Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle's "Baby Wants to Ride." Felix Da Housecat's early catalog. Half of Basement Jaxx's. That unofficial Perlon-style remix of "Kiss" from around 2006. House music has been on Prince's jock pretty much its entire duration. The newest iteration of this life-enriching musical fixation comes courtesy of Paris's prolific Shonky, who along with compatriot Dyed Soundorom and Freak N'Chic founder Dan Ghenacia launches a new label called Apollonia with an EP called The Minneapolis Touch.
It's not quite the double-whammy that title might lead you to expect—indeed, the last cut, despite being called "Kotero Mi Amor" (Apollonia's birth name is Patricia Kotero), has little discernible trace of Prince's work. That's almost true of the opener, "Columbia," as well: It's deep house whose cooing female vocals and comfortable four-four thump come from the disco Prince rebelled against. Nevertheless, its low end is sourced from "All the Critics Love U in New York," one of Prince's all-time basslines.
"The Minneapolis Sound" does live up to its name. It opens with an up-and-down filtered drum machine over the house kick, a sound instantly familiar from the actual Apollonia 6's "Sex Shooter," before laying on a muttered vocal ("Are there really angels?") that might as well be saying, "Do you think you're special? So do I." It's nice enough, but to truly purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka, you need to do more than dip your foot in.
Buy Shonky - The Minneapolis Touch at
Tracklist: Shonky - The Minneapolis Touch
 A Columbia
B1 The Minneapolis Touch
B2 Kotero Mi Amor
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