FEEL THE LOVE
This Valentine’s, we celebrate the most loved-up classic tracks in
the house and disco fi rmament. If dance music is your food of
love, read on…
Words: CLAIRE HUGHES
ance music is all about those special
D
loved-up moments. When you hear that
DANNY RAMPLING
tune, the one you can’t get out of your on the fi rst summer
head and you feel a shiver-thrill, in a
of love…
crowded room surrounded by friends and
strangers, with the heat, the lights, the beats and the “That whole fi rst wave of acid house and
person next to you feeling it, too. music that came along in 1988 was so
And then there’s other moments that stick in your head; inspirational, and there was so much love
like a Friday night at Heaven, in London, back in 1996 in it. What preceded it was grey — that’s
when Chicago house giant Farley Jackmaster Funk why acid house was such a breath of fresh
performed a live rendition of ‘Love Can’t Turn Around’ air, tracks like The Nightwriters’ ‘Let The
sweating out his passion and feeling for his hit single Music Use You’ and CeCe Rodgers’
atop a glittering podium in the packed-out main room. ‘Someday’.
Awesome. “The lyrics were based on gospel music and
fused with electronic rhythms. That’s why is Jamie Principle’s ‘Your Love’. That tune
When it fi rst emerged in the mid-’80s, acid house was all it exploded and became popular so fast. still sends a tingle down my spine. Fast-
about celebrating life, with strong over-currents of love, Coupled with MDMA, it was great. The tune forward 20 years later, and it still sounds
unity and decadence; symbolised by the smiley face that sums it up for me more than any other amazing.”
emblem and driven home by music that inspired us to
take to the dancefl oor in droves and dance all night.
Acid house’s kaleidoscopic explosion in the dwindling 01. Donna Summer ‘I Feel Love’ Four Tet
years of the Thatcher era helped chase away blues Casablanca Records (1977)
brought on by a severe recession, high unemployment This song helped pioneer dance music,
and a music scene fl ooded by the harsh, stark, epitomising the late-1970s New York disco
introspective lyrics of post-punk era bands or Stock, movement, and it still sounds futuristic today;
Aitken and Waterman-style dross. Dance music played by with Summer’s to-die-for vocal raising goose-
DJs in clubs also offered a non-stop, energy fuelled bumps every time.
alternative to nights spent standing around at a gig,
sipping on a fl at pint of snakebite and black, and 02. Urban Soul ‘Sex On My Mind (DJ Pierre Wild
shuffl ing your feet in the quiet bits between songs. Pitch Mix)’
The soundtrack of acid house’s ‘summer of love’ King Street Sounds (1995)
experienced in the UK in 1988 was inspired by early Starts deep and builds slowly, with smooth
Chicago house music, with tracks such as Jamie hypnotics that combine with the super sexy
Principle’s ‘Your Love’ and Marshall Jefferson’s ‘Move vocal to build the foundations for a good old
Your Body’ themed around love and celebrating life on saucy session on any dancefl oor. Still hot when
the dancefl oor. Inspiration also came from the New York you drop it today.
disco scene, with tracks such as Loose Joints’ ‘Is It All
Over My Face?’ and Donna Summer’s Giorgio Moroder- 03. Delphic ‘Red Lights’
produced ‘I Feel Love’. Those tunes, tied in with Polydor/Chimera (2010)
inspiration taken from the music played by DJs such as This was the only out-and-out ‘love’ song
Alfredo in Ibiza — whose eclectic DJing style was later on Delphic’s recently-released debut album
dubbed ‘Balearic’ — formed the basis of the early dance ‘Acolyte’ (produced by Ewan Pearson) and it’s
music sound that was rife in underground parties such as one that will work on the dancefl oor with the
London hoe-down Shoom and Flesh at the Hacienda in right remix package.
Manchester.
04. Lindstrøm & Christabelle ‘Lovesick’
Since then, dance music has evolved, mutated and Feedelity (2009)
marched on; but its lifeblood is still found in the energy This slow, sexy, dirty disco cut from Norwegian
and spirit of the tracks that drive us all to get out there, Lindstrøm and Belgian Christabelle marks one
as often as we can, fi nd our spot on the dancefl oor and of the fi nest moments on the recently-released
‘av it like there’s no tomorrow. ‘Real Life Is No Cool’ album.
That’s why we thought we’d celebrate this month — the
offi cial lurrve month — by picking out some of the fi nest 05. Sebastien Tellier ‘La Ritournelle’
loved-up tunes in dance music. These are the tunes that Record Makers (2004)
defi ne the agony and the ecstasy of love, encapsulating The mesmeric strings and deft rhythms that
those extremes and all the deliciously intricate emotions underpin the airy, warm vocals on this tune
that fi ll the gaps between. make it the ultimate song to fall in love to.
So if dance music is your food of love, read on… Tellier employed the Bulgarian Symphony Delphic
Orchestra to ratchet up its epic qualities.
038
www.djmag.com
DJ482.feel love_feature.indd 38 13/1/10 10:41:44
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