#1 BLACK DEVIL – H Friend – RCA France
This record was Introduced to me by my mentor Elorious Cain host of Canada’s longest running disco show The Groove every Saturday afternoons on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa Canada. Produced by the mysterious Bernard Fevre this track with melancholic tones and hard to uncode fake English lyrics haunts my soul and resonates in my mind even in the most awkward situations or moments that can happen in my every day life.
#2 RHYTHIM IS RHYTHIM – It Is What It Is – Transmat USA
I discovered this masterpiece by Derrick May in fall of 1987 on this various artists compilation called Techno The New Dance Of Detroit, Compiled by Neil Rushton Of Kool Kat publishing Birmingham UK . This record put the Detroit techno sound on the map and infected the dance floors of the UK club scene with essential relics and titles from the Transmat, KMS and Metroplex catalog from the Motor City.
#3 JESSE SAUNDERS – On And On – Jes Say Records USA
I discovered this record very late 20 years after its release in some BBC documentary . It’s said to be the first commercially available House Music record of the Windy City. The original pressing was pressed at 1500 units and sold out within 3 days mostly in the Chicago area. On discogs it’s listed for 1000$ USD in mint condition, but thanks to Rush Hour Amsterdam was able to get my re-issue copy in 2012.
#4 UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE – Jupiter Jazz – Underground Resistance USA
I will always remember this day, it was August of 1992 this promotional package sent to me by Mike Banks if UR comes in the mail in it I found 3 World Power Alliance records , X-102 presents the rings of Saturn and then at the bottom of the package this record called Galaxy 2 Galaxy with a track that was an instant love affair ravey synth stabs with jazzy high pitched SH – 101 leads and soulful piano chords. The first record I heard combining techno and jazz influences .
#5. 3 PHASE – Der Klang Der Familie – Tresor Germany
September of 1992 I’m only 20 years old and visit the city of Berlin for my first time. At the time I go to this underground club in an old department store vault. With steel rusted bars , concrete full of cracks , heavy smog on the dance floor , sweat and darkness powered by pounding full on bass techno and power strobes. Then this track starts with the spoken words Der Klang Der Familie (The Sound The Family) when the bass line kicked in followed by the kick my mind time-warped 50 years in da future. This experience was at the original Trésor club at its first location at Potsdamer Platz.
#6 LFO – LFO – Warp UK
I was working at ABM Records a small shop on Somerset West in Ottawa at the time purveyors of the best In discotheque oriented vinyl LP’s and 12″ Singles in the area. It was a cold winter was February 1990. I noticed on the new release wall these very pretty purple and silver record covers and jackets . They where records by artists such as Forgemasters, Nightmares On Wax, Sweet Exorcist , Tricky Disco and this black cover with bold italic fat font With LFO Written in white on the cover and this very skinny alien silhouette right next to it. When I first played the record I thought it was a record from Detroit . But it had a different flavor filled with bleeps and this monster like low frequency baseline that caused tremors in the shop. Along with other titles from the same label I find out it’s on the Warp records label at the time based In Sheffield England responsible as the pioneers of the hypnotic groove and this techno sound emerging from cities such as Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield UK called bleeps techno.
#7 PHUTURE – Acid Trax – Trax USA
I bought this record at a long gone Ottawa Record Store in 1987 called Downtown Records on Dalhousie Street in Ottawa Canada. The shops owner Frank Branker would go to New York every week and on Thursdays all the imports would be freshly stocked. I was looking in the European section found this black and yellow record with future misspelled Phuture on it. While listening to this track a TR-707 drum machine beat kicking things off and suddenly this deep bass line tweaking with this unreal corrosive sound. Bought the copy with no second thoughts. I thought at first that release on Play It Again Sam Belgium was some evolved Belgian new beat sound. Then I found out it was licensed from Trax Records Chicago where the original pressing was ruff and full of clicks and pops. This new sound was called Chicago Acid House and had been flowing in my veins ever since.
#8 KEBEKELEKTRIK – Magic Fly – Les Disques Directions Canada
This record has a very sentimental value to me and gives me great pride. Produced in North America’s discotheque capital in the late 70s Montreal my Birthplace. It’s spacey , melancholic full of love and harmony. It was produced by Montreal’s disco legend Gino Soccio and mixed by the legendary Philadelphia disco master Tom Moulton. I discovered it was a cover version of a Space Disco record by France’s SPACE an electronic disco band from the Parisian area. The reason this cover version was produced was to make sure this bomb sold in North America asap before the original French copy made it to North America. A typical example of the cut throat and sketchy nature of the discotheque business record industry.
#9. GIORGIO MORODER – The Chase – Casablanca Records & Filmworks USA
I remember hearing this song on the radio when I was only 5 years old while spending my summer vacations at my grand parents homes in Strasbourg France on Beeing played over and over again on the german radio stations in my grand fathers Citroën CX Pallas car stereo. I had no idea who Giorgio MORODER was or that it was the theme to the very cruel drama film Midnight Express all I knew at that very young age is that I loved it and it was the sound of the future.
#10. Dreamer G – I’ve Got That Feeling – Mad House Records USA
As a teen my heart was broken so many times by some of the most lustful and pretty puppy love girls I dated. Discovering this track along with my longtime dance floor friend Lance Baptiste at the original Roxy club in New York City this soulful garage record produced by Newark’s Kerry Chandler had a strong connection with my emotions and felt the frustration and heartbreak feeling of who ever wrote the lyrics sitting alone at home waiting for her call on the telephone cause I got this feeling she’s not treating me right !!!
Various Artists – Plexity EP (Soiree Records International)
Detroit label Soiree Records follows up their last well received EP with a fantastic new four tracker that draws on a collection of various artistic talents for a more techno inclined offering that comes riddled with the “simplistic complexity of subliminal melodic aggression.”
Drivetrain is Derrick Thompson, founder of Soiree Records International and a key Detroit artist who also runs Xplor Music and has electrified dance floors around the planet for over twenty years. His excellent ‘Lozen’ is, he says, a “paradoxal tribal eruption and filtered patternization built on barbaric harmonic algorithms.” In other words it’s an abrasive, heavyweight techno track with big chords that demand you dance. Label debutant but real scene veteran Teknobrat is next and hails Ottawa City. He serves up the superb ‘Relapse’ which features a twisted, distorted analog synth abducted by a rancid 909 beat machine. It’s a bristling, hugely energetic track that will blow up on the ‘floor.
A vinyl addict since the eighties turned globetrotting spinner, Tunisian DJ Mourad offers the brilliantly fresh ‘All Fixed Up’ which takes an expedition through incalculable rainbows of acid-tech and the unexplained. It’s fluid and mysterious and truly heady. Last but not least, Hughes Giboulay from France is another debutant on the label who here delivers.
