The Original 1989 Dancefloor Hits Volume 1 (Virgin, 1989)

Review
The Original Dancefloor Hits was a short-lived series released by Virgin in West Germany during 1989 and 1990. As was common back then, the CD sleeve includes a merchandise advertisement. “Go crazy – wear the latest TMO shirts” urges the tagline with a selection of five garments all retailing for DM 25. The choice of slogans is “Dance The Beat”, “Jump”, “Rock The Universe”, “How Loud Can You Go” and the peace symbol. I think I’ll order an XL one now.

The first of two 1989 volumes features an interesting selection of the well-known [Soul II Soul, Neneh Cherry, Paula Abdul] and the obscure [at least six tracks here have not been compiled elsewhere]. The Master Reese edit of Inner City’s Christmas 1988 stormer Good Life sets the spark. It’s followed by the quirky rhythms of Mac Thornhill and It’s A Cruel World, a 10 Records release with some cool spoken word samples. Don’t Take My Mind On A Trip was originally written for Bobby Brown who declined it as Don’t Be Cruel was massive so superfluous to requirements. Boy George picked it up for his Hit Hat LP with Teddy Riley as the arranger and it works very well as an addiction / comeback double theme.

After Straight Up and Jermaine Stewart’s rather anodyne Cerrone-produced Is It Really Love? we’re faced with a sweet treat from Bali – a one off Euro house project w which was produced by Paul Oakenfold and Rob Davis with Janey Lee Grace on vocal duties. The sugar-coated pill is a trimmed-down Balearic-soaked cover of Love To Love You Baby. On the other hand Azra’s Stop Me I’m Falling is formulaic trash that doesn’t deserve to be remembered. However we get our groove back on with the house speciality of Blow [Gordon Edge] and the marvellous Change.

The Revolution is brought to us by Wendy and Lisa with the funky-as-hell Lolly Lolly which was mixed by Mr Lovesexy. From there we move to the 7″ remix of Tongue Dance which sounds like the Tom Tom Club covering Talking Heads complete with nifty breaks. After a chilled hip hop interlude from E.U. along comes some ska from Los Angeles – The Untouchables and the brassy Agent Double O Soul. The best Ritz is served last – the pounding and wonderfully-titled House Of The Tripping Sun from 2 Kut. Wicked, sample-heavy and utterly essential.

Favourite tracks
Boy George – Don’t Take My Mind On A Trip

2 Kut – House Of The Tripping Sun

Lest we forget
Bali – Love To Love You Baby