Various - My Love Is Underground

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  • When it comes to collecting records, Jeremy Underground Paris goes the extra mile. By his early 20s he'd amassed almost every '90s house track worth having. Faced with the prospect of completing his collection, he tried to find unreleased music from the same period. He tracked down two great but long forgotten producers, one of whom had long since quit music to become a policeman, and convinced them to give him their dusty, decade-old tracks. Then he started a label and released the music himself. This level of obsession is not normal or even healthy, but it certainly gives him good credentials to make a house music compilation. Presented across three pieces of vinyl, My Love Is Underground brilliantly displays Jeremy's deep knowledge of his subject matter. The quality is seriously high throughout, yet there's not a recognizable name in sight. Take "Is This Dream For Real," a mega-rare cut from '87 by Project Democracy, an alias of Gitano Camero who engineered tracks for cult Chi-Town producer Marcus Mixx back in the day. Like so much of Marcus Mixx's music, this one is brilliantly gritty, jacking and completely timeless. Then there's Vissal's "Get Up On Your Feet," a UK garage roller that's so good it's hard to know how it slipped under the radar. "In From Behind (Boom Boom Ina Bedroom)" by Caucasian Boy, an alias of UK house pioneer Crispin J Glover, may have a slightly dodgy synth-sax riff, but it also has the kind of rawness and energy that never goes out of style. Aaron Ace's "Pressure" takes Jhelisa's "Friendly Pressure" and sends it into bumping, peak-time Kerri Chandler territory. "Eurodisney" by Natureboy, an early alias of DJ Nature, is a paragon of early-'90s New York deep house. Another highlight is University Of Love's "Vostok 3," a dreamy Italo house number that sits somewhere between Larry Heard and that perennially underrated Italian producer, Don Carlos. Really though, the whole of My Love Is Underground is great. If you're at all interested in playing old school house music on vinyl then this is an essential purchase, not least because so many of the records on here are prohibitively expensive to buy anywhere else. Which isn't to say the compilation is just a collection of $100 records—there's the odd track on here that you could find in the bargain bin. The beauty is that Jeremy Underground Paris has already gone through the hassle of sifting though all the mediocre crap on the racks and left you with the gold.
  • Tracklist
      01. Aaron Arce - Pressure 02. Bipo - Why? (Extended Vocal) 03. University Of Love feat. MBG - Vostok 3 (MBG Deep Trip) 04. DJ Trax - Deep Modern Jazz 05. Natureboy - Euro-Disney Pt. 1&2 06. Dose Of Paradise - Latin Dream 07. Project Democracy feat. China - Is This Dream For Real? (Psychedub) 08. Level 3 - Around The Way 09. Caucasian Boy – In From Behind (Boom Boom Ina Bedroom) 19. Manhattan Project - Saturday Luv 11. Vissal - Get Up On Your Feet 12. The Poets - Emotion
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