Midweek Mixes (08/12/22)
A run-down of some of the mixes and radio shows that have been soundtracking my existence – from the box-fresh to the tried-and-tested – all guaranteed to brighten up your week.
I’ve been battling various ailments for the past couple of weeks and one thing getting me through the grot has been mixes like these two. It’s a theme I return to again and again, but the traversing of generations, genres and geographies all through a very HOUSE lens is what, I think, has always occupied me, and even more so now, in times when so much else feels fragmentary. These two recordings are separated by 32 years but they share an appreciation for the web of connections between different times and places, which they then communicate through the music. Healing stuff.
House, House, and more motherfuckin House! That’s the mantra for Mez’s set from Honcho Campout 2022, which, while acting as a love letter to the genre, avoids over-reliance on recognisable classics. Instead it’s the forebears of the house sound - disco, funk, afrobeat, gospel - and the groundbreaking inventive elements that kept it so fresh and exciting well into the 90s - sampling and loops from said forebears, raw drum machine work, the introduction of acid and further early forays into the regions of bleep, booty house and so on - that are highlighted and refracted through a set of determinedly underground selections. So we have a dash of Dinosaur here, a flash of Fela there, more than a few freaky rhythm trax, and vocals that encourage us constantly up and onwards - exactly what you’d want as a festival Friday afternoon ramps up into the evening’s adventures.
Richie Bernier - Keep Holding On (April 1990)
The ‘Keep Holding On’ tune that opens the mix with a big helping of schmaltz soon gives way, mercifully, to a rather slowjammed ‘Keep On Holdin’ On’ by Margaret Reynolds. I almost prefer her at this pace and pitch and, as I’ve written about before, it’s always a mark of a great singer when their vocals can withstand the slow-down treatment. Richie’s mixing is, let’s say, casual compared to many of the other sets I’ve heard from The Pine Walk Collection, but I’m willing to give him a pass on the strength of the tunes.
As the intro to Obsession’s cover of the theme from ‘The Never Ending Story’ comes in you realise how similar it is to Tiffany’s ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ and Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Always On My Mind’ (both from 1987), a somewhat chastening (or perhaps reassuring?) reminder of the long tail of also-ran songs trailing behind the enduring hits of every era. It’s followed promptly by FPI Project’s cover of Lamont Dozier’s ‘Goin Back To My Roots’ featuring house vocalist Sharon D Clarke, and the tune’s synths, breakbeats, piano chords and ‘woo yeah’ samples remind us this is 1990 not 1987, while simultaneously making us feel like it’s 1980, the year that Odyssey originally popularised the song with their own disco cover.
The rest of the mix is heavy on the NRG, with multiple appearances from The Hit Factory and a bit of Moroder before what sounds like Bobby O. takes us home. While listening to this mix I feel I can see - almost touch - the lines connecting the Pines of April 1990 to Chicago to Italy to Detroit to Manchester. It’s a humbling and thrilling sensation.
(For previous Midweek Mixes entries on The Pine Walk Collection check here and here.)