BLACK MAGIC "Freedom (Make It Funky)"
Strictly Rhythm (SR12403) 12"
BLACK MAGIC "Freedom (Make It Funky) (Remixes)"
Strictly Rhythm (SR12420) 12"
One of the must have releases of the past few months or should I say past few years. Produced and mixed by none other than Lil'Louis with a little help from another Louie, "Little" Louie Vega. The original version kicks off with a cool telephone conversation and then breaks into a mega funky, bassline driven female vocal groover. There's also a good dub by Frankie Feliciano on the flip side. The separate remix 12" has one slammin' Lil'Louis rendition and two not so great versions by Angel Moraes and Frankie Tamburo. A definite classic for the years to come.
LIL LOUIS & THE WORLD: Journey With the Lonely (Epic E47058 - 1992) Club Lonely/New Dance Beat/Saved My Life/Aahhhh! Do U Love Me/You're My Reason/Dancing In My Sleep/Funny How U Luv/Thief/Share It would take a great album from the nineties to make this Hall of Fame, but Journey With the Lonely deserves it 'classic' status despite being barely 5 years old. By all accounts it wasn't a commercial success - so often the case with truly great works, but it gained Lil Louis great respect outside of the House music fraternity previously familiar with his genius on tracks such as French Kiss/Music Takes U Away/Frequency/ Videoclash, etc. Journey... travels from the superbly produced garage of Club Lonely through to highly original House/R&B hybrids and finishes with the albums best tracks; Thief with its jazz-cool swing, double-bass and sax solo to the gorgeous ballad Share. A modern classic that was criminally under-rated when it came out and which apart from LPs from Blaze and Larry Heard is one of the - all too few - truly great albums to come from the House/Techno generation of producers.
DJ
Chicago pur house. Son père, Bobby Sims, avait neuf autres
gosses et jouait dans le groupe de BB King. Lil Louis mixe dans
les clubs dès1974, à douze ans.
Tube géant en 1989 : French Kiss (Epic Records), quatre millions
d'exemplaires
1992 : Album Journey with the Lonely.
Considéré par beaucoup comme un classique de la house,
l'album ne se vend pas. Suit un long silence. "Ma fille est
devenue ma priorité. Il a fallu que je fasse le break",
dit-il au magazine Coda.
Break rompu par les maxis Freedom en 1996 et Clap your hands (Go!Beat) en 1997. "Lil Louis est le cas presque unique du dj house qui ne fait pas de vagues, qui ne sort que deux singles en cinq ans mais des trucs énormes. Qui préfère la qualité à la quantité." (David Blot, du Queen, où Lil Louis fut Dj résident dans les années 95-96).
Discographie
From The Mind Of Lil Louis (1989 Epic)
Journey With The Lonely (1992 Epic)
French Kiss (1989 Diamonds Records) Réédité
sur vynil dans l'anthologie FFRR Classics Volume 2 (1998 London
Records)
Freedom (Strictly Rhythm 1996)
Clap your hands (Go!Beat 1997)