Published
Thu, Jun 23, 2016, 16:37
- First up is a 1987 Chicago house 'drumapella' from Mickey Oliver and Shanna Jae.
UK selector Eclair Fifi—AKA Clair Stirling—has started a new reissue series with LuckyMe.
It's dedicated to reissuing alternative DJ mixes of '80s club tracks—"drumapellas, percapellas and synthapellas" that often came on the B-side of house, Italo and freestyle records—with new remixes. The series' first release is a "drumapella" of the 1987 Chicago house track "Never Let Go" from producer Mickey Oliver and singer Shanna Jae, better known as Paris Grey from Inner City (she sang on the Midwestern anthem "Good Life.") Oliver is a founding member of the Hot Mix 5, a pioneering group of Chicago radio DJs that also included Farley "Jackmaster" Funk.
"When I first approached Mickey Oliver it was through the comments section on his old website which kept crashing," Stirling says of the record clearing process. "He's still active and super enthusiastic about music, and surprised that I wanted to license the drumapella. We were sent a master to work with, recently digitised from the original 1987 tape. We didn't touch Mickey's original file." Remixes come from Ultramajic affiliate Aden as well as Strip Steve and Australian producer AirMax97.
Tracklist
01. Never Let Go (Original Drumapella)
02. Never Let Go (AirMax97 Remix)
03. Never Let Go (Aden Remix)
04. Never Let Go (Strip Steve Remix)
LuckyMe will release Never Let Go in July, 2016.