Piano in the house

In the early days of house music, piano was the backbone typical of the genre, now play "Move your body" in your mind without the piano and the intro is gone.

House music has evolved since, some say it has lost its essence, it's been robbed of its soul and "blackness", true. What happened to the piano?

Want some piano then ... head to the jazz or lounge section genres of your favorite record shop. But we want dance floor piano, piano to make you move your feet, a hurried piano riff like in early house music records or in the disco days on numerous O'Jays hits, even Voyage, the French disco group had a killer piano disco monster in "Lady America" wayback in 1978 and like "Move your Body", the intro is the piano.

SK Radikals is a jazz-house group from the UK who never fails to deliver the goods, and I mention them here cause many times pulled out their singles "On the street" from 2002 and "Someday" in 2005, dropped them on the platters in order to get a dance floor piano high.

For 2008, BBE will be distributing "North Wind" by Rhythm of Elements bringing together the underground club heritage of DJ Uchikawa and classically trained jazz piano of Makoto Kuriya who played with some of the finest jazz musicians of the 20th century including Chuck Mangione, Nathan Davis, Billy Cobham and Donald Byrd to name a few. He has recorded numerous albums and performed across the globe.

The upcoming 12inch release will also contain the Disco Dub Remix and Dub Beats. Expect a deep tech house groove, laced and sweetened by fine musicianship from Kuriya.

Now let's move the piano from the lounge area and bring it on the dancefloor with a nod from Ray Charles up above.

image: Tribe 2 - North Wind by Rhythm of Elements upcoming 12 inch vinyl

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Alexander O'Neal soulful house track

Brand new song by Alexander O'Neal on the soulful house tip unveiled first on the BBC.

Sticky feat. Kyra & Alexander O'Neal - Hello was an arrangement by BBC's 1Xtra as part of their Electric Proms series for unsigned singer Kyra to spend time in a recording studio with 80s soul legend Alexander O'Neal and producer Sticky.

Watch the video and listen to the song here on BBC

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House, electronic music scene doc screening in NYC

Headspace: The house/electronica movie documentary screening in NYC Now til April 6th 2007

A journey into the minds of dedicated dance music aficionados around the world, Headspace captures the global electronic music culture in countries such as Japan, Germany, Holland, England, France, and U.S. cities including Detroit, Miami, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Director Jethro Senger captures the spirit of rave culture on camera and brings us deep into an ecstatic world of electronic music parties and the passionate subculture of people who love them. Featuring interviews with well known and underground DJs and a soundtrack that will open your soul and blow your mind, Headspace explores how dance culture has captured the global heart with its utopian blend of youth, music, and technology.

HEADSPACE: The Sound of Life director Jethro Senger (85 mins, 2006)

Showtimes for NEW YORK CITY:

Pioneer Theater
East 3rd Street, between Avenues A and B (closer to A), New York City NY
showtimes (212) 591 0434

• Tues Apr 3 @ 9pm
• Wed Apr 4 @ 9pm
• Fri Apr 6 @ 11pm

Tickets here
More info here at HeadSpaceMovie.com

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Chicago's finest; The Chicago LP, cd + dvd set

Chicago-based S&S Records have brought together the legends of House Music to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the soulful genre embraced and sampled the world over. The Chicago LP is a two disc, two DVD set featuring original music from Grammy winning and nominated producers, remixers, artists and Djs.

The Chicago LP is the brainchild of Steve "Silk" Hurley and Shannon "DJ Skip" Syas. Hurley is a Grammy nominated remixer, producer, DJ and a House Music pioneer. DJ Skip is a global DJ, producer and remixer. The record is a musical journey and history of all music Chicago, featuring the city's finest; while the companion DVD is a personal history of those making House Music.

Hurley has produced and remixed records for major artists in the urban music world including Chaka Khan, Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Bob Marley, Ann Nesby, Prince, Kelly Rowland and Sounds Of Blackness. His "Old School/New School Remix" on the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show is broadcasted every Tuesday and Thursday on 128 stations in the US.

The "Chicago is in The House" tour will be announced in the near future.

The artists and songs on the two CD set (in alphabetical order) are listed below:

1. Bad Boy Bill Feat. Kevin Irving - "All Night With You"
2. CZR - "How I Feel"
3. DJ Pierre - "SirenTraxMaxxBass"
4. DJ Rhythm - "You're The One"
5. DJ Skip - "The Hustle of Life"
6. DJ Slugo Feat. Fast Eddie - "Juke It"
7. E-Smoove Feat. LaTanza - "Miracle"
8. Fast Eddie & Steve 'Silk' Hurley - "Chicago House Scene (Freaky Mix)"
9. Gene Hunt - "Get Down"
10. George Jackson Feat. Xaviera Gold - "Another Day"
11. Hyper Harp & DJ Skip Feat. Ava Cherry - "Please Believe"
12. Jamie Principle - "Baby Wants To Ride"
13. Jesse Saunders - "Whats This Fx"
14. Joe Smooth - "Keep On Praisin'"
15. Kelly G. feat. Jasmin Ray - "South Africa"
16. Lego - "Sax Addict"
17. Malik Yusef Feat Common, Kanye West & JV - "Wouldn't You Like To Ride (S&SRmx)"
18. Marshall Jefferson & Steve 'Silk' Hurley Feat. B. Laurén - "Just A Feelin' (That I Get)"
19. Maurice Joshua Feat. Jean Davis - "So Amazing"
20. Mike Dunn Feat. Tha Club Kidz - "I Wanna Go Down"
21. Mr. K. Alexi - "Beautiful Chi-Biza"
22. Paul Johnson - "After The Storm"
23. Ricky Bradshaw Feat. Shawn Christopher - "Touched By Your Love"
24. Ricky Bradshaw Feat. Shawn Christopher - "Never Knew Love (Classic Mix)"
25. Ron Carroll Feat. Trina Tru Luv jjah and Big Sexy -- "Do Me Baby"
26. Roy Davis Jr. Feat. Terry Dexter - "Magic"
27. Stacy Kidd - "Yesterday (Club Mix)"
28. Steve 'Silk' Hurley Feat. Dani - "Takin' Me Higher (Alright)"
29. Steve 'Silk' Hurley Feat. Javanté - "Classic"
30. Syleena Johnson - "Peace Pipe"
31. Terry Hunter Feat. Shane - "Superstar"
32. Voices of Life Feat. Sharon Pass - "Runnin' Away"

The Chicago LP will be exclusively distributed by 101 Distribution. Visitors to their site can hear exclusive snippets of The Chicago LP and view never-before-seen trailers of the DVD.

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New nu tracks by Fatback for 2007

The Fatback Band's leading and founding member Bill Curtis has new tracks to cater to both lovers of soulful house and discostylish nu grooves for 2007. Like Roy Ayers Ubiquity where his past classics were given the new millenium treatment by today's top djs/remixers/producers, Fatback has collaborated numerous times with the French group Bah Samba among others.

Bill Curtis wants to know what you think, listen to the new tunes and give your feedback here at the Fatback website.

1998 may have been the year disco officially came back mutated into disco and funky house, but it is in the new millenium (the exception is Tom Jones with Mousse T for Sex Bomb in the late 90s) we witnessed the pioneers slowly coming back to recording dance music, often alongside djs, remixers and producers from generation X and Y; there's Tom Moulton, Vince Montana Jr, Melba Moore, Earth Wind and Fire, Charlie Wilson, Sergio Mendes, Claudja Barry, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode and the list is getting longer and longer every year.

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Strictly Rhythm reissues on Defected

Defected started re-issuing Strictly Rhythm's classic catalog last January, here are the first 20 classics now available again on vinyl and downloads...

1. Aly Us Follow Me
2. Armand Van Helden Witch Doktor
3. Black Magic (MAW production) Freedom
4. Code 718 (Danny Tenaglia) Equinox
5. Erick “More” Morillo Dancin'
6. George Morel Morel's Grooves 4
7. Hardrive (Louie Vega) Just Believe
8. Lil Mo Yin Yang (Louie Vega & Erick Morillo) Reach
9. Logic Blues For You
10. Michael Moog That Sound
11. Mone (Brian Tappert and Roy Grant) We Can Make It
12. Photon Inc Generate Power
13. Phunkie Souls (Richard F) Tha Music
14. Robbie Rivera Feel This
15. Sessions No.9 (Tedd Patterson) Welcome to the Magic Sessions
16. South St Player Who Keeps Changin Your Mind?
17. The Believers (Roy Davis Jr.) Who Dares To Believe In Me?
18. The Boss (David Morales) Congo
19. Underground Solution (Roger Sanchez) Luv Dancin'
20. Wink (Josh Wink) Higher State Of Conciousness

By March 19th 2007, there will be 61 Strictly Rhythm classics available, see the whole listing here at Defected.com

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78' Chilly For your love remixed again

"For your love" The disco classic by Chilly (1978) has been remixed a few times in the last 18 months. The Basement Boys and Dimitri from Paris' versions both appeared in club compilations CDs. DJ Shops couldn't keep up with supply of the 12 inch. Other remixes popped-up in the last 3 weeks by Steve Mac, Haji and Emanuel and the Basement Boys, all of them on one 12 inch single, again flying off the shelves like hotcakes. It's really good!

Pictured here is the original 1978 album by Chilly

Check "the new remixes here"

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Where are the House Music Awards 2006

It's that time of the year where the nominees should have been announced or if I'm mistaking, the time when the winners are announced and guess what, it's not happening this year and their website is gone.

My guess is that they were either loosing money or hadn' t enough people to nominate. Nobody's talking about it or even mentioning it.

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House music on its way out

Have you heard the latest Hed Kandi compilation, the "disco" one...

What they did is remixing last year's hits electro style.

I almost fell for it, I'm digging electro a lot lately.

Hed Kandi are recycling last year's "categorized as house" records and repackaging them with an electro sound, whether we like that or not proves one thing. House will be dead soon.

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