Now Dance ’94 – Volume 1 (EMI / Virgin / Polygram, 1994)

Review
If you thought three Now Dance compilations in 1990 was a lot, then 1994 will surpass your expectations. Now Dance ’94 – Volume 1 is the first of four releases that year. NOD 11 contains “19 of the greatest dance tracks” on one CD. There was also a single vinyl edition that sounded atrocious over a club system; the mixer’s gain needing to go to the max.

The Doobie Brothers were unlikely candidates for a Sure Is Pure makeover but the dudes pulled it off. Long Train Runnin’ is deadly and irked the purists, always a bonus. Next stops: Culture Beat’s urgent Euro dance workout Got To Get It and M People’s funky acid jazz house meld Moving On Up. Then it’s K-Klass and their life-affirming massive banger Let Me Show You. Serious rave nostalgia there. And D:Ream’s gradually building Things Can Only Get Better while DJ Duke plays a mean bassline with Blow Your Whistle; an Olympic ballroom staple. There’s a neat hip hop / techno crossover next – Here We Go Again from A Homeboy, A Hippie and A Funkidredd.

A taste of cheddar: K7’s Come Baby Come and hotly-synced boyband EYC’s Feelin’ Alright. Ice-T raises the bar on the hard dope fix That’s How I’m Livin’, carved from Home Invasion. Urban Cookie Collective’s beautifully happy Feels Like Heaven is next; Fiction Factory fans stay calm – there’s no connection. Right in the middle of these radio edits come U2 and the stupendous Lemon (Perfecto Mix). The greatest track on the Zooropa LP just got better. Kilkenny in the summer of ’93. Please note that the version here is faded about 30 seconds early; no idea why but think of it as a unique edit. So check out Melon: Remixes For Propaganda for the full length version which is also the video selected below.

The 1993 remixes of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s singles are not held in high regard. Nevertheless the CD versions gave us digital debuts of some original vinyl-only mixes. Welcome To The Pleasuredome being one. Time to big it up, first with Alex Party’s promise of Saturday Night and followed by Exoterix’s sensual beats of Satisfy My Love. Elsewhere Haddaway’s Life crashes in along with Sagat’s stories of the street / tales of woe on Funk Dat. On the other side it’s Judy Cheeks cuting a disco groove with the ecstatic So In Love. And finally it’s a slow jam to end the night; Gabrielle’s cool and breezy I Wish.

Favourite tracks
U2 – Lemon (Perfecto Mix)

K-Klass – Let Me Show You (Klub Mix)

Lest we forget
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Original 7″ A-Side)