I'm happy to announce the release of my new mix, "NIGHT SHIFT" an homage to the marvellous 80's boogie era, that me and my man RENMIN have been working so hard on these past couple months.


design by : muun

"NIGHT SHIFT" compiled and mixed by RENMIN and PROOF
The sounds that came out of the late 70's and early 80's were the building blocks of hip-hop, electro, and house as we know it... so we had to pay homage to this forgotten era in dance music! "Night Shift" is nonstop mix of lost 80's R&B gems, electro-funk, and UK boogie flavor, recorded from the original vinyl pressings, and took over a year to compile. If you dig Prince, SOS Band, Mary Jane Girls, Cameo, Midnight Star, Kahif, or Patrice Rushen... or if heavy synth laden tracks with infectious basslines make you bug out, you NEED a copy of "Night Shift". Pick up your Limited Edition CD (only 100 made!) this Saturday at Madrone Lounge or reserve your copy now at soulnthehole@gmail.com

LINER NOTES
"My main motivation for creating "Night Shift" was simply to get people back on the dance floor to boogie down and have some fun! At the same time, I wanted to explore a forgotten era in dance music by digging deeper into the realm of the 1980's. I focused my selections on "boogie", "modern soul", and "disco" tracks that contained synth and electro-funk elements. Producers like Kashif, Keni Burke, and Larry Levan left an imprint of the classic dance sound that I was diggin' for. Searching for these records was no easy task, because most of these cuts were either out of print, or extremely hard to find. While most of the songs I picked for "Night Shift" may not be familiar to most, the early 80's influence on my selections are undeniable and profound.

To compliment this mix, I asked the homie, proof, to help out by sharing his take of the "boogie" sound. I also have to give props to Green Tea for turning me on to the Sharon Redd track, "Beat The Street", and for re-editing "All To Myself" featured on this mix. Our goal was to ensure that every second of this mix would keep the listeners ears and dance floors burning for an entire 80 minutes (actually 79 minutes and 56 seconds to be exact!) So enough with the chit chit chatter... Get on up and enjoy our rendition of 80's dance floor classics, "Night Shift"! ~ Renmin

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"I've been wanting to make an 80's R&B or "boogie" mix for awhile now... So when Renmin asked me if I wanted to work on this comp with him, I was hella down. Growing up in that era, i've always been a fan of the classics... from Prince, SOS Band, Mary Jane Girls, Cameo, Midnight Star, to Patrice Rushen... the sounds of the early 80's always had a special place in my heart. But it wasn't until Ren played me this cut from some obscure label, Rissa Crissa, called "The Bottom Line" by South Bronx that made me just bug out! It was a synth heavy joint with an infectious bassline, and you could just picture b-boys and b-girls getting down to this when it first came out. This cut opened a new door in my search for the perfect beat, and forced me to step my digging game up for "Night Shift"...

The sounds that came out of the late 70's and early 80's were the building blocks of hip-hop, electro, and house as we know it... Born in underground nightclubs in New York, to various warehouse parties in Chicago and Detroit, to the electro-funk flavor coming out of the West Coast... this period, that bridged disco and house, gave birth to a new "boogie" sound, and signified a "shift" in dance music between 1982-85. Compiling songs for this mix was a difficult task, because there were so many great records that came out at that time... so I tried to focus my selections on electro inspired tracks, such as Rockers Revenge's breakin' classic "Walking on Sunshine '82", and Cherelle's 1984 "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On" (Yup, the same song Robert Palmer ripped off in 1985.)

Speaking of 1985, I included Wish's hit "Touch Me", a delicious track featuring silky smooth vocals from Fonda Rae, that somehow ended up on the "Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2" soundtrack, of all places! Jellybean's "Sidewalk Talk" was also a no-brainer, featuring vocals from a young Madonna, who laced this dance floor favorite early in her career. I couldn't sleep on David Joseph's "You Can't Hide (Your Love)", a Larry Levan mixed monster, sampled on countless house records, and still fills dance floors almost 25 years later. And I had to pick the Bugz in the Attic's sleeper hit, "Consequences", a modern day boogie joint that sounds like it was made in '84, and shows flashes of Evelyn King, D-Train, Teena Marie and Kashif all rolled into one. Blazing hot!

"Night Shift" is nonstop mix of lost 80's R&B gems, electro-funk, and UK boogie flavor, recorded from the original vinyl pressings, and took over a year to compile. Our selections pay homage to the artists and people who made this music possible. I hope that "Night Shift" turns you on to that "boogie" sound that has been overlooked for way too long. Peace. ~ Marky"

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Shout outs to: Green Tea, Julie Mun, Reja, Vinyl Richie, Tokyo Component, All Time Crates, Niamaj, gaSOULean, Groove Merchant, Open Mind Music, Karl Injex, DJ Sureshot, massive selector, Poleng Lounge, mizzlovelee, Mad Mosaic, Toney C, UK Boogie DJs, our family and friends who continue to support the Soul in the Hole, and last but not least, all the artists who created the wonderful boogie sound…