WORDS BY NICK GORDON BROWN

1992. A few short years since its inception in Chicago, house music has become a truly worldwide phenomenon. In all corners of the globe, creatives inspired by this musical revolution have begun to put their own twist on this maverick sound.

No nation has taken house music to its heart more than Italy, and few have morphed and mutated it in so many different directions. While the likes of ‘Ride on Time’ led the Italo charge on the pop charts, dozens of Italian producers and DJs began finessing a wide-ranging sound simply and collectively dubbed ‘underground’.

Central to the many-layered underground sound, reams of collaborations, as DJs, producers, engineers, vocalists and writers high on house swap ideas, and brainstorm them into musical reality. Exhibit one: ‘Just Come’ by Cool Jack.

Cool Jack was a meeting of minds between leading DJ Angelino and multi-talented production duo Visnadi. ‘Just Come’ defies easy categorisation, and consequently found favour on many different shades of dancefloor.

As Defected gets set to reissue ‘Just Come’ on 4 to the Floor (original mixes now, watch out for contemporary version excursions later in the year), Nick Gordon Brown caught up with two of its creators, legends of the Italian scene, Angelino and Paolo Visnadi.


In Italy, there were a lot of collaborations between artists (more than the UK or US at that time). Why do you think this was; and how did the two of you meet?

We think that clubs in that period were a crucial meeting place between DJs and musicians, and this could only lead to creativity, so the union was strong! We met in the city area of Venice.

‘Just Come’ is a ground-breaking sound for 1992. What were your influences when making the track, which producers / tracks were you listening to at this time?

We were listening to all sorts of things but Robert Owens ‘I'll Be Your Friend’ was the spark that led to the creation of ‘Just Come’.

How would you describe the sound / style of ‘Just Come’? I don't think it fits into any particular genre - is this why so many people like it?

Yes, in fact even today we are not able to categorise it – hahaha, maybe that's why we like it!

Angelino, Black Moon was your label? What other tracks from the label might we know?

Spiller ‘Batucada’, Spiller feat. Moony ‘Positive’, Fingers ‘Dead End Alley remix, Angelmoon ‘He’s All I Want’, Angelino Albanese ‘Phone’ and more.

Please tell us about the vocalist on the track.

The voice of ‘Just Come’ is Tom Hooker, who was in the studio to record another song, and at the end of the recording we listened to the Robert Owens track, and so ‘Just Come’ was born for fun. It was made in 30 minutes!

Were you expecting it to be so popular?

We absolutely did not expect it!! Its success has been a great honour and very emotional for us!

Why did it take until 1996-7 to get licensing deals in other countries?

In ‘96 the Sharp Boys did a remix that became number one in the UK dance chart, and it then came out on the legendary AM:PM label. Nobody asked us for a serious license until ’96.

What did you think when Defected approached you 30 years later?!

We thought the great Simon Dunmore is still very consistent in his choices!

Pre-Order Cool Jack 'Just Come' here.