Taja Sevelle hails from from Minneapolis, Minnesota who began her music career in 1987 when she was signed to Prince’s Paisley Park Records label. In the same week she was accepted into the Berklee College of Music in Boston and she was offered a deal from Prince.

In 1987 the single, Love Is Contagious, became her signature song which is perfect end of the night material. Listen and you’ll understand why.

Fred Wesley is an American jazz and funk trombonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s. As a child he took piano and later trumpet lessons, and at around the age of 12 his father brought a trombone home, whereupon he switched to trombone.

During the 1960s and 1970s he was a pivotal member of James Brown’s bands, playing on many hit recordings. His slippery riffs and pungent, precise solos, complementing those of saxophonist Maceo Parker, gave Brown’s R&B, soul, and funk tunes their instrumental punch.

Wesley’s 35-year career includes playing with and arranging for a wide variety of other artist such as Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Randy Crawford, Vanessa Williams, The SOS Band, Cameo, Van Morrison, Socalled and rappers De La Soul, to name a few. Many other artists have sampled his work.

We always try and like to write what we know about the records and the artists we feature here. Though I don’t think I could highlight how good Gemini aka Spencer Kincey more than what’s already been produced over at Discogs.

One of the most forward-looking producers in the continuing Chicago renaissance of the 1990s, Gemini first came to the world’s attention through his recordings for cult Chicago labels Cajual / Relief.

He began recording early in the decade, and gained fame for the minimalist flavour of Cajual twelves like ‘Tangled Thoughts’ and ‘Duality’. Gemini debuted his album work in late 1997 with his stunning ‘In and Out of the Fog and Lights’ LP for Peacefrog, which followed ‘Hibernation’ and ‘North Star’ EP’s.

Being a highly sought after DJ in both America and Europe as well as an in demand producer / remix, Spencer Kincey aka Gemini is one of the most important jewels in the Chicago house crown.

Enjoy this classic Gemini jam. One of my fave Cajual releases of all time.

The term “Nacht und Nebel” derives from the policy Hitler issued in 1941, where he allowed prisoners from the resistance in occupied territory to “vanish without a trace, and no information was given as to their whereabouts or their fate.”

Suspected underground agents and others would vanish therefore into the “night and fog”.

Dark name for a band and that’s todays history lesson over.

The band of the same name were a Belgian synth-pop/electro/new wave band of the 1980s founded by Patrick Nebel along with members Albano Bentano and Fil Yzerdraad.

In 1984 they had success with “Beats of Love” though after releasing two more albums they never achieved quite the same success. In 1986 founding member Patrick died from a fatal heart disease which brought the end of the group.

It’s a slow burner with awesome percussion and a haunting vocal. Extended remix duties taken care of by John Tilly.

Mike Mareen was born and raised in Berlin where before moving to New York he was a drummer and later singer in the group Cemetery Institution.

With a change of career as a merchant sailor Mike moved to New York where he performed with several American groups. He returned to Germany and became involved in producing Italo Disco where he achieved his biggest success with the Italo hit “Love Spy” in 1986. Mike also released his first album titled “Dance Control” around that time featuring the track here “Dancing in the Dark”

Through out the 80s Mike had more success with his Italo sound as well as writing for other artists. He released further albums on the well known German label ZYX records. A lot of those productions and releases were re-issued through the 90s.

Dancing in the Dark is probably my favourite release by Mike Maureen. Probably not the most perfect Italo record though those synths and drums just bump. It’s one of those tracks I always think mid set in recent times “fack I wish I’d brought that with me”. Maybe next time.

Let’s go dancing. In the dark.

Well, if this doesn’t get your feet moving on this delightful Friday afternoon then I don’t know what will, this overlooked disco number gets heavy, frequent rotation on my turntables to say the least. Komiko is a collaboration between Daryl Payne whose name you will probably recognise as he co produced the huge disco smash ‘’Beat The Street’’ with Sharon Redd. Feel Alright was the only release under the Komiko disguise which was released straight out of New York City on the quality SAM Records in 1982. Sam Weiss [Sept 1926 – March 2008], owner of SAM Records had a love for all things Hip Hop to Rap to Doo Wap but had a huge passion for Disco and so he delivered us a huge catalogue of splendid disco records spanning from way back in 1976 to the early nineties. Anyway…enough waffle from me…get yourself on this little belter!

This record absolutely blew me away the first time I heard it. A collaboration between Larry Heard and Joe R Lewis, one of Chicago’s most talented, underrated and most inspiring operators. Joe’s career kick started almost 20 years ago down at his local ice skating rink where he organised packed to capacity parties every Friday and Saturday. Loop Machine was the name of the party and DJ’s such as Frankie Knuckles and Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk were frequently on the bill. Off the back of the Loop Machine Joe then opened his own club which he christened The Jungle club. It was here he struck up a close relationship with Larry Heard who was a regular down at the venue.

The Love Of My Own was Joe’s first release, put out on the newly formed Target Records in 1987…rare as as hens teeth it is too. I picked up a copy in Berlin a couple of years ago at a hefty price and then sod’s law it recently got bootlegged and re released, so if you delve deep enough you should be able to grab yourself an unofficial slab of this superior black stuff. Following this Joe went on to release a further 2 EP’s on Target Records which are also like gold dust, if you can find one you’ll be paying top whack I promise you. Whilst talking hard to finds, look up a track called Midnight Dancin’, this also came out on Target records in 1990 and was another collaboration between Joe and a guy called Darryl Godlett under the disguise Survival, this record went on to become one of the most recognised Chicago anthems of all time.

Anyway…Joe R Lewis – The Love Of My Own…enjoy.

Was digging through my records last night and just had to feature this little belter as not heard it for a while now.

Davina is a female vocalist / musician from Detroit who in her early days ran her own record label, she was also the an house recording engineer, talented lady no doubt. After hooking up with Mike Banks amongst a string of other Detroit cats of that era Davina continued to put out some mighty fine records throughout the early nineties. She was then signed up for the impeccable Loud Records in 1996 as an artist in her own right.

New school Detroit techno mainstay “Mad” Mike Banks is actually the guy behind this Detroit classic which is a firm favourite with many Detroit Techno head. Banks (a founding member of Underground Resistance) throws together the awesome sounds of the timeless Roland 808 drum machine and fuses those incredible electronic synth stab lines with an elegant piano loop over the top. Add Davina and those amazing warm sultry vocals to complement and you have, as the infamous Barnet Sheildhouse once said, “Scchexy Techno at its best”.

Gwen Guthrie needs no introduction really, with a string of classic disco bombs under her belt such as Seventh Heaven, Peanut Butter and of course the infectious Aint Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent, she will always be remembered as one of the finest ladies in Disco. Gwen started her career in the music industry back in 1974 performing backing vocals for the likes of the phenomenal Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Billy Joel to name just a few.

Gwen was also a very talented songwriter and musician who went on to write and produce songs made famous by artists such as Roberta Flack and Ben E King. All the above tracks were famously remixed and produced by Paradise Garage maestro Larry Levan and as her close working relationship with Larry developed throughout the eighties and early nineties, Gwen actually became dubbed as the ‘First lady of the Paradise Garage’ as most of her tracks became huge anthems there.

‘It Should Have Been You’ was Gwen’s first 12” that came out on Island Records back in 1982, it was produced and arranged by Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespear who were renowned for there dub influenced club cuts around that time. The track was in fact taken from her debut album ‘Gwen Guthrie’ of which Sly and Robbie were also heavily involved. It was after this album that Gwen hooked up with Larry Levan but for me this is one of her best moments regardless. Just listen when the track goes solo at around the 4 minute mark…

Need a Wednesday afternoon pick me up? Today we have a nice serving of classic Detroit Techno.

Aril Brikha is a surpassingly talented DJ/Producer from Stockholm whose career jump started back in 1998 when he sent various demo’s stateside to some of his best-loved record labels. Derrick ‘The Dinosaur’ May recalls Aril’s demo landing in the post of which he quickly snapped up for his own record label ‘Fragile’. The ‘Art Of Vengeance EP’ was Aril’s first release and featured this amazing track ‘Groove La Chord’. The record literally blew up all over the world with DJ’s right across the board jumping all over it. It was a huge favourite at the famous Body & Soul parties in NYC which were hosted by the highly respected Danny Krivit, Francois K and Joe Claussel. I remember hearing Derrick May play this in Liverpool a couple of years back and he was juggling two copies at the same time and he had the place going crazy.

Anyway, Aril went on to produce a string of hits on labels such as Peacefrog, Kompakt and Transmat. When he’s not in the studio Aril can be found playing at some of the finest parties across the globe with regular appearances at The Detroit Music Festival which of course happens every year at the back end of May. Apparently his much talked about live sets at the DEMF are phenomenal. Just like walking on Blancmange I imagine.

Theodore Parrish needs no introduction and indubitably sits firmly as my all time most admired DJ and Producer. Heal Yourself And Move is one of the nine belters taken from Theo’s first album ironically titled First Floor, released back in October 1998. The opening synth soaked vibes descend quickly into a deep, sublime, Detroit-infused 11 minute epic. A typical Theo Parrish slow burner that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up whenever I hear it, get this thumping out of a big system and you can’t help but get involved.

When Theo played for us back in September we were talking about this record and he was saying it was one of his favourite tracks from over the years. He also went on to say that it was the first record where he recorded the vocals as himself, that’s right; those sultry deep spoken words are actually the main man Parrish on the mic!!

If you don’t already own this album, buy it now and listen to it in full CD Stereo quality for full effect. Turn it up.

It’s all about Dance Mania again. Even in the mid 90s Dance Mania were still delivering unshakable EPs like Hums.

It was the Summer of 95 and I was playing out regularly in Wigan [Yep that's right] promoting my own night with my friend. Looking back we didn’t really have a clue about the promotion thing, we just wanted to hear the music we were buying played out aloud.

For me in the early to mid 90s there was so much good stuff coming out of the US and those said records formulated the evenings listening. Labels like Vibe, Cajual and others were outputting good quality house music consistently and back then I couldn’t get enough.

‘Do it’ was an early evening staple with it’s laid back boogie groove and relentless vocal that’s so repetitive it leaves you wanting more. Again we probably weren’t 100% aware of what we were doing at the time and how important it would turn out to be years later when playing elsewhere. Sure we didn’t want to smash it out from the start though we’d be mixing and blending these records with boogie and the odd disco track. Where as later in the evening we’d be upping the stakes with music from Trackhead Steve, Robert Armani and DJ Funk and more. It was a refreshing change and allowed us to do more with the music compared to what was being released domestically.

The sun is shining and this makes perfect mid week listening even in January. Enjoy.

A band which quite clearly derives and is inspired by Detroit sound your talking not only Motown, Clinton but Coltranesque vibes and with a nod to Frank Zappa. Out Come The Freaks is one funk ass driven piece of music perfect for any part of any night. The vocals from Sweet Pea Atkinson are proud and tall and accompanied by the dance/ Detroit sound provided by the bass of Don Fagenson – shiiiiiit your laughing!

With the Metro Area gig just round the corner and that Friday feeling running through my veins I thought I would it only right I post an absolute stomper today.

Italo Disco, some people still think of it as eighties music with ridiculous cheesy vocals, listened and produced by only north Italian philanderers with huge ego’s and bad hair, basically music that would not survive the eighties.

Amin Peck was George Fyron, Leonard Parker, and Max Marne a group of top dog Italians who had a long string of Italo hits under their belts. This one is for sure still alive and got recently got hammered by Metro Area at this years PS1 in New York.

Its a nice instrumental track with a drenched slap bass and cosmic synth line, pitch it down slightly and it just sounds absolutely incredible on a big system. Anyway, courtesy of YouTube.