Dance albums you really should own #4

Part 4 of dance albums you really should own. One direct from New York at the height of the tribal house era and the other from a few years earlier in the rave capital of Manchester, UK. 

K-Scope - From The Deep (1995)

New York producer Eric Kupper's alter ego K-Scope achieved plenty of fame with this LP. It starts out with the sublime melding of deep and dark house of 'K-Scope Theme' which featured on Junior Vasquez's 'Live at the Sound Factory' mix showcasing Kupper's knack for rhythm and jazz influences. The big room monster 'Katerpillar' was a favourite of DJs globally with a grinding acid bassline that made your teeth tingle and well placed drop outs which highlighted the badness of this tune. Hearing this loud was something special. Funky vibes make a showing with 'Purple Daizies' and 'Stonk' while 'Organism' was probably the most famous track on the album - a sublime piece of chilled house complete with jazzy keyboard riffs and a soulfulness which would still easily hold its own in a modern deep house setting.

Key moments on Youtube: 'Katerpillar'  / 'Organism'

N-Joi - Live In Manchester (1992)

What K-Scope had in subtlety N-Joi 'Live in Manchester' had in bash-you-over-the-head fun. This is a two-part sequence of their live act covering most of their big tunes and live MCing included. It really captured the rave sound of the time and, although probably an attempt to sound live rather than actually being live, it is a great, nostalgic listen. It includes crowd noise and horns in the segues between N-Joi's biggest tunes, 'Mindflux', 'Malfunction', 'Adrenalin' etc and it is possibly the first time the classic MC line "bass in the goddam place" was ever used on a commercial release. Maybe not, but it made it a lot more famous. It's almost hard to believe this is almost 20 years old.

Key moments on Youtube: 'Part 1'