Glow Of Love (Yam Who? vocal dub mix) - (7:29) 118 BPM
Glow Of Love (Yam Who? extended remix) - (7:06) 120 BPM
Glow Of Love (Yam Who? instrumental) - (7:06) 120 BPM
Review: Yam Who? recently teamed up with vocalist Brian Lucas on a cover of James Ingram classic 'Yah Mo Be Be There'; now he provides three mixes of the singer's latest outing, which finds him collaborating with fellow Midnight Riot regular Sean Scanlan. It'll surprise no one to learn that uplifting soulful house is the order of the day here - for stylistic pointers, see Blaze, 'The Way You Love Me', Opolopo, and most of Yam Who?'s own back catalogue - with 'Glow Of Love' served up in fairly self-explanatory Yam Who? Extended, Yam Who? Instrumental and Yam Who? Vocal Dub flavas.
Review: Sub-titled 'Late Night Cruisin' Classics', Midnight Riot's first compilation dedicated to Yacht Rock & Disco is a loved-up saunter through colourful hybrids of blue-eyed soul, revivalist disco and the kind of slick and soulful nu-disco that sounds like it should be sound-tracking a sea-bound party put on by millionaire playboys. Across the compilation you'll find shiny cover versions of blue-eyed soul classics (Change Request's 'Lowdown' and DJ Mark Brickman's 'I Keep Forgettin'), deliciously downtempo excursions of the Balearic kind (the sugary street soul flex of Saucy Lady & U-Key's 'What You Won't Do For Love', Sweetooth's simply superb 'So Into You', the Ned Doheny-ish excellence of JIM's 'Whisper In The Wind'), and a really quite remarkable Sade cover (Samma's 'Sweetest Taboo'). In a word: lovely.
Review: Midnight Riot don their boogie shoes to bring us this two-track, five-mix EP from William Kurk, a keyboardist, vocalist and producer who hails from Chicago, comes from a long line of musicians (gospel and blues pioneer Thomas A Dorsey was his great-uncle) and has had a 20-year career working in jazz and music for theatre. The title track features Kurk's own sing-song vocal (think Blaze's 'We Are One') but it's the Instrumental that works better for yours truly as the track's jazz-funk overtones come further to the fore, while Andrew Emil's three complementary rubs of 'Willionaire' should keep soulful house floors grooving along nicely.
Review: Midnight Riot bring us a fourth collection of gospel-inspired house, disco and boogie. Mark Brickman & Yam Who's superb Vanessa Jackson-sung, disco-styled Praise Cats cover gets the ball rolling, the unmistakable tonsils of Kenny Bobian lend an authentically evangelistic feel to 'I Shall Not Be Moved', Yam Who? reappears in tandem with Brian Lucas on a cover of James Ingram's 80s soul classic 'Yah Mo' B There', prolific re-editor Jet Boot Jack gets busy on 'The Gospel According To Jack', and so it goes on... the devotional lyrics may be a bit much for some, admittedly, but if that's not an issue there's much to enjoy here.
Review: One look at the track titles here and some of you will be thinking of Donna Summer's Bad Girls already - and yes, the line you're thinking of does indeed crop up on 'Beep Beep'. But it IS just a sample and these are definitely fresh tracks rather then re-edits. Something of an epic, lavishly produced track, in the case in question - a Horse Meat Disco anthem in waiting if ever we heard one! The accompaning Paradise Mix is a slightly more spaced-out variation on the theme, while 'Making Love' has that authentic 70s feel but most assuredly packs a 21st Century sonic punch.
Review: It may have been a pretty rubbish year in general, but Midnight Riot has done its best to keep us entertained via a wealth of disco and boogie-centric EPs. If you missed out on many of the label's 2020 treats, don't worry, because they've gathered together the best of their recent output on this epic compilation. Drawing on original nu-disco, revivalist disco, feel-good house, synth-heavy boogie sounds and gently tooled-up edits, highlights are predictably plentiful. Our picks include the summery soulful house goodness of 'Nothing But the Music (Hotevilla Mix)' by Platinum City, the nu-boogie brilliance of Qwestlife's remix of 'Savage' by Tommy Glasses, the loopy disco-house joy of Mottes 'The Horse Ride' and Yam Who's 'Full Vocal Mix' of Sam Shelley's sunshine disco number 'Groove It'.
Review: Something of a meeting of the generations here, as Sean Scanlan - an Essex DJ/producer whose career dates back to the late 90s - teams up with Octavia Lambertis, a US vocalist who started out in the mid-80s boogie era and has since worked with the likes of Angel Moraes, Lenny Fontana and Pete Heller. That gives them some pretty serious house n' disco roots, and it shows, with 'Get Out Of My Own' a sumptuously produced, string-drenched Saturday night mirrorball extravaganza sporting two female vocals (one sung, the other chanted and reminiscent of ESG's 'Erase You'), with a matching instrumental also supplied.
Review: As it is now 15 years since the birth of his Yam Who? project, Midnight Riot main man Andy Williams is naturally in a celebratory mood. To mark the occasion, he's releasing a series of 'Best of' collections featuring a mixture of original productions and remixes. There's naturally tons to set the pulse racing on this second compilation, from the chunky revivalist boogie brilliance of Williams' previously unreleased dub of the Patchworks Band's 'Rock Your Body' and the Rhodes-laden, jazz-funk-goes-nu-disco warmth of his revision of Situation's superb 'Take Me Or Leave Me', to the bass-heavy, string-laden disco-house chunkiness of his Din Jay remix ('Sweet & Sour') and the soulful house-meets-electrofunk goodness of the Phil Jaimes' rework ('My Sensitivity').
Review: Two contrasting disco slices here courtesy of Midnight Riot and Risk Assessment, AKA UK house industry veteran Glyne Braithwaite. If you're after straight-up nu-disco thrills then head for 'One More', an archetypally summery, Ibiza-friendly kinda jam that rocks fluttering Rodgers-esque guitars, understated but euphoric piano chords and some killer Dave Lee-like space disco stabs. 'Turned On', on the other hand, is one for lovers of 80s soul and boogie with its fat, squelchy bassline and full male vocal. The latter's probably one for the specialist clubs, whereas 'One More' will work on floors that like it a bit more "accessible".
