From Rivera's Groove Box #159: Charanjit Singh - Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat

Mõned päevad tagasi lahkus Charanjit Singh, mees kes kogemata vastu tahtmist sai acid house pioneeriks, kui tema 1982. aasta album 'Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat' taasavastati 28 aastat hiljem ühes India plaadipoes. 'Veteran of countless Bollywood soundtrack orchestras, Singh purchased a Roland Jupiter-8 keyboard, a Roland TR-808 drum machine and a Roland TB-303 in 1982 and decided to make a record that blended traditional Indian ragas with western dance music. Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat was recorded in two days and was a largely forgotten commercial flop until it was reissued by record collector Edo Bouman in 2010. Singh was an unwitting pioneer of acid house music, credited with inventing the squelchy sounds that would come to signify the Chicago acid house sound in the years to come'. Charanjit Singh lugu on näide sellest, et vahest on mõned enda ideedega ajast liiga palju ees, ja peavad enda õiget hetke lihtsalt ootama. Sest muu maailm ei ole lihtsalt teie ägeduseks mõnikord valmis.

From Rivera's Groove Box #158: Romanthony - The House Of God

The Iranian prayer in this song is about monotheism: 'God is one, he needs no one, there are no multiple gods, he doesn't need anyone else, he laughs at those who laugh at him, he was in the beginning and will be there in the end, he is honest, he never lies'.

From Rivera's Groove Box #157: Die Roh - Xm11

Die Roh = Italian DJ and producer duo, formed by Sagats and DJ Octopus. DJ Octopus! My favourite underground house and techno producer in recent times. They approach their music with strict hardware only ethics - being tutored first by Lucretio from The Analogue Cops fame. Die Roh belongs to the new wave of underground hardware heavy house and techno producers from Italy. 'Xm11' is a super simple deep house groove with very infectious Mr. G styled rolling 909 hats. Sometimes simple is the best.

From Rivera's Groove Box #156: Soichi Terada - Rising Sun Up

Soichi Terada is a japanese music composer who releases various styles of electronic music on his own label Far East Recordings. He is also known best for the soundtracks for Ape Escape video games. His music is mostly unheard for the Western audiences, but the compilation Rush Hour recently put out made many new listeners realize the genius of Soichi Terada. This is my favourite from the compilation - crazy 90s garage sounding track, with a oriental style twist and retro video game sounding touch. But the whole compilation is filled with great tracks like this. Honorable mentions: 'Voices From Beyond', 'Hohai Beats', 'CPM', 'Shake Yours'. The craziest thing about Soichi Terada's japanese house music? It sounds totally unbelievable, but he worked together with Larry Levan on a remix for a Japanese pop-star Nami Shimada. That track was 'Sun Shower' and appearantly that's where the house and garage bug bite Soichi Terada!

From Rivera's Groove Box #155: Mr. G - House Is A Nation

Mr. G! The man with the funkiest hats in dance music, and I mean not the ones you wear. In a track titled 'They Say They Play House' Mr. G used the 'President House' acapella from Roland Clarke. Later he remade the track live in his notorious Boiler Room set, using only snippets from the original acapella and track. This live one of a kind remix became sought after by the house and techno community, who wanted an official release badly, which hasn't happened yet. Although Mr. G redlined his mixer levels so the Boiler Room recording would sound distorted and people wouldn't rip the tracks from the live set, it seems it was to no avail - because of the popularity and demand it still emerged as an ripped and cleaned version to Youtube and Soundcloud. This bootleg titled 'The House Is A Nation' could become Mr. G's biggest hit, if he'd only released a proper studio version of this!

From Rivera's Groove Box #154: Gherkin Jerks - Reznaytor

Gherkin Jerks is another Larry Heard alias, for his rough techno sounding tracks he released in 1988 and 1990 as two EPs, and a compilation CD with unreleased tracks which came out 2013. Some have commented these tracks to be the missing link between house and techno, which eventually came to known as tech house, a genre mixing the elements of both styles. The sound and production is very clean and minimal, and the roughness in the sound does not come in the production quality - as is the case with some techno nowadays with it's purposely tape hiss, distortion, overdriven and messy sounds. No, the roughness comes from the chaotic arrangement of the music itself. But at the same time, the tracks sound also very rigid sometimes, showing that they are not entirely improvisational and there has been some careful programming in the production. And that's why Larry Heard's music is great and he is one of the best producers ever in the modern electronic dance music history.

From Rivera's Groove Box #153: Greg Beato - Let Em Know

Greg Beato made some of the best underground tracks in 2013 with four very strong releases. Ever since that we've waited for a new extended player, which is yet to be (hopefully!) released. He's done some great remixes with his trademark gritty sound for Akra, Raw M.T. and Ron Morelli. The best thing with Beato is that he is untouchable and uncompromising with his sounds. It's his own unique touch on underground house and techno, whether you like it or not, he simply doesn't give a damn. And that's the true underground spirit - long live the tape hiss!

From Rivera's Groove Box #152: Ata Kak - Obaa Sima

Ata Kak became a familiar name to many underground dance music enthusiasts in early 2015 when the blog and label, Awesome Tapes From Africa, released this unknown African funk gem properly on CD, cassette and vinyl. Originally thought to be a lost release from Ghana, this surprised many when it came out to be actually recorded in Canada by a Ghanaian music producer. The whole release was supposed to sound like a hip hop release, but the result was just too damn weird to fit into that genre. Also, the mastering plant recorded the master tapes about +4 in pitch. I've been hearing 'Obaa Sima' a lot in the local underground parties. Very funky, catchy and danceable!

From Rivera's Groove Box #151: Merelinnud - Lendavad Ära

The seabirds (merelinnud) gather together in flocks and are ready to fly away (lendavad ära). Music and production by Tanel Matsalu. A very deep track from the Estonian producer, with a more techno vibe than house music. There's a lot of good techno and house music coming out of that country with guys like Ajukaja & Andrevski, Robert Nikolajev's and Ragnar Rahuoja's project Дима, Kazk, Profile, Firejose, Neuronphase, Wick Blaze, Endamisi Salamisi to name a few. You can download it from his Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/danielrivera

From Rivera's Groove Box #150: Deterministic Finite Automata - Uncodable Response

This thing blows my mind. Another wonderful deep house track which everyone is sleeping on, because this one came out without much significant hype. But for me, definitely one of the best tracks this year to come by!