Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

Inner City Dance

through their musical intuition and expertise, taken that retrovert of the dance genre, House, intQ a new progressive phase. They’ve also shared some of their wizardry around. Their remixes have been so successful and distinctive that the producer’s name is featured as prominently as the artist. The age of producer - as - star is truly upon us. “I think that nowadays with this new scene, people have realised that when we go in and remix, we don’t just take the same song and mix it over, we rebuild it. People are just giving credit where credit’s due. We goinand we work real hard, you know. The song may be a good pop song but not a good dance song, and we’ll make it so people will want to dancetoit.” Who are you working with at the moment?

“I might do something with Salt n’ Pepa, and I'm working on an Evelyn Champagne King record, it’s an old one, I think it was her first hit, called ‘Shame’. And I'm producing a group that's come out on my label called KAOS, so, outside of Inner City, that’s aboutit.” Saunderson has always lead an active musical life. Starting out in his basement studio along with friends Juan ‘Magic’ Atkins and Derek ‘Mayday’ May, he began combining the cheap technology available with his taste for European industrial music along the lines of Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode. The results were released under the guise of Reese, or Reese & Santonio, and were lumped in with the mid-80s House boom, despite having a harder, more distanced feel that what was then considered as House music. “Well, Reese & Santonio, we split up, but my label [KMS Records| is still going, and we’re still going to do something. There’s alot of product coming out, good Techno stuff, and I'msstill doing stuff as Reese, sort of solo.”

Through another producer, Saunderson linked up with vocalist/ lyricist Paris Grey, a Chicago session singer who had worked on a number offorgettable House tracks. Grey

liked Saunderson’s sound and so Inner City was born. The band

remained dormant until about 1988 ‘when ‘Big Fun’ was “discovered” on the Techno compilation album, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Techno as a sound was more or less created by Saunderson, Atkins and May. and the three are still its

leading practitioners. It’s asound

with a decidedly different perspective, coming froma very small scene in Detroit, yet becoming incredibly widespread in its appeal. Sowhat is Techno, exactly — how would one of its founding fathers describe it?

“Umm, it’s a Detroit style of dance music. Its philosophy is that dance music should be innovative and

futuristic. It does that through using samples, then piecing them together with vocals. When me and Juan Atkins sort of started Techno, we just created it, we weren'’t thinking about the House or the Motown thing, we just thought about what we wanted todo.” '

There’s definitely a soul feel to Inner City, though. “Yeah, we’ve got areal soulful singer, which helps alot. Paris adds a lot of soul feeling to it. I also listen to alot of soul singers like Chaka Khan, which sort of creeps in.” That soul feel seems present in dance music like Garage and Deep House.

“You can compare it on the level of the soulful vocals and stuff, but I think our music is a little more up and directed to the future. It's more modern than, say, Garage, which is just an update on the old disco sound. Inner City is about the future.” And how is the future looking? “Real good. We’ve got two singles waiting for release that aren’t actually on the album. We’re going to tour about September then I'll start working on ideas for the new album.” Touring Inner City would be an interesting prospect. “Yeah, we're going to have samples set up so instruments will trigger them — a mix of technology and getting out and doing the thing live.”

So Inner City is going to remain a major project? “Ohyeah, it's my baby, my pride and joy. I'll keep it happening!”

Kirk Gee

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.
Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/RIU19890801.2.5

Bibliographic details

Rip It Up, Issue 145, 1 August 1989, Page 2

Word Count
687

Inner City Dance Rip It Up, Issue 145, 1 August 1989, Page 2

Inner City Dance Rip It Up, Issue 145, 1 August 1989, Page 2