake Mix)
3. Longhair - Coco Loco
4. Janis - Floating

"It's the big 5! Berlin – Frankfurt based label House Is OK is celebrating its five-year long presence and has decided to mark that period with something special

Label's story started with a sticker Homeboy printed in his former hometown, Zagreb, saying “House Is OK”. Catchy, right? It became an underground slogan of the local scene. It didn't take long for people to embrace the idea stating that it's OK to be into melodic, fresh, groovy yet, at times, a bit awkward dance music. 

Just around the same time Homeboy's Frankfurt based bro's Oliver Achatz and Janis played with the idea of starting a record label. Guess what the logical choice for the name was? 
 Ten records, dozens of original songs and remixes later House is OK continues to grow. Literally. What was once a platform for the original three founders is now an international family affair supporting the talented artists from Frankfurt, Stockholm, Alexandria and Orlando. Nurturing the friendly approach this musical family continues to grow. 

Looking back at the first five years, not only at the music that connected them all but at the bonds that deepened through the production process, House is OK crew wanted to take create a proper reminder and thank the ones supporting them throughout the years. A double 12” pack titled “Gemišt” seemed like a proper way to do that. 

"Gemišt“ will be released as two separate EPs featuring the original music from Kornél Kovacs, Roman Flügel, Gavri & McQueen, TCB, House Of Life and the label makers themselves. Oliver and Janis deliver tracks under their known names, while Homeboy introduces his new project with fellow Wilde Renate resident The Swift, called Longhair. Croatian artist Ugruv Smek marks his yearlong collaboration with the label delivering yet another smashing artwork."

Krimp - Get Up [SR12396 - 1995]

Krimp - Get Up [SR12396 - 1995]
320kbps

1. Get Up
2. Get Up (Feel It Mix) (Bonus Cut)
3. Black Jungle Pt. 1

His early works straddled this divide, drawing from classic garage and underground club while blazing forward with an unorthodox production technique that relied heavily on ballsy sampling and serious musical proficiency, often manifesting in quintessential Dana/Krimp/Callisto key solos that propelled so many of his tracks into the unique stratosphere of vocal-hook driven house that he exclusively orbited.

Both ‘Get Up’ and ‘House of Pain’ were hammered relentlessly by Louie Vega at his Underground Network/Sound Factory residency

- Slow To Speak

Aroop Roy / Peter Croce - Classics 3 [KMPN003 - 2018]

Aroop Roy / Peter Croce - Classics 3 [KMPN003 - 2018]

320kbps

1. Aroop Roy - Reason To Dance
2. Peter Croce - Just Like Heaven

Kampana delivers once again with a pair of dance floor gems that will please lovers of funk, disco and gospel alike.

On the A-side, Aroop Roy means serious business with 'Reason to Dance'. Driven by an outrageous slap bass, infectious horn stabs and a limb-shaking vocal refrain, it's no surprise that this has been THE secret weapon of his recent sets around the world.

On the flip, Detroit native Peter Croce, fresh from the huge success of his Razor-N-Tape EP, comes in equally strong, with the gospel-fuelled disco cut 'Just Like Heaven'. The track builds patiently, lingering on a raw disco groove, honing in on a powerful brass section and spirit-lifting vocals, and eventually climaxing with epic strings and thunderous piano.

Stephen Colebrooke ‎– Shake Your Chic Behind [ATH032 - 2016]

Stephen Colebrooke ‎– Shake Your Chic Behind [ATH032 - 2016]
320kbps

1. Shake Your Chic Behind
2. Stay Way From Music

"Previously LP only (Very rare LP) Athens of the North is happy to bring you these Funk & Modern Pieces on 45 for the first time. Left-field Funk and Disco from Freeport Bahamas produced by Frank Penn. Odd and Amazing."