PIONEER DJ

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

[Label:Nrk Music Division]

NRK Music - Review Of the Year + Annual Winter Sale!

As we draw to the end of the year, it's a time to reflect on another busy year at NRK HQ. Whilst the music industry has again taken a year of hard knocks (stores closing, distributors going bust, the decline in sales etc.) this has not stopped some quality music being produced this year, and another busy year in the clubs, with new DJs breaking through and new genres creeping in.


Hot Lizard - The Theme 2008
(Charles Webster/Carl Craig/Christian Prommer)

Originally released in 1995, Hot Lizard's "The Theme" became a benchmark release on the mid-90s deep house scene, beefed up by remixes from Detroit's Carl Craig, Charles Webster (under his Love From San Francisco guise) and Mark Broom.

Produced by Charles Webster, Gary Marsden and Paul Wain, "The Theme" was an epic deep tech hybrid, bridging the gap between the deep house sound and the more progressive tech-house records that dominated the late 90s.

NRK re-released "The Theme" this year, with brand new mixes from Charles Webster, Version (Webster & Atjazz), Christian Prommer, and also brought the Original Carl Craig remix back to the fore.

Buy 12" (Disc One) Buy 12" (Disc Two) DJ Download Traxsource

Another busy year for Nick Holder

Canadian doyen of deep, Nick Holder, is an artist that has been with NRK ever since the early days. His 1997 release, "Paradise", was the start of a great kinship between artist and label, racking up countless singles ("Da Sambafrique", "Summer Daze", "No More Dating DJs" etc.) and three artist albums.

Holder continued to produce uncompromising house music in 2008, with a brace of singles out on our label.

"2012", backed with a typically quirky jazz house/broken beat thang called "A Strange Delight", was released in March, and "2012" ploughed straight for the deep dancefloor root; functional beats, percussion and claps, spacey effects, delicate keys and a snaking arpergio riff make this track a hypnotic house nugget.

May 2008 also saw the release of a couple of remixes of “Time”, a cut al
ready championed by Gilles Peterson. Featuring Sacha on vocals, this deep vocal house cut got the remix treatment from two Europeans, namely Wahoo (AKA Dixon & Georg Levin) and Manuel Tur.

"2012/A Strange Delight" 12" "Time" (Wahoo/Manuel Tur mixes) 12" Nick Holder on Traxsource

Spirit Catcher - Brain Candy EP

Belgium, a land favoured for its beer, its chocolates, and two guys producing top notch electronic music.

Jean Vanesse and Thomas Sohet AKA Spirit Catcher really need no introduction, suffice to say that releases on labels such as 2020 Vision, Freerange, Winding Road, Silver Network and Moodmusic have all captured the Spirit Catcher unique sound since 2003.

The January 08 released "Brain Candy" EP was a huge success, topping charts on Beatport, getting the props from the likes of Pete Tong, Dave Mothersole, Jimpster, Magik Johnson, Fish Go Deep, Nick Warren, and being a heavy vinyl release favourite.

"Brain Candy" EP 12" Brain Candy Loving System

SOURCE: NRK MUSIC [NRK MUSIC DIVISION]

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