Right down Broadway to where asphalt still turns to old cobblestones at various points; shiny when dampened by the rain, and reminiscent of old New Amsterdam, we find the warehouse of legendary King Street Sounds and through its doors many a DJ has passed including yours truly, way back when the box of vinyl I left there with probably weighed half my own body weight! All the fun and simpler times of yester year flood to the foreground when listening to an anthology like “15 Years Of Paradise – 15 DJs recap 15 Years” [KCD265] which has come about as one way to commemorate their anniversary this month.
When it comes to House music, King Street is the stuff of label legends. This CD is succinct with the evolving universe that they are celebrating as their legend grows with the release of several other King Street compilations concurrent with this one. Oh please, you will get excited and listen often!! Herein we hype fifteen home run songs that you DJs can intertwine into your current sets, and the layman/lady can use as directed on the homeland for personal parties.
Kings Street seems to have been around much longer; I mean, I associate them with David Mancuso’s original 99 Prince Street Record Pool as well as The Garage!
The more you listen to this double-disc album, the more you feel the cause and the party. I especially dig disc number two if I had to choose, its DJ choices are a little more silky- stylish of the two, but disc one is still mucho fun. And the concept is a simple equation: I bet Hisa Ishioka & company decided to invite a cross-section of classic DJs to choose classic cuts to include herein. Cats like Louis Vega, my man David Morales, Simon Dunmore, Tony Humphries, DJ Gregory, Quentin Harris and others I’ve commented on since I’ve been writing these critiques. They in-turn cause us to re-hear, sometimes for the first time from vinyl to CD bonafide floor-fillers like “Brighter Days” with Big Moses and the almost churchy and soulful vocals of Kenny Bobien, (who I first met at the DJ Expo 2000 in Atlantic City) and which I’ve had success blending with A Taste of Honey’s 1978 hit “Boogie Oogie, Oogie”; “One Desire” with Barbara Tucker (also on “Most Precious Love”) & Tuccillo, the NYC house staple and former radio sureshot; the classy “Cascades Of Colour”by Amanda Project featuring Gaelle Addison, , “Party Girl” from the ultimate Ultra Nate`, “Most Precious Love”, and of course Urban Soul’s anthem “Show Me” and the sensuous “Sex On My Mind”, and of course several more surprises. The result is that all of our ears happily benefit!
Whether it’s working with some hot and new potential house talent, or abstracting on the cusp of aggressively reworking the masters like our old amigo of 98.7 KISS FM days, Tony Humphries, this New York City label imprint has built a solid fan base (and some who don’t even know that they are fans) upon the strength and merits of their quality productions and those damp early morning cobbled-stoned streets we used to come out of the clubs upon after partaking in nite-grooves, in the early just-before-dawn hours.
The more I listen the more I feel the Greenwich Village, vibe of places like the Soho Strawberry, Raspberry Freeze, or even The Tunnel on certain nights; some of which may have been actually predecessors of the music on these CDs.
Check out disc two, track six, and “Find A Way to Believe”; my kind of ‘inspirational’ music, chosen for this compilation by Tony Humphries whose mixes on big ten-inch reels I used to rack back in ’83 on 98.7 Kiss FM radio, “mastermix”- style! With Each play you’ll possibly reminisce another favorite song, and the inside of the front cover insert makes a nice wall poster! It is amazing that they could constrict a list of this ilk to only fifteen!
I wish I could have been there at the big birthday party at Cielo on October 10 back in my hometown; there are sure to be some familiar vibes and faces there amongst the five fired-up stars we rate.
