8 Tracks: Of Xtc Garage

Music

No idea what we're talking about? Well, well, well… Let us break it down for you…

Q: What is XTC Garage?

A: It is nebulous and absolutely subjective. It’s Easy Street b-sides, Bobby Konders deepness, Burrell Brothers’ finesse, Red Zone dubs and Dead Zone dubs, its Ace Beat, Movin’,Quark and uplifting New Jersey vocals, it’s Tenaglia ballroom bliss, it’s DJ Pierre pitching wildly, it’s Jovonn, it’s Kerri AND KCC, it’s rough Brooklyn basslines, it’s Blue Jean reigning supreme, it’s Italian doing it better, it’s proto UKG from Zaki D or Zak Toms, and most of all, it’s Tony Humphries. From Zanzibar to Sound Factory Bar to Clink Street to Girls FM to Rimini, it’s the real underground garage sound of New York, New Jersey, London and beyond.

Q: What is NYC.XTC?

A: NYC.XTC is a celebration of the XTC garage sound. The residents are underground hero and digger extraordinaire, Truly Madly, and ecstasy garage tag team, Miles and Miles, aka Zanzibar obsessive and the man behind Thunder, Miles Simpson and Jersey Sound aficionado, Miles Probyn. Support will be provided select friends and ecstasy garage lovers. No name DJs, no big line ups, no advance tickets, just people doing it for love with music they love.

Q: Who are the XTC Garage All-Stars?

A: The XTC Garage All-Stars, like the Harlem Globetrotters of the XTC garage sound, drawn from the aforementioned select friends and ecstasy garage lovers. Membership is fluid, inclusion is considered entirely on the merit of your best XTC garage trick shot (great records not on youtube or discogs are the best trick). On this occasion it includes; Mark Limb (Electric Disco); Chris Chippindale (Sunk); Lucas Crowley(Family Tree Radio); and of course, Truly Madly, Miles and Miles.

NYC.XTC returns on Sunday 6th May, with a two-part Bank Holiday XTC Garage Special – and it's all FREE! See HERE and HERE.

LISTEN

Gorden Nelson ~ You Are My Friend (Tony V'S Newark Smooth Remix) 123/Bpm

Truly Madly: A great label and for me this is the pick. Many memories attached to this. One of those happy sad tracks that I seem to gravitate towards so much. The sentiment of the lyric is positive but the music conveys a sense of impending doom mixed with a possible light at the end of the tunnel elation. One for a very late night dancefloor when just the dregs of humanity are left – maybe, just maybe it’s going to be alright. Also still cheap as chips and it’s getting less often you can save that about such quality.

Gorden Nelson ~ You Are My Friend (Tony V'S Newark Smooth Remix) 123/Bpm

Truly Madly: A great label and for me this is the pick. Many memories attached to this. One of those happy sad tracks that I seem to gravitate towards so much. The sentiment of the lyric is positive but the music conveys a sense of impending doom mixed with a possible light at the end of the tunnel elation. One for a very late night dancefloor when just the dregs of humanity are left – maybe, just maybe it’s going to be alright. Also still cheap as chips and it’s getting less often you can save that about such quality.
Johnick - Don't Stop

Truly Madly: A shady, deep, tracky, swirling sea of beats with a perfectly used instrumental sample. Then that baseline. Even the slightly dodgy vocal sample that comes in later on can’t spoil it for me, and that’s rare. Understated simplicity and you can play this anywhere.
Marcus Turcotte - Ambiessence (1994)

Truly Madly: A big hug and a kiss of a record that I bought randomly from Quaff Records bargain bin when I was a student. Unconditional love in the form of plastic grooves. I used to mix the accapella of Pacha – One Kiss over it, which although works quite well, in hindsight I think it might be sacrilegious in the extreme.
Backintyme - Don't Stop, Keep On (Dig It International, 1995)

Miles P: Mateo & Matos have got more killer cuts than I can count, but this mid-tempo chugger just smacks it for me. It does a really good job of twisting the Brass Construction sample into a ten-minute disco-house epic – walking bassline, triumphant trumpets an’ all. It’s a weird release because the lads only used the Backintyme alias once, and it came out on Milanese-eurotrash-sausage-factory “Dig It International”, but it’s quite collectible. Anyway, sure shot.
Kerri Chandler - 4 D.D. (For Devotion) (I Want U Mix)

Miles P: The finger snaps, the organ, the smoothness of this track. I love Kerri’s switch-up at 3:37, it sort of takes you by surprise but then reassures you with the familiar Robyn S vocal sample. It’s just such a sophisticated sound, and would have sounded just brilliant in 1993 NYC. Like a phoenix arising out of the ashes of hip-house. Out of the three records Kerri Chandler released on Strictly Rhythm, this is the one I would rescue from a house fire if I could only fit one plate in my bag. A frightening prospect indeed!
Spring - No Time (For Crying) (12" Mix) 1992

Miles P: This is a very uplifting record but also quite melancholy too. I love music that carries a sense of hope, and I think that’s what the chord progression does. John Robinson aka Spring was a centrepiece of the early 90’s New York house scene and broke many new records on his Saturday Mastermix show on WBLS. He was tragically killed in a car accident whilst in London. I picked this one up in A1 Records NYC for $25 several months ago and is definitely a prized piece of wax for me.
Classic Man - 5th Street Orchestration (Sweet Ambience Mix)

Miles S: Wayne Gardiner is a bit of an XTC Garage hero. Best know his Logic production alias, under which he produced the seminal New York deep houser, The Warning, and the proto-UKG classic Blues For You, on Strictly Rhythm. This was his first release on another of New York’s contribution to pantheon of great house music labels, Nervous. The bass draws you in, the drums slam you to the ground, the strings sweep in to lift, then the keys tip you over the edge, and float off into the deep on a cloud ecstatic bliss. It’s XTC garage in its purest form.
Jovonn - Love Destination (1994)

Miles S: This ticks all the XTC Garage boxes really. Produced by Jovonn? Check. Warm Pads? Check. Bonkers bass? Check. XTC Sax? Check. Backwards Strings? Check. And if that wasn’t enough already, the final criterion clinches the deal: Released on a fairly obscure Italian sub label in the mid-1990s, that just so happened to the original home of God Made Me Phunky too? CHECK! Actually, we could of stopped at “Produced by Jovonn”, he really is the main man and pretty much everything that came out on Goldtone could be on this list. There are 3 other great tracks on this EP too and having been a £50+ record for years, the prices has fallen through the floor since it was re-released by Mojuba. So go get on discogs, because NYC.XTC rule #1 is NO REPRESSES…