- "Keep on jumping / Let your body fly / Everybody pumping / Til you see the sun in the sky!" Of every colossal vocal that lit up the My Love Is Underground Exposé at Prince Charles last month, this one spoke best for the night. The sample is from 1970s disco hit "Keep On Jumpin," and in the '90s, its fierce female vocals found their way into more than one explosive house track.
This was the obvious selling point of the party: the Parisian label's heartfelt '90s throwbacks send dance floors into rapture. By the time I arrived around 2:30 AM, the energy inside was already near the boiling point. Coat check was full. A second could be found behind the DJ booth, the girl told me, so I snaked through a tight, throbbing dance floor. The walls felt worn and the lights simple—ceiling bulbs blinked with the same orange glow as the lit cigarettes below. Beneath the disco ball, a young crowd wore record label shirts, snapbacks and festival wristbands from summers' past.
Nearly every time the kick drum dropped in, there was an unruly eruption of hollers and whistles. Someone else's hair even whipped me in the face. Jeremy Underground and Brawther were playing back to back, churning out a raunchy blend of sky-high piano chords, slippery shuffles and swelling diva cries. This high-octane energy gave rise to some killer dance floor moments, like when Tronco Traxx's "Walk For Me" got bold and sassy, or when DJ Deeon's "The Freaks" put a vulgar verse in the ear and fire under the ass. But, as fun as it was, after a while the build-drop formula wore thin. It was never a surprise where we ended up.
Around 6 AM, the music relaxed a bit. Weary members of the crowd rested on a thick ledge bordering the bar. On a bench on the dance floor, one guy was eating a crêpe, while, a little further along, another lay slumped, completely passed out. With the atmosphere rapidly dwindling, I decided to take my leave. Jeremy Underground and Brawther had spun a raucous set, even if it grew a little routine by the end. If there were tables in there, they would have been danced all over.