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Bargrooves Classic Deluxe
24/11/2011
Bargrooves casts a celebratory glance over more than a decade of bar culture with Bargrooves Classics, a selection of the finest ever Bargrooves music.
The origins of Bargrooves lie in the mid-nineties growth of bar culture and the birth of the DJ bar. Superclubs began so promisingly yet by the turn of the millennium, things had changed. Through the emergence of style bars a new branch of DJ culture was able to grow and club music could be enjoyed in a new refreshing context. Imprints such as Bargrooves became boutique house music labels for the discerning bar clubber and DJ connoisseur alike.
Bargrooves Classics is a celebration of the music of that scene, featuring tunes that were made for the dancefloor but work equally in more intimate surroundings. It’s music for your head, as much as for your feet, and captures the intimacy and warmth of your favourite bar in one cherry-picked package.
Bargrooves Classics Deluxe by Defected RecordsAs with the Bargrooves Deluxe format, there are three musical themes to contend with and as with any Bargrooves evening, we start people moving with a little disco flavour. Jean Jacques Smoothie’s ‘2 People’ was an original bar anthem and the brand new DCUP remix is a nu-disco re-styling that brings a classic right up to date. With string-laden versions of Bob Sinclar’s ‘I Feel For You’, DJ Meme’s mix of ‘The Cure & The Cause’ and two Dimitri From Paris edits featured with Marc Evans’ ‘The Way You Love Me’ and Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Prinicple’s return to form, ‘I’ll Take You There’, there’s something of a Philly disco influence throughout this set.
Two Jazz-N-Groove mixes for Soulsearcher’s ‘Can’t Get Enough’ and Capriccio’s ‘Everybody Get Up’ represent vintage disco house whilst one master producer of the disco groove, Joey Negro, serves an updated take on the Carly Simon masterpiece ‘Why’ from another legendary disco production outfit, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic fame.
The second set captures the second pillar of bar culture, funky house. The biggest tracks on the scene were often funky house tunes and here are some of the very best ever recorded: Djaimin’s ‘Give You’ and Johnny Corporate’s ‘Sunday Shoutin’’ contain all-time classic house riffs whilst songs like ‘Diamond Life’, ‘Don’t Lose The Magic’, ‘It’s Yours’ and ‘That’s How Good Love Is’ show how intrinsic soulful vocals from the likes of Julie McKnight and Jocelyn Brown are to the whole sound.
The third and final pillar of Bargrooves is a more driven, peaktime house sound. Even in more intimate surroundings, the best house sessions must have space for the crescendo as well as deeper or tougher rhythms. There is absolutely no shortage of either with a well-balanced third set that includes Sandy Rivera and Rae’s rendition of ‘Hide U’, a brand new mix of Human Life’s ‘In It Together’ from ATFC, Redroche’s uplifted take on Olav Basoski’s ‘New Day’ and a remix of MK’s seminal ‘Burning’ from James Talk & Ridney.
Lastly, three updates of stone-cold party records take us over the finish line: Chocolate Puma’s reworked ‘I Wanna Be U’ to make it sound even bigger for 2011, Copyright remixed the Todd Terry / Gypsymen favourite, ‘Babarabatiri’ with its signature trumpets brought to the fore in their trademark Latin/tribal style which continues through to The Good Men’s massive Brazilian drums of ‘Give It Up’.
Bargrooves Classics Deluxe is out 5th December - listen & pre-order
DeepSoulDisco - Tracknotes
29/09/2011
In advance of the release of Bargrooves DeepSoulDisco Deluxe, Bargrooves tastemakers Andy Daniell picks out some of the standout tracks from the 3-disc compilation, giving us the lowdown on why each of them are special enough to make the final cut.
Ben Westbeech – Something For The Weekend (Lee Foss & Robert James Spirit Mix)
This record is second single off Ben’s awesome new album on Strictly Rhythm. If you haven’t checked it I highly recommend it, but for this compilation I had to add this remix. Lee Foss is the man behind label of the moment, Hot Creations alongside Jamie Jones, and this remix proves why they are so hot. He takes an awesome loop from the vocal and just works it. House with that extra 10%... sublime!
Something Good – Ride
Something Good are two awesome producers from Helsinki in Finland that are well worth looking out for. I’m a total sucker for good disco house and this is exactly that. Taking a loop and just working it!
Arthur Baker feat. Jimmy Sommerville – I Believe In Love (Joris Voorn Remix)
Arthur Baker is a bloody legend. He was involved in the production side of some of New Order’s best records and Afrikan Bambatta’s ‘Planet Rock’…you don’t get much better than that. So to have done a record with him on Defected is an honour. Add Bronski Beats’ Jimmy Sommerville on top and you’ve got something special. Oh yeah and Joris Voorn is on the remix, just to make it that EXTRA special. Great record, great remix!
Reuben Tobias – Portraits
Rebuen Tobias is this guy from Scotland that is a pretty exceptional talent in my opinion. He wrote, produced and sung on this record. It reminds me of a house James Blake in the best possible way. Pretty deep, but pretty darn awesome!
Kings Of Tomorrow feat. April – I Need To Love Me (Sandy Rivera’s Club Mix)
Sandy Rivera dusts off his Kings of Tomorrow alias for this record and rightly so. Featuring the vocals of April Morgan this is Sandy at his best. He keeps the production minimal with just the basics; drums, bassline and an exceptional vocal. Sometimes less is so much more and this is a perfect example.
Treasure Fingers – It’s Love (Amtrac Remix)
I love the original of this record so much and I’m a huge fan of Treasure Fingers in general; this specific remix came from a slightly odd source. This wasn’t a remix that we specifically commissioned, Amtrac did his own pass on the record and had a link to it on Soundcloud. Yasmeen then blogged about it and I found it through there, hit him up and made it legit. He’s done a really interesting take on the original. Great record, great remix.
Jean Jacques Smoothie – 2 People (Olav Basoksi Remix)
The original of this record is a bonafide classic. There are very few people I think could do a record like this justice but I think Olav has done a fantastic job. Olav is the king of slightly more pumping disco house and that’s exactly what he’s done here.
Frankie Knuckles – Your Love (Directors Cut Remix)
Your Love is one of the all time greatest house records EVER (in my humble opinion of course)! So who better than to give it a lick of fresh paint than Frankie Knuckles himself (alongside Eric Kupper as their Director’s Cut alias) and it’s a very respectful update. They’ve made the track very playable for today's audience and of course the song is still as incredible as ever.
Osunlade – Envision (Yoruba Soul Remix)
This has become one of the tunes of the summer in Ibiza in its Ame Remix form, but that was just a subtle change from this version and I had to rep the Yoruba mix. The song on this is just stunning and for me it’s Osunlade’s finest record off his Pyrography album. Not many people can make a record of this calibre, but he does it time and time again.
Quentin Harris – Give It 2 U (Azari & III Remix)
I love this record so much. I love the original from Quentin but for me it was always about Azari & III’s remix. If you don’t know about Azari & III please check them out. Their new album is killer and they are electric live. This mix is what they do best, classic Chicago, warm, analogue house vibes.
Bargrooves DeepSoulDisco Deluxe is out now
Bargrooves - DeepSoulDisco
15/09/2011
DeepSoulDisco is the latest collection of boutique house music from Bargrooves, featuring fresh cuts and classic tracks for the discerning club fashionista and DJ connoisseur alike.
This new triple disc Bargrooves deluxe edition is pure luxurious house music across three distinct themes. With DeepSoulDisco we’ve taken three words that capture the very essence of what Bargrooves represents musically – house music with deeper, soulful and also disco elements have always formed the main body of the Bargrooves sound and this collection represents all three across three discs and 30 unmixed tracks.
Bargrooves DeepSoulDisco Deluxe by Defected Records
CD1 turns to the roots of house music and tips a cap to its disco predecessors, the influence of which can be found in each of the tracks on show. Jean Jacques Smoothie’s seminal reworking of Minnie Ripperton’s ‘Inside My Love’ gets remixed by king of the disco loop Olav Basoski, while Playgroup feat. KC Flightt’s ‘Front 2 Back’ gets jacked-up by the legendary Todd Terry. There’s also an outing for one of the original disco kings, with Arthur Baker’s ‘I Believe In Love’ receiving a typically slick, tech-edged re-imagining from Rejected label boss Joris Voorn.
With the next disc, we head into deeper territory, exploring subtle sounds and purring analogue bass with a silky selection of warm grooves. Two of the biggest stars of 2011 Lee Foss and Robert James get to grips with one of the cuts from Ben Westbeech’s new artist album, resulting in a melodic excursion through dreamy chords and purring pads. Elsewhere NYC native Alias Ryhthm’s ‘A New Connection’ moves through echoed stabs and dream-like vocals, showing that just because something’s deep doesn’t stop it from also being intensely uplifting.
Finally, with CD3 we head for soulful territory, celebrating everything that is good about vocal house music of the very highest order. Here, you’ll find some of the greatest producers in the game, including stand out appearances from Frankie Knuckles, Kings Of Tomorrow, Guy Robin, Phase II and restless soul, plus a star turn from a future star in the making in the form of Guy Robin’s ‘Only You’; combing Lucy Randell’s heartfelt vocals with Robin’s unparalleled production values.
The CD version is unmixed and DJ-friendly whilst the digital version includes bonus mixes from the Bargrooves selector himself, Andy Daniell.
Bargrooves DeepDiscoSoul is out now
