8 Tracks – Toby Tobias

The early eighties, when I was breaking (n.b. at the ripe old age of 11), was the time when music became a strong driving force in my life – I bought the Paul Hardcastle album Zero One – Universal Funk because it had a great piece of graffiti on the front but also it was the soundtrack to me learning to break-dance, pop and generally discover early dance music culture. I usually include Cybotron Clear in this section, but I’ll choose this one today

I have such amazing memories of listening to this album again and again when it came out – so many songs that really appealed to my teenage self, kind of imperfect electronics that were so uplifting, hit the spot. I included this Shep Pettibone remix because this was the first time heard a “remix” and understood what it was.

Next came the “rave” period for want of a better word, and there are so many tunes from this period that trigger the nostalgia button in my brain, a lot of them I still play today – LFO, Energy Flash, French Kiss, Fantasy UFO, We are IE… But I thought I’d include this personal favourite, its by Steve Bicknell who runs Lost the Long Running Underground Techno night – and was a massive call to the dance floor when you hear those horns, and this is a great example of a breakbeat track that is still totally relevant today.

Although this is a fairly obvious choice, I had to include it as I remember it as probably the most exciting musical discovery/event. Being 16 had a lot to do with it. When I was just discovering acid house, baggy clothes and all that goes with it, and there was this that seems to go hand in hand with the rave culture. I distinctly remember the mad buzz that surrounded the news of this new band that everyone wanted to hear – I wasn’t really into that much guitar music, but they just hit the nail on the head with their psychedelic vibe, and Fools Gold focused on the deeper groove based fans, like me.

I blame Colin Dale or Favor for this one, i recorded their radio shows religiously in the early 90’s and this is one of the tunes that has consistently bugged me as to its identity. It was only when Shazam recently acquired the Beatport back catalogue that I could find its name and finally buy it Then it got re-issued!

Its Larry Heard in his deeper techno guise and it just defines the phrase machine funk to me.

This tune is the only tune I discovered in my sleep…! I was fast asleep but had the radio on, back when Jazz FM was decent and this came on. For a while I was dreaming some blissful dream, then I woke up and listened. I just couldn’t believe what i was hearing, it was so unique at the time – the 2 step beat but with added congas that gave it a kind of afro feel, then the sub bass that brought it deeply underground, the horns that provided the catchy hook and finally Peven Evereretts emotional vocals making this a legendary moment in house music.

In the mid 90’s I started to discover disco music a lot deeper, as I began to realise there was a whole new world of music that I wanted to know more about.
I went to college in Croydon during this time and I would frequent Beano’s, Swag and Big Apple record shops , but Beanos was the second hand one and it had so much Disco at around 50p per record that i would just buy massive chunks randomly – and take them home to listen to. I got some real beauties like Kleeer – Keep Your Body Working & Lalo Schiffrin – No One Home. Just lots of disco and boogie really – but the one that stood out a mile was Voice of Q. The instrumental version is extremely catchy but has so much funk in a really spacey format that it works well on a club system. Its pretty much never left my bag.

Pure and simply, if you have ever heard me DJ you will probably hear me play this. It touches on everything that I love in house music. Juno baselines and squelches, Depeche Mode like strings and a hypnotic baseline. File this along with Dopplereffekt – Infophysix as inspirational timeless melodic Chicago or Detroit dance music