Nightclubbing re-introduces previously deleted iconic remixes

07 January 2016 - Press release

Nightclubbing re-introduces previously deleted iconic remixes from dance pioneers MK, Masters At Work, Todd Terry, Farley & Heller and the late Frankie Knuckles, amongst many more.
 
As contemporary club culture and electronic music continues to flourish, Universal Music UK’s Catalogue team have been hard at work re-discovering and digitising long-forgotten dance remixes from the 80s and 90s as part of their Nightclubbing marketing initiative.
 
Nightclubbing has been a labour of love for the A&R team who, with the help of AFEM (Association For Electronic Music), have spent over 18 months trawling the depths of the archives, looking for the mixes and remixes from seminal labels such as AM:PM, 4th & Broadway, Ten Records and more, that played a huge part in the formative days of dance music.
 
Many of the recovered tracks highlight the origins of the British dance music tradition which has had a lasting legacy on the nation’s cultural landscape. Among the rarest finds were two remixes by MK, of Nightcrawlers’ club classic Push the Feeling On. New York’s dance pioneer Todd Terry provides two remixes for London group Soul II Soul and their track Love Enuff, whilst also uncovered is a 1996 remix of English duo Bizarre Inc’s Keep The Music Strong from house icons Masters At Work.
 
Other rarities include Steve 'Silk' Hurley’s remixes of Crystal Waters’ Makin’ Happy, which topped the US Billboard Dance Chart back in 1991, and remixes of Montell Jordan’s This Is How We Do It from Todd Terry, which topped the same US chart four years later.
 
Much of the material was previously only available on limited run vinyl and out of reach for a new generation of fans. However, after some gentle restoration, over 200 tracks are now available on Apple Music, Spotify and Beatport, with over 100 more available in the coming months.
 
Terry Farley of Farley & Heller, house legends, DJs and remixers behind a whole host of the re-issued Nightclubbing tracks says, "I've heard a lot of younger DJs digging back into the crates of 90s vinyl of late: the sound quality and depth of the music is simply gorgeous! Thanks to this continuing release of stone-cold killers, you won't need to spend a month's salary on Discogs to get in on the act."
 
UMC A&R manager and lead archive digger for the project, Robin Jenkins says, “We're uncovering remixes from the original godfathers of the dancefloor, which sound just as fresh now as when they were originally played more than 20 years ago. Key areas of our catalogue were unavailable to a modern audience, so there were lots of missing reference points to the younger fan on why electronic music sounds the way it does today. It’s great that we can offer these to the next generations of DJs and clubbers.”
 
Ralph Moore and Matt Dixon, of the AFEM Preservation and Heritage Committee, add, "AFEM's Heritage committee are extremely proud to be working on the Nightclubbing project with Universal. This classic catalogue looks set to reach a whole new audience and with our help, the dance music community is going to shout loud and support some amazing music that's laid dormant since the late 80s and early 90s."
Head over to Spotify to check out the full list of the Nightclubbing re-issues (http://po.st/nightclubbingFULL) or check out UMC’s handpicked highlights (http://po.st/nightclubbing).