This is the third time I've tried to forward this to the list... keep missing naughty words that need editing...
ARTIST: BOBBY KONDERS FEAT. MASSIVE SOUNDS TITLE: A LOST ERA IN NYC '87 - '92 LABEL: INTERNATIONAL DJ GIGOLOS FORMAT: CD / 3 X 12" CAT NO: CD 27593-2 RELEASE DATE: 8 JULY 2002 "Deep, deep house. I ain´t gonna deal with no other business!" (Bobby Konders ´92) The beginning of that lost era in New York, which is the issue of this Gigolo compilation, is marked by the end of maybe the most important and the most legendary club of all times: Manhattan's "Paradise Garage". The place where disco got turned into a religion named "Garage House" by DJ Larry Levan, "The Father", lived and breathed by his faithful disciples in their dedication to worship at the altar. In 1987, the Garage closed its gate forever. The Garage sound and its believers had to go deeper, way deep. Down there, deep house started to materialise. The househeadz only started to resurface, at least into the twilight, when "The Shelter" opened, the downtown deep house institution where DJ Timmy Regisford carried the torch. In its holy halls, DJs like Francois Kervorkian and Danny Krivit still celebrate the spirit in a pure fashion. But for five long years, deep house was homeless. Homeless, but not gone. In the underground, offside from big clubs, in tiny holes and secret locations, that were only known to the initiated, the contemplative sound found a temporary refuge, on nowadays mythical parties. The most important of them all was called Wild Pitch. Here, the hard core of the first deep house DJs played. Names that still get whispered respectfully today and who were dropped happily on the Basil-Hardhaus-Classic "Hard For The DJ": Viktor Rosado, David Camacho, Kenny Carpenter, Nicky Jones, John Robinson. DJ Pierre, who had just moved from Chicago to New Jersey, sometimes played there and even dedicated a whole track principle to those legendary sessions: the Wild Pitch Mix. One DJ, however, epitomises more than any other the massive sounds and the unique spirit of the Wild Pitch parties: Brooklyn's Bobby Konders. In his spectacular mix, he threw in everything from reggae, hiphop, house to disco. He aimed directly at the common factor, the true soul of those blood-related styles. At Konders Wild-Pitch-sessions everything was possible, as long as the bass moved in deep enough, the beat was ruff and rugged and the vibes soothed the tortured souls of the headz. Philly-born Konders was actually quite a weird character in the context of early house. His father Polish, his mother American-Indian, as rumour has it, the bearded and bespectacled Konders with the braided long hair didn´t really fit in the regular image of the Afro-American and Carribean community, where he found his home and his daily bread. This wise DJ took the best and deepest from the diverse black musics that floated and circulated in the air of his neighborhood, just as he needed it for his specific mission. Yes indeed: da rydim. Konders house music always was extremely rooted, cultured and conscious. It used the semantics of reggae in more than just a musical way. This attitude made him revolutionary. It´s no wonder, that after his farewell from house by ´93, he almost exclusively focused on ragga, hiphop and low-end jeep beatz, and instead of 12" records, on his label Massive B he now only released 45 singles and compilations. "Dis Poem" originally is a spoken word track on a regular Muta Baruka album is possibly Konders best known track. In the intro, the lonely, charismatic voice of Jamaican dub poet Muta Baruka talks about "riots in Brixton", of "first world, second world, third world division, man-made decisions", about the "struggle against apartheid, racism, facism, the KuKlux Klan", about Marcus Garvey and Haile Sellasie, about "time unlimited, time undefined". He ends with the announcement that this poem is going to disappoint you, because: "This poem is to be continued in your mind." At this point, the keyboard pads and the bassline have swollen up to the maximum, the contemplative vibe hangs thick inside the room. And with a few crashing cymbal hits the deep pulse of Konders house rydim finally sets in, for a long, nice deep house ride inside the pitch-black club, while outside the sun is up again. But in this obscure era, that this Gigolo compilation thankfully picks up on, he enjoyed massive respect within the house community of New York. House, which until then was mainly known as gay club music, as an extension of disco with different means and less instruments, he opened up for the homeboys, the ruffnecks, the headz. Konders defined house as rebel music, as ghetto music, as healing music of the marginalized. On the other hand, he made the homeboys mellow, brought them on his universal, brotherly vibe, unfazed by colours, creeds and sexual preferences, according to his credo: "We all bleed mother f**kin red." >From there Konders just took it live, as a DJ would be playing an accapella intro, before bringing in the beat. Konders practically invented a school of intros, many times starting instrumental tracks with Reggae-MC-sloganeering. Sometimes you can even hear him pushing the stop button on the studio turntable, to make the transition from the intro to the sequencer program. Classic and classy rude boy attitude. The Jamaican toasters liked it so much, that they not only allowed it, but more and more grabbed the mike exclusively for him. But also in other styles he roamed and mixed, to throw them into his melting pot of all ´tings conscious. Though strictly dedicated to the deep, the raw, and the soulfully nice, he produced one of the most slamming acid tunes of all times: "Nervous Acid". Allegedly only "to have done it." Nevertheless 'Nervous Acid' gets rocked massively up to this date, by DJs who sure know what time it is. Until the invention of his own Massive B imprint, his productions went under his street name "Massive Sounds" and were released by Frank and Karen Mendez on "Nu Groove". A label, where the term "open minded" really used to mean something. Apart from Konders deep reggae/house crossbreedings, future techno stars like Joey Beltram, Tommy Musto or Lenny Dee appeared, as well as Paradise-Garage-regulars like the Burrell brothers or nowadays well-established big producers like Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez or the early Basement Boys (as 33 1/3 Queen), as well as a host of forgotten talents like How & Little, Ricky Crespo, Richard LaMotte, Eddie Satin or Bryant Von White, to mention but a few. On "Nu Groove", the whole classic, nice Konders s**t appeared, long deleted material, that gets assembled almost completely on this massive compilation, remastered and ready to be discovered by a new generation of headz. But its not about another retro phenomena. Filtered disco, the house sound, which started its triumph almost directly after this specific era, took its charm exclusively out of the sampling and looping of passed atmospheres, hooks and grooves. With Konders house music, everything was direct, original and authentic. With the support of fellows like Boyd Jarvis, Peter Daou or Joe Moskowitz, he produced brand-new music in the spirit of the hour and of himself. At the beginning of the nineties when house music became ever more popular on a global scale, they even tried to market Konders ruff attitude on a major-label-level. But this scruffy character of the streets of Brooklyn proved to hard to cross over to an audience that was not down with his vibe one hundred percent. House was too close for him to just sell out. Instead, Konders turned more and more to reggae, and business wise, with Massive B, he only did his thing his way. After some more deep house records with Nicky Jones and Robert Owens, he went completely into reggae and makes his living from that until this day good and righteous. His reggae show is still on air on NY Hot 97.7, he travels the world with his sound system, but rarely do any of the dancehall fans know, that this great selector was responsible for some of deep house musics most inspired and inspirational moments. Elsewhere the plastic guts of the 80s are still being exploited whilst the International Gigolos dig in places most people never knew ever existed. And that is, as Konders would maybe put it, some mother f**kin nice s**t. Big up! Hell, yeah! Hans Nieswandt, April 2002 TRACKLISTING: CD: 1. The Poem feat. Mutabaruka, 2. Nervous Acid, 3. Jus' Friends feat. Robert Owens, 4. Expressions Flute Mix, 5. Blak and Whit, 6. Rydims Nice & Slow, 7.The Future, 8. Let there be House, 9. Massai Woman, 10. Rydims Mello, 11. Slackness of Sax. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
