After several years in the wilderness, Four Play Music – one of Chicago’s most diverse, most innovative and, it can now be said, most resilient labels – is back in a big way.
On April 1st, Four Play is dropping Andrew Emil’s “Caught The Feeling” 12″ with remixes from Nick Santillian, Gene Farris, Glenn Underground CVO and Gene Hunt. It appears to be the first of several landmark releases in 2012.
“‘Caught the Feeling’ was the first ORG track that I released of mine on Four Play Music in 2002,” Andrew explains. “It was the second record in the catalogue and was funded by the success of our first release.
“The inspiration for this record was to get some great interpretations of my track, which was a decent success on its first release, and pack it with music from artists who had, at one point in time, inspired me to want to seek out further directions in Chicago’s musical perspective. This is a vintage release that never saw the light of day from 2006. So this remix package is 7+ years in the making!”
Four Play went through a rough patch and many wondered if the label was still in existence. Behind the scenes, there was a nightmare of entanglements familiar to many in the record business in the last decade.
“Four Play Music got a distribution deal with Ideal (UK),” Andrew explains. “After an eight month long negotiation and getting contracts signed and building a relationship, they went out of business.
“Searching for a new home, we found EsNtion. After an album compilation and two Billboard Top Dance 100s (one running well over a year through 2007), the company filed for Chapter 13. This really took us out of the market for some years as we were owed a large sales payment from the company just before its bankruptcy, as well as having to go to court to get our rights back – a three year process.
“During this same period we had picked up the next album in the catalogue: Dangerous Radio (a long play album) by Dirty Sole feat. jHONNYDANGEROUs. This album was the force behind the resurrection of the brand.”
Four Play is starting of 2012 with a re-press of Rahaan’s R Music, followed by the “Caught The Feeling” remixes, FPM.007 (a Home & Garden production) and the first single off Dangerous Radio, “Connect The Dots”.
“Dirty Sole’s album is a major standout to the collection and is accented with a wonderful cast of remix artists spanning the four singles,” Andrew says. “We are really excited to have finally, after 11 years, a distribution network that will allow for the proper implementation of Four Play Music’s vision.” All will be released on 12″ vinyl available through Groove Distribution, with the “Caught The Feeling” remixes on April 1st and digital to follow in May 2012.
