From Rivera's Groove Box #413: Digwah - Reckless Eyes

The Digwah 'unknown artist' bootleg remix series gets a lot of hate and love equally. Many call these tracks boring, heartless, uninspiring, generic, nothing special... but yet, there is a demand for these records, they get bought instantly and are on many collectors wishlists. Ricardo Villalobos is known to drop these in his mixes. 'Reckless Eyes' is the best entry of Digwah in my opinion - it is the most musical and less on the dull side than the other entries, but that is mostly because the Sade song is such a masterpiece in the first place.

From Rivera's Groove Box #412: Phone Traxx - PT Theme

Phone Traxx so hot right now. Adventurous, bumpy, funky UKG flavored dance tracks. The guys behind this project said they'd do 5 records from the start, and this track is from the final 'Phone Traxx Volume 5' EP. Because the records and tracks have received a very warm reaction, I'm more than sure Phone Traxx will return in some kind of other reincarnation. Fingers crossed!

From Rivera's Groove Box #411: Zigg Gonzalezz - Sunday (3pm)

Sweet house track and another one from Shed's alias. Did you know he only makes music with a computer nowadays, strictly in the box!? You'll never guess where I found this track too - from Thomas Bangalter's facebook wall! Dudes a true househead in the heart. Trax on da rocks, yeah.

From Rivera's Groove Box #410: Dusk Til Dawn - Must Be Love

Syrupy, super saccharine sweet handbag house or timeless UK garage classic - you decide! I'm suprised this track is very underlooked, the production is just so tight and shows that Grant Nelson really owned the garage house club sound.

From Rivera's Groove Box #409: Bee Gees - Paying The Price Of Dub

Sweet instrumental version of "Paying The Price Of Love". I own this track as a bootleg record named "Discocaine - Paying The Price Of Dub". What is the price of a dub, you might ask? Well, in my case, I paid 1.50 euros for the record. Now that's a proper bargain!

From Rivera's Groove Box #408: The Klubb Kidz - Don't Want To Hurt You

Today woke up and the first tune I'm feeling, this classic from 1993. Unbelievably tight production, I really love the sound DJ Duke's Power Music empire was bringing at the time. For those who seek proper 90s NYC garage deep house, this is a very heavy tune.

From Rivera's Groove Box #407: Crystal Waters Feat. Dennis Rodman ‎– Just A Freak (95 N Sleazy Dub)

One-hit wonder house diva Crystal Waters and the 90s wacky style icon basketballer who spent a majority of his earnings in strip clubs, Dennis Rodman. What a crazy combination! The original radio hit was a bit too straightforward, but the producers of the song - 95 North - included a wild dub mix, which is properly bangin'!

From Rivera's Groove Box #406: T. Project - A Little Faith

I hear people throwing around the term 'handbag house' very loosely nowadays, mostly to describe all kind of house music styles which really don't fit into their definition of a more pure 'underground' sound. I grew up with a lot of soulful house music and I always considered these r&b and gospel influenced tracks pretty damn underground! That was mostly, because these weren't really played in the radio or music channels on the TV, at least not during daytime. This song here is a remix of Faith Evans 'Love Like This'. T. Project stands for Toka Project, who are responsible for many deep house gems. You may recognize these lyrics also from Kettenkarussell's 'Maybe', which used the same Faith Evans sample. 

If we can work together

Maybe this could last forever

From Rivera's Groove Box #405: Dima Pantyushin & Sasha Lipsky - Chess

Dima Pantyushin and Sasha Lipsky make some truly weird music together which I find hard even to find words to describe. Is it some kind of fusion between retro infused synthwave, experimental hip-hop and art pop with a bit of tongue-in-cheek in the middle? Whatever you label it, you can't deny their songs are very catchy and original - even if you don't understand a word of Russian language. Their debut album carries a concept where the authors investigate the inner narrative of a Muscovite (that is, a Moscow citizen) as he wanders through the city, recalls his work, and contemplates his existence. "Peshekhod" will be released on Tim Sweeney's label Beats In Space in March 2020 on limited vinyl and limitless digital platforms.

From Rivera's Groove Box #404: Black Magic - Dance (Do That Thing)

 

When Gerd Janson was asked about his favorite house music labels, he answered that Strictly Rhythm stands out definitely for the best and the worst house records of all time. And it's true. For every stellar record which came out from that label, they also put out some really questionable quality material, which was either lackluster or borderline flirting with mainstream charts material stuff. This track here however, is a great one. I wouldn't say it's the gold pot laying at the end of the rainbow, but it's decent enough.