What, you thought a 24-hour Peanut Butter Wolf mix was all we had lined up this Valentine’s Day?
No way. We’re top-drawer lovers at FACT, and to celebrate the most amorous day of the year, we’re also hosting a Valentine’s Day mix from our friends Slow to Speak, residents at New York’s infamous Dope Jams store (we’ve told you enough about the place now – catch up here if you don’t know).
Slow to Speak will be playing London tonight for Krystal Klear’s Labour of Love – more on that here – and their mix, which features vocals at 20:45 from the forthcoming Ying Liu film Ham Over Rice, should be all you need to get you in the mood.
Even better, we got Slow to Speak to make us a playlist of their top 10 forgotten Valentine’s Day jams – scroll through the next few pages to see what they picked.
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THE KENTROS
‘No Way But Our Love’
Don’t let it psych you out that Jazz-N-Groove produced this record. Just a quick listen will rectify any misunderstanding—“No Way But Our Love” is one of the pinnacles of deep New Jersey house tracks, steeped in moody chord progressions, whirling drum swings and singularly spine tingling vocal samples of universal desire. Eternal club music for nights of loneliness and longing.
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GROOVESTYLE
‘Love’
12-15-22-5!!! This record was such a big deal when it came out you would pass kids on the street donning tees with that numerical inscription on it. “Love” owed a lot to the honed perfection of 1990’s R&B vocal groups, positing a universal thesis of house music at a time when the euphoria had yet to be overshadowed by cynicism or despair. True eros here—no self absorbed tales of love lost or found. One of the most transcendent moments of house music spiritualism ever pressed to wax. Possibly the ultimate 90’s house anthem.
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TROPICAL MOON
‘Love Is A Mystery’
If you ever wondered how early club music went from huge 808 crashes and over the top piano stabs to the sophisticated ethereality of 1990’s deep house, just take a listen to “Love Is A Mystery.” Produced in 1990, but whispering truths as old as the ancients, Tropical Moon (Nelson Roman and Blue Jean—RIP) forged one of the finest house tracks ever, saying more with a few words than thousands of love songs combined. All rhetoric aside, this song is perfect.
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ROMANTHONY
‘Now You Want Me’
An eternal fuck you to anyone who claims house music is not a legitimate art form, Romanthony was the ultimate genius of our beloved genre. He sang like Prince, played guitar like Hendrix, and made house music so raw it seemed like he must of camped out deep in the belly of Zanzibar for many moons, meditating on the perfect formula to decimate white supremacy and rock a party at the same time. All flourishes aside, “Now You Want Me” was one of his first big anthems, reissued by Azuli and gaining worldwide acclaim. It’s funky, it’s bizarre, it’s totally insane, it’s Romanthony to the fullest, a man truly versed in the complexity and frequent morbidity of love and madness. He is dearly missed.
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SYLVESTER
‘I Need Somebody To Love Tonight’
No other song in the history of music has captured the desperation of horniness as Sylvester’s now eternal classic. Made by and for those of us who can’t just pay to fuck at will, literally or figuratively, “I Need Somebody To Love Tonight” oozes with noble sleaze in its unabashed promiscuity and sexual transparency. The manifesto of 1970s sexuality.
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UBQ PROJECT
‘When I Fell In Love’
The ultimate late-night, sweat-drenched anthem of erotic devotion, “When I Fell In Love” is a force that has hypnotized and hijacked many bodies with its twisted swing. Hailing from an era when house music could still be moody, dark and deeply soulful all at the same time. UBQ Project’s magnum opus.
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PAUL RUSSAW
‘Thoughts Of You’
An epic ode to eternal love, “Thoughts Of You” personifies everything that made 90’s deep house music special: an endless train of swinging drum loops, otherworldly organ chords and breathtaking vocal offerings by one Mr. Russaw, another wonder from the transient world of house music one offs. An ever ascending song of worship, devotion and desire.
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THOSE GUYS
‘Love, Love, Love’
A sophisticated sample-house track using a Jean Luc-Ponty song produced by Baltimore legends the Basement Boys with the crucial assistance of one Maurice Fulton? Yes, it happened, and goddamnit did it work. From a time when the Maryland production collective was pumping them out weekly, “Love Love Love” still stands the test of time as an intricate musical journey into deep instrumental garage, integrating Ponty’s jazz-inflected violin solo into it’s euphoric peak time vibe. Right when you think it’s reached the mountain top, Those Guys deliver what can only be considered a integral message of dance music culture.
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4 HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE
‘Drowning In Her’
One of the dopest jungle records ever! “Drowning In Her” embodies the tornado of the confused, contradictory desire of youth, executed through the prism lens of a handful of hardcore devotees somewhere deep in the bowels of Northampton’s netherworld. The first two minutes of this song epitomize the entire genre with the ease and simplicity of some kids making just another track in their basement. The lord works in mysterious ways.
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LYNYRD SKNYRD
‘I Need You’
Lynryd Skynyrd will remain forever tied to Neil Young for their rivalry rooted in the release of “Sweet Home Alabama” as a agitated response to Young’s classic “Southern Man.” The dispute placed Young as the great hero of the North and Skynyrd as wild cowboys of the South, but the truth is both were songwriting masters that cut to the very core of musical truth. In 1974 Skynyrd buried one of the finest love songs of all time,”I Need You,” on their multi-platinum LP Second Helping. Young followed suit in 1977, tucking away Loading Video…
;feature=kp” target=”_blank”>“Will To Love” on the b-side of his American Stars ‘N Bars. To deem one superior is an impossibility. Ultimately, love prevailed between the two, with Young acting as pallbearer at Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zant’s funeral.
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