Friday 20 March 2009

Dance masters, gone... but not forgotten

Dance acts, inherently, are one hit wonders. A club favourite becomes a chart hit and that's yer lot. Some, like Leftfield, Orbital, Faithless, The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy said "Bugger that", became a bona fide act on the back of albums and gone stratospheric; guaranteeing their place in the dance pantheon as masters of the genre. But what about the acts who also delivered so much but had their place so cruelly snatched away by the ravages of time. Bizarre Inc., Chicane and Underworld will just about scrape in, but here are three others, gone... but not forgotten.

FLUKE
Their Slid single provided Sasha with his trans-global sound and pushed dance music down a more sophisticated route. But far from being confined to sunnier climes like Ibiza or Goa, Fluke sounded just as fantastic in a shithole in Rochdale. This is another single from the consistently brilliant Six Wheels on My Wagon which at 15 years old sounds surprisingly spritely. The chart hits came later courtesy of Lara Croft, by which time the slinkiness had gone in favour of industrial drill music.

Groovy Feeling (Make Mine a 99) - Fluke (zShare)



SUNSCREEM
This Essex band were a favourite of Mixmag who came through raves and clubs and became a chart act who never quite stuck. The tracks were hits on every level and very radio-friendly, but despite singer Lucia Holm's 90s hippy looks, the band had no image. Great logo though.

Perfect Motion (Boys Own Remix) - Sunscreem
(zShare)



SPOOKY
Gargantuan was another 1993 classic dance album in the same vein as Fluke's Six Wheels: sophisticated, gorgeous and clever. Spooky had loads of tracks from this album played in the clubs, so much so, they all sounded like singles. Something Leftfield very obviously picked up on later and had a lot more success with.

Land of Oz - Spooky
(zShare)

5 comments:

Myfizzypop said...

oh god how tragic am i. i haven't heard of any of them. i thought i had, but then i realised i was getting sunscreem confused with baz luhrman's sunscreen.

Phil said...

Have a look at your Debbie Gibson records. I bet she had a sunscreem mix on one of 'em!

Adem With An E said...

Sunscreem! "Love U More" still brings a smile to my face.

Adem With An E said...

Or was it "Luv U More"? I can never remember.

Phil said...

'twas Love U More

Pressure was also a fab track...