Friday 6 November 2009

Ralf GUM & Monique Bingham - Little W 12th Street

This has been out since 26 Oct, but it's just too heavyweight a pairing to ignore! When Ralf & Monique team up the result must surely be a no-brainer for those who like it deep ’n' soulful, right?

Well, yeah, but I should first of all point out that this is 'deep and soulful' only in the sense of being vocal and, y'know, not a pile of commercial cheese. It's not 'deep and soulful' in a worthy/chinstroke-y/muso-y sense, but in fact rather an uplifting and lively little number that kind of reminds me of a (much) more upbeat Diamond Life. The Sealee/Vega/McKnight track, I mean, not Sade. Not really sure why except that lyrically, both are little vignettes of New York street life.

Anyway that's the Main Mix. Then there's a remix by DJ Spinna which starts off more sedate, adds some post-bruk big squelchy bass, and then goes off into a jazz-funk-tastic synth wigout that'll, like, take you places daddio; there's also a more left-of-centre mix from Benny Pecoraio that's even deeper but still movable, a Deeper Dub from Ralf that's pretty self-explanatory, and a handful more dubs and instrumentals that I can't really be arsed going into right now, cos the real story here is all about Monique's voice, which here seems to have acquired a little of that throaty, raunchy quality that made Shay Jones possibly my favourite house vocalist of all time.

Just to recap: that's Monique coming on all sexy and growly atop crisp house beats, fat basslines and some psychedelic synth tom-trippery from the mighty Spinna. What's not to like?

About: This is on GOGO Music, which is Ralf's own label and based in Germany. Check 'em out at their internet page. I can also vouch personally for Ralf and Monique both being lovely people, if that counts for a hill o'beans anymore in this crazy mixed-up ol' world of ours.

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