January 1999We had no choice but to "party like it's 1999" and made it through another year. Perhaps by the time you read this TAFKAP will have re-recorded his chestnut of 1982, although his representative had no comment on the rumor for me at this writing. (More on TAFKAP's new project later.) 1998 was really a great year for music and especially for the underground scene. There were many new artists emerging and established ones keeping very busy. We all started playing more records from Sweden, Spain, and France. If someone had said that even two years ago, it would have been taken as a joke! As groovy as we all know Daft Punk are, who would have thought that one of these French guys would produce the biggest single of the whole year anywhere, Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You." I believe this phenomenon will bolster the attention and respect that will be given to all current underground artists in this coming year. What A&R person wouldn't want to discover the next Stardust? I can see many new underground talents being signed to major labels, just to see what might happen. Of course this is the expected cycle for music deemed underground. It is left to germinate unhindered by accountants and CEOs till it seems ripe enough to pick. The further outcome of this cycle is that new forms evolve, deemed too extreme just yet for harvesting for the masses. These are the artists and releases that we in the underground live for and they will be perused by this column in 1999. As has been the case for the last few years, waters were tested in 1998 by having certain artists work on remixing more established acts. Luke Slater, Fabian, Sasha and William Orbit all did the deed with Madonna in 1998. The Rolling Stones had Armand Van Helden, as did everyone else. In the past year Terry Lee Brown Jr. has added his tech-house touch to commercial releases from artists like Kym Mazelle, Nalin & Kane, and Prospect Park featuring Carolyn Harding, without compromising his fine underground techno style. Mephisto Odyssey brought new charm and appeal to Jane's Addiction. All of these examples are more than obvious indicators of where we will be going in this coming year. The New York producers have been hitting us harder and harder and harder. There were few major artists left untouched by either Victor Calderone or Hex Hector, who both facilitated creating the rapidly emerging hard house genre. The main current obvious in many techno artists in 1998 was the curiosity, bordering on preoccupation, with "the funk." Most notable were G-Flame & Mr. G (aka The Advent), Mr. James Barth (aka Cari Lekebusch), Jesper Dahlback, Joel Mull, and Swag. Some artists felt the need to have aliases to blame their funky releases on, not wanting to insult their purist techno following, while a majority were happy to take the funk transition in stride. There were more mainstream artists heavily affected by funkiness. Fat Boy Slim was one taking it on via the breakbeat route as did the Propellerheads. It is surprising that with all the records inspired by disco and r&b that very few house tracks in 1998 got down with true gritty funk. I predict they will. Funk is the universal approach to club music, a timeless testament to fun, sex, and dancing. It's time to get into 1999 and I can not think of a better or more deserving artists than THE NEW POWER GENERATION featuring TAFKAP and their new release "Come On" on NPG Records to begin with. Everybody knows the story of TAFKAP and his former label, so we won't go into that drama. Let's get to this first release from the new album. "Come On" is an incomparable example of where I believe music is headed. TAFKAP has always created well ahead of his time, he takes his current creation and just uses enough familiar elements to seduce us listeners into his musical lair. In TAFKAP's case the familiar element most strongly used is FUNK. I have little information on this advance but there is a stellar club mix with all the "power" any DJ can use, with more than a few new twists that this writer has never heard before. There is a very interesting filter on the pieces of the bass line that reminds me of the novel sound of the first P-Funk bassline crossed with some kind of strange techno. It is a full vocal with full-on sexy lyrics but all very PC. The downtempo mixes are equally innovative and probably too progressive for most radio. TAFKAP and the New Power Generation have a great piece of music and it is amazing that an artist of his stature is going through the whole promotion process from square one all over again. By the time this is read this track will be a huge hit in the clubs and if you're not playing it yet you will be. DJ DAN presents NEEDLE DAMAGE "That Zipper Track" on Moonshine, his first release under his own name and it tears it up. This is a tech-stomper in the Bush label style. Dan uses the sound of filtered scratching not only to carry the melody but to actually create a voice with scratching. This is truly a unique track that will find itself equally at home in your tech house set or in hard New York house ala Danny Teneglia or Junior Vasquez. This is also a chance for Moonshine to regain some underground recognition. Also from San Francisco comes DISCIPLES OF JOHNNY MOJO "Johnny Mojo Themes" of Stone Records. The Disciples of Johnny Mojo are Amit and DJ Blackstone and this first release is a real stormer. This track builds layers of percussion over keyboard and vocal stabs that pull you through to several dramatic breakdowns and drum rolls giving us a classic tribal trance offering. This record will be caned by all the New York DJs or any DJ playing a progressive late night set. One more release from San Francisco is PHENIX "That's Why I'm Here" on Transport Records. This a very big departure from the other two since it's a very beautiful moody vocal piece. The great vocals are by Li'Sha and the phat mix is courtesy of Miquel Mig's. In the beautiful and moody category please add SCUBA "Swell" on Ovum Records. This a King Britt production so you can imagine what you are in store for. This has a luscious loving lyric written by Vikter Duplaix (?) and is a male/female duet. Quite effective and dreamy. The epic remix of ATMOSFEAR's "Dancing in Outer Space" by Francoise K has been pulled from the full-length release "Altered States" on Disorient Recordings UK. This mix turns it out, all 11:48 of it. This mix is amazingly more ballsy than the mix MAW came up with last summer. Send review material to: |