If you could listen to one last tune...

Back in the early days of untitledmusic, myself and co-founder Phil Carr used to have a regular DJ gig at a great little bar in the clubbing capital of Berkshire, Newbury. No, seriously, the place was jammed on a weekend and we played all night Friday then the odd Sunday afternoon, had a free bar, got paid and just got very messy on a regular basis playing the tunes we loved. It was the best of times and the worst of Saturday mornings week in week out.

 

 

The crowd danced, the bar staff grooved, the Michelob flowed and the mixing got worse as the night went on. As we got the untitledmusic name out there one record shop in London became vital to adding a touch of class to our sets - Flying Records on Dean Street was where we headed with scary frequency to hang out and buy tunes from the maestro behind the counter, Lofty! As it turned out Lofty (aka Steven Harper) was in fact one half of East West Connection and co-owner of Chilli Funk Records amongst other things - his contacts and enthusiasm for UM led us to lots of other labels, Flying stocked the fanzine for us and pushed it out to punters and we even did our first ever interview with Lofty and the legendary Dr Bob Jones in the stock room there - god knows what we looked like recording the interview onto a Mini Disc player, asking nervous questions about the label, the shop, and about music that we hardly knew compared to the pair of them! For those of you that aren't familiar with Dr Bob you should check him out - call it a lesson in UK soulful house history. Check him out here (Dr Bob Jones).

Tune after tune Chilli Funk served up a feast of soulful deep house, 79 12" releases in all, but few, in my opinion, reached the heights of 'The More I Get, The More I Want' and in particular Teddy's House Groove. And so it became the tune we wrapped up every Friday night at Bar Cuba (the night was called Scuba - get it? Cuba with a deep sound! Brilliant we thought!) - bringing down the house with uplifting vocals, that superb head nodding bassline and that searching, late night, electric guitar riff - still gets me today!

And so, East West Connection's The More I Get, The More I Want is right up there for me. A tune that takes me back to a great time in life, one that still sounds current today, a tune I still play and one that sums up the label for me - soulful, deep, happy music - just as it should be!

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