For me, Aquarius Recordings was never just about the music, but rather a very clear aesthetic that went beyond just looking back to dance music’s roots in sound and style, but also in visual design. As you can see from the artwork pictured above (which is on the 3 records we explore later), Aquarius was looking to the past in imagery as well as layout and font, which were the same on every Aquarius record I have ever seen. The music on each Aquarius vinyl (and I can only speak for the ‘96-’99 heyday) follows the same themes as the artwork: simple, sample based and dripping with disco, soul, jazz or funk. Each track pays tribute to the narrative of American dance music, while still looking forward and pushing new boundaries in sound and technique that would lay an important piece of the foundations for the disco house explosion of the late 90’s.

Paul Jacobs – Untitled (A1) [DISCO 01 - Soul Grabber Pt. 1 - 1996]
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I just checked Paul Jacobs‘ Myspace page and the latest comment is from none other than former Roots&Future interviewee Hollis P Monroe, who shouts out Jacobs for his remix of Dreams In Digital killing it at Fabric back in 2001. I’ve never heard that remix, but I have heard enough from Jacobs to know how important he was to the disco house movement. Following in the footsteps of Chicago house artists like Gene Farris, Paul Johnson, Boo Williams and Glenn Underground, Jacobs’ Soul Grabber releases (of which this was the first) defined the harder edge of the disco house sound made so popular by Daft Punk and DJ Sneak. And while Sneak and the Frenchmen may have more staying power, from 1996-1999 Jacobs was as important as anyone in disco house.

George Thomson – Untitled (B1) [DISCO 09 - Goin' Home EP - 1997]
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Congratulations! You’ve just been let in on a secret Soul Clap dancefloor bomb. This looped out disco house monster is by George Thomson aka The Plastic Avengers of NRK fame and who also had a release on Crosstown Rebels in 2005 called Laid Back Snack Attack.

Back Door Revelations – Untitled (B1) [DISCO 13 - 1998]
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While I’m not quite sure about the name of this EP, it was the only release under that name by  Jason Hodges , Matt Dimaria , Shams Thirani, who were better known as Jinxx. While Thirani seems to have disapeered, Hodges and Dimaria are two of Toronto’s most prolific and longstanding house producers, with releases on a laundry list of top labels. This actually isn’t our favorite track on the EP, that would be the B2 cut, but we do have to keep some of our weapons secret

All Soul Clap. All new music this week! Lost a chunk of the tracklist but below you can find a chunk of what we played.

Tracklist
Leroy Soul – Untitled CDR
Dirt Crew – Soundwave (Quarion’s Drunken Wave Remix)
Okain – Low Stance
Jjak Hogan – Tuda Future
Flying Lotus – Robertaflack (Martyn’s Heart Beat Mix)
Caiel & Lagora – Breakdown (Sis Remix)
Ryan Crosson – Under The Willow
Klockworks – Grope
Murr – Sunday Morning
Andr̩s Zacco РLong Way
Seth Troxler – Aphrika

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Keep Your Resolutions Dance Party NYE 2009 from Robotkid on Vimeo.

To celebrate New Year’s Eve 2009, Boston’s annual First Night festival asked us, along with DJs Die Young & Morgan Louis and VJs Robotkid & M@tt Boch to rock an outdoor dance party from the steps of the Boston Public Library in historic Copley Square. After a morning blizzard and with wind chill temperatures well bellow 0º Fahrenheit we didn’t expect anyone to show up, but by 11pm the square filled up with mostly younger party animals, that braved the cold and kept the energy pumping til the city cut us off after the ball drop. Happy ‘09!

Déjà vu all over again as we once again return to the airwaves, this time from a holiday induced hiatus. This week we brought along our techno buddy, the wearer of cheap sunglasses, Crazy Larry. Fresh off a night of surprises at Midweek Techno, Larry dug into our record collection and found some nice deep selections for your lunchtime listening leisure.

Tracklist
Leroy Soul – Untitled
Seth Troxler – Aphrika
Dop – Blanche Neige
Cobblestone Jazz – India In Me (Mix 1)
Johnny White – Dominatrix (Jonny White’s Choke Mix)
Mikael Stav̦strand ft. K.atou РDie A Little (Bruno Pronsato Remix)
Ferrer & Karizma Ltd. – The Cube
Peter Van Hoesen – Casual Care (Samuli Kemppi Remix)
Ryan Crosson – I Love My Lonely
Osborne – Bout Ready To Jak (Ryan Elliott Remix)
Constar – Sunset Tribe

***Crazy Larry in tha mix!***
Mr. V – The Drum (Mr.V’s Alternate Mix)
Scooper & Bubba – I’m Satisfied (The Wax Power Dub)
Soulphiction – Bust Me feat. Frankie Welfare
MAW Electronic – MAW Electronic Danz
The Persuader – Morgon Dagg
Glenn Underground – Leav’en To-Day
Visions – Is This Real? feat. Magic Juan Atkins and Dianne Lynn (Submission Underground Mix)
Rob Mello – Fantasize (No Ears Dub)
Ferrer & Sydenham Inc – Double Penetration (Jerome’s Demo Dub 2)

***Soul Clap closes***
Rick Wade – Low Down
Lawnchair Generals – Sweet Nothing

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Happy New Year everybody! I don’t have much time to explain this mix because we’re heading up to the mountains for a week of shenanigans, but here’s the two sentence breakdown. The last night of our December tour we played at The Bunker, one of the longest running, most revered techno nights in New York City. We opened up for Mikael Stavöstrand to celebrate the forthcoming release of our next AirDrop single, which Mikael remixed. Here’s the live recording.

Episode 44: Soul Clap Live @ The Bunker NYC
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