From Rivera's Groove Box #208: Stratton - The Joint

I like this a lot. The track, it's video and the limited vinyl release all come from very dedicated lo-fi dance music enthusiasts! It's true underground music. But why do we lo-fi? The simple answer is that the lo-fi scene just rebels against the polished cleanliness of other contemporary electronic music genres. Because overproduced music just doesn't sound 'natural' anymore.

From Rivera's Groove Box #207: Radical Rob - Monkey Wah (Instrumental)

Such a funky piano classic house cut from the legendary dance music label R & S Records. The label was very influential in the 90s when it helped to develop the now familiar techno rave sound - hoovers, mad synth lines, acid, breakbeat, pianos, balearic, thumping bassdrums. Strangely enough, this is Radical Rob's only release, although one member of this duo - Peter Smith - did other rave acts, with Dub Collective and The Hypnotist being most acknowledged. Feel it. 

From Rivera's Groove Box #206: Elec Pt. 1 - Last Night

What happened to Andreas Gehm was very unfortunate - he died in pains and he was suffering from undisclosed health problems, all the doctors could do for him was prescribing strong opioid painkillers. He made many Facebook posts where he was mentioning feeling really worse and he felt like he was dying. It was horrible to read. But his legacy is very strong, he had an outstanding discography output with many releases and many aliases on well known underground dance music labels like Solar One, Bunker, Mathematics, Chiwax. Electro and acid music suited him best. 'Last Night' was his final post, he just wrote 'yes. Goodybe'. But I will not say goodbye to his music, because that will stay on the acid dancefloors until the end of rave days.

From Rivera's Groove Box #205: After Hours - Feel It (The Salso Mix)

Let me put it straight - this track has been on a continuous play in my mind for two days straight. This is a true deep house classic from 1991, co-produced by Roger Sanchez, who seems to have lost his groove nowadays (what happened?). This track represents the rising NY deep house sound of the 90s the best. The jacking warehouse sound was getting tired by then, and this supersmooth sound took over the classy dance clubs of NY. The harder house sounds didn't go anywhere, they were still pretty big in the filthiest underground dance dens and in the European acid house raves.

From Rivera's Groove Box #204: Aldo & Felipe - Burning Up

'Keep the fire burning... keep the fire burning... keep it burning HOT HOT HOT'. Real nice disco house we got here. It used to be the biggest style of house music for a while, but now it's pretty much an underground theme, because sampling disco tracks and getting away with it is pretty risky business. But in the underground, you can get totally away with it, most of the times. You see, the trick is to sample some real obscure music. If you go and sample Sade for example, you can get trouble like the underground house label 'Stamp' had when they were ordered to cancel their represses of unlicensed Sade remixes.

From Rivera's Groove Box #203: Macintosh Plus - 花の専門店

Ah, Vaporwave - internet's very own musical genre, but for some reason very few of my friends have heard about it. If it's done in the right way, it sounds amazing, but so much bad sounding tracks are out there. Vektroid/Macintosh Plus is one of the biggest names in this genre of experimental 'plunderphonics'. This track is one of the best from the almost cult status album 'Floral Shoppe'. The skipping sound effect is done in a very nice stylish way, it doesn't sound too weird, and it's showing that there is beauty in music that sounds 'broken' and lo-fi.

From Rivera's Groove Box #202: Guised - Doubt

I love these rough sounding deep house jams with a funky edge. This track by Guised is really simple, but sometimes it takes forever to find something good to sample and make it work well. Kinda has a Detroit vibe going on, reminding me of Kyle Hall's 'Measure 2 Measure'.

From Rivera's Groove Box #201: Larry Heard Presents Mr .White - You Rock Me

Larry Heard is a musical genius, no doubt about it. He is a true musician, he approaches his music in a different way than most house producers. He's been in the house music scene ever after the beginning, and he made one of the most famous house tracks ever 'Can You Feel It?'. He knows how to make music, which makes you feel alive, and it's exciting to listen. Usually, when house music is done by real musicians, it sounds kinda predictable, like it is the case in so many late 90s and early 2000s house records. But this is not the case for 'You Rock Me' - this groovy as hell song doesn't even sound like a house track, it's something more. It's rocking house!

From Rivera's Groove Box #200: Trackman Lafonte & Bonquiqui - Believe In Something

Do you believe? I want to believe. Believe in something. This projects is a collaboration between Legowelt and his former girlfriend Xosar. Their own brand of 'pacific house' which is a mellow lo-fi mixture of deep house. I'm not sure about their relationship, but if they've parted their ways, are they still gonna do some music together, every now and then, at least? Hope so.

From Rivera's Groove Box #199: Minimal Vision - Magic Staircase

The Italians do many things good: food, fast cars, beautiful architecture, fashion, they are good at cursing, good tasting coffee... and deep house music! 'Magic Staircase' is a classic early 90s house track from Rome, it sounds and feels like taking a journey with a magical staircase through the skies straight up to space - this is how proper deep house should sound!