Been digging Jimpster‘s latest chart selection, 18 tracks off the deep end of deep house with some electro thrown in for good measure. Brought me back in a flash to the days back in London in the late 1990s when I used to visit the Notting Hill Arts Club from time to time on Sundays afternoons for their “Lazy dog” night. DJ was Ben Watt from Everything But The Girl, playing deep house, before the night moved to Mr. C’s The End club and became part of that legend. Outside, people were doing their Sunday shopping or heading over to Portobello Road to buy stuff (records? fruit and veg?). Downstairs we were bopping to this very special brand of funky and jazzy house that was just uplifting and positive.
To this day, I vividly remember one guy dancing by himself on the dancefloor. Really cool, relaxed, smooth moves, completely oblivious to the world, just having fun. I couldn’t help walking up to him during a break in the sounds and said “wow, how come you’re such a good dancer”, or something like that. And he told me that he just liked dancing, and said, “I’m in my 40s, you’ll know when you’re in your forties”. At the time it sounded pretty cryptic when I was barely in my 20s. Like walking up to the Sphinx in Thebes on a good day and somehow walking away with your life. For some reason it stuck with me over the years. Now, in my 40s, I know what he meant. Either I would still love music and like him, would also be dancing without worrying about the moves, people, anything… just for the heck of it. Or I wouldn’t and would have forgotten the episode altogether.
Anyway, this Jimpster selection (whom I hadn’t heard of since maybe 10-15 years?) was so spot on, I downloaded the entire lot (bar a couple that didn’t gel). Separately checking out his 2022 release on UK label Free Range Records (whether the tracks Ascension or Voodoo etc, all golden!) is again a revelation in laid-back sound mastery. In the midst of our busy post-Corona lives we are so busy being productive and busy again, I feel we’re missing those soulful sounds. Those that led to the Defected label being so influential in the 2000s+, leading to Miguel Migs and all that slick sound famedom, listening to Naked Music while naked etc. You can hear a new take on the sound with more recent releases at the link. One of my favorites, “Money” (Kaidi Tatham remix), is out today April 21st. Maybe this soundstyle needs reviving in the 2020s? In any case, enjoy 🙂
(image source: Beatport)
