After a decade defined by legal battles and joint ventures, classic New York house label Strictly Rhythm are set to resume business as an independent label.
Originally founded in 1989 by Mark Finkelstein and Gladys Pizarro, Strictly Rhythm played a major role in defining the sound of house music throughout the ’90s. The label’s roster was both musically adventurous and commercially viable, with artists like Josh Wink and Satoshi Tomiie bumping elbows with the likes of Armin van Helden and Erick Morillo. In the early years of its existence, Strictly put out essential house records by DJ Pierre, Todd Terry and Kenny Dope, as well as gigantic commercial hits like Underground Solution’s Luv Dancin’ and Reel 2 Real’s I Like To Move It.
VIA Defected
Debate on the future of vinyl reached fever pitch at the end of last year when rumours started surfacing that Panasonic was due to discontinue the iconic Technics range of turntables. Low international sales were supposedly to blame, dance disciples switching to newly accessible (and acceptable) CD decks and live software set-ups. Subsequent Panasonic responses flatly denied this but nonetheless re-iterated a decline in the “analogue market.” As result clubland continued to question whether it was approaching the end of an era; that questioning is still going on now. Read the rest of this entry here.
“Chocolate Puma stormed into the charts in 2001 with the monumental house hit ‘I Wanna Be U’ and since then Gaston Steenkist and René ter Horst have topped the house charts many times over. Their latest track ‘Disco Electrique’ is currently sitting at No.5 in the Beatport Top 10, and you can bet their next house track will there too.
But what goes into making a hit house track? Is there a secret formula?
Beatportal decided to jump inside the brain of the Dutch duo and get their tips for writing a hit house track. Here are 10 basic tips that every aspiring house producer should know.” Check it out after the jump.
