The one-and-only Dance Mania solo 12” from DJ Tone, better recognized as Santonio (as in “Reese and ”). “Breathe Again” presents a way harder, snare roll-ier take on the same R. Kelly flip made famous as Dee Jay Nehpets “Na Na Na” the following year.

Jessy Lanza is a producer, performer, and songwriter from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She’s best known for her albums on Hyperdub Records - Pull My Hair Back (2013), Oh No (2016), and All The Time (2020). At the time of this interview (November 2021), she was preparing to release her entry in the !K7 Records DJ-Kicks mix series.

An all-time entry in the crowded “Moments in Love sample canon, turned unduly difficult to find after showing up in a couple Ben UFO sets. Made by DJ Technics under a one-time “Technosis alias for reasons unknown to me. The A1 is the big draw for most people, but I get plenty of mileage out of both “Bonus Beat #1 and the never-ending “Monkey Dance loop.

Late-period Dance Mania, where some of the tropes that would be central to early 2000s ghettotech start to surface before the label's demise shifts the locus of the sound up I-94 to Detroit. “T-Shirt gashes Adina Howard “T Shirt & Panties, and “How We Look breaks out the classic male/female call and response vocal.

It’s been a bit - last time I was doing any writing this post could’ve been titled “Welcome to the Party or maybe “Back From the Dead 4. Historically, I’ve used this site as a mostly-static archive of my work; almost everything here was initially published via an indulgent little email newsletter that I ran for about a year from 2017 to 2018, with some interviews and other loosies from before and during that period accumulating at Tiny Mix Tapes and Passion of the Weiss. My focus since then has been on extended interview series highlighting specific scenes and cities - I went to Houston in late 2018; in 2019 I spoke on the phone with a bunch of figures from different points along Chicago’s dance music timeline and went to New Orleans that winter.

It was the first week of March, 2012, and I was on spring break. The Boys had assembled, as if having no other choice, to trek up to Richmond for a Neon Indian show. The opener, a duo called Purity Ring, left a much stronger impression.

Mobo Joe is a rapper and entrepreneur from Harvey, Louisiana. He’s best known as the founder of Mobo Records, as well as for his work, alongside Ace Nitty, in Lower Level Organization.

Max Minelli is a rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He’s best known for some twenty years’ worth of solo albums, mixtapes, and singles (including “Louisiana Sky, an all-timer), as well as for his work with C-Loc’s Concentration Camp collective. Earlier this year, he announced his retirement from rapping.

Dr. Holly Hobbs is a cultural researcher based in New Orleans, Louisiana. She’s best known as the founder of the NOLA Hip-Hop and Bounce Archive, and currently works as a corporate developement specialist for the University of New Orleans’s NPR affiliate WWNO.

J-Dawg is a rapper from Hollygrove, New Orleans. He’s best known as a member of Black Menace (along with Threat and DJ Jaz), as well as for his 1997 solo records The Dawg House and Smokin’ & Rollin’.