DEL
DEL lives in the city of brotherly love & SOUL, philaDELphia, where he listens to, dances to, makes & spins music! With a vast library of classic vinyl, he has created edits, remixes, original productions and the "A DEL Mix" series.
That night in 1977 when I heard Walter Gibbons at The Second Story in Philly allowed me a peek into the foundation of a DJ and remixer that would produce epic, unique and historic music.
DEL combs though his collection to pick the 17 most essential tracks remixed by the late, legendary disco icon, Walter Gibbons.
Ray "Mr. Voodoo Ray" Ultarte was a bigger than life figure in the New York club, dance, & culture scene for decades.
From street funk to raucous disco, R&B and even the seeds of hip hop: the 12 essential Fatback tracks.
Can a band release 35 albums and still be "unsung"? In the case of Fatback, the answer is most certainly "Yes!"
And how can we fix it?
12 essential tracks from VOYAGE, four French Eurodisco heroes that ruled the discotheque.
Music has always been a journey. The journey to our modern dance music had many foundations that have been shared in this column. Soul, funk, R&B, jazz, and rock all have played a key role as singers, songwriters, producers...
DEL compiles a selection of dancefloor "beauties" and dancefloor "beasts" from the illustrious career of Frankie Knuckles for his Foundations series. These are the beasts!
Related: Foundations' Reflections on Frankie Knuckles.
Related: Frankie Knuckles' Dancefloor Beauties.
Frankie Knuckles Dancefloor Beasts
The Pressure (Frankie...
Rotary mixers! They always have and always will elicit something... and it's usually a very visceral response. So, a little over a year ago when Rane (the noted and established mixer company) hit the National Association of Music...
DEL compiles a selection of dancefloor "beauties" and dancefloor "beasts" from the illustrious career of Frankie Knuckles for his Foundations series. Part one: The Beauties. The Beasts will follow next week.
Related: Foundations' Reflections on Frankie Knuckles.
Related: Frankie Knuckles' Dancefloor...
Dick Dickler: The Drive
A freebee: the opening "phone conversation" from this incredible song is the answer to the question so many of you that have asked: "What WAS that sexy accapella you played?" While I primarily play that portion...
Kerri Chandler: BarAThym (Foremost Poets Vocal Edit)
I'm a softie for a cowbell. Shit, I'm a softie for percussion! While I'm at it, I love builds in a song... you know that moment when you're at a peak but then...
For experienced and savvy producers, sometimes a chord, vocal sample, full acapella or an incomplete project can be blessed with new life and then a hit is "birthed." Thus is the case with the new jawn (Philly colloquialism...
Symbolically and appropriately, 5 Magazine, a Chicago publication (in origin and spirit), was and is intricately tied to Frankie Knuckles.
Without pause, Frankie Knuckles not only lived the "roots of modern dance" - he personified the FOUNDATIONS of our dance...
Editor's Note: Originally published in October 2012, we pulled this out of the archives in honor of the late Maurice White. RIP.
They produced the first album I ever bought (Cameo's "Rigor Mortis" was my first 12"). I saw them...
Straight out of South Central Los Angeles, WAR fused genres and delivered pointed messages about race, poverty and conflict over an uplifting groove.
DEL selects 14 essentially tracks from WAR's storied career for the Essential WAR Playlist.
Read the Foundations profile...
Conflict is loved by few, disliked by most, and needed at times. Musically, conflict can be defined as a fusion of genres, a cacophony of sounds, key or tempo changes, and even actual conflict in the lyrical message.
As we...
My Foundations column in 5 Magazine is all about the roots of the modern dance floor. One of the torchbearers of threading the foundations of music into the sounds of today is Dave Lee. Among his many monikers, Lee...
DEL combs though his collection to bring us 14 of the best of these curious, often anonymous and sometimes unloved Disco mixer records.
Previously:
Big Apple 2
('91) ('82-'83) - Post-disco "Prelude-era" with some of my favorite songs ever such as David...
MUST READ!
House of Fouk: Inside the New Issue of 5 Mag
Dutch deep house duo Fouk's first 5 Mag cover story and an exclusive mix, plus London soul with Paris Cesvette, Azzad, Thando, Moby, Aslice, another lost Paul Johnson mix and more inside the new issue of 5 Mag, out now.
