Deep Heat 8 – The Hand Of Fate (Telstar, 1990)

Review
October 1990: Time for Deep Heat’s fourth compilation of the year. The Hand Of Fate casts an eye over the dance hits of the late summer.
“Deep Heat is not everyone’s world but anyone can come – there are no barriers”.

We are the robots: Twenty 4 Seven’s Bruce Forest remix of I Can’t Stand It. Still fresh ‘n’ top. Followed by the haunting strains of Nothing To Lose, a S’Express joint; jittery with the piano clubbed to death. Sounds like the Sevenmix on the CD single. The mixing is very hot here with one track flowing into the other partial-hell style. So hip hop: A Tribe Called Tribe’s staccato Bonita Applebum and the 2 Live Crew’s soaked-in-Miami Coolin’ complete with legendary James Brown sample. Part the dancefloor’s red sea with the baggy groove: Primal Scream’s really beautiful drugged-up Come Together. Next come light specialists The Shamen and the crunchy Make It Mine. And Terry Farley puts a spin on The Farm’s Groovy Train. Smoke the mic on Spin That Wheel (Turtles Get Real). Ya Kid K.

Snap got World Power in 1990. The Cult Of Snap is wicked sorcery. Caron Wheeler’s solo flight Livin’ In The Light pulls a sweet punchy groove. The It: a US house project involving Larry Heard – Rainforest Serenade is moody stuff. Next comes Lindy Layton and her cover of Janet Kay’s Silly Games. It’s blown away by the bleeps and beats of Tricky Disco; a Warp classic. Back to laidback tunes: the Soul Family Sensation’s I Don’t Even Know If I Should Call You Baby. And then some storytelling at its finest with KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions’ Love Is Gonna Get ‘Cha (Material Love). All aboard for the last track: The KLF’s absolutely crucial What Time Is Love? Noted as 12″ Remix, this is radically remodeled version that only has elements of the original.

Disc 2: The mysterious Titiyo with the jazz-inflected Flowers slides into Mike ‘Hitman’ Wilson’s edgy house groove Another Sleepless Night. The memory: after hours somewhere in Waterford on a week night. The little-known She Rockers are guided by Todd Terry [not Terje] on the dope Hands Across The Ocean while the equally obscure Johnny Gill number Rub You The Right Way also carries heavy water. After the success of U Can’t Touch This, it’s inevitable that Super Freak would be here. Bump and hustle with The Wee Papa Girls slammer, play in the sunshine as Sons of Soul pump up the volume on Madness. Meanwhile DNA’s Serenissima is a sunrise anthem; here in 7″ guise. Party zone. The Prisoner ranks with Twin Peaks as my favourite television series. Ron Grainer’s theme gets a makeover by F.A.B. [of Thunderbirds remix fame]. Aptly MC Number 6 assists.

The dream sequence: Earth People’s Dance is a self-explanatory groove, sick Chicago house. Equally wicked is Lee Marrow, the alter ego of Italian DJ Francesco Bontempi and his slinky Movin’ (Pain Mix). Elsewhere there’s L.U.P.O. and the fantasy island bliss of Hell Or Heaven. Ibiza meltdown. Then the Leeds warehouse sound of LFO’s eponymous banger. Rhythmatic, stars of Deep Heat 7 – Seventh Heaven, are back with the paranoid techno sound of Frequency (Depth Mix). Melt away with Nexus 21’s eerie Self Hypnosis and also from Network, burn out with Fade II Black on the trippy metallic In Sync.

Favourite tracks
Primal Scream – Come Together

Tricky Disco – Tricky Disco

Earth People – Dance (Club Mix)

L.U.P.O. – Hell Or Heaven

Lest we forget
S’Express – Nothing To Lose (Remix)