ON THE ONDA SONORA HEAVY ROTATION LIST

Omar - Saturday - RCA. Can’t think of a better song today. Because “Saturday, what do you do?” sung by Omar is a near perfect question. He’s coming to OUR PARTY to do a live PA. Other special guest is Michael Rütten, one of our teachers. All the right ingredients for what promises to be a memorable party. See you at Bronks on Saturday.

Patrice Rushen - Music Of The Earth - Elektra. Just because we can’t wait for Southport Weekender next weekend. Patrice Rushen, one of our absolute favourite artists in our collection, is going to perform there and there are no words to express how excited we’re about that. This cut is just one of the many gems out of her rich her repertoire.

Arbeid Adelt! - Ik Sta Scherp - Parlophone. Had been looking for Arbeid Adelt!’s “Jonge Helden” album for a while and finally found it this weekend. Could have done the lazy thing but ordering it over Discogs simply doesn’t give you the same pleasure has finding it in a small shop in your hometown. On constant repeat ever since while inventing crazy dance to match the wild rhythms and nonsensical lyrics.

Capracara - House Of Dolls - Unkown To The Unknown. Really like what this producer is doing. Continually decent House music that sounds fresh to my ears. Check him out.

No music video this time but Fact TV report with Mr Beatnick about cratedigging. Had the honour to be guided by Nick on a personal record store tour through London not so long ago. That particular spot where this video is recorded was among the places he showed me. Had a really nice afternoon back then and did some really nice finds. My preferred way of discovering a city. Something we do a lot together with Onda Sonora and close friends. Big up to my Onda Sonora partner Yoeri today who celebrates his birthday today. Finally on tram 3 like we say over here. Haha.  

Don Armando - I’m An Indian, Too - ZE Records. Been nearly obsessed by this song lately. I’m a big fan of all things August Darnell related and this one is my current favourite. Like most of his work it combines a catchy, even poppy, feel with more out there grooves, lyrics, inspirations and themes. This is an original Irving Berlin song written for the 1946 Broadway musical ‘Annie Get Your Gun’. To hear how that sounded back then, check this. The ‘Indian” rhythm of the lyrics combined with the devastating Disco groove of the Don Armando version makes me fall in love with it every time it gets played.

Actress - Holy Water - Honest Jons. Been a few days since we posted something. The good life outside of this virtual one. Well, good and busy life to be more precise. Anyway, time to let you know Actress’ new album is out. Again it’s different than most and fantastic. If you ever wonder what is meant by textures in music, this might be a good point to start your discovery. Subtle genius. The opening track of our 22tracks selection too, by the way. More niceness on there.

Omar & Zed Bias - Dancing - Tru Thoughts. Always a winning combination. This particular tune, released last year, is a pure summer track. Makes me long for Notting hill Carnival every time I hear it. And now for OUR PARTY too, haha. 2 weeks to go before Omar will perform in Brussels.

Rob – Make It Fast Make It Slow – Soundway. Jazz Neversleeps and Alex Deforce made me discover this artist when they played his ‘Funky Rob Way’ a while ago. Not that well-versed in African Funk but this one sounded fantastic. Much in contradiction to my own way of life I just bought the reissued album and thought that was it. Didn’t dig any deeper. Which was a shame. Because he’s also responsible for this killer cut sampled by many producers (J Dilla and Mrogan Zarate just to name two). So incredibly funky it hurts. Thanks to the lovely people at Soundway ,who reissued another album of his with this one on it, I now will be able to play this track in all my sets. Don’t care if it’s 40bpm slower than most of my it. Haha.

Traxman - Rock You - Planet Mu. Love the Traxman album. Love Juke. Love the roughness of it. Love the fact they don’t seem to care too much about what’s considered a good idea or not. Much of the samples are played out or they’re remaking songs you should stay far away from. Usually it ends in disaster but when it’s good, it’s genius. Like this take on Armando’s ‘We’re Rocking Down The House’.

A Chicago Trax classic like there aren’t many. The Traxman version smooths out the rough edges of the original with for the Juke genre uncharacteristic warm synths, complexity and structure. And it works perfectly. There’s more of this on the album. Check it out.

Another version of this track I really like is the James Pants’ one. With his wife on vocals. Even more lofi than the original if possible.