Wednesday 30 December 2009

00Deep - A Review Of The Decade - 2004

Canadian deep house legend, Nick Holder, has been a regular on NRK since the very first releases, and 2004 was definately his "coming of age" on NRK Music. The previous year had seen his third album for NRK, "The Other Side" get a release, but it was in '04 that the killer spoken word/anti-DJ mantra, "No More Dating DJs" became of of Nick's most memorable tracks. More of a sultry R'n'B track that a deep house tune, "Dating Djs" featured the vocal of Gemini, and went on to show up in places we least expected. Radio 1's Trevor Nelson championed the track from out of nowhere, playing it on his hugely popular radio show for weeks, with Giles Peterson to follow suit. Remixes were swiftly organised from Mood II Swing's John Ciafone (for the house heads), Yam Who, and US hip-hop legend Pete Rock. "Dating DJs" went on to become a hugely popular track that year, and other remixes of Nick's album tracks came from the likes of Solid Groove, Harmonic 33, A Man Called Adam and Freaks, resulting in the remix album "The Other Mixes".



Dick "Magik" Johnson also followed up an album from the previous year ("Cardboard Journey") with singles "Follow The Groove" (also remixed by that man Solid Groove) and the "Kingsland Dubs 2" EP.



Miguel Migs also featured heavily on NRK in '04, releasing the smooth deep house "City Sounds" trilogy of EPs, and also compiled and mixed the last ever nite:life compilation (more of that in a bit).



Meanwhile David Alvarado produced a stunning mini album of deep, hypnotic, electronic tracks, heavy on the Basic Channel influence but also pre-dating the "minimal" explosion by a year or two. The "Transfiguration EP" was an underground gem.



NRK also collaborated with London party collective, Faith, and produced a mix CD and "fanzine booklet", taking things away for the same ole "mix CD" format and offering a reading companion to the Dj mix ably created by Terry Farley and Stuart Patterson.

2004 was also the year that we decided to put closure on the nite:life mix CD series. It was felt that we had taken it as far as we could, and wanted to end the series on a high, but not without another three stunning entries to the series from Tom Stephan (nite:life 018), Rulers Of the Deep (nite:life 019) and that man Miguel Migs (nite:life 020).

Meanwhile, Honchos Music continued to release the finest tracky/acid/tribal moments, with releases from D'Julz, Jamie Anderson, Dano, Noel Nanton, and the debut album from Bristol based sci-fi tech house bod A J Scent. His "B Good" album was perhaps a little ahead of its time, with heavy electro and synth based ideas, a sound that would come to prominence later in the decade.

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