From Rivera's Groove Box #355: Komatos - My Daze In The Netherlands

Todd Gibson made dance records for New York's Strictly Rhythm and Chicago's Saber and Housetime Records labels (both Trax sidelabels), which is very cool - because these cities had a vibrant house scene. Komatos is a a very nice project from him with very lo-fi-esque tracks, stripped back, kinda minimal vibes - but very good basslines with a strong groove. The groove is essential in house music, and you can say that it is important in dance music overall. A strong groove carries the whole track and it grabs your attention. When you're not feeling the groove, you're just not in the right mindset.

From Rivera's Groove Box #354: Einstein & Chewy - It's In Ya

First of all, the name Einstein & Chewy must be one of the coolest for a production team ever. Makes me the think of an alternate universe, where Star Wars Chewbacca is teaming up with a garage house professor of science - Dr. Einstein. These guys made some mad good tracks under different aliases and released them on their own label Groove Yard Records. Like the case with so many other garage house tracks from the 'Sunday Garage' period, these records have become quite rare. A lot of these records also suffer from low pressing quality, making the tracks sound really lo-fi and raw. But that's what also gives it some proper underground vibes.

From Rivera's Groove Box #353: RIP Productions - She's Got

RIP Productions are probably one of the best house production duos of all time. They're mostly known for their highly sought after garage house tracks, but DJ Omar and Tim Deluxe absolutely know how to make a good disco house groove work, as can be heard in this track. It really does sound like the disco edits which have been really popular in the past few years, but RIP Productions have predated the sound over 20 years ago. It's a track which is known to be a favorite of Daft Punk, back when they still actively did DJ sets. Proper feel good house!

From Rivera's Groove Box #352: Surface - Falling In Love

Disco time! This is the very first single of the post-disco/r&b band Surface, which was released in 1983 on the legendary Salsoul Records. It features Karen Copeland on vocals, who shortly after that left the group. She also sang on the next single 'When Your X Wants You Back', but after that Bernard Jackson took over the vocal duties, and the band changed much of their sound. 'Falling In Love' is a loved disco anthem, and sampled much in house music, especially the intro part of the song. Victor Simonelli used it in Cloud 9 'Do You Want Me' - a beautiful deep house groover, and Mella Dee used it for 'Out Of Love'. 

From Rivera's Groove Box #351: Emiel Emmereend - Everybody Dance

Is this is a suprise, that this is another one of Legowelt's aliases? He has used the name Emiel Emmereend only two times, to do some bootleg remixes too illegitimate to release (the other remix is for Yazoo 'Don't Go'). Would be cool if he'd do some more remixes with this alias, because this track is a real corker! You can download it for free from his homepage download section right here. It's sampling one of Chic's most known songs. Everybody dance, do-do-do, clap your hands, clap your hands!

From Rivera's Groove Box #350: DJ Spinback - Weapon 97

Definition of a thumper. DJ Backspin is a mysterious producer with not much info about him, except that he is from the UK, but even that is not a sure fact. But he sure is a real DJ, because you can find some old soulful house mixes from him from the web. Because of this track, vinyl copies have become sought after by vinyl purists and the track has gathered a sort of cult following in the garage house scene. It's only one of three tracks made by him which have been released, the other is a remix of this one ('Taste The Darkside VIP' remix, a more nastier and darker version) and a grime track titled 'True 2002'. Hope to hear more tracks like this from this secretive and mystical dude!

From Rivera's Groove Box #349: Karlos Moran - Woodrow Street

Karlos Moran is a really mysterious producer. There are some, who even think he is a made up alias by some more famous producer. At first I thought, that he's some unknown forgotten Chicago producer from the past who's tapes have just been discovered and now finally released. It would make up a nice story, but appearantly Karlos is a very real person and a fairly recent producer who has released a string of very strong house EPs on his own imprint Moran Music Group. Karlos has catched that old school house music spirit very greatly. All of Karlos tracks are magnificently put together, with nice mellow melodies, and they have some warm lo-fi vibes, which gives them a nostalgic feel. Strong energy, great atmospheres. I don't say this often, but Karlos Moran is a producer to keep an eye out for. I highly suggest checking out his whole discography, because it contains many hidden house gems.

From Rivera's Groove Box #348: Disco Elements - Girl I'm A Free Man

To my suprise this early Rob Mello project is sampling another classic house track from 1991 - El Barrio's 'So Confused'. I've always loved those chords on that track. In the early days of house music, everybody sampled everybody, and there was no fuss about it. Only very seldom there was problems about clearing samples. When house records started shifting and selling in bigger numbers, only then many producers started risking with legal action being taken against them. Nowadays labels are very strict with copyright control and you could get into trouble when taking a beat or vocal samples from very known labels like Strictly Rhythm or Nervous Records.

There's a a charm to those old sample heavy classic house tracks - they don't make tracks like this anymore. The technology is changed, many newer house tracks are missing the rougher edge, the raw soul, and very often, they have no heart, spirit or feeling.

From Rivera's Groove Box #347: The Melody - Tonight Is Fine

Very early Speedy J project. A nice ravey club house cut with a simple melody which will get stuck easily in your head for days. Recently Shanti Celeste presented this track as one of her favorite B-Sides on Telekom Electronic Beats TV. After that, you can guess already - the prices for this record skyrocketed on Discogs! There is loads of more similar techno from The Netherlands to explore and discover from the early 90s. While some of them might have been considered very cheesy sounding for years, the club scene of nowadays is changing rapidly to a more open minded scene where anything goes.

From Rivera's Groove Box #346: Shanti Celeste - Need Your Lovin' (Baby)

Shanti Celeste's debut track, and in my opinion, still her best. It's Classy, a little bit of 1990s US House leaning, samples vocals from Thelma Houston's 'Don't Leave Me This Way' in a really nice way, although it's not the first and probably not last time this song is sampled in a house track (HBN 'Need Your Love' comes in mind, superb track and a recommended listen for house heads). Shanti Celeste released recently her debut album 'Tangerine' which is lacking in tracks like this, but has some nice techno feeling dance tracks and dreamy ambient cuts.

From Rivera's Groove Box #345: Alex M - It Works

Holy freaking moly dude, what the hell - how haven't I heard this one before? This is a very early production from John Mateo & Eddie Matos. I've been a long time follower of their music and productions, but this project has escaped me so far. I was very suprised by the complex and deep nature of this early 90s New York deep house track. Gotta love those sweet vocal chops, nice drums, and the rumbling Juno 60 bass notes (very reminiscent of Mr. Fingers 'Can You Feel It'!). Appearantly, this is not a very rare EP anymore because this has been repressed numerous times, especially during recent years. Only showing that this is a treasured and loved release for house lovers all around the world. A very close friend once said to me, that 'maybe you don't understand yet, but house is simply the best music out there to listen and discover'. I do listen to a lot of different music, but I can only wholeheartedly agee. House is the best. 

From Rivera's Groove Box #344: Alias G - Natural Love

I used to think for years that Alias G was a Marcus Mixx project, but now I know better that they are two different persons and Alias G is a protégé of Marcus. Really rough and natural dance grooves straight from the heart and soul of house music, the city of Chicago. Love this raw lo-fi vibe this track is oozing.

From Rivera's Groove Box #343: Solid Groove - Jus' Dance

One of my treasured record digging finds. I found this at a small record fair in Tallinn Old Town, some eight years ago, which was happening at a nice and cozy venue called Hoov. The record was a bargain sale for 0.50€ cents. Hoov was an open space court with a small bar and stage, right in the middle of Old Town. It was a very special place, where many good events happened and there were always good people around. I was not living in Tallinn, so I never really got a good chance to check the place out in its busiest days. Nowadays, I think the place is a private property with its gates closed for those living in the renovated surrounding apartments. 

This record is a very early Solid Groove (aka Switch aka Dave Taylor) production. He was really big around the first decade of the 2000s, then faded into obscurity. I don't think he is active anymore. There are some really neat Solid Groove remixes he did for other artists worth checking out (Magic Johnson 'Feel Alright' comes in mind!). Also, one of his biggest hit 'This Is Sick' (2005) is being thought by many as a forerunner for the outsider lo-fi house music which is really popular at the moment (artists like Huerco S, Anthony Naples, Rezzett, Terekke, Kassem Mosse, The Analogue Cops, DJ Haus, Patricia, Willie Burns, Florian Kupfer and many others...).

From Rivera's Groove Box #342: Blak 'N' Spanish - Call Da Vibe

Chunky stompin garage anthem. Really great track, influenced by the US deep scene of New York and New Jersey garage house, made just before the new school wave of UK garage arrived with its 2 step beats, which eventually transformed later into grime, then into dubstep, and now it seems people are talking something about UK bass music, which I honestly have no clue about, because I'm not so good following trends. The producers behind this project are also known as Restless Soul - mostly for their broken beats and latin flavored deep house tracks.

From Rivera's Groove Box #341: House Syndicate - Jam The Mace

So it's the first day of 2020 for me, I sleep too much, I wake up almost noon and I'm very disappointed in myself, because I wanted to wake up much earlier and do some writing work. I remember to check out the new issue of Legowelts cyberzine 'Shadow Wolf' episode 8. It's a good read, but not as good as previous issues. From that magazine, I click a link to the Intergalactic FM webpage. There, this track, which is sampling Technotronic is playing. I feel embarrased, because the track feels very familiar, but I can't seem to remember, if I have even heard it before? I think, is it a newer track from some lo-fi outside techno or house producer? Why haven't I heard about this before? So many questions, but I have no ID for the track. So I go to check whosampled dot com for all the tracks containing samples from Technotronic 'Pump Up The Jam' and I find this - House Syndicate. And again, I feel embarrased. Because this is an early Kenny Dope project from 1990, and I should know this, especially because I have always thought I know the Masters At Work discography very well, but appearantly there are still gaps, haha. And it's weird, that I haven't checked out this EP because I know House Syndicate's previous work 'Kickin Ass' ver well. Oh yes, discovering new and exciting music, it is an neverending journey. I think 'Jame The Mace' is a really well done early house track. It's very raw in production, very lo-fi, which makes it sound really raw and old-school, proper underground sound. Very well programmed drums and beats, clever sampling. A lot of people seem to not like this track and call it a whack track and too simple, but I disagree. I think it's a true classic. A banger which still sounds very exciting 30 years later.