An all-time Dance Mania footnote from DJ Fatman, approaching a private press vibe - I assume he was somebody’s cousin or something. Production comes courtesy of DJ Skip, whose “Count On Me” remains my favorite DM record ever - Skip was the skipper, so to speak, of the Pushpac Productions imprint which released mostly his own work, but also records like this and the even less-documented Dat Nigah Tha Schit - Pu_sy Pop. Maybe they were all aliases, no idea.

I was moved to pull this back outta the boxes after a series of DMs with the inimitable billdifferen, whose 2022 club music survey raised a couple questions about exactly how far back the “club rap” sound went. Rather than Rod Lee, who you could make some galaxy brain case for as the Rod Wave of the broader club music universe, I think the main Baltimore guy responsible here is Diamond K, steward of Pimphouse Music and High Rolla Records. Now some kind of current events YouTuber, his channel has at least one ancient upload of a show at the Baltimore club Hammerjacks, mainstay of nostalgic comments on Baltimore club videos across the site.

Super tight deep house, verging on what I imagine “lounge music” to be. I’d always thought of 2006 as a relatively fallow period for this sort of thing - the sort of drive time house that is neither un-grown nor un-sexy but escapes the stigma of “grown and sexy” - although that may just be the effect of the ongoing re-education campaign centering “blog house” as the era’s musical lodestone.

Sorry for the wait. It wasn’t completely unintentional, but I had some time off amidst a job switch and didn’t get to the keyboard much. Rest assured that my output will come back up to par now that I’m once again selling eight computer-hours a day to my faceless benefactor.

Scuba is a DJ, producer, label head, and podcaster from London, UK. In addition to operating Hotflush Recordings, he’s best known for his SUB:STANCE residency at Berghain, as well as his 2010 album Triangulation and 2011 DJ-Kicks mix. This interview took place shortly before his SUB:STANCE set performed at Denver’s Black Box this past week.

I don’t know anything about DJ Finesse, Lucky Smurf, or the short-lived Murderland Records outfit, but these are the two fastest Baltimore club tracks I’ve ever heard. Abandoning “Think (About It)” and “Sing Sing” to push into the mid-140s BPM, the A side lifts drums and an exhortation from “Long Red,” while the flip pairs two Michael Jackson samples and some kind of DJ Paul-esque evil laugh to utterly deranged effect.

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.