For The Love Of House, For The Love Of Beats, For The Love Of Dance…

Under the For The Love Of House banner, Defected, Strictly Rhythm, Subliminal, Code Red, Junior Boy’s Own and Slip N’ Slide bring you more of what unites all genuine lovers of house music with our next FTLOH set. It’s all about full-length tracks in their unadulterated glory so there’s no mix to get you side-tracked, just another 25 of what we consider to be some of the very best house productions from the last 20 years or so.

As with the well-received launched Volume One, FTLOH represents the personal selection of a true house master, Defected’s Simon Dunmore, and with the specially-commissioned artwork from award-winning illustrator, Steven Wilson (check him out at www.wilson2000.com), we’ve provided that extra little something that marks this out as a collection of genuine quality.

Click to win a  wall canvas of the album artwork

We start at an appropriately-titled place with ‘Insatiable’. The Rasmus Faber remix of this Thick Dick production is pure summer perfection with Latanza Waters and a Balearic guitar sunshining all over the track. The summer house vibe is an ongoing theme in this volume; it returns with a subtle guitar-meets-summer flavour for the Jose Nunez track, ‘In My Life’, and on the tribal-tropical sound of DJ Gregory’s ‘Sookos’.

Classic New Jersey piano house in the form of Logic’s ‘Blues For You’ is the first of a Strictly selection that includes two of the label’s most famous vocal tracks: Ms. Barbara Tucker’s ‘Stop Playing With My Mind’ and South Street Player aka DJ Roland Clark’s ‘(Who?) Keeps Changing Your Mind’, both still providing roof-raising moments dancefloors around the world.

A For The Love Of House exclusive of sorts comes in the form of two tracks released here for the first time in digital format from two pioneering, legendary house music production names: Mood II Swing (Lem Springsteen and John Ciafone) with ‘All Night Long’ (the refrain ‘You’ve Been On My Mind’ fits perfectly with the dreamy synth pads and effects) and 4th Measure Men (Marc MK Kinchen) with ‘4 You ‘respectively.

Some of the very finest house records are underpinned by the quality of both the song-writing involved and, of course, the vocal performance. Copyright’s Classic Mix of Kathy Brown’s ‘Never Again’ is an heart-rending ode to relationship breakdown delivered in a way that only a true diva could. Conversely, ‘It’s So Easy’ is the flipside to the raw emotion of ‘Never Again’. Former Sounds Of Blackness lead, Ann Nesby, struck out on her own in the mid-90s becoming another legendary house vocalist along the way.

There are too many special moments here to cover in one sitting, suffice to say this is 25 authentic house tracks from the world’s most highly respected and best loved labels, released purely for the love of house…

For The Love Of House Volume 2 is out now on download - click to listen and buy