Loleatta Holloway - Mama Don’t, Papa Won’t (1992)

Salsoul may have been an excellent disco label, but as soon as the genre’s incredible popularity died out, Salsoul suffered accordingly. The remix collections brought out in the early nineties were an obvious late attempt to milk the catalogue to the max (work subsequently continued by Suss'd), but luckily the material was rich - often with great orchestration and live percussion - and the choice of remixers was inspired. People like Masters At Work, Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, Clivilles & Cole and David Morales did exceptional work on tracks that they very obviously loved. Some mixes arguably outdid the originals.

Inexplicably named Tabasko for the UK market (it was 'Synergy' in the US), the remix album started off with Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley’s terrific mix of Loleatta Holloway’s “Mama Don’t, Papa Won’t”, a radically different take that nevertheless made great use of the original strings section and fit the song perfectly, giving it a whole new lease of life.

As well as being included on the compilation CDs, some tracks were released on CD-single, albeit in a rather roughshod manner; there was no front sleeve, artwork was uniformly terrible, tracklistings were often absent or didn’t reflect the actual contents of the CD…

Although I already had the Salsoul CD singles of some other tracks, I didn’t know that “MD,PW” had also been released as a single until I came across it on eBay. Apparently, despite these CDs being pretty hard to find when they were released, nobody else cares, as I was the only person to bid, and got the CD for next to nothing.

Anyway, the CD-single contained a Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley dub that I hadn’t heard before, and although it’s not radically different (as was often the case with his work), there were some sections that strayed from the vocal version, and I’d always wanted his mix to be longer, so… I decided to make my own version! The result gives the track more emphasis on the less vocal side and makes for a welcome surprise for anyone - like me - who knows it by heart now. I think of it as a slight extension, and the new splices sound natural, so I’m quite pleased with it. Have a listen below, and download it if you like…



I’d love to be able to direct you to a legal download site that allows you to get your hands on the Hurley remix and support the artist, but once again it’s unavailable on all the usual sites (unless you know otherwise). Sad.

It's also amusing to note that more time has now passed between the remix release and the present day than between the original disco release and the remix!

BONUS! I combined two of the MAW mixes of “Ten Percent” together to make an extra long mix too. Not rocket science, but I like the way it works. You can download that here.

Steve 'Silk' Hurley feat. Risse - Chain of Fools (1989)

Follow me, if you will, back in time, 21 years back. In 1989 Steve 'Silk' Hurley was only 27, (and just 25 years old at the time of "Jack Your Body"). His Wikipedia page calls him a one-hit wonder, which I think is hilarious, as he produced and remixed shitloads of great tracks over a couple of decades. Even if his busiest period (the nineties) is now behind him, I don't think he's going to get bored any day now.

In the late 80s, his "Work It Out" album for Atlantic was an early major label attempt to cash in on the Chicago house sound, and it spawned - or tried to spawn - a couple of singles, notably Chain of Fools with vocalist Charisse Cobb (credited as Risse). However, it would seem that the track didn't really catch on, despite the fact that it very much resembled Hurley's astonishing remix of Roberta Flack, perhaps the finest he's ever done.

12"s of Chain of Fools aren't particularly hard to find, but CDs of it are (it wasn't on Discogs, which is always a good sign, and doesn't seem to have been on any CD compilations). I managed to stumble upon a promo CD almost by accident on eBay, and it wasn't very expensive. As the back cover shows, Hurley produced, arranged, mixed and edited the track. He probably also taught Risse to sing, built the studio and invented the polio vaccine. I suppose that in those days, if you didn't big yourself up, nobody else would.

It's a shame that the CD doesn't contain the House Of Trix mix and Extended mix that are on the 12", but hopefully some people will be pleased to have the track in CD quality at last. You can listen and download below. Enjoy!



P.S. I did send a message to Mr. Hurley via Twitter to ask if he had any more info on Risse (can't find anything on the web). I'll add it if he gets back to me.

Bonus! Chain of Fools acapella (here), found on the scientician weblog, de-clicked and boosted.

The Pointer Sister - Insanity (1990)

I've had a bit of eBay spree recently. It means taking time to trawl through things (many of which are deeply disinteresting), but there are still some finds to be had, like this one: a promo CD with Steve 'Silk' Hurley mixes of a song by The Pointer Sisters.

I had a hard time believing it was real to start off with. It wasn't on Discogs. It hadn't been posted anywhere on the web that I could find. A genuine find perhaps? You'd have thought that by now every single CD ever made would be available somewhere on the web, but that's not true. There are still quite a few things that are genuinely difficult to get your hands on.

As a diligent music lover (and sharer, for the better good of mankind), I decided to create an entry for it on Discogs, which turned out to be not as difficult as I had thought, even if you do need to concentrate. You can consult it here.

So what's the story behind this release? Well, in 1990 The Pointer Sisters' massive 80s hits were behind them, and they had become more or less old news. Signed to Motown, "Right Rhythm" the album from which Insanity is taken seems to have been their last. Getting Steve 'Silk' Hurley to remix the track was undoubtedly a good idea, but it couldn't save the song from disappearing into oblivion. Nonetheless, his versions were pretty damn good, perhaps even very good! Have a listen to the club mix. Pretty catchy, and surprisingly fresh, considering that it's twenty years old. Insanity indeed...



As it's rare, I thought you might like to download a copy of the CD. I've left off the album and single versions and just left the Hurley remixes, all in 256kbps AAC (indistinguishable from CD quality). You can get them here (41MB).

The Pointer Sisters are still going by the way. They look mightily facelifted and/or photoshopped on their official site, which is fair enough: Bonnie Pointer is 60 now, Anita Pointer is 62 and Ruth Pointer is 64. Good for them.

Body 2 Body - Let's Get Intimate (1992)Not one but two Fist fusions!

First heard this on the wonderful Nineties Club CD Maxi Singles blog in late 2008 and immediately thought it was brilliant. With two of my favourite singers from ID Productions (Chantay Savage and Donnel Rush) and some excellent mixes from Steve 'Silk' Hurely and E-Smoove, I actually sang it practically non-stop for a week.

I'd seen on Discogs that there had been even more mixes available at the time, but eventually forgot about it. And yet, it kept popping back up on my iPod, and eventually I went back to the original post, saw that the CD-single was originally from Germany and had a look on amazon.de. There it was, still available, with more mixes, for just under 2€! Definitely a bargain. I bought it immediately.

When it arrived I listened to the extra mixes by Jamie Principle. First I though they were strange, then given a little time to let them sink in I thought they were actually quite brilliant. I was inspired to do some mucking about with my new find...

First, I mixed the Hurley and E-Smoove mixes together, trimming both of them down a bit; the Hurley mix is a little too long in my opinion, repeats itself a bit, and the E-Smoove mix had a few bars of nasty keyboards that I eliminated. The two mixes are very different and hide the fact that you are basically listening to the same song twice.

Then I also took the two Jamie Principle mixes, one of which was basically a bonus beats, and stuck them together to make a decent-length extended version. It is filthy, in a good way. I imagine this is what people danced to in opium dens in 1992.

Click here to download my two Fist Fusions of
"Let's Get Intimate" by Body 2 Body.

Hope you like them.