From Rivera's Groove Box #189: Stacy Kidd - Jammin (Stacy's Disco Paris Mix)

Yo, yo - get funky, cuz it's sunday classic time! This track is one of Chicago's Stacy Kidd's best tracks, and he has a lot of those. Master of the early funky disco house sound, this track is also featured on one of the best groovy deep house mixes of all time: Mark Farina's 'San Francisco Sessions Volume 1'. Back in 1999 the best deep house came out exclusively from the US and Europe was filled with hard techno sounds, but of course now in the year 2016 the tables have turned. Crazy to think, but some of the recent best techno is coming out of the states again, with guys like Bookworm, Patricia, Greg Beato, NGLY, Willie Burns, Steve Summers, Karlist, Xosar... ah forget it, just every american producer representing the L.I.E.S. roster I guess. But there is always a place and time for some groovy funky house tracks!

From Rivera's Groove Box #188: Move D - Jus House

There's true deep house, and then there's the new fake sound which is being labelled as 'deep house'. The 'new deep' sound is very mainstream and cheap sounding, you can recognize it instantly because it just has no soul innit. That commercial deep house is being called rightfully 'derphouse'. You can google it, I don't want to waste any time on my blog about that crap. But 'Jus House' by Move D is a true deep house track, because you can feel it. It gets into your body, your soul and bones. Yes, it's minimal and it doesn't jump right into your face, but that's the beauty of true deep house sound... it just doesn't have to be filled with unnecessary crap to get your mood going. Less is more. But if you find this kind of stylistically true deep house to be boring, then just back away. Nobody is forcing anything on anyone, that's what house music is about - freedom. 

From Rivera's Groove Box #187: Errorsmith & Mark Fell - Cuica Digitales

One of the best tracks from last year. You don't believe me? Well take the word from Bleep record store then, because they chose that record as the best release of 2015. The track has a minimal vibe to it, with some weird drums and percussion bubbling on top of the main groove, which is a simple synth line and a loop of chanting vocals which go like 'aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooo'. The chant is really hooking and sounds like something straight outta Phillip Glass 'Koyaanisqatsi'. The track is also played by Frank Timm aka Sound Stream on his 2015 Boiler Room mix, so you know it's gotta be good!

From Rivera's Groove Box #186: Patricia - Waiting For Alexis

'Dudes with female techno aliases is the new hide your face anonymous techno guy thing' (gimcrack, Resident Advisor board). Yup, it's exactly like that - 'Patricia' is the deep lo-fi techno project of Max Ravitz, a Chicago-born, but Brooklyn-based producer. Judging from the sounds he is making, he has beautifully mastered the art of lo-fi sounding techno. Kinda wish 'Patricia' would still be a chick though, not enough girls with rusty sounding analog hardware. I mean, we cannot solely worship Xosar forever. 

From Rivera's Groove Box #185: Linkwood - Love Lost

Sometimes less is more. Duh. Linkwood sure did an amazing job with this track, it's the best from his 2015 album 'Expressions'. The 808 toms are on a infinite loop, a subtle drum kick and hats do their thing underneath. And then these deep 'whaaaaaaaaa-whoooooooooo' sounding pads come and go. Yes, that kinda sums it up. Future classic.

From Rivera's Groove Box #184: Paranoid London Feat. Paris Brightledge - Paris Dub 1

Have to admit, didn't feel this track the first time I heard it. Felt it being too simple, too minimal, not exciting enough. But as with so many other tracks, this thing just needs time to grow on you. The final nail on the coffin was hearing this live, loud at a party I visited. The stripped down production and dry flat sound feels much better listening it on a loud sound system at the club. Also, big props for Paranoid London for inviting the Chicago legend Paris Brightledge doing vocals for this track, he's amazing.

From Rivera's Groove Box #183: Shinichiro Yokota - Do It Again

Japanese house music is one of the best kept secrets from the western world. Guys like Soichi Terada and Shinichiro Yokota did their own take of garage sounding house tracks, and it sounds so much smoother than the raw house beats of well known early 90s house producers. The production is really precise, no loose cannon sounds or out of tune samples. Thanks to the Rush Hour compilation 'Sounds From The Far East' these house tracks are not secret underground weapons anymore and many new house fans have discovered the magic of Soichi Terada and Shinichiro Yokota.

From Rivera's Groove Box #182: Wolfram Feat. Haddaway - Thing Called Love (Legowelt Special Dub Remix)

Wow, you know it's good when Legowelt puts the title 'special' in his remix. Legowelt is one of the best modern day electronic music composers, and his dedication to underground dance music is really astonishing and admirable. Maybe it's one of the most mainstream sounding works Legowelt has ever produced, but then again, Haddaway hasn't sounded never better than in this one. The video features scenes from the Swedish exploitation flick 'Thriller – A Cruel Picture'. Quentin Tarantino obviously took some inspiration from this for 'Kill Bill'. 

From Rivera's Groove Box #181: Charlie - Spacer Woman

Italo disco music is not your regular disco boogie-woogie. It has probably some of the most weird, but at the same time really fascinating disco dance tracks of all time. It was definitely more courageous than it's American counterpart. Even after disco music faded away in North American dance clubs and radio, Italo disco went stronger than ever. Producers were really open minded and tried new musical styles and technology - even obscure synthesizers at the time like the Roland TB-303 which many musicians thought was worthless because it sounded too synthetic (now it's regarded as one of the most recognized bass synths of all time). Love, robots and space - these are the many recurring themes in Italo disco. 'Spacer Woman' has all of it: strange love expression from an alien 'spacer woman' to the listener. Oh yeah, the blue aliens in the video are snippets from 'Fantastic Planet'. A french and Czechoslovakian animated sci-fi movie.

From Rivera's Groove Box #180: Meredith Monk - Travel Dream Song

I discovered this from Legowelt's 'Smacko & Voltagio Shadow Wolf Cyberzine' mix. It's a soundtrack for the cyberzine - so that your enjoyment of reading the magazine is even greater. Meredith Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. She is well known for her vocal performances, as can be heard in this song. But this song is just written by her, the singer in this one is Dina Emerson. This song is written for the opera 'Atlas'. I really like how this song is sounding in the Legowelt mix, it has much more saturation, I guess Legowelt has put some of his tape magic into it.