House music is a spiritual thing...a body thing...a soul thing... But it’s also a vocal thing; certainly where the following five tracks, by five classic voices, are concerned. The tracks below are of the hugely sing-a-long variety but credible with it too. They transcend all boundaries of taste and genre, working virtually anywhere and in any DJ sets. At the end of the day they represent a feeling and, as we all know, house IS a feeling...
Barbara Tucker ‘Beautiful People’
Ms Tucker is one of house music’s biggest and most successful voices of all time, synonymous with legendary label Strictly Rhythm but also well known for her lung-busting work with imprints including Positiva, King Street, suSU, Azuli, Zoo Groove and Soundmen On Wax. Her track, ‘Beautiful People’, arrived early on in her career and perhaps best reflects her incredible talents.
WATCH BARBARA TUCKER PERFORM AT GLITTERBOX ALONGSIDE LOUIE VEGA HERE
Balancing the soulfully rough with smooth, and gradually building vocal pressure without losing sense of Louie Vega’s incredibly musical deep dance production, Tucker delivers a tour de force performance accentuating her song’s catchy, long-term appeal. That Vega preceded ‘Beautiful People’ with Hardrive’s ‘Deep Inside’, which was built upon samples from it, boosted the track’s appeal even more. Tucker has delivered her magical trademark mix of power and soulful precision on countless other house hits, ‘I Get Lifted’, ‘Stay Together’ and ‘Everybody Dance’ among them – impressively she has maintained lead billing over and above any producers and remixers.
Frankie Knuckles present Satoshi Tomiie feat. Rober Owens ‘Tears’
Owens grew up singing in church before progressing to DJing and a meeting with Chicago house luminary Larry Heard that would change everything. Owens’ deep, brooding vocals were perfectly suited to club music’s earliest manufactured beats, adding a priceless emotive edge and therefore widening the music’s reach and influence. ‘Tears’’ co-producer Satoshi Tomiie had long been a fan of Owens’ work with Heard and in approaching Frankie Knuckles with the record wanted to use Owens as vocalist.
Granted his wish, ‘Tears’ became a timeless torch song for modern-day club culture. It’s triumphant marriage of punchy groove and authentic, moving song – the latter driven by Owens’ achingly melancholic yet versatile and uplifting tonsils – marked a new high point in the evolution of house as credible genre and swept all manner of dancefloors before it, a feat it continues to this day.
MAW feat. India ‘To Be In Love’
On this particular slate, India’s vocals defy the laws of gravity in sensational style. That the ‘Princess Of Salsa’ continues to soar across 12 minutes and 47 seconds of epic soul-jazz-disco-Latin-house without any loss of control or stylish bite is a remarkable feat – one of house music’s most remarkable, full stop. India thunders through her song, adding much emphasis to its giddy sentiments of love and longing, but allows room for the Masters At Work’s 24 carat production to fully breathe; a production encompassing heavy Nu Yorican beats, sweet key riffs, Gene Perez’ awesome bass guitar and Vincent Montana Jr’s spell-binding vibraphone solo.
She is never over-powered nor does she over-power. ‘To Be In Love’ is very much India’s show, her voice the record’s major focal point, and yet its deep interweave within one of house’s most loved productions ensures that it will remain front of clubbers’ minds for decades to come. India’s approach to other club outings like ‘I Can’t Get No Sleep’ and ‘Runaway’ has paid similar dividends.
Ultra Nate ‘Free’
How can you not sing-a-long to Baltimore chanteuse Ultra Nate’s universally knockout chorus? Her gloriously unshackled vocals on ‘Free’ generated heavy DJ rotation all over the world upon release, as well as lofty positions in niche and mainstream charts alike. Such was the quality of Nate’s earnest, soulful delivery and of the accompanying Mood II Swing production (Mood II Swing-ers Lem Springsteen and John Ciafone co-writing lyrics and arrangements with Nate) that ‘Free’ worked as both pop-dance, radio-romping beast and pure, uplifting underground anthem. Nate’s warm, velvetine vocals have also contributed depth and drama to singles ‘Pressure’, ‘Found A Cure’, ‘New Kind Of Medicine’, ‘Twisted’ and ‘Give It 2 U’.
Fish Go Deep feat. Tracey K ‘The Cure & The Cause’
Whilst it was New Jersey don Dennis Ferrer whose remix propelled ‘The Cure & The Cause’ into clubland’s major league, the artistry of Tracey K’s vocals was established long before. The original version of the single provides a sweet, fun-shine house platform for K’s mature yet almost ethereal styling.
In her hands ‘The Cure & The Cause’ offers sophistication and sheen beyond compare. That said Ferrer’s remix seriously ups the ante. A leftfield fusion of string thrusts, sharp synth riffs and that murky b-line, all underpinned by muscular 4-4, provides K’s song with darker, more ominous (sub) context. K cuts through Ferrer’s remix with a hypnotic potency impossible to resist. It’s an effective twist perpetually in favour with everything from the bass-house and techno clubs to the pop-dance and EDM mass-markets via several niche trad garage and ‘UK funky’ scenes. It is an out-and-out vocal-dance classic...
Words: Ben Lovett
Ultra Nate performs at Glitterbox on Friday 07 August - full line-up and tickets
Defected presents House Masters Masters At Work Volume Two is out 11 September 2015 (4CD and Digital) on Defected Records - pre-order the CD and exclusive MAW bundles from the DStore
