2020

Detroit’s Pontchartrain takes the Razor-N-Tape reigns for his debut on the label - an all-cylinders-firing jazz laden, deep house EP with an exquisite Demuja remix.The A side kicks off with ‘The Friends & Lovers Dub’ version of the title track ‘Love Is Madness’, filled with deep pulsing pads, resonating dashes of sax, crisp percussion and a bumping bassline that provides the perfect backdrop to the echoing mantra of ‘Friends... Lovers’. Next ‘I-80’ is a wonder of shimmering arps, brooding bass tones and reverberating trumpet touches. Perfect for the early hours, entrancing dancers as it washes over the airwaves.On the flip, Austria’s golden boy Demuja hits hard with a Kerri Chandler channeling deep house remix of ‘Love Is Madness’, centred around a pumping bass synth, sustained organs and a classic marriage of horn stabs and emotive spoken word.Closing the EP the original mix is a sun kissed, eyes closed gem that blends delicate bongos, rousing sax lines and the sweet vocals of Simon Black & Leafar.A must for any record collection out there, house head or not.

Norwegian Demi-god, Rulefinn is back. On his semi-annual trips to Florida, he snagged a number of gems while digging with WD label honcho, Sleazy McQueen.Three of these songs have been distilled to pure boogie essence for the Fedora Files.

Having returned from a 4-year break in August with its latest release from GW & Henry, A&R Edits follows up with a debut for Moplen. With a recent remix of Frankie Knuckles ft. Jamie Principle and a Salsoul Reworks EP, Luca Moplen has been gaining new traction of late, so it felt fitting to release two of his evergreen edits on vinyl for the first time. Moplen’s edit of Tavares’ classic disco stomper ‘It Only Takes A Minute’ coupled with Greg Wilson’s edit of Moplen’s edit of Larry Levan’s mix of David Joseph’s ‘You Can’t Hide (Your Love From Me)’, if you can follow all that!An all brother group hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, Tavares were a band that evolved with the disco sound, hitting their peak in 1976 when both ‘Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel’ and ‘Don’t Take Away The Music’ became huge club favourites. They scored their first R&B #1 in ‘1974 with a cover of Hall & Oates ‘She’s Gone’ and in 1975 they returned to the top of the R&B chart whilst going top 10 pop and scoring a #2 Disco hit with ‘It Only Takes A Minute’. In 1992 a cover by boy band Take That would gift them their first top 10 entry, many people unaware that this track had first been recorded 17 years earlier.Rising to prominence in Brit-funk band Hi-Tension, David Joseph soon found his footing as a solo artist after they’d split, with his first release being ‘You Can’t Hide (Your Love From Me)’ in February 1983. That same month, Greg Wilson appeared on The Tube, mixing between two copies of this very record – the first time mixing had been demonstrated on British TV. It would subsequently enter the UK chart, climbing into the top 20. The track would then be remixed by legendary Paradise Garage DJ Larry Levan, resulting in a #2 placing on the Billboard Dance chart. Upon hearing Moplen’s extended dub edit, Greg worked further into it reintroducing the song – given his history with the track it was unthinkable that he’d play it without the vocal. The result is a unique version where Moplen’s dub sets the vibe during the first half of the edit before the song is finally introduced.