esmaspäev, 22. veebruar 2021

From Rivera's Groove Box #403: Cruisin' Gang - Affair A Gogo


That ten minute mix is a 92 beats-per-minute chilled balearic bliss trip. An italian disco re-make of Mike Oldfield's 'Foreign Affairs'. Probably some Dekmantel festival DJ, Hunee or Palms Trax drops it sometime soon in their set and skyrockets the prices on Discogs.

pühapäev, 31. jaanuar 2021

From Rivera's Groove Box #402: Limelife - Baby Can You Reach


I was browsing through the tracklists and info sheets of old school house music mixtapes from the 90s and found this track, which suprisingly is another alias of Todd Terry. Appearantly this track was very big in the underground house scene when it came out, but I didn't have a clue about it nor heard it before. It's a very minimal and roughly put together track with sloppy sampling and scattered mess of a beats. But it has a tight groove and that's what I dig about it the most.

pühapäev, 24. jaanuar 2021

From Rivera's Groove Box #401: DJ Pegasuz - Unit


DJ Pegasuz is a fairly mysterious producer with really no info. His tracks sound like recorded from old school compact cassettes, which makes them sound lo-fi and doused up in a mist of hiss. I'm pretty sure I've heard these chords from some 90s deep garage house track, but can't really identify. The vocal snippets are sampled from Sinnamon's 'I Need You Know'.

neljapäev, 31. detsember 2020

From Rivera's Groove Box #400: Wizzard Of Wax - Fantasy (Close Ya Eyes)


Just like Roger Sanchez, Todd Terry or Masters At Work in the early part of the 90s – Armand Van Helden was at the top of the game when it came to making deep, groovy and soulful tracks with a bouncy bass and wicked drums. This is a very early production from the start of his career, when his productions weren't really tailor fitted for the popular charts, unlike the hits he later became widely known for.

neljapäev, 24. detsember 2020

From Rivera's Groove Box #399: Mike Dixon - Merry G-Swing Christmas


Merry Christmas everyone! There aren't really that much good Christmas themed dance music out there, and many of them sound a bit quirky and camp, or just weird. King Street released a Christmas themed deep house compilation in 2007 - Christmas In The House. But for me, it had a bit too much serious gospel vibes going on. Mike Dixon is from Chicago and was one of the first to make his own brand of swing house, which I would have to say kind of predicted the coming of the later popular Electro Swing style.

kolmapäev, 9. detsember 2020

From Rivera's Groove Box #398: Wyndell Long - She Heard Me Cry


In my opinion, this is the very best work produced by Chicago veteran Wyndell Long, who is mostly known for his very loud and banging basement style techno stompers he has made for labels like Djax-Up-Beats, Intense and Primate. With the tempo slowed down a bit, you'll get a nice deep house track.

pühapäev, 6. detsember 2020

From Rivera's Groove Box #397: DJ Hyperactive - Chicago


I'm seeing a lot of renewed love for Chicago's well known techno DJ and producer DJ Hyperactive, who's busiest days were in the 90s, where he released a string of well received raw and pounding warehouse classics. It was very nice to see him featured in the second techno blind test episode from Telekom Electronic Beats. Also Eris Drew & Octo Octa used 'Reptilian Tank' in their latest Fabric mix, which seems a fitting tribute. My favorite track from the Chicagoan techno veteran is the minimal acid cut from 1994 - Chicago!

esmaspäev, 23. november 2020

From Rivera's Groove Box #396: N.Y. Connection - The Push


As played by Andrew Weatherall in his amazing 1996 Essental Mix. What a great mix that is, with a selection of deep and funky house tracks. The way the tracks are mixed together is a very fine example of a good DJ mix. Andrew Weatherall lets the tracks really breathe, and the blending is class.

kolmapäev, 11. november 2020

From Rivera's Groove Box #395: SZCH - Untitled A


I really do miss the bright period of the second coming of lo-fi house music (2010-2018), the ideas many producers brought to the table were exciting and fresh. But from the moment this sound went really big with likes of  Mall Grab, Ross From Friends, DJ Seinfeld or Demuja, and tutorials started to appear on the web 'how to make lo-fi house' - it all became watered down and kinda lost its groove. SZCH made some of the most enthralling lo-fi edits, this one is rework of Michael Jackson's 'The Lady In My Life'.

pühapäev, 1. november 2020

From Rivera's Groove Box #394: DTR ‎– How Many Times? (Unity) (Acid Theme)


One of my best friends used to describe this tune as the perfect waking up in the morning track. Back then I didn't really understand it, but maybe she was right? Another Nu Groove classic track which is slowly desending into an underground cult status.