Dom Servini – Influences

Taken from the most excellent 1972 album The Blues and the Soulful Truth, this unlikely dance floor destroyer has one of the most haunting and dramatic introductions I’ve ever heard. As the groove takes hold it’s underpinned by Middle Eastern sounding instrumentation and Leon’s trademark yodeling. With its dark lyrical content and minor feel, it was the first tune that made me realise that not all music has to be uplifting and positive to make a serious dent in the dance.

Magical music from Talkin’ Loud’s 90s heyday. Gilles Peterson was my DJ icon in my early 20s and anything he released I duly snapped up. The YD’s album Road to Freedom is a classic, and this particular mix of this song is something of an epic arrangement. It’s almost classical in feel, and again brought a sense of drama and emotion to the dance floor.

Simply one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard. Havens is famous for Going Back to my Roots of course, but this sweet little tune, taken from the 1967 album Something Else Again shows the other side of this folky soul vocalist. It’s a tender jazz lullaby that a young Sean McAuliffe turned me on to in the mid-1990s and has stayed with me ever since.

Matthew Herbert is a national treasure. As a composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer he’s covered almost every genre imaginable. This record is the perfect combination of a classic piece of song writing and solid slice of production. The Audience got under my skin from the first listen. Its infectious hook, musicality and at the same time its urgent, twitchy electronic wizardry, helped me understand that house music can incorporate jazz and soul without having to have a noodling saxophone over 4/4 beats. It opened me up to that genre even more.

I’m a child of the 80s, but this song kind of passed me by at the time. I was more interested in the classic soul voices like Luther and Alexander O’Neal, but it was only a couple of decades later that I became aware of August Darnell (AKA Kid Creole) and the whole scene that surrounded him. Stool Pigeon is the perfect example of his eclectic mixture of disco, soul, tropicalia and a penchant for a ‘zoot suit’. It fits perfectly with all of the styles that I play today.

I have to include my favourite band of all time here. Fagen, Becker and co. can do no wrong for me, and the title track of what is for me the most beautifully made album of all time, had to be included. Geeky upstate New York white men making slick, soulful, jazz/rock influenced music may not always be seen as fashionable, but this tune sets the benchmark for me in how to write a song and how to produce a record.

Ahh the Golden Age of hip hop… Tribe had it all. Two amazing MCs, incredible production and expertly chosen samples which had me digging in the crates and discovering many, many significant records. One of those was Billy Brooks’ Forty Days, which is sampled here, but it’s not just the classic horn loop that makes this such a big record for me, it was Tribe’s ability to convey a serious message and deliver one devastating slice of hip hop with their tongue firmly in their cheek. It helped me understand that humour can be used in music without it being simply novelty.

Back to the 80s again, and one band that I’m not ashamed to say I was a fan of. Again, though, it’s only as my tastes have matured that I’ve come to realise how deep these New Romantic boys’ musical roots spread. Chant No.1 is simply a classic piece of disco, and Spandau Ballet were one of the only white U.K. bands to play on the seminal U.S. television show Soul Train. They may be seen now as something of a teeny bop band, but these boys had deep soul. Check the documentary Soul Boys of the Western World if you need any more convincing.

Little is known about this 70s soul/jazz singer, but this classy cut from her 1974 album Portrait of a Gemini is an underground favourite that really hit home to me in my formative years. Musically it’s another epic piece, moving as it does from a slow to mid-tempo funk groove into a fully formed dance floor delight. Lyrically, it really spoke to me about making the most of your youth and seizing the day – all done with a great deal of style of course.

Another down-tempo beauty, this time from one of the greatest voices of all time. Jonie’s music is seriously deep, and Hissing of the Summer Lawns is one of her most majestic albums. This, my favourite cut on the album, tells an unconventional love story and shows off Jonie’s voice at its finest. It’s been my aim since I started running Wah Wah 45s to put out music as beautiful as this – quite some challenge!