We are extremely excited to announce that the first volume in Fatty Fatty Phonographics’ ‘Downtownsounds Classics’ series is out now, featuring a bit of a lost classic in the form of Daniel Wang and Brennan Green’s mix of Block 16’s ‘Electrokution’. The flip features a Pablo and Shoey Rejig of Sweet Cream’s brassy uptown disco screamer ‘I Don’t Know What I’d Do (If You Ever Left Me).

The whole package comes wrapped in a deliciously colourful sleeve with artwork that will be an instant blast of nostalgia for those who followed us from The Belvedere up to Crawdaddy, Kennedy’s and Ri-Ra.

Fatty Fatty Phonographics Top Dog and DTS resident Pablo has stuck a mix together that showcases the signature Downtown sound: pure Detroit/Chicago house music, punky funky leftfield disco, soulful singalongs, and a few curveballs so nobody starts nodding off on the dancefloor cos it all sounds so fucking samey. Below is an in depth guide to the tracklisting…We’ll also have an in depth interview with Mr Wang here for you early next week…

Black Science Orchestra – Where Were You? (Original Dope Demo)

‘Where Were You?’ was the brainchild of Ashley Beedle and a revolving cast of characters including Marc Woolford and Rob Mello. Their first two singles for Junior Boy’s Own exploded all over the New York house scene in 1993/94. Frankie Knuckles cites this record as one of the touchstones of that vibrant New York scene, but often fails to mention that it’s this promo version, stripped of the 4/4 beats and turned into something far funkier, that he used to work the crowd with.

It’s not available on that YouTube thing, but this one is close enough and it features lots of celebrities absolutely madouva at Studio 54 – check Diana Ross sitting on top of the DJ Booth about 3.45 in.

StreetChoir – Workin’

Fantastic raw percussive house music conjured from an unlikely source, Van Morrison’s ‘I’ve Been Working’ from his 1973 album ‘Van Morrison His Band And The Street Choir’. From the days when you went into record shops to get your new tunes, this white label was one that everyone wanted to get their greedy little mits on. It was dropped to quite devastating effect by The Loft’s DJ Cosmo back at Ri-Ra in 2006.

Moodymann – The Third Track

What is there left to say about Moodymann at this stage? A monumental modern music maker and still the bar that we judge every house production by. Here he slashes up tiny snatches of Bionic Boogie’s rinky dinky disco classic ‘Risky Changes’ in a way that only a big funky black man from Detroit could. Listen close!

Adonis – Reck The Joint

From London white label mystery via Detroit all the way to Chicago, where house music was born and Adonis was one of it’s kings. Known primarily for this awesome piece of house history:

The appropriately titled ‘Reck The Joint’ was one of the many acidic visions he was privy to in the late 80’s.

House Break 1

A sweet drums only dub version of an early 80’s electro track. Be the first to leave the title of it in the comments below and you’ll bag yourself a free copy of ‘Downtownsounds Classics Volume 1’.

Out Come The Freaks – Was (Not Was)

Was (Not Was) were a punky, funky New Wave band from Detroit who created messy disco influenced slabs of dancefloor goodness on the ZE label, also home to Kid Creole and The Coconuts and a freaky deaky cast of thousands. LCD Soundsystem may have been giving them a bit of listening time while making their debut album…..

’Out Comes The Freaks’ was their signature tune, one they revisited over the course of 3 different versions in the 80’s. They were certainly a band alive to the possibilities of the 12 inch single, employing the inspirational Detroit DJ Ken Collier to make this stripped down version in 1984.

This is one of only a handful of remixes from the mythical man of records that inspired the likes of Derrick May and Juan Atkins with his shit-hot mixing style – meet the man himself, Mr Ken Collier.

Rick James – Ghetto Life

”Hey Charlie Murphy, what did the five fingers say to the face?!” Once again, what more can a man say about Rick James? Now immortalised as a cocaine loving yahoo with a serious attitude problem:

This is perhaps his finest moment, with a razor sharp funk riff riding on Rick’s tales of growing up in the ghetto. Check the man out in his strutting pomp here…..SLAP!!

Gino Soccio – Remember

We have Darshan Jesrani of Metro Area to thank for this one, with it’s devastating bassline, singalonga chorus and oh so deep and dark synth lines. His epic set from 52Funk @ The Belvedere in February 2004  can be heard in it’s entirety here

Block 16 – Electrokution ( Daniel Wang and Brennan Green’s Evolusive Mix)

And what indeed can we say about this slab of dancefloor destroying musical madness from DTS favourite Daniel Wang and cult disco warrior Brennan Green? Taking the skittery modern electro stylings of the original and adding a bouncy drum machine breakdown, the unique, yearning sounds of the theremin, some squalling 70’s disco-rock guitar, an utterly ludicrous 21st Century jackin’ disco section, and topping the whole thing off with a dub reggae coda where the eerily beautiful sounds of the melodica take centre stage, this absolutely blew our minds apart when it first came out back in 2003, and we couldn’t wait to have it pressed up again on a lovely black slab of vinyl…..

Sandy’s Gang – Hungry (Sean P Edit)

Produced by the Phil Spector of disco, Patrick Adams, this stompin’ 1976 disco soul cut became one of the great after hours DTS anthems. Instant dancefloor reaction!

Listen to side A of DTS Classics Vol 1 in here (in all it’s thirteen and a half minute glory)

Check back soon for a full interview with Daniel Wang on the making of this record and lots of other stuff in his inspiring past, present and future.

‘Downtownsounds Classics Vol 1’ is out now. Bag yourselves a copy here