- If you want to get anywhere in music you need to make a big splash digitally. At least that's the conventional wisdom. By hook or by crook, amass those SoundCloud plays and Facebook likes. Get enough and someone important might notice you, but most likely they won't.
Dan Shake didn't bother with the internet to get noticed. He simply handed his favourite producer a CD at Dimensions festival and took it from there. Dan isn't a nobody—he actually works for Dimensions—but that doesn't make his breakthrough any less remarkable. He's the first artist to be signed to Kenny Dixon's Mahogani Music label outside of Detroit. If you know much about house music you should know that's a big deal. Kenny Dixon is a cult figure rather than an industry bigwig, but his seal of approval can break an act.
Sampled crowd noise, chopped-up keyboards and disco diva yelps all feature on "3 AM Jazz Club." They're overused house music tropes, and as Moodymann Dixon did this better 15 years ago. But that barely diminishes from what is a hugely enjoyable club track. "Thinking," likewise, is solid but doesn't reinvent the wheel. Nor should it have to. It sounds a hell of a lot like a Motor City Drum Ensemble track, which really is no bad thing.
TracklistA 3 AM Jazz Club
B Thinkin