Music Talk: DJ Relentless

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Music Talk with DJ Relentless

One of my new favorite tracks is “Well Of Love” by Davidson Ospina featuring MJ White. For years now, I have been telling my best friend, MJ White that all he needed to do was hook up with the right producer to make his name legendary on the House Music scene. He has been recording over 20 years and has had many hit records over in Europe, but has never quite gotten the recognition as some of the other big names that he has worked with over the years. His resume sounds like a who’s who in House circles. Barbra Tucker, Annette Taylor, Tafuri, George Morel, Ed The Red, DJ Comacho, Righteous, Stan Courtois, Felly, Mark Wilkinson…are just a few. Well, finally I think his latest collaboration with Mr. Ospina is that marriage made in heaven.

Unfortunately, in the late 90′s the club scene in NYC split into two. Suddenly, in the gay clubs it was the rise of the circuit party and the big room sound. In straight clubs, the urban sounds of Hip Hop and Latin grooves of Reggaeton became the mainstays for dance floors. And true House Music became a specialty item for parties like “Body & Soul”. By the time September 11th, 2001 happened, the division was really wide and the aftermath caused the city to scale back. Celebrity DJ’s and club personalities were being phased out in favor of the laptop DJ who would work for less money. Everyone wanted to be a Junior Vasquez or Victor Calderone. So, Thunderpuss and Hex Hector remixes became the order of the day. DJ’s that kept House alive in the city like Ted Patterson and Troy Parish were pushed aside and the House scene became an exclusive club. So, House Music got lost in the shuffle. And even though there were great producers like Quentin Harris and Timmy Regisford still cranking out the House anthems, NYC was no longer a contender in the mainstream.

Being that I along with a handful of DJ’s like Ken Terry and Fred Pierce were the few who were still playing and programming House in our sets, I am always happy to see some real House Music being produced. Davidson Ospina and Oscar P. have always been House producers and are still out there representing NYC on the House front. So, when MJ told me that he was actually going to be working on a track for Davidson, I was excited.

Right now, part one of the remix package is available on Traxsource and Beatport. My favorite mix is the “Deeper Vocal”. Makes me think of sweating on the floor with the twins doing African dance moves at The Bank. That hypnotic bassline with that infectious bounce just makes you have to dance. And part two of the remixes from the Ospina Digital label is due out by June 2011.

I guess the beauty of this track is that MJ just walked up to the mic and sang it from his heart. No words were written on paper or even planned. He just heard the track and let the words come out. I had witnessed this phenomenon back in 2000 when he and I were recording vocals for DJ Comacho for a track called “Celebrate This Life”. Although the track, “Smooth” was never released, I still play it to this day. MJ is a brilliant singer/songwriter with a falsetto as smooth as Sylvester and a voice as rich as Robert Owens. If you are a true House Head, you will be in love with this track.

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