The track we always play to rescue a dancefloor
Morris Day & the Time: Jungle Love
If you love Prince and you love the funk, you gotta love Morris Day & the Time. They have such an incredible sound; so tight and larger than life. Jungle Love might be their most famous song but there are really so many to choose from.
The track we wish we’d signed to our label
A Band Called Flash: Sliph
This band was created by Chicago deep house maestro Ron Trent. It’s some of the best music from last winter: funked-up disco that works on the dancefloor; we cry a little every time we play it.
The track that’s been unfairly slept on this year
PillowTalk: Booty Rang
This is an absolute heater from our Crew Love fam. Booty house meets R&B in the way only PillowTalk can do. Not sure how this wasn’t a summer dancefloor anthem.
The track we’d play to show off our eclectic tastes
Shy FX: Original Nuttah
Boston had a vibrant drum’n’bass scene in the early 2000s. There was a night called The Rinse on Wednesdays that got 300 people out every week for big UK DJs, and Elements on Thursdays is still going 15 years on.
The track that got me out of bed this morning
Mick Jenkins: Communicate
After a decade of wackness, hip-hop has finally made a comeback – there’s a whole generation of new, exciting MCs like Chance The Rapper, Anderson Paak and Joey Bada$$ who are doing new and creative things. I just found Mick Jenkins when he dropped his The Healing Component album. This jam is produced by Kaytranada.
The track we wish we’d never played
Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz: Get Low
Still a little embarrassed we had to play Lil Jon at a bar mitzvah however many years ago. The kids were begging for it… “To The WINDOW, To the WALL!, Till the…” I mean you know the rest…These were 13-year-olds for Pete’s sake!
The track that should have been a crossover hit
Baby Prince: I Wanna Squeeze You
In an alternate reality this was the biggest hit of 2011. Gadi from Wolf + Lamb AKA Baby Prince wrote this at the end of our DJ Kicks tour when we were all feeling so inspired and excited about music. It’s still one of the best songs from our Crew Love collective, but even die hard fans don’t know it.
The track we’d play at an auntie’s wedding
The O’Jays: Love Train
While Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al gets people crazy, this jam is a deeper cut that has such an amazing message.
The track we’d play at sunset in Ibiza
Mark Barrott: Cirrus & Cumulus
There are so many amazing Balearic songs we could mention here, but this is a brand new beautiful one. It’s off of the second instalment in Barrott’s Sketches From An Island series, which deserves all the attention in the world.
The track we’d play at our funeral
Armand Van Helden: Flowerz
This epic vocal bomb with the Donald Byrd sample still sets every dance floor on fire. And, hey, if it’s a funeral, then there’s got to be flowerzzzz.
Soul Clap play Village Underground, EC2, 9 October
