DJ Heather - Tangerine

Afterhours: 2000

Few lady jocks have had as much success in the world of house music as DJ Heather. Already a fixture in Chicago’s underground throughout the ‘90s, she gained a remarkable following from some of that scene’s premiere talents (Sneak, Carter, Farina, etc.), establishing herself as one of those ‘DJ’s DJ’ rather by accident. She never saw herself making a lasting career out of spinning records on the weekend, y’see, just a fun thing to do while socializing with artistic sorts around the Windy City.

But gained a rep for dynamic sets and skillful mixing she done did get, emerging from Chi-Town as one of the city’s preeminent DJs rinsing out the house beats. And though the fact she was a woman wasn’t a major part of her marketing, it didn’t stop her from using it as a platform to help promote other ladies in the field, including the SuperJane tour with fellow Chicago talents like Collette, Lady D and Dayhota. Several DJ mix CDs followed, including becoming the first woman to provide a set for the fabric series, and it seemed everything would continue on the up-and-up for Ms. Robinson. Well, not quite, mostly abandoning the mix CD market and sticking things out on the humble side of DJing. Her pedigree was more than enough to sustain a career without relying on the excessive promotional tactics employed by other jocks on the scene now.

At the turn of the century though, mix CDs were the best way of spreading your name beyond your local hubs, and DJ Heather got her start in this field with Tangerine on the prolific but short-lived Afterhours print out of Chicago. The style of music here won’t surprise anyone familiar with funky disco and soulful house of the era, Mark Farina’s mighty OM practically saturating American shops with the stuff. Heck, I’ve already mentioned a couple tracks off here in prior reviews (Studio Nova’s Moog manipulating Expansion Module, DJD’s funk talkbox anthem Shake It For Me), with a number of other well-rinsed records finding their way into this set too (Nick Holder’s Inside Your Soul, Derrick Carter’s 10, Les Maçons De La Musique’s No Time To Lose). These are mostly relegated to the bookends though, where you’re either capturing the listener’s attention with the familiar, or finishing strong with anthems.

The bulk of Tangerine is made up of rarities like Nostalgia’s deep filter-funk stomper 2 Da Floor, Majestika’s soulful organ cut Mind Magic, and Bert Dunk’s bouncy garage dub All In My Mind (and more!). Heather’s mixing has a couple shakey live transitions, but nothing that’s quickly recovered by another solid jam, each track distinct and fresh throughout. She finds her groove early and generally rides the same tempo to the end, only relenting at the very end with The Rurals’ Window Pain, a deep slice of jazzy garage that fades off into birds chirping in the morning light. I think most deep house DJs are obligated to end their CDs as such.

Various - Planet Dance

Tommy Boy Silver Label: 2000

Planet Dance is another entry in the ongoing history of “Good Music, Bad Covers”. To begin with, the title is utterly generic, and though hyperbolic sub-titles are almost mandatory, even a rote rookie wouldn’t be fooled into thinking Planet Dance is selling what it claims. I’ll give some credit for choosing a minimalist design in artwork, but I’m not sure what that thing is supposed to be. An all-white ‘P’ overlapping a block-spectrum of a ‘D’? And the logo in the bottom corner, is that really Tommy Boy’s, the label famously known as an early leader in hip-hop and urban soul? When did they get on the dance music money train?

Truth be told, they’ve flirted in and out of dance culture for just as long, including a few hip-house tracks when it had short-lived chart strength. After Daft Punk re-invigorated house music and the clubs that supported it in the back-half of the ‘90s, it wasn’t such a bad idea to throw one’s hat into the lucrative pile. Tommy Boy already had plenty of ties and connections to New York City clubs, and a little extra market penetration outside their core demographic wouldn’t hurt. Big gay diva house it is, then.

Thus Tommy Boy established a sub-label specifically catering to the needs of house heads, Tommy Boy Silver. Planet Dance is a summation of tracks that had been released through the label’s first couple years of existence, and remarkably ace throughout for a bandwagon jump. While I wouldn’t call all these ‘club hits’ like the CD claims, there are quite a few memorable anthems on here, and plenty of noteworthy names of the time, including Cevin Fisher leading the charge. Never a bad thing hearing Burning Up or The Freaks Come Out again; a few Junior Vasquez remixes also goes down easy. Squeezed into this mix are a few surprises too.

For instance, Demi Moore is on here! Yes, that Moore, sampled from a world-beat track where she read poetry, now set to a big house cut with orchestral swells and builds (A Gift Of Love’s Do You Love Me, for the record). Or how about a pre-Get Physical M.A.N.D.Y. showing up as Oakland Stroke for a funky outing in Planet Whip, inspired by the way-oldie Let It Whip from Dazz Band? Yeah, didn’t see that one coming, did you?

Nor a pile of hard house either, I wager. Not content in cornering the disco house scene, Tommy Boy Silver got in on the ravier side of things, including Mario Più’s hit Communication (aka: that phone song), and the one-off DJ Irene project P.I.M.P. Project (Kick Your Legs Higher is proto-‘donk’!). Bridging the gap between hard house and progressive house (kinda’) is Hypertrophy, with four tracks of theirs in this mix – geez, they only released five singles. It’s probably a bit much for those who never cared for ‘bells-n-plucks’ riffs, but when surrounded with strong funky vibes, they make for nice sweetener. Definitely a surprising keeper, Planet Dance is.

Various - Montreal Mix Sessions Vol. 4 - Lafleche

Turbo: 2000

Montreal as a hub of innovative musical trends rivaled only by the hippest ‘burbs of New York City has been the indie narrative for years, but that wasn’t always the case. Despite being one step ahead of the rest of North America, general music journalism goes through periods of disinterest with the region, the ‘90s a particularly fallow period as I recall. Guess that’s what happens when all the sexy business is going down on the other side of the continent. Still, Montreal carried on doing its thing, continually inspired by the sounds of Europe, patiently waiting for the rest of North America to catch on.

It was about the time this CD came out that Turbo finally found its footing and spread its manifesto out from Montreal. Unfortunately for LaFleche Morin, a veteran DJ of that scene and one of the first chaps Tiga tapped for the Mix Sessions series, he released his second DJ set for the label just before things truly took off. While I'm sure his gig career remained as steady as it ever was, Lafleche's contribution to Turbo's been relegated to something of a footnote, a dutiful soldier who helped get things rolling but never got to bask in the lime-light that followed.

Even his mix, classy though it is, comes off over-familiar if you followed funky, disco house at the turn of the millennium. I know I’ve a few of these tracks on other CDs, though LaFleche does provide his own rubs for The Real Jazz and That Zipper Track. Plenty of recognizable names show up – Jamie Anderson, Trevor Rockcliffe, Sébastien Léger, DJ Sneak, Paranoid Jack, and Gene Farris the ones I’ve heard before. Unknowns to my eyes are DJ Maxhens, DJ Nekbath, Bert Dunk, John Kano, and Tomba Vira. These last two mark a small detour LeFleche indulges in late in the set, featuring Afro and Latin rhythms, capped off by a bit of tribal chant-stomp in Rockcliffe’s Love Music. Fast forward to the late ‘00s, and folks are praising the likes of Luciano for playing similar stuff, yet here’s LaFleche rinsing out the worldly rhythms nearly a decade earlier. I told you Montreal was ahead of the game!

That said, there’s little to recommend in Montreal Mix Sessions 4. It’s a fun set, sure, but unremarkable all things considered – Moonshine was hawking similar CDs around this time too, not to mention several other upstart labels emerging during those boom times for electronic music. If you were raw to house, your prior knowledge coming from Hed Kandi collections, then this was like opening a door to a whole new realm of funky rhythm hedonism. For the seasoned weekend warrior though, LaFleche’s offering would come off old-hat.

Perhaps Tiga realized this, as the final Montreal Mix Sessions, his own Mixed Emotions, saw a radical departure from house of this sort. Not to mention every Mix Sessions CD after featuring DJs from realms of non-Francophone origin. Change was definitely in the winds at Turbo.

Colette - In The Sun

Afterhours: 2000

Now here’s a gal with an interesting career. Blessed with the looks you’d associate with euro-dance pop tarts, Ms. Colette Marino instead carved out a career in the relatively underground side of house music. She initially made her mark through the DJ circuit, but would often sing her own vocals over top tracks, helping her stand out from an already overstuffed DJ market (that whole ‘being a woman’ thing probably didn’t hurt either). She produced a few tracks for various labels in her early career, and OM Records eventually gave her an opportunity to let her singing and song-writing take front-and-center, releasing a pair of albums to mild success within the deep house scene. They were rather poppy, true, but a lot of that West Coast bumpin' vibe already skewed that way, ties to disco and funk of yesteryear undeniable. They weren’t crossover attempts (though if it had happened, I doubt anyone would complain), but simply enjoyable moments of clubbing fluff the house faithful could get down to. Y'know, Hed Kandi fodder.

Given the general reactions some scenes have towards their lady DJs indulging in their pop potential, it's a testament to the classiness of house-heads that they never turned their backs on Colette (like, say, the jungle scene did to DJ Rap). It certainly helps she earned more than enough respect at the turn of the century with her DJing, honoring the deep, soulful vibes inherent to Chicago's legacy in her chosen style. This here In The Sun, released on near-Chicago label Aftermath, is as fine a representation of her talents as any.

Right, so coming off that DJ Dan mix CD, she isn't quite that good. Occasional forced mixes do crop up, but I can live with them so long as the shoes are kept out of the dryer. If you think it unfair of me to compare the two, it’s not my fault that this disc features music of pretty much the same vein. And hey, what are the odds we’d get another mix of loopy, filtered disco house one after the other in this alphabetical stipulation of mine? Okay, so it could happen if it was a running series, or both happened to be named after the similarity of genre, but that’s not the case here. In The Sun and In Stereo are two totally different releases on two totally different labels by two totally different DJs of two totally different sexes. Released but a year from each other, and just happens to have very similar taste in music. THE ODDS!!

Colette’s take on this sound is definitely more Chicago-based though, so the disco gets dubby for durations while those filter knobs get their tweak on. One of the few things that helps In The Sun stand out from all the other disco-dub house mixes of the time is the inclusion of a Sombionx’s jazzstep remix of Colette’s own Try Her For Love. Ending your set in such an unexpected fashion? That takes some balls, woman!

DJ Dan - In Stereo

Kinetic Records: 2001

At the turn of the century, if you lived on the West Coast of the Americana-Lands, DJ Dan was the man. Already a hotbed of deep house action, Mr. Daniel Wherrett was tops on the scene when it came to bringing the funky disco vibes at the peak hours of any party he played at. Or maybe it was just Moonshine Music recognizing his skills in a long-simmering underground capacity and giving him that extra promotional push as far into the mainstream as any house DJ could achieve back then (not that far, all things considered). Whatever the means he used to reach that star status, it couldn’t be denied DJ Dan brought the goods. He may not command the same level of hype now, but any West Coaster knows a show with ol’ Needle Damage on the decks is a guaranteed good time.

During that heyday, Danny boy released mix after mix through Moonshine, most of them respectable enough if you were a fan of his brand of house music, but lacking something truly special as far as this listener was concerned (not enough Olav!). He eventually branched out from their arms, establishing his In Stereo imprint – and not a moment too soon, as Moonshine folded shortly after that (hey, it’s like he was carrying Moonshine! …not really). So as expected with such things, he released a mix CD showcasing all the new tunes that were to be released on- What? There’s nothing from his label on here? Wait a moment…

*sacrifices bootleg vinyl of Sasha and Tenaglia mash-up titled Elements Of Gravy to Lord Discogs*

Oh, this mix came out a year before In Stereo was launched. Not only that, but barely anything was released on the label for the first few years, and has since become a sluggish digital vehicle. Can’t blame Dan for not focusing on running a label though, since he’s undoubtedly kept proper-busy touring. The struggles of DJing.

Alright, enough of that. Is In Stereo, the CD, any good, you ponder? Damn straight it’s good, even if there’s not a whole lot here anyone familiar with disco house won’t have heard before. Not so much in the way of familiar tunes – though there are a few of those too – but just in the execution. You got your samples, your filters, your loops, your repeating vocals, and all that. Ill Concepts from The Street Preacherz shows up, as does the original version of TDR’s Squelch - you do remember that one, right, before the Sander van Doornering of it?

The biggest peak of the set hits with Liquid People’s electro-funk of I Am Somebody and Scanty’s breaks of Get Next To The Opposite Sex, perfectly complementing each other. There’s a couple French house leaning cuts in this mix too (from Joey Beltram, no less), and DJ Dan eases things down to a deeper disco-dub house vibe towards end, the likes of Junior Sanchez and Todd Terry leading the way. But still not enough Olav. Fail!

Various - Disco Dub House: Mixed By Carl Michaels

Sixeleven Records: 1999

Disco house was king in the late 90s, but for those weary of Yet Another DJ Mix With Olav Basoski On It, they had to dig into the underground for their fix. Enter the realm of dubby filtered house. Mostly a marriage of Chicago and San Francisco deep vibes, it wasn’t so much a celebration of production, but of DJs working their filter knobs within the mix. Shortly after, the French took notice and incorporated the same tricks within the tracks themselves to great commercial success (more on that in the next review!), but for a while sets of this sort was primarily enjoyed by rooftop shufflers.

It certainly strikes the right chord for folks of chic taste. All the vibrant bounce of disco, but held just back so you don’t spill your drink. Disco Dub House is as good of a representation of the sound as any. The label it came out on, Sixeleven Records, was primarily an outlet for Philly-based DJ/Producer Nigel Richards, so it comes as a surprise that there's little label whoring going on with this mix. In fact, it’s loaded with well-worn house anthems of the time. Angel Alanis' Chicago's Revenge, P.J.'s Happy Days, Troy Brown’s Feel Allright, DJ Sneak's All Over My Face... I could go on. If you're a house connoisseur of any level, you should have a number of these tunes already. So, it falls to the DJ to present them in a unique way, and as mentioned, that was one of the charms of the filter knob twirlers.

The DJ tasked with providing us with all these disco dub house vibes is one Carl Michaels. Who? Good question. What do you have for us, Discogs? “Hell if I know, this is the chap's only entry.” Wow, that's... unexpected. Last.fm, what about you? “Nope, nadda, zilch. Not even a picture.” Well damn, even I have a picture on my Last.fm Artist page despite only releasing mixtapes. And like hell I'm gonna Google this further, as there's no doubt dozens of 'Carl Michaels' in Pennsylvania alone. Guess ol' Carl's a mystery here. If he wasn’t a pseudonym, my best guess is he was a buddy of Nigel's, perhaps a Philly club resident; heck, maybe even an employee at Nigel's shop.

Whatever the case, his set's about par for this type of music. He makes ample use of his knobs, sometimes to comical extremes, but nothing that detracts from the whole. I'm sure it’ll seem antique to those bred on Ableton and other laptop mixing programs. Oddly, he ends the set outright before the final track, allowing Taste Experience's Release play in full, like some kind of encore.

If you're already well versed in filtered funk, there's little point in getting this. If not, the CD's an okay primer, but unessential. In the end, Disco Dub House is Yet Another DJ Mix That's A Decent Used-Shop Purchase. Yeah, there's no end to such releases, is there.