This is the record keeps coming back up like that plate of Flash Tacos you scarfed down in a cab at 4:30 am not because you were hungry but because you didn’t want the night to end and food seemed like a reasonable way to extend it. It’s not hard to understand the resilience of Sarasota’s superclub anthem “We’re Gettin’ Hot“: those loose piano chords that flow like a big head of Guinness and methmouth chipmunked vocals evoke a time and a place like few other tracks can. Close your eyes and you’re there again: standing amid the broken toilets and dimebags on the tiles at whatever club was the hot place in 1996 but which you had a vague suspicion was no longer quite so hot in 1997. It isn’t much but it was your youth and you’re going to memorialize it no matter how it sounds because it was, self-evidently, a better time.
The pieces of this track have a long lineage — probably via the Italo House classic “Gettin’ Out” from S.L.D., which itself nabbed the “getting ready, getting ready for the best time in your life” line from Gwen Guthrie‘s “Getting Hot” (the B-side to “It Should Have Been You,” which has Larry Levan doing some fun stuff in your right ear). There’s more to it than that of course — Mike Stewart, the producer behind “We’re Gettin’ Hot,” engineered a track that seemed to have been grown in a lab from trace elements of the zeitgeist scraped from under the bar stools of the mid-1990s, when the afterglow of ecstasy was checked in the gut by the rail of a very different white powdery bundle of fun. Nostalgia is the heavy breathing and a tongue in your ear and you kind of hate it when it’s happening but you know you’re going to miss it when it stops.
Those are the reasons that “We’re Gettin’ Hot” can command some cash on Discogs, though the latter is probably the reason this was reissued. The original is reportedly incredibly scarce — 50 copies were allegedly produced and numbered. I didn’t even know they did vinyl runs that small back then. It’s been frequently booted, and from what I know those sell out pretty fast too.
On the A side, the 25th Anniversary Mix sort of sounds like a cover rather than a new mix and there’s a 158 second edit that was pressed to vinyl for some reason, but I think most will flip it over for the original 1996 mix. Babies were made to this music. Mistakes were made too. It’s a classic and short of someone covering this in a whole new genre, it will always have a place in history and in people’s lives.
What is it that they say? You had to be there, and I guess that’s true, but if you weren’t you can put this on and make-believe that the good old days were much better than they ever really were.
⚪️ Tracklisting
Sarasota: We're Gettin' Hot (BIT Productions / 12" Vinyl)
A1. Sarasota: "We're Getting' Hot" (Sarasota 25th Anniversary mix) (7:07)
A2. Sarasota: "We're Getting' Hot" (Sarasota 25th Anniversary edit) (2:38)
B1. Sarasota: "We're Getting' Hot" (original 1996 mix) (6:16)
B2. Sarasota: "We're Getting' Hot" (Da Fool 1999 remix) (6:12)
⚪️ Disclosure Statement
This record was not submitted as a promo.
5 Mag Issue 206
Out Now
MOVE: This was originally published in 5 Mag Issue #206 featuring DJ, dancer, teacher and producer Coflo, Alland Byallo, Phil Kieran, DJ Rocca, Jeff Mills’ Metropolis Metropolis and more. Help keep our vibe alive and our shine bright by becoming a member for $2/month and get every issue in your inbox right away!
