a few things from... Pete Herbert

Pete Herbert's path and mine have kept crossing over the years, both of us like living in non exclusive parallel universe. I remember meeting at Atlas (a long gone London record haven) when I barely publicly existed, partied quite hard a few times, partly due to the company of our common friend Stuart McLellan of Pacific Records (whom I once found looking for his left shoe in DC10): and he now makes music with my partner, Tim Paris under the Challenge Moniker. That is not very interesting...

What interests me in Pete may be tough... Hard to pinpoint in a few words but i'd say that I admired his unique 'focused nonchalance': the rare breed of Djs that exactly know what he's doing without that eagerness that ruins all sense of cool, doubled by a total commitment to the sound he likes and has come to champion.
I have expressed here and there my doubts about the all 'nu-disco' thing in 2010 but I don't think it applies to Pete anyway. Disco for sure. And yes, for me, he is saved from the pseudo-balearic wish wash by his proud sense of cheese.

And, o boy, when it works, it works so well. Prime example is his reedit of 'The Swiss' that I've enjoyed playing so much, especially where it will divide the crowd (ie Space main room in Ibiza, Panorama Bar), the kind of last record I actually think about one hour before the end of my set.

And, of course, Pete is a true king of the edits too so... he was very kind to offer his totally unreleased:

SENSATIONAL (PH DUB)

and what a treat it is. as are his words and records of choice...

'Who is your forgotten hero?'

Keith Floyd, a true English gent from the old guard, who could cook under pressure any place any time, whilst occasionally endearing himself to the natives...

'What motto is painted on your fighter plane?'

"We'll get there in the e...."

'what makes you really angry?"

in this biz, people that dont reciprocate...that makes my piss boil!


and finally 'what is your final word'?

keep up the good work Ivan...

So a selection of some my favourite and influential tracks....some music for swimming pools. They have been by my side constantly on my travels and always go down well in such settings as well..

Asha Putli 'Space Talk'
Asha Putli was the first, and possibly only, original soul diva from the Indian Sub continent in the mid 70's. She was also the first Indian woman to appear in Playboy. When i first met her on a wet wednesday in Bethnal Green about 10 years ago, she told me that "I Feel love" was originally written for her to sing, but she was dropped by her record company when she became pregnant with her first child, and they then drafted in some unknown kid called Donna Summer to replace her..
she is the surrogate aunt to my best friend, and i'm the godfather to his first born, so i guess that makes me family...which is nice!


Bill Conte 'Reflections'
Clearly not a refection of the film from which it appeared on the soundtrack...Rocky III.

Zakir Hussain 'You and Me'
Whilst running a record shop many moons ago, i became obsessed with the label ECM ..Edition of Contemporary Music...who's motto was 'The Most Beautiful Sounds Next To Silence'. Amoungst the jazz noodle, there were some amazing albums from the likes of Jon Hassel, Pat Metheny, Eberhard Webber and Nana Vasconcelos. The album "Making Music" that this came from is one of my favs..

Derrick Harriot 'Red is Dead'
Jamaican singer and producer who was one of the first people to use the mixing talents of King Tubby in the early 70's, this track is taken from his first album 'Scrub-A-Dub', and is loosly based on the Stylistics "People Make The World Go Round" but drops the tempo even slower....probably about 70bpm...


Claudja Barry 'Love For The Sake Of love'
One time singer with Boney M, Claudja moved on to do solo stuff like this, and very fine it is too, made more popular recently by being included in a DJ Harvey mix a few years back..always a great opener for me...

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