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Great dance tunes

Sheaf Saint

By Sheaf Saint,
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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

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Right, some people I know are putting on a mini festival for 250 people this July and I have, somehow, persuaded them to let me loose on the decks for a bit. Should be great fun.

 

I've done a lot of DJing over the years and I always used to play single-genre stuff from the rave era onwards (house, techno, breaks etc...), but for this I want to do an eclectic mix of all sorts of stuff, from all different genres and different eras. I've got quite a few good tunes in mind I want to play already, but I need the help of you, the music-loving folk of TSW.

 

What makes you dance? If you were drinking cider in field on a sunny summer afternoon, what tunes would make you get up and strut your funky stuff? All suggestions (within reason) considered.

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Colinjb

Colinjb

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I loved dance in the late 90's 00's. My favourites:

 

Binary Finary: 1999

Barthezz: On the Move

Mauro Picotto: Lizard

Mauro Picotto: Like This Like That

Supercar: Tonight

Tomcraft: Loneliness

Lucid: I can't Help Myself.

Art of Trance: Madagascar

Gouryella: Gouryella

Royksopp: Remind Me (Radio Edit only... check the music video)

Bang!: Shooting Star

Moonman: Don't Be Afraid (Pink Bomb Remix)

 

So many memories! :)

Edited by Colinjb
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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

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Some cracking tunes in that list Colin, but maybe I didn't make myself very clear. I want to move away from all that electronica stuff and cast my net much wider. I was thinking along the lines of some 60s/70s funk, or some really good 80s Hip hop, or maybe even some old lively jazz stuff like Benny Goodman etc...

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Colinjb

Colinjb

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Some cracking tunes in that list Colin, but maybe I didn't make myself very clear. I want to move away from all that electronica stuff and cast my net much wider. I was thinking along the lines of some 60s/70s funk, or some really good 80s Hip hop, or maybe even some old lively jazz stuff like Benny Goodman etc...

 

Fair play mate... my enthusiasm overtook me a little. :)

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Hamilton Saint

Hamilton Saint

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Bob Marley and the Wailers: e.g., Waiting In Vain

 

Ian Dury and the Blockheads: Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll and Wake Up and Make Love to Me

 

Marvin Gaye: Let's Get It On and I Heard it Through the Grapevine

 

The Rolling Stones: Miss You and Honky Tonk Women

 

Talking Heads: Crosseyed and Painless and Once in a Lifetime

 

James Brown: so many to choose from!

 

Sam and Dave: lots to choose from, too!

 

UB40: Please Don't Make Me Cry, 1 in 10, Many Rivers to Cross

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Block 5

Block 5

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I never thought I'd see a thread like this on SWF.

This happens to be my "thing".

 

I started DJing when the acid house scene kicked off, and moved through the various mutations of house music.

However, I tired of house years ago and began hunting out all those classic dance tunes that producers used to sample.

I started broadening my horizons in to funk and jazz funk a few years ago.

 

Some great suggestions so far. Dinger has come up with some corkers (Zapp & Roger - good call!) Also check out 'I can make you dance' by the same guys. Then check out the tragic story of the Troutman brothers

 

Good tunes from Hamilton Saint too, however I would suggest 'Could You Be Loved' as the danceable Marley tune of choice (more uptempo) and THE Blockheads tune to dance to is 'Reasons to be Cheerful'.

 

So here are a few of my own suggestions of classic dance tunes.

 

 

Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun (currently being used to sell Bulmers cider)

D Train - Keep On

Exodus - Together Forever

Donald Byrd - Change (Makes Me Wanna Hustle)

Wish & Fonda Rae - Touch Me

Class Action - Weekend (or the version by Phreek)

Brooklyn Express - Sixty Nine

NYC Peech Boys - Don't make me Wait

Loleatta Holloway - Love Sensation

The Police - Voices Inside My Head

Archie Bell & the Drells - Where Will You Go When the Party's Over (Tom Moulton mix)

Bataan - The Bottle

First Choice - Dr Love (Tom Moulton mix)

Instant Funk - I Got My Mind made Up (Larry Levan 12" mix)

Salsoul Orchestra - You're Just the Right Size

The Clash - The Magnificent Dance

 

None of these are particularly unknown or obscure, they're all just solid dance tunes.

How long are you going to be playing for? That should be ample to make up a great one to two hour set.

You mention wanting to play across many different genres etc but that is incredibly difficult to do in a way that maintains continuity and fluidity. It sounds like a great idea in your head but not many DJs would have the confidence and ability to pull it off. You could quite easily end up sounding like a bad DJ at a lame school disco.

Lengthy beat mixing will be nigh on impossible due to many of these tunes having drummers and not drum machines.

Will you be mixing or playing like David Mancuso?

 

The tunes I've listed are all pretty much 70s / early 80s dance classics (think Paradise Garage etc)

 

 

You'll have to trawl through YouTube yourself to check them out, I'm far too lazy.

 

Interested to know if you will be using CDJs or Traktor etc because getting these tunes on vinyl will cost you a fortune - The Exodus 12" alone (on the original Charlotte Amalie label) will cost over £100 in mint condition. Most should be available on various CD compilations, but even that will cost a bit. I hope you're being well paid.

Give me a shout if you want more suggestions or want to seriously venture into funk etc.

Edited by Block 5
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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

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Thanks for the input Block 5. Awesome stuff mate, I'll have a good trawl through them on youtube when I get the chance.

 

As for your other enquiries, the first thing I should tell you is that I'm not being paid to do it. In fact, I have had to buy a ticket the same as everyone else because it's just something that a group of guys I know have decided to do as a way of getting all their friends together for a summer knees-up. They are not making any money from it and they only asked the ticket price (£40) to cover costs.

 

I don't know yet how long I will be playing for (probably no more than 90 mins) but I'll be playing off a laptop with Traktor and a Numark USB controller, and I've got a bit of freeware that rips audio from youtube videos into good quality MP3s, so pretty much anything I want to play will be available to me. I know what you're saying about continuity, and that is something that I was always wary of (maybe a bit too much) when I was into the house/techno scene. But this is something totally different - it's a get-together for people to have a laugh and a drink and a bit of a boogie, so I think the quality of the music I play will be much more important than flow or good mixing, although that doesn't mean I won't try! I'm going to have a good practice first though, and record it so I can listen back in the car to make sure it sounds OK.

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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

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Any link for tickets Bexy? Sounds interesting. Only got one song to input, never fails to get me moving my feet...Reet Petite, Jackie Wilson.

 

Sorry mate, it's a strictly invite-only affair. They haven't got a licence to sell tickets to the public.

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