Longing
Random House Project featuring Robert Owens
(Underwater Records)
Reported Wednesday, June 23 2004
Courtesy of Jonty_Adderley @ www.skrufff.com
With early 80s electronic music and post punk electrofunk continuing to inspire and influence much of the best of today's new dance music, Random House have gone one step forward, creating a tuneful, heavily vocal house record of the kind that spawned acid house in the first place, in the not quite so far off days of 1986.
Fittingly, Random House mainmen Simon Munday and Gez Dewar both paid their dues the first time round, raving at the likes of Shoom and numerous M25 parties before going on to carve out successful careers remixing (Simon remains Adrian Sherwood's production partner) and as multi-monickered commercial house men.
18 years later, both remain firmly in the club/ music business which presumably helped them encounter Chicago vocalist Robert Owens in 'a chance meeting' last year. Playing him the track ('I'd been thinking 'who do I know sounds like Robert Owens", says Simon) the duo were delighted when the legendary singer said he loved it and soon after, the track was recorded.
Keeping it firmly in the family, Gez then took the unsigned track to old mate Darren Emerson, who also loved it (and more importantly signed it) who then and commissioned his old friend Adam Sky (aka Adamski) to remix it. With Simon having performed with Adam in 1992 as the Jet Slags, the circle was complete, and 12 months on Longing is finally now available.
Catchy, accessible and laden with tuneful hooks and melodies, the original mix serves as a timely reminder of quite how far 'house' has travelled, not always positively, in its two decades of life. Adam Sky's mix, meanwhile, introduces an electro synth line eerily reminiscent of early 80s Split Enz's I Got U (which also works surprisingly enough).
Longing is a track that's both individual and, despite its retro roots and leanings, original and remarkably fresh. The track is out now, with a new remix by Darren Emerson following shortly.
http://www.underwaterrecords.com
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