(02.21.07) With every release, Clone Classic Cuts seems to be going from strength to
strength. Three Eps are set to be re-issued on the sub-label before April
2007: Knight Action – Single Girl, Los Angeles T.F. – Magical Body and
Mike Dunn – So Let It Be Houze!.
Single Girl was first released back in 1984 on Let’s Dance Records, a
sub-label of Playhouse Records. The record achieved cult status over the
years, with old school DJ’s like Ron Hardy playing the early house number and
present day robots spinning it for mixes on the Cybernetic Broadcasting
System. The original 12″ is still a big collectors item, fetching top dollar
on the net. Yet, not all can afford or are willing to pay triple figures for
a record. So those nice people of Clone have decided to bring this
pioneering record back to the electronic masses.
Many will already be aware that the track “Single Girl (Vocal Version)” was
released on the German bootleg label: Safety Copy. Yet, there have been a
lot of unhappy robots due to this illegal re-issuing of records. Labels like
Radius and Flexx have been at the forefront of reproducing high quality
prints of lost disco and italo records, legally. Over the past few months,
to the delight of many, those Rotterdammers have taken on the challenge of
getting out of print electro, disco, techno, italo and house back to the
people, once again legally. The Safety Copy version of “Single Girl” was
more than likely extracted from MP3’s or the original 12″. The electro lovers
at Clone have tracked down the original master tapes for your listening
pleasure, even with the first few chewed up bars of “Single Girl (Vocal
Version)” due to damage on the original cassettes, and served up all three
tracks from the 1984 release: “Single Girl (Vocal Version),” “Single Girl
(Instrumental Version)” and “D-Rail.”
“Single Girl (Vocal Version),” to those who don’t know it, is a funky,
disco house track. Upbeat, almost quirky, lyrics form a central column to
the track while simple beats and analog tones wrap themselves around vocals.
A classic track mixed into tracks by the likes of I-F and Intergalactic Gary
and finding itself at no.14 in the CBS Top 100 of 2006. The “Single Girl
(Instrumental Version)” has a subtle charm of its own. The track does not
totally do away with its lyrics and samples, but employs them sparingly to
allow the listener to get a feel for what was lying behind the vocals. Some
great, spacey disco synthlines. “D-Rail” is a much more housey number. Solid
melodies and crisp beats shift against a wall of echoing analog. A track
that exemplifies where house came from, a track that shows how advanced
electronic music was even in its beginnings some twenty three years ago.
Next we fly to Italy, landing at Il Discotto airbase and Los Angeles T.F.
with Magical Body. Il Discotto is responsible for some italo classics like
Brand Image – “Are You Loving,” Doctor’s Cat – “Watch Out” and Gay Cat Park
– “I’m a Vocoder.” The label also released more disco centred tracks, it is
to this category that Los Angeles T.F. and Magical Body belong. For years
now the record has had a cult status, a floor filler and major collectors
item. The re-issue, like the original, features the vocal version and the
instrumental version. The lyrical number has many elements of the italo
disco that Il Discotto is known for, but the vocals recall the likes of The
Flirts and more disco centred records. A terrifically addictive disco number
that will have the most hardened technophile tapping their toes. The
flipside features the instrumental version, in true disco tradition. This is
a record that is a solid taster into the obscure realm of not just disco,
but italo disco too. A wonderful two tracker that could, and should, be
incorporated into any mix.
Clone Classic Cuts is already becoming a label of bias as Mike Dunn returns
with his long out of print Mike Dunn EP, in some circles known as the So
Let It Be House! EP’, from Westbrook Records. The original 12″ is almost 20
years old, originally coming out in May of 1988, and was limited to only
1000 copies. Rumour has it that Clone head honcho, Serge, wasn’t playing the
record in fear of damaging the vintage piece of Chicago House. Well now it
is available once again, classic acid house.
The record, released by Clone under the title of So Let It Be House!,
hosts three tracks, as its original did, with one minor alteration. “Magic
Feet” from the original, due to it being widely available even today, has
been replaced the more obscure “Grooving.” The 12″ begins with it’s title
piece. The track has been sampled many times, but the original has never
been available. Now here it is, a squelching, big boned piece of Chicago
Acid House. “So Let It Be House!” is a minimal piece of old school house,
deep vocals of a prophetic nature, a manifesto for the beginnings of House
music. Basic keys are expertly fingered as crisp beats snap and break behind
Dunn’s gospel style lyrics before the TB303 ushers in with some sick knob
twindling. A track and sound summed up by Dunn in the opening lines of the
track: “Our sounds are cold but fair.”
“Grooving” starts of the B Side. A beat centred track with a solid melody
and heavy lyrics, again the core ingredients of the Chicago House movement.
Following on from the A Side, House is the subject matter of Dunn’s vocals.
The record ends with the machismo of “Life Goes On.” On the original EP, the
track sat first on the B Side, but Clone have decided to keep this one for
last. Analog piano keys swoop in whilst the sharp beats of the drum machine
remain central as Dunn’s vox arrives. Macho lyrics sail and echo as
guitaresque strings meet the chorus before a full beat rattle leads out. The
track recedes into greasy acid lines before Dunn brings back his keyboard
and ends the track. An anti love, sex centered house track and an absolute
pelter to finish the EP on.
Clone Classic Cuts is becoming one of the most interesting labels out
there. Not only is it opening up the strange and wonderful world out of
print classics to the ears of new comers to electronic music, it is giving a
shadowed sound back to those who love it. Tracks, for example “Let It Be
House”, that were virtually impossible to spin in a mix are back. Let’s just
hope those nice folk at Clone press enough copies of these gems, because
there is definitely going to be a demand.
The above mentioned released will be released in April, 2007 on Clone Classic Cuts.
