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.