Tag: rollo

SONG OF THE DAY: Kristine W – Love Come Home

Originally recorded by Our Tribe (Rollo and Rob Dougan) with Franke Pharoah, “Love Come Home” was released in 1994. What many don’t realize is that Kristine W was prominently featured as a backing vocalist, to the point where it became almost a duet. When it came time to put together her greatest hits album, New & Number Ones, Kristine rerecorded the song and with the help of Subgroover gave it a modern sound. Combining EDM/progressive house with powerful and soulful gospel vocals, “Love Come Home” will catch your attention instantly. On first listen, it sounds like what you would hear on dance radio credited as Zedd featuring Kristine W, so it’s almost shocking that it was done back in 2012. Someone was ahead of their time. For Kristine W, this doesn’t come as a surprise as her debut album “Land of the Living” (produced by Rollo and Rob Dougan) is widely regarded as one of the landmark dance albums of the ’90s. Remixes are forthcoming by Todd Terry, Hermanos Inglesos, Phill Wellz, and Andy Sikorski – so expect some major club action. The video is also worth checking out as Kristine channels her inner Lucia Holm (Sunscreem) in a spiritually uplifting journey of following dreams and wishes coming true.

Image courtesy of Fly Again records.

SONG OF THE DAY: Breach ft Andreya Triana – “Everything You Never Had (We Had It All)”

Not what you would expect, but better than you can imagine. Breach (aka Ben Westbeech) had one of the biggest records of the summer with “Jack,” a simple yet substantial classic house track with one line of repeated vocal that was accompanied by a viral hairy video. For “We Had It All,” he moves from channeling Larry Heard to evoking classic Rollo. Dig up “Let This Be a Prayer” by Rollo Goes Spiritual with Pauline Taylor for an idea of where this is descended from. How great it is for there to be a return to vocal house with a real song – mournful, yet uplifting – as soulful singer Andreya Triana is serving Sandy B inspired by Moby’s Southern gospel phase. This is classy underground vocal house which is very well-produced and modern-feeling, with classic uplifting vibes for the old school house heads out there. How amazing would it be to be at a festival or in a big room club and the DJ dropped from hard electro or stadium and subtly brought in a quality vocal house record like this?

Image Courtesy of Atlantic.

SONG OF THE DAY: HIIO & John Dish – “Rock & Roll”

There is a certain big room electro sound that has been overly-prominent lately. A sound or sample becomes de rigueur and suddenly every track on the beatport 100 seems to be using it (see Daleri’s “Mashleg” for an extreme example). What sets a producer apart is a new sound, vibe, or influence which brings a fresh taste to their track. South American duo HIIO have been on a rampage this year with a slew of club tracks featuring quality vocalists and elements of soul and gospel for a different take on big room electro. For their new track “Rock and Roll,” they’ve teamed with rising producer John Dish and added an element of ’90s dance music that has yet to be explored in the current flashback meme – euphoric sounds a la Rollo/Faithless. If you listen closely to the synth line you will hear the big room sounds inspired by the early epic classics like “Insomina” and “Salva Mea.” What this has to do with the sampled vocal, I am not sure – but the contrast makes “Rock and Roll” stand out from the majority of tracks being churned out by the pack of EDM producers on an hourly basis.

Image Courtesy of CR2 Records.