Inspiration
I first heard this track more than 10 years ago on Laurent Garnier's superb Mixmag Live CD. Soon after that I saw Garnier DJing in Sheffield, and still remember the hairs standing up on the back of my neck as he played the same record. Co-incidentally i'll (probably) be seeing him again this weekend, so i'll be desperately hoping to hear this pumping out of The End's cracking soundsystem.
The record in question is 'Don't You Want It' by Davina. A production by Underground Resistance chief 'Mad' Mike Banks.
As an uncompromising balaclava wearing revolutionary, 'Mad' Mike would seem to be an unlikely creator of such blissful house music, however a listen through to the UR back catalogue reveals an artist dripping with soul and funk, particularly since Jeff Mills and Rob Hood left the UR camp to persue their own minimal directions. UR are one of the big hitters in Detroit Techno, and tracks like 'Amazon', 'Final Frontier', 'Hi-Tech Jazz', 'Electronic Warfare', 'Transition', 'Timeline' and 'Firekeeper' (I could go on...) will be with me for life.
And that's before mentioning the classic releases by Drexciya or DJ Rolando's incredible 'Knights of the Jaguar'.... but I'll save them for another day.
Over the years a myriad of labels have appeared under the Underground Resistance umbrella, and in the early 90's Mike Banks produced a series of garage releases on the Happy Records label. It was here that the Davina track first came out in all too limited numbers.
I spent more than 8 years hunting this down on vinyl. Annoyingly I did find it in a second hand shop once, but decided at the time that I couldn't afford the £25 asking price. Shit did I spend a lot of time kicking myself for that one! It was another 6 years before I ambled into Sister Ray one afternoon and saw the word 'DAVINA' staring out at me from the front of the rack. I fairly skipped to the counter to discover that UR had reissued the track on pristine shrink wrapped vinyl!
A couple of weeks later I took this out to play for the first time, only to find as I carefully checked my bag at the end of the night that some crafty bugger had attempted to half inch it. After virtually tearing the room apart I found it tucked in the back of a box of records where it could not have gone by accident.
Hands off my Davina, suckers!
Anyway, no-one has attempted to steal any of my other records, so I guess that is some kind of seal of quality. I won't talk it up any more.. just listen.
DAVINA - DON'T YOU WANT IT
BONUS UR!
'Transition' is a more recent UR classic from 2002, fitting in perfectly with a transitional period in my life. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get quite enough inspiration from the track to really make any meaningful changes. Perhaps I should have listened to it more.
If you think this is good you gotta hear it pumping out of a club system. This track shows exactly why techno music will always be deep in my heart.
UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE - TRANSITION
posted by headphonesex @ 12:06 PM
